Proof of Guilt

by Lisa Jackson

  Theo was about to text Gabriel to see if he knew what was going on, but the next shot stopped him cold. Because this one didn’t go downstairs. It slammed into the window just a few feet from the shower. The bullet tore through the chunk of glass and sent it flying across the room.

  “The shooter knows we’re in here,” Ivy whispered. Her grip tightened on the gun. She made a strangled sound of fear that came from deep within her chest.

  Yeah, he did. That probably meant he was using some kind of thermal scanning equipment that could pinpoint them. The next shot proved it, too, because it tore through another chunk in the window, and the gunman kept firing, kept chipping away at it until the entire floor was littered with the sharp glass.

  “Why didn’t the breaking window trigger the security alarm?” she asked.

  “Probably because this one wasn’t wired into the system.” It couldn’t be lifted, which meant it wouldn’t normally be a point of entry for someone trying to get in. It still wasn’t, not with those jagged shards of glass sticking out all over.

  “We’ll just stay put,” Theo said when the shots moved from the window to the wall. The wall adjacent to the shower. “The bullets can’t get through the stones.”

  He hoped.

  But the shots sure as heck could cause debris to fly through the air. It seemed as if the guy was trying to rip his way through the wall.

  Theo’s phone dinged, and he saw Gabriel’s text message pop up on the screen. Are you both okay?

  Fine, for now, Theo texted back.

  He caught on to Ivy and lowered her until they were lying on the shower floor. It was larger than average size, but there still wasn’t a lot of room with both of them in it. They were practically wrapped around each other.

  I have a deputy and one of the hands moving in on the shooter, Gabriel added in his text a moment later. I think we can get this snake.

  Theo was about to answer, but then he heard a strange sound. Definitely not an ordinary bullet this time. It was something else. Something that was about to make their situation a whole lot more dangerous than it already was.

  A small metal canister.

  It dropped onto the floor and started spewing tear gas.

  Theo tucked the laptop under his arm, yanked Ivy to her feet and they started running. But it was already too late. The tear gas was burning their eyes and causing them to cough. Slowing them down, too. Not good. Because the gunman started firing bullets again, and this time Ivy and he were right in the path.

  He crouched as low as he could, making sure Ivy did the same, and Theo somehow made his way to the door. The moment he had it unlocked and opened, he scrambled out in the hall, shutting the door behind them so it would hopefully contain some of the tear gas. Not all of it, though. It was already starting to seep right out at them.

  Ivy was coughing so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath, and he was certain her eyes felt as if they were on fire. His did, too, but Theo kept moving. Not downstairs, though. He took her to the hall bathroom. It had a tile floor but didn’t have the stone protection of the other room. Plus, it had a massive window over the vanity.

  It wouldn’t take a gunman long at all to shoot through that.

  But the last time Theo had checked, the ranch hand, Al, had been on that side of the house. Maybe he’d be able to put a stop to anyone who tried to put bullets or more tear gas into the room.

  “Text Gabriel and make sure he’s okay,” Theo said, handing Ivy his phone. “I’ll look on the laptop and see if we have any security cameras left.”

  They did. Three that were on the opposite side of the house from the shooter. Nothing much seemed to be happening there, but Theo heard more gunfire. This time, though, it came not from just one weapon but two. The gunman and someone else outside the house. Maybe a hand who had finally gotten in position to take out the shooter. Or at least stop him from sending more tear gas their way.

  “Gabriel didn’t answer,” Ivy relayed to him. There was a new round of fear in her voice.

  Theo was about to reassure her that Gabriel was probably just keeping watch and that nothing bad had happened to him. But he heard something that made Theo realize that might not be true.

  The security alarm went off, the sound immediately blaring. And that wasn’t the only sound. He also heard Gabriel’s voice.

  “Someone’s in the house,” Gabriel shouted.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Ivy hadn’t thought her heart could beat any faster, but she’d been wrong about that. Just hearing what her brother said caused every part of her to start racing.

  Her first instinct was to run downstairs and help Gabriel, but Theo kept his hand on her arm, no doubt to stop her from doing just that. Because it would have been a dangerous thing to do. She could get shot from friendly fire or cause such a distraction that it could get Gabriel killed. Still, it was almost impossible to just sit there and wait when the adrenaline was urging her to fight.

  The security alarm went silent. Probably something Gabriel had done so he could hear what was going on. It was entirely possible that her brother had no idea where the intruder was in the house. Neither did she, but she took the laptop from Theo to try to have a look. There weren’t any cameras inside the house, but maybe she could spot how the snake got inside.

  Theo let go of her and opened the bathroom door a fraction so he could look out. He aimed his gun in the direction of the stairs, but if the intruder made it to that point, it meant he or she had gotten past Gabriel and the others. Rather than think about what that could mean, Ivy forced herself to focus on the computer screen.

  And what she didn’t see told her loads.

  “No open windows or doors on the side, front or back of the house where we still have cameras,” she relayed to him in a whisper.

  That meant he’d come from the area between the two houses. Since the gunman was no longer shooting tear gas or bullets at them, it was entirely possible that he was in the process of trying to join his intruder comrade for a joint attack.

