He had fantasized about what they could have had â¦
A lopsided snowman in the front yard. No, this would have never been his home. Ever since his parents had been murdered in their beds on Christmas Eve, Thad had never had a home, or at least heâd never let any place feel like one.
But Thad needed an angel now. As much as he needed to leave Caroline alone, he needed even more to see her face.
She wasnât the one who opened the door at his knock, though.
At first it looked as though it had swung open of its own volition, until Thad adjusted his line of vision way down to the little boy who stood in the doorway. With his dark brown hair and blue eyes, the kid was a miniature version of Thad.
Caroline had had his son.
His finger twitched and, as if by reflex alone, he squeezed the trigger. The gun vibrated in his hand as the bullet propelled down the barrel. He didnât miss.
He never didâ¦.
The body dropped facedown onto the flagstones of the patio. Blood saturated clothing and pooled on the patio beneath the body.
Thad Kendall closed the distance between them and hunched down, feeling for a pulse. Nothing flickered beneath the skin, which was already growing cold despite the heat of the fire that was burning down the cottage on the other side of the patio.
Who the hell was this person who had set fire to the cottage and killed the man near the front of the cottageânot to mention fired all those shots that Thad had barely dodged?
He drew in a deep breath of acrid smoke. Then he reached out and rolled the body over so he could see the face. His sisterâs distinctive green eyes, wide with shock, stared up at him.
âNo!â Thad awoke with the shout and jerked upright in bed. He had already kicked off the covers, and a fine sheen of sweat covered his chest and back. The perspiration chilled him nearly as much as the dream had.
But it wasnât just a dream; it was a memory of the shooting that had happened a week ago.
A knock rapped softly against his door, but before he could clear his throat to respond, it creaked open. âYou okay?â a feminine voice gently asked.
He grabbed up a T-shirt from beside the bed and dragged it over his head. âYeah, yeah â¦â
Just as she hadnât hesitated before opening the door, she didnât hesitate before crossing the room and sitting on his bed. âYou were yelling,â she said. âDid you have a bad dream?â
Thad stared into his sisterâs wide green eyes, which were full of concern andâthank Godâlife. He hadnât shot her that night, and the man he had shot hadnât really had her eyes. His had been a flat brown color, but something about the size and shape of themâas well as the manâs other featuresâhad reminded Thad so much of Natalie that the image had haunted him ever since heâd turned the body over.
âThe worst â¦â
She shuddered. âI know what thatâs like.â
He snaked an arm around her shoulders. âYes, you do.â
Twenty years ago, Natalie had found their parents dead in their beds on Christmas morning, and even though she later hadnât remembered finding their bodies, nightmares had plagued her ever since their brutal murders. A man had been arrested, convicted and sentenced to two life terms, but just recently DNA evidence had proved that manâs innocence.
So the real killer was still out there.
It couldnât have been the man Thad had shot. He hadnât been much older than Thadâs thirty-one, so he would have been just a kid himself two decades ago. That was about all they knew for certain about the dead guyâhis approximate age and that his first name had maybe been Wade.
Even though Wade hadnât been old enough to be the Christmas Eve Killer, as the media had dubbed their parentsâ murderer, Thad still wanted to learn more about the man heâd killed. Like why heâd been stalking and trying to kill Natalieâ¦.
âYou used to come into my room and comfort me,â she remembered with a wistful sigh.
âAnd now youâre comforting me.â He grinned at the irony.
She leaned her head on his shoulder, her blond hair tickling his cheek. He and his oldest brother, Devin, were dark haired and blue eyed like their father had been, while his brother Ash and Natalie had their motherâs green eyes. Natalie had her straight blond hair, too.
But her sensitive heart was hers alone. âItâs my fault youâre having nightmares.â
âNo, itâs not,â he denied. She couldnât have guessed what heâd realizedâhe had been the first to notice the resemblance between her and her stalker.