Surely, someone would’ve called me or texted me to let me know they were coming after me. My guards definitely didn’t have permission to follow me without checking with me first, although someone might’ve assumed everything was the same, or Brent might have sent them after me, but still, I thought at least I’d get some kind of an alert.

But who else could it be? I hadn’t seen any suspicious cars in the rearview mirror on our way here, and this was our area now, so who would’ve dared to come inside and spy? It couldn’t be a lot of people.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket. There was only one way to find out, so I lifted my gun and started toward where the noise had come from. James stepped in front of me, raising his hand.

“What are you doing?” I hissed. “I’m the one with the gun.”

“But this was my house, and I know my way around it and all the hiding spots there are.”

“Hiding spots? I don’t think you’ve ever had any intruders in here.” The guards would’ve stopped any thieves or enemies, and the alarm would’ve sounded too. I’d disabled the alarm in here when we’d entered, and, of course, I hadn’t thought to turn it back on. Whoever was in here must have used that opportunity to enter, but why now and who was it?

“You don’t have to be an intruder to have a reason to want to hide in this place.” James gave me a hard look and wouldn’t let me get in front of him. I wasn’t about to give him a gun, so if he wanted to get himself killed, he could.

We inched forward, but nothing could be heard. I doubted it was yet another stray cat, though, because all the doors and windows were supposed to be closed. A floorboard creaked somewhere, and we stopped moving, just listened carefully.

“I think I know where they are,” James said. “We don’t... didn’t have many creaking floorboards in here.”

“Okay, then let’s get whoever it is.” I took a step, but James caught my arm and shook his head.

“Whoever it is, they’re in one of the hallways,” he said. “And they’ll run if they see us. If they get out, we might not be able to catch them, and we don’t know if it’s just one person or more.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“We should split up.”

I wasn’t overly fond of that idea. “Why?”

“I’ll draw their attention and you can shoot, or come from behind them.”