Rita Herron - Unbreakable Bond & The Missing Twin - Unbreakable Bond / The Missing Twin

His boots crunched wet leaves and twigs that had blown down in the storm as he inched forward. Moving slowly, instincts alert, he checked the front of the house. A streak of lightning zigzagged across the lawn, allowing him to see that no windows had been broken.

The intruder could have gotten in around back.

Slipping sideways, he padded around the outside of the house to the backyard. Woods backed up to the property, trees providing cover for someone who might have been inside and escaped.

He scanned the distance, but it was too dark to see into the trees. A twig snapping to the left made him jerk his head sideways, and a shadow moved. He raised his gun to fire, but a dog suddenly ran past, and he cursed. Dammit, he could have shot the animal….

Still tense, he made his way around the house, passing in front of the windows in the garage. Nina’s car was parked inside, but the interior was dark and he couldn’t see if she was still there.

Knowing he’d spook her if he knocked, he removed his phone and called her number.

She answered on the first ring. “Slade?”

“I’m outside. It’s clear out here. Open the garage door and I’ll search the house.”

“I can’t. It’s electric,” Nina said.

“There should be a button to switch it to manual.”

“Yes,” Nina said. “Let me find it.”

A minute later, the garage door slid upward. Nina looked pale and shaken, and she was clenching a vial of mace in her trembling hands.

At least she’d had something to protect herself.

“You didn’t find him?” she whispered.

“The only thing I saw was a dog.”

“It wasn’t a dog, Slade,” Nina cried. “It was a man. I saw his hand on the window.”

“How did you know he’d been inside?”

Pain flickered in her eyes. “He left me another present.”

A curse rolled from his lips. “Stay here and let me make sure he’s not still in the house.”

She nodded, and he urged her inside the car again, then waited until he heard the lock click into place. Then he slipped inside the house to see what the bastard had left this time.

* * *

NINA RAKED HER fingernails up and down her arms, her nerves on edge as she waited for Slade to search the house. If the person who’d broken in and left that doll intended to scare her off, he was wrong.

She was stronger than she’d been eight years ago. And the fact that someone was tormenting her only made her believe that she was right about her daughter. That someone was scared she might discover the truth.

Because that person knew where her daughter was.

She glanced back and forth between the windows and door to the inside, her breath hitching when the door squeaked open. It was so dark, the only thing she could make out was the outline of a man’s big body. Then the lights suddenly flickered on, and she recognized Slade.

He looked big and feral, his face chiseled into a hard mask. She flung open the car door, jumped out and hurried toward him.

He jammed his gun inside his jacket pocket and gripped her by the arms. “It’s clear. The main breaker had been flipped. That’s why the lights went out.”

She nodded numbly, and allowed him to guide her into the kitchen, then into the den. Her gaze flew to the rocking chair and the doll wrapped in the baby blanket.

The lullaby CD was still playing, taunting her.

Slade clenched his jaw, then walked over and switched off the CD. “I’m going to send it to the lab although I doubt we’ll get anything. Whoever did this probably wore gloves, but I’m still going to dust for prints.”

Nina stared up at him, her heart racing. “Then you believe me? That I didn’t put that creepy doll in the rocker or make up the intruder?”

His gaze met hers, emotions flickering in his brown eyes. Eyes that could dissect a person in seconds, eyes that could look cold and intimidating. Eyes that said he’d seen too much death and violence in his life.

She thought he wasn’t going to answer, then he cleared his throat. “Yes, Nina, I believe you.”

His gruffly spoken words made her heart twinge, and suddenly tears filled her eyes. She’d been alone so long, had faced scorn and animosity and pity. She knew how to handle those.

She didn’t know how to handle having someone believe in her again.

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