The Marshal's Justice (Appaloosa Pass Ranch 4)

by Delores Fossen

Bailey wasn’t with them this time, but there were plenty of people in the hospital who could be hurt.

  There were screams and shouts, people running and trying to get out of the path of those shots. The gunman didn’t seem focused on any of them, though. The shots were coming in the direction of Chase, Jax and her.

  “You see the shooter?” Jax asked. He, too, had dropped to the floor and was to the side of a display case. Not much cover at all.

  Chase shook his head. “But I did see Renée in the parking lot.”

  April’s heart was already pounding, and that only made it worse. She doubted this was a coincidence, especially since the woman had said it’d be an hour before she arrived for her meeting with Quentin. Maybe Renée knew that would spur Chase and her to leave so that Renée could have someone gun them down.

  But the shots weren’t outside. They were coming from the very hall that led to Quentin’s room.

  April wanted to believe a hired gun couldn’t have gotten inside, but there was no metal detector in the small hospital, and the security guard was with Quentin.

  “Keep an eye on the parking lot,” Chase told her. “If you see Renée or anyone else coming closer, let me know.”

  She would. But she also doubted Renée would just come walking into the middle of this. Well, unless Renée planned on taking some shots at them, too.

  While keeping his body in front of hers, Chase called for backup. Since the sheriff’s office was just up the street, it wouldn’t take Jericho and the other deputies long to get there. But it still might not be in time to stop someone from getting hurt.

  Heavens, was this shooter after her? Or was this some kind of ploy to get to Quentin?

  April didn’t have time to think about that, though. There was another shot, followed by a woman’s scream. “Help me,” she shouted.

  Chase glanced around the chair and cursed. So did Jax. Judging from the woman’s frantic pleas, April figured the gunman had taken a hostage.

  “Tell Jericho to approach through the back of the hospital,” Chase whispered to Jax, and he leaned out.

  A shot came right at him, and he ducked back behind cover.

  “Let her go,” Chase called out. “She has no part in this.”

  “She does if she’ll get me out of here,” the gunman shouted back.

  April peered around the edge of the chair and spotted them. Like the other men who’d kidnapped Bailey, the gunman was wearing a ski mask, and he was using his hostage as a human shield. The woman was a nurse and couldn’t have been more than twenty-five. And she looked terrified, her eyes pleading for someone to do something to save her.

  “What do you want?” Chase asked the man. “Who sent you here?”

  “I could answer that, but it’d get me killed in a really bad way. No thanks. So, here’s how this is going to work. You’re going to let me walk out of here, and once I’m sure I’m out of the line of fire, I’ll let her go.”

  April replayed his words and shook her head. “Why would he come here without a plan to get out? A plan that didn’t involve taking a random hostage? It’s too risky. He could have just waited outside and gunned us down.”

  Chase agreed so quickly that it made her realize he’d already come to that same conclusion. And that meant maybe the gunman wasn’t there to kill them but to create a diversion.

  “Quentin,” she said.

  “Stay down,” Chase warned her.

  April had no intentions of running out there since she’d only be shot, but she prayed the security guard would be able to protect her brother if this attack was indeed aimed at him.

  “Help me,” the nurse begged again, and judging from the sound of her voice, her captor was moving her deeper into the hall. Where he would no doubt try to escape with her.

  Unfortunately, there were too many ways for him to do just that.

  There were clinics on one side of the hall, and most of them had exits to the parking lot. If the thug made it that far, he could get away. That wouldn’t be good for the nurse. Or for them. Because he wouldn’t be able to give them answers as to why this was happening, and he might kill the nurse instead of letting her go.

  “You have a clean shot?” Chase asked Jax.

  Jax shook his head and checked his phone when it dinged. “Jericho’s just now pulling into the parking lot. He spotted Renée, and she’s armed.”

  No. That meant it might not be safe for Jericho to get out of his cruiser. Of course, that probably wouldn’t stop him, but Renée could certainly slow him down if she started shooting.

  The nurse screamed, and when April glanced at her, she saw something she definitely didn’t want to see. The nurse was fighting to get loose, and her captor was fighting back. He bashed her against the head with his gun and then took aim at her. Ready to kill her.

  Chase reacted fast. So fast that it was over before April even saw it coming. He leaned out from the chair and fired two shots, the sounds blasting through the hospital.

  April held her breath, adding another prayer for the nurse. But it wasn’t the nurse who’d been shot. It was the gunman. He crumpled into a heap on the floor.

  “I need to get April away from this door,” Chase told Jax. Probably because of Renée. The woman could come running in at any moment. “Stay behind me,” Chase added to her.

  April got to her feet, trailing along behind him as Chase made his way to the guy he’d just shot. The nurse was still screaming, but several of her coworkers rushed forward to pull her away.

  When Chase made it to the man, he leaned down, retrieved his gun and stripped off the ski mask. April got just a glimpse of his face.

  A stranger.

  She supposed that was better than it being someone she knew, but this was the third armed thug who’d attacked them, and it made her wonder just how many assassins had been hired to come after them.

  Or to come after her brother.

  “Watch our backs,” Chase called out to Jax.

