One Night Standoff


 
 
 
 A gunshot rang out. Too close...
 Landon figured the only thing that saved him and Hazeleigh was the dark.
 “We have to get you out of here.”
 “Me?” she all but shrieked. “Us.”
 Another shot. Hazeleigh winced and grabbed on to him. Landon tried to survey where the gunfire was coming from. He’d seen a silhouette inside the house, but it couldn’t be whoever was shooting at them...unless the shooter had a window open.
 Possible. Far too many possibilities.
 Landon stilled, pushed Hazeleigh out of his mind and listened. He blew out a slow breath, finding that old center of calm. He pushed away all the worries, concerns and possibilities, and focused on the now.
 A cold ball of fear pitted in his stomach. Footsteps. Coming for them. He grabbed Hazeleigh’s hand. He had to get her somewhere safe.
 
 
 ONE NIGHT STANDOFF
 Nicole Helm
 
 
 
 Nicole Helm grew up with her nose in a book and the dream of one day becoming a writer. Luckily, after a few failed career choices, she gets to follow that dream—writing down-to-earth contemporary romance and romantic suspense. From farmers to cowboys, Midwest to the West, Nicole writes stories about people finding themselves and finding love in the process. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two sons, and dreams of someday owning a barn.
 Books by Nicole Helm
 Harlequin Intrigue
 Covert Cowboy Soldiers
 The Lost Hart Triplet
 Small Town Vanishing
 One Night Standoff
 Shot in the Dark
 A North Star Novel Series
 Summer Stalker
 Shot Through the Heart
 Mountainside Murder
 Cowboy in the Crosshairs
 Dodging Bullets in Blue Valley
 Undercover Rescue
 A Badlands Cops Novel
 South Dakota Showdown
 Covert Complication
 Backcountry Escape
 Isolated Threat
 Badlands Beware
 Close Range Christmas
 Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
 
 
 CAST OF CHARACTERS
 Hazeleigh Hart—Historical research assistant who’s just found her boss murdered, triplet to Zara, living at the small cabin on the now-Thompson property. Sometimes has “premonitions.” She knows she’s going to be accused of Mr. Field’s murder and doesn’t want to go to the police.
 Landon Thompson—One of six ex-military men now running a ranch. Accidentally catches Hazeleigh running away and becomes determined to help prove Hazeleigh isn’t a murderer, but falls for her as she’s thrust into more and more danger.
 Mr. Field—Eccentric older man who runs the historical fort and researches an old bank robbery. Hazeleigh’s murdered boss whose body she finds.
 Zara Hart—Hazeleigh’s triplet, ranch hand for the Thompsons and now living at the main house on the Thompson property with Jake Thompson.
 Jake Thompson—One of the ex-military, now-ranching Thompson brothers. Living with Zara at the main house.
 Brody, Henry and Dunne Thompson—The rest of the Thompson brothers, all ex-military and working the ranch.
 Kate Phillips—Hazeleigh’s childhood friend who also works at the fort and is dating Brody.
 
 
 To the old men who study history and spill soup on their keyboards.
 
 
 Contents
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Chapter Eighteen
 Chapter Nineteen
 Chapter Twenty
 Chapter Twenty-One
 Chapter Twenty-Two
 Chapter Twenty-Three
 Chapter Twenty-Four
 Excerpt from Texas Bodyguard: Luke by Janie Crouch
 
 
 Chapter One
 It couldn’t be happening again.
 Hazeleigh Hart stood in the doorway to her boss’s office and was sure she was in the midst of a nightmare.
 There was blood. So much—too much—blood.
 Mr. Field was most decidedly dead.
 There was grief and denial. Emotions battered Hazeleigh, but the one that finally made her move was fear.
 This was not the first dead body she’d uncovered in the past year. The last time it happened, the police had been sure she’d had something to do with the murder, before her sister had helped clear her.
 Murder. Who would want to kill poor old Mr. Field, an eccentric man who paid for her to do research, and to organize his own, about a supposed bank robbery in Wilde back in the 1800s?
 But it didn’t matter who. It didn’t matter how or when. It only mattered that she was alive, and the only one standing here looking at his dead body. He had to have been murdered. There was no other explanation for all that blood.
 She hadn’t had a bad feeling this time—like last year, when her sister Zara had accidentally dug up their other sister’s body. No, Mr. Field’s lifeless body—slumped over his work in his office—was a complete and utter surprise.
 Would anyone believe it?
 No.
 Her whole life she’d been plagued by bad premonitions, so to speak, but they were neither consistent nor always correct, which meant no one ever believed her. They didn’t believe her if she said something bad was going to happen before it did, and they didn’t believe her when she said she hadn’t felt anything before something bad had happened either.
 Except Zara. Sometimes. Her living sister was the only person who ever believed her, but Hazeleigh knew even if Zara trusted her innocence—and she would, because Zara always believed her to be innocent—she wouldn’t be able to do anything about how bad it looked.
 No one would.
 Slowly, Hazeleigh backed out of the office. Her stomach was queasy, and her eyes burned with tears. Mr. Field was a sweet old man. He wouldn’t hurt anyone. The harshest thing she’d ever heard him say was “fiddlesticks” when he spilled soup on his keyboard.
 She’d had to type all his emails for him while he waited for it to be fixed—he hadn’t wanted the expense of buying a new one, though he could have afforded it easily.
 A sob rose in her throat, and she managed to turn away from the body.
 She would have to go away. Away from here. The death. The blood. Away from poor Mr. Field and all his research. Away from Wilde, Wyoming—the only place