Page 18 of Target Acquired

“I know you can, but that doesn’t mean I should take my frustrations out on you.” She leaned back and closed her eyes, and Cole decided this would be a good time to keep his mouth shut. “You can leave, you know,” she said. “No need to babysit me.”

“I don’t consider it babysitting. You’d do it for me.”

She cracked an eye at him. “What makes you think that?”

“Instinct.”

“Hm. Maybe.” The eye shut again.

No maybe about it. He had no doubts. “Why don’t you rest? Try to sleep.”

“With CSU downstairs?”

“Why not? You got anything better to do?”

“Go find an intruder?”

“Besides that.”

“Nope.” She paused. “It was just him working alone?”

“Looks like it.”

“I should have confronted him.”

“You did the smart thing. You had no idea how many people were involved.”

“Right.” She drew in a deep breath and let it out.

“Adrenaline crashes are real. You know that. Let yourself ride it.”

“I couldn’t sleep if you threatened me.”

He grunted. “There’s been enough of that. At least close your eyes.”

“They are closed.”

He chuckled and she opened her eyes to scowl at him, then her lids lowered once more.

Moments later, he noted her even breathing and almost imperceptible snores. A part of him wanted to record her so he could tease her later, but the other part warned him she wouldn’t appreciate that. They didn’t have that kind of relationship. Yet. He shook off that last thought.

Forty-five minutes later, after her brother had indeed checked on her and said not to wake her, footsteps on the basement stairs pulled Cole out of the chair and he met Sarah in the kitchen. “All done?”

“We are.”

“Find the bullets?”

“One. And one of the casings. Ballistics will have to weigh in, but the headstamp says it’s a 9mm.” She hesitated, then motioned him to follow her. They walked back down the steps, and she pointed to the bullet hole that had gone through the punching bag to wedge itself in the wall. “Dug that one out.” She pointed to the gouged cement floor. “Can’t find the second bullet. It may have disintegrated. We found some fragments that probably belong to it. Didn’t get anything off the steps, but under the window, there was some loose change that we bagged. Could have fallen out of the intruder’s pocket as he was squirming his way through the window. Assuming it doesn’t belong to Kenzie.”

“It doesn’t.”

Cole turned at Kenzie’s voice. He hadn’t heard her come down.

She stepped off the bottom step and walked over to them, tucking her phone into her back pocket. “It’s not mine.”

“Then we’ll have the lab analyze it and see if they can get a fingerprint off of it,” Sarah said. “Granted, even if they do, it might not belong to the intruder.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Cole murmured. Sarah raised a brow and he grimaced. “No pun intended.”