Proof of Guilt

by Lisa Jackson

  They were both wearing ski masks, and they had their weapons pointed at Al’s head. Al was standing in front of the two men, their human shield. They’d no doubt taken up that stance so that Theo or someone else couldn’t shoot them.

  Ivy’s breath froze. Not her thoughts, though. The thoughts and fears came at her with a vengeance. These men were killers. Or that was their plan, anyway, and now the pair had them exactly where they wanted.

  She pressed her left hand to her heart to try to steady it. Also tried to rein in her too-fast breathing. If she panicked now, it certainly wouldn’t help them. No. She needed to keep a clear head and try to figure out how they could all get out of this alive.

  But how?

  They couldn’t shoot at the men, and if they sped off, then they’d kill Al. At least Theo and she were in a bullet-resistant car, but that wouldn’t help anyone else out there—especially Al. Ivy didn’t know the hand that well, but he was out here because he’d been trying to protect her. That reminder twisted away at her, and once again she had to remind herself to stay calm.

  “Step out of the cruiser,” one of the gunmen shouted.

  “Stay put,” Theo told her, and he didn’t hesitate, either. However, he did lower his window a fraction so he could yell back an answer to the men. “Put down your weapons. There’s no way you can get out of this alive.”

  If Theo’s threat bothered them in the least, they didn’t react to it. They certainly didn’t put down their guns. Ivy had to wonder if these men had been in similar situations as Morris. Had their loved ones been taken as well to get them to do this or were they merely hired guns?

  Either way, this situation could be deadly.

  “Get out of the cruiser,” the thug repeated. “If not, we start puttin’ bullets in your friend here.”

  “Hell,” Theo said under his breath, and he glanced around, probably looking for Gabriel or the other hands.

  Ivy looked for them, too, and she spotted Gabriel still near the shed. He was at the wrong angle to have a shot to stop this, and if he stepped out from cover, one of the gunmen could easily shoot him.

  Maybe someone could come through the front of the house to get to the men. But then she had to mentally shake her head. The house was probably still filled with tear gas.

  “Who hired you?” Theo called out to the men. “Because whatever he or she is paying you, it’s not enough for you to lose your lives. That’s exactly what will happen, too, if you don’t stop this now.”

  Even though she couldn’t see their faces, Ivy thought the one who’d been doing all the talking laughed. “Just get out of the cruiser. I don’t think you want your woman to watch as we shoot this guy.”

  No, Ivy didn’t want to watch that, but she figured the moment Theo and she stepped out, these thugs would gun them down. She didn’t want to see that, either, but they didn’t have a lot of options here.

  “Who exactly is it you’re after?” Theo asked. “Me or Ivy?”

  The two didn’t jump to answer but did have a short whispered conversation. “Ivy. If she wants to save you or anybody else, then all she has to do is open the door and come to us.”

  “You’re not going out there,” Theo told her right off. “They won’t want any of us alive because we’re witnesses.”

  Because her mind was whirling with fear, she hadn’t actually realized that. But it was true. Heck, the thugs probably had orders to kill them all.

  But why?

  That was the million-dollar question. And they still didn’t have the answer. Because any of their suspects could have hired or coerced these men into doing this. It was even possible that their boss was nearby, waiting to make sure his or her orders had been carried out.

  “I have men all around here,” Gabriel called out.

  Her brother had moved his position just a little but was still thankfully behind cover. Or at least he was unless someone came from the back pasture. Hopefully, though, there were still hands out there to make sure that didn’t happen.

  “So do we,” the thug answered back. “And time’s up.” He lowered his gun to Al’s arm. “Either she gets out of the cruiser, or I fire the first shot. Just how much blood do you think he can lose before he dies?”

  It was impossible for her not to think of Belinda Travers. She’d been shot and certainly hadn’t survived. The same could happen to Al.

  “I can’t just sit here and watch him die,” Ivy said.