  Chase was watching all around them, too, as he made his way down the hall. No sign of the guard outside her brother’s room, but then the man had gone with Quentin and the nurse to have the MRI done.

  There were two nurses who were still cowering behind their station, and it probably didn’t help their panic when they saw Chase’s gun.

  “Where’s the patient who was in this room?” Chase asked them.

  “Still in radiology,” one of them answered and reached for the phone. “I’ll call over there.”

  It seemed to take an eternity for her to do that. And while April waited, she tried to tamp down her fear. Hard to do that, though, with the adrenaline still pumping through her.

  She couldn’t hear the nurse’s whispered conversation with whomever the woman had called, but April had no trouble figuring out that something was wrong. The nurse was trembling even harder when she finished the call.

  “I called the receptionist at the check-in desk in radiology and she said no one’s answering in the MRI room,” the nurse finally said. “But that’s where they took the patient and it’s just at the end of the hall on the right.”

  That caused April’s fear and adrenaline to soar, but she tried not to think the worst. Maybe the nurse and her brother had taken cover when they heard the shots.

  Chase got them moving again. Kept looking around as well, and they made their way farther down the hall. When they reached the door for radiology, Chase eased it open.

  And then he cursed.

  April’s heart went to her knees. Her brother wasn’t there. The room was empty, but there were definite signs of a struggle. Equipment and a wheelchair had been toppled over.

  “They took them,” someone said.

  With his gun ready, Chase pivoted in the direction of the voice. It was the nurse, Kitty Gagnon, and she was
crying and hiding behind an examination curtain.

  “They took the patient, Mr. Taylor,” Kitty added.

  “Who took them?” Chase snapped.

  But she only shook her head. “Two armed men.” A hoarse sob tore from her throat. “God, I think they killed him.”

  * * *

  CHASE LOOKED OVER his notes from the phone calls he’d just made. Notes that he’d need to file an official report, but he didn’t like much of what he’d jotted down. Quentin was missing.

  Maybe dead.

  And Renée was nowhere to be found. She’d managed to escape during all the gunfire.

  He figured it wasn’t a coincidence that Renée and those gunmen had been at the hospital at the same time. In fact he hoped it wasn’t a coincidence. Because if Renée and her hired guns had kidnapped Quentin, then it likely meant the man was still alive. Renée hadn’t seemed interested in killing Quentin, only renewing a romantic relationship with him. Of course, if Quentin wasn’t willing to pretend he would do that, Renée might kill him anyway.

  Chase made his way from the deputy’s desk he’d been using and went to Jericho’s office. April was there, right where he’d left her nearly an hour earlier. However, her expression had changed considerably. She no longer looked shell-shocked and ready to fall apart. She was smiling. And it took Chase a moment to realize she was smiling at something on the computer screen.

  Bailey.

  “Levi set up the computer so we’d be able to see Bailey at the safe house,” April explained, turning the screen so Chase could see. “He said it was okay to do this, that no one could hack into the feed.”

  “Levi’s right,” Chase assured her, and it didn’t take long before he, too, was smiling. Bailey was in her carry seat and she was grabbing her toes while making babbling sounds.

  “I was just telling April that the baby’s doing great,” Levi said. “Big appetite, lots of diapers.”

  “Are you sure you know how to change a diaper?” Chase asked. It was a valid question since Levi was the only one of his siblings who didn’t have a child.

  “You’re kidding, right? I got plenty of practice with Matthew,” Levi reminded him.

  Jax’s son. Yeah, they’d all gotten plenty of practice with him since Jax was a widower, and they’d all pitched in to help from time to time.

  “Gotta say, though,” Levi went on, “I’m glad to have a niece even if she is outnumbered by her nephews. I’ll bet Mom can’t wait to get her hands on her only granddaughter.”

  Levi no doubt hadn’t meant that to be anything other than lighthearted, but it caused April’s smile to fade some. Probably because it was a reminder that there might not be any opportunities for Bailey to get to know her grandmother or the rest of the family. Of course, April’s look could also have something to do with that visit Chase had made to the lawyer.

  Or that kiss.

  There’d been nothing to smile about in that particular department. It’d broken down walls between them that were best left standing. Chase didn’t consider himself an emotional sort, but he wasn’t sure he could handle another heart-stomping from April. Especially since he needed to be doing whatever it took to keep things amicable between them.

  Bailey started fussing, and as if he were an old pro at tending babies, Levi scooped her up in his arms. “It’s bottle time. I’ll call you back after her nap.” He paused. “Not that I mind babysitting duty, but when do you think you’ll make it back here?”

  “Soon,” Chase answered.

  That was wishful thinking on his part. More than anything, Chase wanted to be back at that safe house, giving his daughter a bottle and watching her for real, not via a computer screen.

  But there was a huge problem.

  Those two gunmen who’d taken Quentin. Chase couldn’t be sure they weren’t lurking around, prepared to attack the moment he stepped outside with April. Of course, eventually they’d have to leave the sheriff’s office, but he was hoping those gunmen would be found, and jailed, before that happened.

