Free Don't Look Back by Lynette Eason Page A

back with a visible sigh and a nod of acknowledgment. Good, she’d been alert, watchful. Jamie was in good hands. Plus Samantha would be here soon.
    Movement caught his eye.
    What?
    Right around the side by the window. The light from the den briefly outlined a shadow.
    That of a head and shoulders. He braked and spun his vehicle to the side of the street. Hopping out, he waved to Jessica to join him. She climbed from her car and rushed over. “What is it?”
    “I saw someone over there by the den window.” He pulled his weapon and headed in the direction of where he’d seen the shadow.
    “You want me to call for back up?” she called after him.
    “Yeah.” Dakota bolted around the side of the house. Whoever had been out there had heard them and realized he’d been spotted. Behind him, he could hear Jessica on the radio giving their location. Ahead of him, he heard pounding feet.
    Then silence. The guy was running across the grass now.
    Careful not to expose himself in case the suspect had a weapon, Dakota rounded the next corner, gun ready. “Freeze! FBI!”
    More scrambling ahead. Dakota gave chase. The darkness pressed in on him. The streetlights didn’t reach into the backyards and the lights on the houses couldn’t probe the wooded area farther out.
    Which was where the guy was headed.
    He just hoped Jamie didn’t hear the activity going on outside her house and decide to come investigate. He heard the sirens in the distance, caught a flash of movement up ahead. Taking cover behind a tree, he yelled, “Freeze, I said!”
    The guy ignored him and darted farther into the woods. Dakota grunted and continued the chase, nearly tripping over the dense undergrowth. He stopped and listened.
    Nothing.
    Silence except for the sound of the sirens that grew closer. He grimaced as he got on the phone with the dispatcher and in a low voice, identified himself and said, “Tell them to shut off the sirens, I can’t hear.”
    Within seconds, the noise ceased.
    He crept forward, eyes straining in the darkness. He didn’t dare use a light.
    Dakota sucked in a deep breath and willed himself to hear every sound, to notice and dismiss the ones that belonged but focus on the ones that didn’t.
    He heard nothing. A shiver chased itself up his spine. His eyes probed the area in front of him, then he turned to look over his right shoulder, feeling a spot between his shoulder blades tingle.
    Come on, he silently shouted to the trespasser, move, give me a hint as to where you are.
    A rustle behind him alerted him and he whirled only to catch a brief glimpse of a black mask before pain cracked through his head and blackness descended.

    Jamie gripped the paintbrush and stared at the half-finished project. Painting had been her outlet, one of her coping mechanisms when the panic attacks threatened. When she picked up a brush, the outside world faded.
    After Dakota had left, she’d returned to her work and immersed herself in creativity.
    So when she heard the sirens on her street, it took a moment to register. When they went silent, curiosity prompted her to investigate. Lifting the lid from the can of turpentine, she cleaned the brush, then looked out her window. Flashing blue and red lights pulled up near her house.
    “What in the world?” she whispered. Her eyes searched and found the car that belonged to Jessica, the policewoman who’d been assigned to watch her house.
    But she couldn’t tell if anyone occupied it. Jamie went to the door and her hand hovered above the knob. Anxiety clawed at her and she snatched her hand back. The panic ebbed only to return when she once again touched the doorknob.
    Anger at herself swelled. “You beat this, remember?”
    Swallowing, pulling in a deep breath, she closed her eyes and swung the door open. Jessica stood on her porch, fist raised as though to knock.
    Relief nearly buckled her knees. “Jessica, what’s going on?” “Dakota rode back by here after he dropped you off and