Easy Prey (Love-Inspired Suspense) by Lisa Phillips Page A

them. Elise poured the coffee and they sat on the couch where she’d been interviewed by the police only minutes ago. Jonah didn’t come in, but what did she care? At least she was trying not to. Whether he was inside with her or outside shouldn’t matter so much. She didn’t need to be that attuned to his presence in her life...or her heart.
    Elise’s cup shook, so she set it down on the table. “Thank you for coming to check on me. I really appreciate it.” She covered the shakes by clasping her knees tight. Her smile probably looked brittle, but it was the best she could come up with. If she’d eaten lunch she would probably be losing it, but her stomach was now painfully empty.
    Nathan left the room silently.
    Dom waited until Nathan had left the room. “Your son might favor his father.” He smiled. “But he reminds me of his uncle.”
    Thinking about her son, Elise’s heart unclenched just a little. She couldn’t lose it, not when Nathan was relying on her to be the parent. Sure, he was almost grown, but that didn’t mean there weren’t times he needed his mom. She’d recognized as much in the hospital.
    He strode back into the room and handed her a banana. “Here, eat this.”
    Was it that obvious? He did know her better than anyone in the world. And where once that had been true of Jonah and Martin, now the position of most important in her life went to Nathan.
God, thank You for keeping me safe today.
They needed each other equally, and she could easily have been killed if she hadn’t taken that step away from the mailbox at just the right time.
    Dom glanced between them. “Well, let’s talk zoo. Shall we?”
    Elise nodded. Talking about the animals would take her mind off the craziness of the last two days.
    At least until the next crazy thing happened.
    * * *
    Shelder hung up the phone. “Parker and Ames are ready to roll. They’ll meet us at Colombes’s place.”
    Jonah was itching to go after the reporter and find out if it really was him who had attacked Elise.
    He wanted to look at the house where Dom had walked with Elise, and where his traitorous dog had disappeared, but he didn’t. Hailey would know, and Jonah would never live down pining for a person of interest in one of their cases.
    “I take it there’s nothing new on the hunt for Fix.” Especially not when the team was raring to go after the reporter. Why were they all of a sudden so concerned with Elise’s well-being?
    “Parker and Ames are still trying to get an address on the girlfriend from Eric’s research. Two they tried this morning turned out to be previous residences, and no one seems to know where she or Fix is living now. Eric isn’t coming up with much else.”
    And now someone had opened fire on Elise.
    Shelder said, “Was it really a sniper?”
    “Looks like it.”
    “Anyone you know?”
    Jonah remembered the thought that had crossed his mind when his neighbor came over to talk with him and Elise. The man was retired army, and had the necessary skills. At least from what he’d told Jonah. “What did the investigators get?”
    “They’re still looking for the bullet. It tore a hole through the mailbox, so they’re tracking where it might’ve gone. They’ll find it eventually.”
    He’d have made sure to use a bullet that couldn’t be traced back to him. If they did find it, the likelihood that it would lead to an arrest was slim. But they still had to try.
    Shelder continued. “Local police are talking to all your neighbors. They’ve got a decent lock on the area he’d have to have been in to hit your mailbox at that angle.”
    Jonah looked at the thing. It was mangled so bad he wondered that they could use it to work the angle of trajectory back to the location where the shooter would have to have been situated. “I need you to stay here and watch Elise and Nathan.”
    Shelder reacted. “Because I’m a girl?”
    Jonah shot her a look. “You’re the only team member here, and I’m going