  Levi cut the video feed, the screen going blank, and the rest of April’s smile went blank with it. Something Chase totally understood.

  “I miss her, too,” he said.

  April nodded, blinked back tears that filled her eyes. “It’s hard to believe how much you can love someone so much.”

  Yes, he got that, too. “It feels as if she’s been in my life forever.” But he figured most parents felt the same.

  That didn’t seem to do anything to put April in a better mood. “I don’t suppose the nurse was able to describe the men who took Quentin?”

  “Only that they were wearing ski masks. She said the two men stormed into radiology, grabbed Quentin and dragged him out the back exit of the hospital. She heard two shots fired.”

  April drew in a long breath. “The nurse didn’t actually see, though, if Quentin was shot?”

  “No. But there’s more.” And now here was the part Chase really didn’t want to have to explain. However, he couldn’t keep it from her. “Jericho interviewed an eyewitness in that back parking lot, and he said he saw one of the men fire shots into the air.”

  “Into the air?” April stayed quiet a moment, obviously giving that some thought. “You believe Quentin faked his own kidnapping?”

  “I believe it’s possible. Maybe he didn’t want to have to answer any more questions about how he’d gotten injured.” He paused again. “I found out through one of the CIs that your brother did indeed owe money to the wrong person. A loan shark. Word on the street is that he’s the one who attacked Quentin and that it could get a whole lot worse for your brother if he doesn’t pay back the money.”

  “And Quentin could have wanted to use the ransom money to do that,” April finished for him. “Or he could have just been trying to escape before the loan shark got to him again.”

  Chase had come to the same conclusion. Too bad they couldn’t find Quentin so they could ask him. Of course, that didn’t mean he’d tell them what had actually happened. Honesty wasn’t Quentin’s strong suit.

  April looked up at him. “Is it true—will we be going back to the safe house soon like you told Levi?”

  “Hopefully. I’m just waiting on a call from Jericho.” And hoping his brother had found those gunmen.

  She nodded, probably reading between the lines on that. “Anything new on Renée?”

  He had to shake his head. “The dead gunman is a wash for now, too. No ID, and his prints aren’t in the system.” And with Rooks still not talking, Chase was still way short on answers.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her.

  April’s gaze met his, and he was pretty sure she knew he wasn’t just asking about her in the general sense. “You mean that kiss.”

  Bingo. She zoomed right in on that.

  “I thought you’d want to see it as a lapse in judgment,” she said. “And nothing more.”

  That was indeed how he wanted to see it, all right. But parts of him were struggling to keep that view. “How did you see it?” he asked, despite the fact that it was stupid to continue this conversation on any level.

  She stood, meeting him eye-to-eye. “You really want to know?” But she didn’t wait for an answer. “I see it as a reminder of how things led to us getting Bailey. A reminder that’s still there. Don’t worry,” April quickly added. “I know it’s not what you want so it won’t happen again.”

  Heck. For some reason that riled him. So much so that Chase took hold of her and kissed her again.

  It wasn’t the powerhouse kiss they’d had in the hospital. Just a quick brush of his mouth to hers to remind her that if they didn’t put some distance between them, that it would indeed happen again. And it might have happened a lot sooner.

  Like instantly.

  If Chase hadn’t heard someon
e come into the sheriff’s office.

  “Wait here,” he told April, and he stepped into the hallway to see Jax ushering a dark-haired man through the metal detectors.

  Chase didn’t recognize the guy, but he was tall, thin. Late thirties. And while he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, Chase was betting that both had designer labels on them.

  “Marshal Crockett,” the man said, his attention going straight to Chase. “I’m Shane Hackett, Renée’s husband. I believe I know where you can find her.”

  Chapter Ten

  April went into the hall when she heard their visitor. Finally. This could be the break they were looking for.

  “Where’s Renée?” April asked while hurrying into the squad room. Something that Chase obviously didn’t want her to do. But if they could find Renée, they might be able to learn if she or someone else was behind the attack.

  “You’re Quentin’s sister.” Shane studied her for a moment, disapproval written all over his face. Disapproval maybe just for Quentin or perhaps because she happened to be the sister of the man who’d had an affair with his wife.

  Shane slipped his hand in his jeans pocket, a move that sent both Jax and Chase reaching for their guns. Even though Shane had obviously cleared the metal detector, that didn’t mean he still couldn’t be dangerous. But it wasn’t a weapon that he pulled out. It was a piece of paper, and he handed it to Chase.

  “Those are the addresses of mine and Renée’s properties. Some aren’t in our names. My real estate company owns them. The first one is a cabin only about thirty miles from here. That’s my best guess as to where she’d go, but the others are possibilities, too.”

  “I’m on it,” Jax said. He took the paper and headed for the phone. No doubt so he could get someone out there to check the place since it wasn’t in the jurisdiction of the Appaloosa Pass Sheriff’s Department.

  “If you believe she could be there,” April said, “why didn’t you go out and check?”

  Clearly, Shane wasn’t comfortable with that, and he took his time answering. “Because Renée made it clear that she didn’t want to see me. She said if I tried to find her, that she’d harm herself. I figured you’d do a better job protecting and restraining her than I could.”