Free Nobody's Hero by Liz Lee Page B

this.”
    She breathed deeply, sited the gun as she pushed the curtain to the side.  
    The dog walker was there. On the dock. Watching the house. Waiting.
    She was done running. She had to be.
    “I’m going out there.”
    “No, Callah.” Riley’s hand shot out, grabbed her wrist, but she pulled away.
    “He wants me, and I want to know why. This running away, putting innocent people in danger has to stop. I’m the only one who can do that.”
    Riley’s phone rang, the Pink Panther ring tone completely at odds with the man in front of her. But he wouldn’t let go of her hand.
    “Let me go, Riley.”
    “This is Rand. Let me talk to him. Tell him the situation. See what he says.”
    She looked at the man on the dock. He’d found her. How could someone in D.C. help? But then what could a couple more minutes change?
    “Fine. But when I go out there, you have to promise me you’ll get out of here.”
    “No way in hell, Babe.”
    Pink Panther kept right on playing and she wanted to laugh or cry or both.
    “I mean it Riley. Agree now or I’m out the door.”
    Riley just laughed and held the door shut with his foot.
    “You’re not going anywhere, Callah. Not yet.” He snapped his phone open, practically growling “We need some help here, Rand. Now.”

    She was pissed, but no way was Riley letting Callah walk out that door.
    Someone had trusted him to keep her safe. After the last couple hours, he knew he had a mission. A mission he couldn’t fail.
    When he snapped open his phone, Rand started talking immediately. And as he spoke, Riley knew, all bets were off. All of them. Rand didn’t waste time.  
    “Riley, you need to listen to me very carefully.”
    “You’ve got my full attention, Rand. What did you learn?”
    “Not a lot. At least not about who’s after Callah or why. But I found someone willing to talk and it’s not good.”
    “Spit it out, Rand. We’re aware nothing about this is good. What did you find out?”
    When Riley closed the phone, he knew what they had to do. They were out of time. The dog walker reached the edge of the property. Started forward.   And Callah tried to push him out of the way.
    “Wait, Callah, just wait a damned minute.”
    “For him to knock on the freaking door again? No way, Riley. I’m out of here.” Her voice broke and her hand trembled as she reached forward, but Riley refused to move. She needed to know.
    “Stop. You have a choice. That man’s not here to hurt you. He’s here to help.”

    “What?” Callah tried to make sense of his words.  
    “We’ve got to make a choice, Callah. Rand hasn’t been able to see your dad. But he’s found one answer. The dog walker isn’t out to hurt you. He’s assigned to your case. He was in Burkette to keep you safe.”
    Shocked silent, Callah looked at Riley wordlessly. Just one more thing on the never-ending list of things that didn’t make sense.
    “He’s there to protect me? But who’s after me then? Why don’t I know this?”
    Riley moved his foot from in front of the door. “Good questions, Callah. Questions we can still get answered.”
    Callah looked out the window, but she didn’t see a savior. She saw the cold eyes of a man on a mission. A man intent on harm.
    “This is insane, Riley.”
    Riley nodded. “I agree. And for protecting you, Mr. dog walker out there did a lousy job. I’m helping you, but he certainly couldn’t have known that. You tell me what you want and we’ll do it. We can go back or we can walk out there together and try to get to the bottom of this, shoot him if we have to. The choice is yours.”
    We .
    Callah latched onto the word. She wasn’t in this alone. At least not yet.
    “You’re supposed to be some sort of investigative reporter, Riley. Help me out here. What do I do?”
    Riley’s laugh was bitter, and she wondered what nerve she’d hit. “The last big investigative piece I broke had to do with embezzling at the public library, Callah. It was a five hundred