  But how had the intruder gotten past the hands?

  If it was just the one in the house, then it would make more sense. One person would have an easier time slipping into the house, especially on the side where they no longer had surveillance.

  Ivy tried to pick through the darkness and see if there was anybody else out there. Al was no longer by the shed, and it took her a moment to find him. He was next to some shrubs that were only about ten yards from the back porch. He turned suddenly, taking aim at something on the blind spot side of the house, and he fired. Maybe he’d managed to take out anyone who was trying to sneak in.

  Theo glanced back at the screen and muttered some profanity. At first she thought he’d done that because Al had likely killed someone who could have given them answers about all of this.

  But no.

  Ivy soon smelled more tear gas. And it didn’t seem as if this was coming from the guest bath where they’d been but rather from the direction of the stairs.

  “We’ll have to get out,” he told her.

  No way could she argue with that, because Ivy was already starting to cough. It wouldn’t be long before they would be so overtaken by the gas that they wouldn’t be able to escape.

  She wanted to ask him if that meant Gabriel had gotten out, but she soon saw that he had. On the computer screen, she saw Gabriel running from the front porch to the side of the shed where Al had been earlier.

  Even though her brother was firing glances all around him, he was also doing something on his phone. A moment later Theo’s own phone dinged, and she saw Gabriel’s text.

  There’s a collapsible fire escape ladder on the shelf in my bedroom. Use it to get out the window.

  She showed Theo the screen, and he immediately got her to her feet. He took his phone from her and shoved it back into his pocket.


  Since he didn’t know the location of Gabriel’s room, Ivy pointed to the end of the hall. There was a window on the “safe” side of the house where Gabriel was, and they could get out that way.

  First, though, they had to make it down a very long hall.

  Theo positioned her ahead of him no doubt so he could try to shield her from any attacker who made it up the stairs. If someone was indeed on their way to try to kill them, then he or she had to be wearing a mask since there was now a tear gas mist blanketing not only the stairs but the hall, as well.

  Ivy coughed the entire way to Gabriel’s room, but with each step also came the fear. At any point someone could come up those stairs and start shooting. If that happened, Theo would be right in the line of fire.

  She thought of Nathan and prayed nothing like this was going on at the new safe house. Maybe, just maybe, they could put an end to this tonight. Of course, that meant catching one of their attackers, and right now, that didn’t seem probable.

  The moment Ivy reached Gabriel’s bedroom, she hurried inside. Theo rushed in behind her, closed the door and locked it. Ivy didn’t waste even a second. While Theo stood guard, she went to the closet, but since she didn’t know exactly where the portable metal ladder was, she had to waste precious time looking for it. She finally found it, folded up like an accordion, and ran to the window with it. Theo helped her with it.

  Or at least that’s what he started to do.

  Before the shot blasted through the bedroom door.

  The sound was deafening, and it felt as if it had blasted into her. Despite her shaking hands, Ivy forced herself to stay as steady as possible. Panicking now wouldn’t do them any good. Instead, she hooked the ladder frame over the windowsill and let the chain rungs drop.

  She spotted Gabriel and hoped he would be able to stop anyone from shooting them while they escaped, but even if he couldn’t, Theo and she couldn’t stay put. Especially not when another shot came at them. This one smacked into the wall right next to her.

  “Go now!” Theo ordered her. “Leave the laptop so your hands will be free in case you have to shoot.” And he returned fire.

  Even though there was no way Theo could see the shooter, he obviously had a general idea of where the guy was because of the angle of the shots coming through the door.

  Ivy scrambled out the window, and moving as fast as she could, she backed down the steps. Above her, Theo stayed put, volleying glances between the door, her and the yard. When she was halfway down, Theo followed her, and Ivy knew this was probably the best time for their attacker to go to the window and shoot at them.

  If that happened, she prayed Gabriel would be able to stop him.

  There were more shots from inside the house, and then they stopped. Did that mean the shooter was hurrying outside after them? Maybe. Ivy hadn’t needed any other motivation to speed up their escape, but that reminder did it. When she got to the ground, she helped Theo and then turned so they could run to the shed.

  But the sound of Theo’s shout stopped her. “Gabriel, look out!”

  Ivy saw it then. Something she definitely didn’t want to see. A ski-masked gunman was behind Gabriel and was taking aim at him.

  * * *

  THEO IMMEDIATELY PULLED Ivy to the ground, though there wasn’t much cover here by the side of the house. The only thing was a line of shrubs, but since bullets could easily go through those, he knew they couldn’t stay there for long. Right now, though, there was a more immediate problem.

  Gabriel.

  Ivy’s brother had to dive to the ground, too. In his case it was on the side of the shed facing them. And it was barely in time. Because the masked gunman fired a shot at him, and if Gabriel had stayed put, he would have taken that bullet.

  Theo levered himself up and fired the gun, sending the man scrambling out of the line of fire. He didn’t want to keep firing in the guy’s direction, though, because he didn’t know if there was a ranch hand out there.

  “There’s Al,” Ivy whispered. Of course, she was trembling. Terrified, too. And Theo was scared for her.

