My husband woke me up in the middle of the night. “Get up. Into the yard. Now.” We hid in the bushes in our pajamas, and when I saw who was entering the house, my hands began to tremble.

Without warning, Colton lifted his phone high in the air and activated the screen so that a bright blue glow flashed conspicuously in the darkness, and I saw the man with the crowbar curse as he took a step backward.

A distant siren began to wail softly, at first barely noticeable and then unmistakably growing louder with each passing second.

The two men exchanged a quick look of alarm before rushing back into the van, slamming the doors shut and speeding down the street just as two police cruisers rounded the corner with their lights blazing across the houses.

I remained frozen in the bushes while Grayson began to cry silently and Harper finally fell asleep against my shoulder from exhaustion, and I watched in disbelief as Colton raised his hands calmly when the officers approached him.

They spoke for a few minutes in low voices, and one of the officers even placed a reassuring hand on Colton’s shoulder before nodding toward the yard where we were hiding.

“You can come out now,” Colton called softly in our direction, his tone gentle in a way that contrasted sharply with the tension of the past fifteen minutes.

My legs felt unsteady as I stepped out from behind the shrubs with Grayson clinging to me, and when I reached Colton, I could barely keep my voice from shaking as I whispered, “Explain everything to me right now.”

He looked at me with weary eyes and said, “They were not here by accident, Brielle, they were here because of me,” which made the ground feel as though it shifted beneath my feet.

Colton took a slow breath before continuing, “About six months ago I discovered that the logistics company I work for in Denver was being used as a cover for a burglary ring that targeted homes using internal delivery data, and when I realized they had flagged our address as part of their plan, I went to the police instead of confronting anyone directly.”

I stared at him in disbelief while the flashing red and blue lights painted the driveway in restless colors, and I asked through clenched teeth, “Why would you keep something like that from me when it involves our children?”

“They were monitoring employees closely,” he answered quietly, “and if they suspected you knew anything, they might have moved faster or changed their plan in a way the police could not track.”