  Theo cursed again, glanced around as if trying to figure out what to do. “Get lower on the seat,” he instructed. The moment she did that, he added to the men, “Give us just a few seconds. Ivy was hurt when we ran into the barn, and I’m trying to stop the bleeding. She’s not in any shape to stand right now.”

  Ivy doubted the men would buy the lie, but it seemed to give them a little time because the thugs had another whispered conversation.

  “They’re wearing masks,” Theo said, but it sounded as if he was talking to himself more than her. “The man who attacked Morris’s family didn’t wear one.”

  She considered that for a moment. “You think these are men you know?”

  “Maybe.” Theo shook his head. “Or maybe they’re just cocky enough to think they can kill us all and escape.” He turned back to the window. “Ivy needs an ambulance,” he shouted to the men.

  Theo then took out his phone, and while keeping watch of the situation on the porch, he also sent a text to someone. Probably Gabriel. Because a few seconds later, Ivy saw her brother glance down at his phone screen.

  “Put on your seat belt,” Theo told her.

  Ivy was certain her eyes widened. “Why? What are you going to do?”

  “Play a game of chicken to get these guys to scatter so that Gabriel can pick them off. But I want you belted in and as far down on the seat as you can go in case something goes wrong.”

  And there was plenty that could go wrong.

  She managed a nod and did as he said. Ivy also kept her gun ready just in case this situation went from bad to worse.

  “Hold on,” Theo said the moment they were in place, and he hit the accelerator.

  The cruiser lurched forward, but Ivy couldn’t see what was going on. However, she could hear it. The men cursed.

  And then a shot blasted into the windshield.

  * * *

  THEO HAD ALREADY braced himself for the shot that came right at them. The ones that followed, too. He gave the steering wheel a sharp turn so that his side of the cruiser bashed into the back porch railing. The impact certainly jarred Ivy and him. Seemed to jar the house, too.

  But it didn’t stop the gunmen.

  Four more bullets came crashing into the cruiser’s engine and his window, cracking and webbing the glass to the point that it was nearly impossible for him to see.

  He could hear, though.

  And what he heard was Gabriel returning fire. Good. It was just as Theo had instructed him to do with that text he’d sent him.

  Judging from the angle of the returned fire, Gabriel did indeed have the right angle or at least enough of one to get those gunmen. Maybe that meant Al had scrambled out of the way so they could put a quick end to this.

  Since the side of the cruiser was now directly in front of the porch, Theo tried to peer through what was left of the glass. It took him a few seconds, but he saw the gunmen. Both were now in the back doorway of the house and didn’t seem to be reacting to the tear gas. Maybe they had some kind of filtering equipment beneath those ski masks.

  Both of the gunmen were leaning out from cover to continue firing. The one on the left was shooting into the cruiser. The one on the right was aiming in Gabriel’s direction. No doubt to try to pin him down.

  There was no sign of Al.

  It was possible the thugs had dragged him into the house, and because the lights were off, Theo couldn’t see any
thing in there, much less try to figure out if the man was alive. Later, he would need to do that, but for now he had a much more immediate problem.

  There was another round of shots, these going into the engine, and it didn’t take long for it to start spewing steam. They’d obviously shot out the radiator, which would make it impossible for Theo to use it for an escape. They certainly wouldn’t get far enough away from those gunmen to do any good. Still, he’d known that right from the start. That meant they had to make their stand here and hope Gabriel and the hand could do enough to capture the shooters.

  Now that they’d disabled the engine, the shooter shifted back to his window. The bullets tore a big enough hole in the glass that the shots started coming into the interior of the cruiser. He was betting these guys had a lot of ammo, and as long as the one kept Gabriel out of the picture, it meant the other one could continue blasting until he shot Ivy and him.

  Another chunk of the glass came flying right at him, and Theo had no choice but to duck down. He didn’t stay there, though. He came up off the seat, and he used one of the holes in the window to take aim so he could fire. He double tapped the trigger and sent the thugs ducking back inside.

