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this address?”
    She stared up at him, her eyes wide. “Uh, 406 Ch-Chalmers Drive.”
    Still scanning the area, he speed-dialed the jail, and his dispatcher answered. “Maggie, I need every deputy at Tony Jackson’s house.” He repeated the address. “Someone’s shooting at us.”
    “On it, Ben. Andre called his location in a few minutes ago. He’s near there.”
    Over the hill, a motorcycle roared to life. “Tell him to watch for a cycle—probably a sport bike.”
    Ben slid his phone in his pocket as the whine faded. With a jolt he realized he’d heard that sound at the hospital last night. With a wary eye, he knelt beside Leigh. “Are you hit?”
    “I don’t think so. The gunfire startled me, and I tripped.”
    When she went down, he’d been certain she had been shot. “Good. I think whoever it was is gone, but let’s get you in the house.”
    She gripped his arm. “I want to get this . . . this—”
    “I’ll get him, Leigh. I promise you. Now, come on, let’s go.” He shielded her from the hillside where the shooter had been, not speaking until they were safely back inside. “You sure you’re okay?”
    She brushed dirt from her pants. A chestnut strand of hair curled across her cheek, and she hooked it behind her ear. Red splotched her cheeks. “No, I’m not okay. I’m mad. What if TJ had been with me? He might’ve been killed.”
    “TJ?” That new kid who had just started coming to Emily’s class at church? “You’re TJ’s mom?”
    Leigh’s face went from fiery red to almost gray. He figured there’d be an adrenaline dump, just not this quick.
    “How do you know TJ?”
    “He’s one of the boys in the Sunday school class.”

4
    S irens cut off whatever else Ben might’ve said as patrol cars converged on the driveway, and he left her to brief his deputies. Not that it mattered. The roar in her head would’ve made talk impossible. With wooden legs, she stumbled to the sofa.
    TJ and Ben had met.
    The one thing she’d wanted to put off. Forever, if possible. Oh, why hadn’t she said no to her brother?
    Now he was dead, and someone was trying to kill her. With no one else to rely on, she just might have to depend on Ben to keep her and TJ safe. Her whole being cried out against that option. Already she’d done everything humanly possible to avoid Ben Logan. She’d moved into their grandparents’ house with Tony in a neighborhood that attracted little of the sheriff’s attention. Then, when TJ wanted to go to Sunday school, she’d chosen a small nondenominational church nearby instead of the big church in town that Ben’s ancestors had founded. Just in case Tony couldn’t take TJ some Sunday.
    And somehow picked the church Ben not only attended, but where he evidently helped his sister teach a boys’ Sunday school class. That so did not fit her image of the sheriff. She propped a hand under her chin. Could it get any worse?
    “Leigh.”
    She hadn’t heard Ben come back and jerked her head up as he knelt beside her. She didn’t know how much time had passed, onlythat he now wore a black vest over his shirt, and he had a microphone attached to his shoulder. Andre and the other deputy that had been here the night before stood at the door.
    “I’m going across the road to help comb the area where the shooter was, but Randy’s going to be here with you.” He nodded toward the other deputy.
    “TJ. I need to get him from the sitter.”
    “Call the sitter, and tell her you’ll be late.”
    “But—”
    “Leigh, someone was shooting at you. You don’t want to put your son in danger. When I finish here, we’ll get him, and I’ll take you both to my parents’ house. Dad might have had a stroke, but Mom’s an expert with firearms.”
    “I’m not going to your parents’ house.” Stroke or no stroke, she and Tom Logan wouldn’t get along five minutes.
    “Then you can stay at my place, and I’ll move in with them until this is over. Unless you can think of a safer