go as a mother. Renee already realized the job was going to be far more difficult than she’d imagined. This had also been the most rewarding day in all of her thirty-two years of life.
That being said, Renee must’ve been crazy to think that after getting a few months of parenting under her belt it was a good time to change cities. She’d kept her job in order to prove stability to the adoption agency and had started working from home instead. A new life in the old apartment she’d shared with Jamison in Dallas had been out of the question. It was time to move on, figuratively, literally and in every other sense of the word.
The movers had packed up her belongings in a matter of hours. It was the unpacking while caring for a baby that was going to take forever. At this rate, the house might be unpacked by the time Abby went to college. And yet, the small Texas town was exactly the place Renee wanted to bring up her daughter.
She set aside her laptop and pushed to her feet, still half-groggy, and felt around for her glasses. Sleep and being a new mother weren’t on speaking terms, let alone friends. The noise was probably just the old house settling but she wanted to check on the baby, whose room was across the hall. Since Renee wasn’t completely blind and the glasses must’ve tumbled off her lap, she could find them in a minute.
A few steps into her walk across the room, another creak-like noise sounded. This time it registered that it might be more than just the wood flooring of her rented two-story farmhouse settling. In her half-asleep state, she realized that the floors shouldn’t make a sound unless someone walked on them. A wave of panic shot through her, quickening her pace. The baby’s room had paper-thin walls with only a linen closet in the hallway between them.
A couple of scenarios ran through Renee’s mind, her imagination no doubt spiraling out of control. And then she remembered that the temperature had been so beautiful that she’d left the second-story window to her daughter’s room open while Abby slept.
But, wait, hadn’t she closed that window? Yes, she distinctly remembered closing it, afraid she might nod off. A thump sound from the next room caused another wave of panic.
Was someone inside the house?
First nights in new places were always unsettling, but there was no way this was Renee’s imagination running wild. Heart in her throat, she glanced around the small hallway, looking for something she could use to scare an intruder if there was one. An old shotgun that had been left inside the linen closet popped into her thoughts. She’d spotted it during the walk-through yesterday.
She opened the door and grabbed the weapon, checking for ammunition. The gun was ancient, and she seriously doubted it would work even with a shell. The only other weapons she could think of were her kitchen knives and those hadn’t been unpacked yet. The shotgun was going to have to do.
Abby cried and that got Renee’s feet moving. She ran into the room and then froze. A male figure stood between the crib and the window. He was bent over the crib. She lifted the barrel, aiming the business end at him.
“Stop or I’ll shoot,” she shouted at the blurry male figure who was picking up her daughter. In the dark it was impossible to see him clearly, even if she’d had her glasses on. Turning on the light could reveal the fact she didn’t exactly have a real weapon.
Abby’s cries fell silent and for a split second fear shot through Renee that the intruder had done something to her little girl. But Abby was winding up to release an ear-splitting wail.
Renee’s heart clenched in her chest. “Put her down. Now. Or my contractor will be picking parts of you off my wall when he brings his painter in tomorrow.” Talk about making threats with no way to back them up. She could only pray that he wouldn’t call her bluff. There was no painter and no contractor, but she sure as hell didn’t want him to know it.
Abby was inconsolable. The man seemed to hesitate. Renee cocked the gun.
The next thing she knew, Abby was being set down inside her crib and the intruder was turning tail. She wished she could flip the light switch now so she could get a better look at the kidnapper—kidnapper!—but one look