  It didn’t last.

  After only a few seconds, the thugs started shooting again. This time the glass fell right onto Ivy. She quickly lifted her hand, putting it over the back of her head, but Theo knew that wouldn’t be enough to keep her protected.

  The shots continued, coming at them nonstop, but there was other gunfire, too. It was coming from the pasture behind the barn. Probably one or more of the hands. Hopefully, that meant they knew that Al was out of the way so that he wouldn’t be hit.

  “Stay put,” Theo told Ivy.

  As expected, she lifted her head just enough to make eye contact with him, and he saw her shake her head. “You’re not going out there.”

  It darn sure wasn’t something he wanted to do. Not with bullets seemingly coming from every direction, but he couldn’t just sit there and let Ivy be hit. Something that could happen any moment now that the shots were coming into the vehicle.

  “I’ll use the door for cover,” he told her.

  She still shook her head and reached for him. Theo wanted to take the time to reassure her, but maybe that wasn’t even possible, anyway. He put his hand on the door handle.

  And then heard the sound crack through the air.

  Not another bullet. It was a tear gas canister, and it smacked onto the ground just a few feet from the cruiser.

  Hell.

  Theo ditched his idea to open the door and instead try to start the engine to get them out of there. No such luck, though. The gunmen had seen to that. This had likely been their intention all along, and Theo had no choice but to move Ivy.

  “We’ll go out your side,” he told her. “Open the door and get out but stay low. Wait for me, and then we’ll run to the shed where Gabriel is.”

  It wasn’t an especially good plan, but he didn’t have a lot of options here. Especially not with the tear gas starting to ooze its way into the cruiser. His only hope was that the tear gas would hide his and Ivy’s escape. Then he had to hope they didn’t collapse along the way. It wouldn’t be a long run, but it would feel like a marathon with that gas burning their eyes and lungs.

  Coughing again, Ivy threw open the door, and she practically tumbled out, landing in a crouching position on the ground. Theo kept low since the bullets were still coming, and he crawled toward her.

  “Watch out!” Gabriel shouted.

  Despite the gunfire, Theo heard him loud and clear, but he had no idea why Gabriel had yelled out that warning. Not until he saw the movement.

  Someone was walking out of that cloud of tear gas.

  That someone had a gun, and he latched onto Ivy, knocking away her gun. In the same motion, he took aim.

  And the man fired.

  * * *

  THE SHOT WAS so close to Ivy that the sound blasted through her head. She braced herself to feel the pain from being hit. But nothing.

  Well, nothing other than the pain in her ears from the noise.

  From what she could tell, the shot had gone into the ground right next to her. Maybe he’d just missed. Or else it could have been some kind of warning shot. If so, it had certainly gotten her attention.

  Despite the man’s having hold of her and that fired shot, she was alive, and she needed to do something to keep it that way. Ivy turned, ready to push her attacker away before he could fire again, but she was already too late. He hooked his arm around her and put the gun to her head. Worse, he was in position so neither Theo nor her brother might have a clean shot to take out this guy.

  She tried to elbow the man in his gut, but he only tightened his grip on her until he had her in a choke hold. It was already hard enough to breathe because of the tear gas, and that certainly didn’t help.

  The man, however, probably had no trouble breathing. That’s because he was wearing a gas mask. Ivy caught a glimpse of it when she managed to glance back at him.

  “Let her go,” Theo growled. That’s when Ivy realized he had taken up cover behind the back of the cruiser.

  Of course, the man didn’t release her, and he didn’t respond to Theo’s demand. He just started dragging her onto the porch. Only a few steps, and he would have her inside where there were at least two other gunmen waiting.

  She forced herself to stay as calm as she could. Which probably wasn’t very calm. But she needed to think. Needed to do something to make sure no one got killed before she even tried to diffuse this.

  “If this is about my husband’s money,” she said. “We can work this out.”