  Theo followed the direction of where she’d tipped her head, and he saw Al halfway between the shed and the barn. The very barn where there was a cruiser. Somehow, Theo needed to get Ivy there since it would be the safest place for her right now. Gabriel and he were obviously on the same page about that, and the text Theo got from him proved it.

  I’ll keep this thug occupied while you take Ivy to the barn, Gabriel said. It was a group message, and he’d included Al and several of the other hands and deputies.

  Good. That way, all the people on their side knew where Ivy and he would be so they were less likely to get hit by friendly fire. Of course, it was the unfriendly fire that they had to worry about.

  Gabriel and Al did, too.

  Both Al and Gabriel adjusted their positions and got their weapons ready to fire. Theo didn’t move yet. He waited for Gabriel to go to the other end of the shed, and he started firing in the direction of where they’d seen the gunman disappear. Al joined him in the shots, and that was Theo’s signal to get Ivy out of there.

  Theo pulled her to her feet, and while keeping low, they started running. It wasn’t that far to the barn, but he knew that each step could be their last. In hindsight, this had been too dangerous of a plan. However, there was no turning back now.

  They ran to the end of the house, and Theo paused only long enough to glance around the back to make sure someone wasn’t lurking there. If someone was, maybe Al would be able to take them out. Just in case, though, Theo angled his gun as best he could, and then he caught on to Ivy’s arm with his left hand. They made it to the barn door, and he pushed it open.

  “Stay behind me,” he warned Ivy.

  Despite the gunfire that was going on in the yard, Theo still took a moment to look around the barn. The overhead light was off, but there was a light on in the tack room, and it gave him some decent visibility. He didn’t see a gunman inside, but then, there were plenty of places to hide.

  Including the cruiser.

  It was impossible to watch every corner of the barn, so Theo turned Ivy so they were back-to-back. Not ideal, since she could end up facing a would-be killer head-on, but at this point nothing was ideal.

  “Shoot at anything that moves,” Theo told her, because there shouldn’t be any hands or deputies in the barn.

  Without taking his attention off their surroundings, he reached out and slid the barn door shut. Having the place closed off didn’t help with the visibility because it shut out what little moonlight there was, but Theo didn’t want to risk one of those stray shots coming in the opening.

  “See anyone?” she asked.

  He didn’t. But that didn’t mean someone wasn’t there. “No,” he answered. “Let’s move closer to the cruiser.”

  Outside, the gunfire stopped, but that didn’t give Theo any peace of mind. He hoped it didn’t mean Gabriel or Al hadn’t been shot. But it could also mean the gunmen were running away. While part of him would have liked that, he didn’t especially want to give them a chance to regroup and come at them again.

  “I don’t see anyone in the cruiser,” Ivy said. Theo hadn’t thought it possible, but her voice was trembling even more than it had before.

  He, too, looked on the seat of the cruiser. No one. Well, unless someone was hiding on the floor. Someone could be on the other side of the vehicle, as well. That didn’t help with the bad feeling that was snaking its way down his spine.

  “When I open the cruiser door, get in,” he instructed. “And slide across the seat so I can drive.”

  She moved to his side and gave a nod that was as shaky as the rest of her. She also still had a hard grip on her gun. A gun he wanted her to use if there was anyone lurking in the cruiser that they’d missed.

  Theo shifted his body a little, and the moment he opened the
door, Ivy scooted across the seat. She also locked the door on that side and then looked on the floor of the back seat.

  “No one,” she told him.

  Theo was right behind her, and he locked up as well when he was behind the wheel. Thankfully, the keys were in the ignition, but he didn’t start the engine. Not yet, anyway. He didn’t want to risk the carbon monoxide building up while he was trying to contact Gabriel. Plus, the sound of the engine might cover up someone trying to sneak up on them.

  “Keep watch,” Theo reminded her, though he was certain it wasn’t a reminder she needed. Still, he wanted to be sure because texting Gabriel would divide his attention for a couple of seconds.

  We’re in the cruiser, he texted Ivy’s brother. And Theo waited for a response.

  A response didn’t come, though, and after a couple of minutes crawled by, he had to consider that Gabriel might not be in a position to respond. He figured that Ivy realized that as well because her breathing kicked up a notch.

  The silence came and everything suddenly seemed so still. As if waiting for something to happen. And something happened all right.

  More gunshots came.

  All of them slamming into the sides of the barn. Both of them. Theo didn’t know exactly where the shooters were, but it felt as if they were closing in on them. He couldn’t wait any longer for Gabriel’s response. He needed to get Ivy out of there in case these thugs had something more than bullets to launch at them. They could have explosives.

  “Hold on,” he warned her.

  The moment that Theo started the engine, he hit the accelerator, and the cruiser crashed through the barn doors. But almost immediately he had to slam on the brakes. Because there in front of them were two gunmen.

  And they had taken a hostage.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Because she wasn’t wearing a seat belt, Ivy jolted forward when Theo brought the cruiser to a quick stop only a few yards in front of the back porch. And she didn’t have to figure out why he’d done that.

  There were two gunmen on the porch, their backs to the house.