  Again, no response. So if Lacey was indeed behind this, then she’d convinced the men not to bargain with her. Maybe by kidnapping their families. Maybe because Lacey had just paid them too well.

  The man just kept dragging her, and the moment they reached the doorway, he pulled her inside. Ivy had been right about the gunmen being there. One was on each side of the door. A door they didn’t close. They stayed there, no doubt ready to shoot anyone who came after her.

  At least the tear gas inside had thinned out enough for her to breathe. But the bad news was that the goon still had her in a choke hold.

  “I gave birth to Travis’s only grandchild,” she tried again. She needed to hit some kind of nerve so she knew who she was dealing with. “He wouldn’t like it if anything bad happened to me.”

  The man still didn’t say anything. That didn’t mean August wasn’t behind this, though. In fact, it didn’t rule out anyone.

  “Everything’s in place,” one of the thugs said to her captor.

  She didn’t recognize the voice, but it made her wonder if Theo would. Ivy peered out through the door but could no longer see him. Could no longer see Gabriel, either, but maybe either he or one of the hands was making his way to the front of the house where the man was taking her.

  The lights were all off in the house, but Ivy looked around for anything she could try to grab so she could club the guy. The only thing she could spot was a vase on a table in the family room, but when she reached for it, the man snapped her back so hard that Ivy nearly blacked out from the pain and loss of breath. She couldn’t try that again, not while he had her in a choke hold, anyway, or he might kill her. Still, she didn’t intend to go with him without a fight.

  But where was he taking her?

  Better yet, how did he plan on getting her off the ranch?

  She soon had the answer to her last question. There was a third masked thug by the front door, and he opened it. When the man dragged her onto the front porch, she saw the black SUV parked by the steps. Maybe this was the vehicle the shooter in the old house had used. It could have been driven up the path between the two houses. Given the limited visibility from the gas fog and the darkness, it would have been hard to se
e. Still, she couldn’t imagine one of the hands not spotting it. Did that mean these thugs had killed them?

  It sickened Ivy to think that could have happened, but with all the gunfire going on, it was impossible to know.

  There was a new round of shots. This time at the back of the house where she’d last seen Al and those two hired thugs. Gabriel was in that general area, too, and she prayed that none of them had been hit.

  In one last-ditch effort to save herself, Ivy dropped down her weight, trying to throw the man off balance, but he just hooked his other arm around her waist and kept going. Straight for that SUV.

  “Wesley?” someone called out.

  Theo.

  Ivy couldn’t see him, but judging from the sound of his voice, he was on the side of the house toward the front of the SUV.

  As the man had done the other times Theo or she had spoken to him, he didn’t say a word, but she felt his arm tense just enough to let her know that Theo had been right. This was Wesley or else someone working for him.

  But why would Wesley want her?

  “Ivy has nothing to do with this,” Theo continued. “This is between you and me.”

  Again, her captor’s arm tensed, but he still didn’t talk.

  “You don’t want me to hear your voice,” Theo added. “But I recognized one of your hired guns. He’s a criminal informant. I know because I’ve used him myself. My guess is you got him to do this for cheap or else you threatened him with arrest. Either way, it doesn’t matter. This ends here.”

  The gunmen at the front door came onto the porch, took aim at Theo and fired. Ivy’s heart went to her throat, and her breath stalled in her chest until she realized Theo had dropped back in the nick of time. He hadn’t been hit.

  However, he could be.

  In fact, this could end badly for all of them. That’s why she had to try to bargain with this man.

  “I’ll go with you,” she told him, “but you need to leave Theo and everyone else here alone.”

  Wesley or whoever this was certainly didn’t jump to agree to that. The man started backing her down the front porch steps, and it would be only a matter of a few seconds before he had her in that SUV. Heaven knew then where he’d take her. Or what he’d do to her. Plus, that would leave the hired guns in place to keep attacking Gabriel, Theo and the hands.