Christmas Rescue at Mustang Ridge

by Delores Fossen

  The words had barely left his mouth when Jake came to an abrupt stop, and Maggie nearly plowed right into him. He lifted his head and appeared to listen for something. Maggie did the same, but she heard nothing.

  “Move, now!” Jake insisted, and he caught her arm.

  Maggie hadn’t exactly been at ease, but that gave her another jab of fear and concern. Jake started to run with her in tow, but they were still a good twenty feet from the truck when she finally heard something.

  Something Maggie didn’t want to hear.

  A gunshot.

  * * *

  JAKE HOOKED HIS ARM around Maggie and dragged her to the ground.

  It wasn’t a second too soon because the second shot came almost immediately after the first, and both slammed into the ground right where they’d been standing. There weren’t many places he could use for cover so he pulled her behind a fallen tree. It wouldn’t give them much protection, but it might be enough if he could pinpoint the shooter.

  Jake drew his gun.

  He followed the direction of the third shot. It hadn’t come from the road or even near his truck but instead had come from the right, and his attention zoomed in on a group of cottonwood trees. It wasn’t deep cover, but it was just enough for a gunman to hide.

  Tanner’s hired gunman, no doubt.

  If Coopersville’s sheriff had found Maggie and him, the lawman wouldn’t have shot first, especially since Maggie could have been hurt. Unless Tanner had already managed to get the sheriff on his payroll.

  The next shot smacked into the fallen tree and sent some splinters and bark flying through the air. Jake pulled Maggie lower, until she was flat on the ground, and he covered her body with his. He couldn’t risk her being shot and killed, because she was the only one who could save Sunny.

  He’d die for her, if necessary.

  Ironic, since more often than not, he’d been the one to want her dead. Or at least he’d wanted her grieving at much as he was.

  “If it’s Tanner’s man, I can negotiate with him,” she insisted.

  “This isn’t a negotiating situation.” And the next round of bullets hopefully proved that to her. Jake took aim at the cottonwoods and fired a shot of his own. Not that he had the shooter in line of sight, but he didn’t want this guy moving in closer for an easier kill.

  “I still have that proof to send David to jail,” she reminded Jake.

  Yeah. But that apparently wasn’t stopping Tanner. Of course, maybe the man just had plans to kill Jake. That would take care of his threat to make Maggie “sorry again,” but Tanner could still use threat of violence against the rest of the McCalls to keep Maggie from turning over that evidence to the authorities.

  “Tanner wants me,” Jake relayed to her. “If that happens, get the hell out of here and go to the hospital in Sweetwater. Don’t waste any time reporting any of this.”

  Even over the sound of the next shot, Jake heard Maggie curse. “You’re not going to sacrifice yourself.”

  “Might not have a choice. Time’s running out.”

  Her cursing got significantly worse. “Do you have a backup weapon?”

  But she didn’t wait for him to answer. Maggie must have remembered that he wore a boot holster because she scrambled lower so she could jerk up his jeans’ leg and retrieve the small Beretta.

  “It’s me, Maggie Gallagher,” she shouted. “And you can tell your worthless spit wad of a boss that if I die, the evidence against his son will automatically go to a dozen different law enforcement agencies. David Tanner will rot in jail.”

  She fired a shot into the trees to punctuate that, but it didn’t stop the bullets from coming at them.

  Hell.

  Maybe he’d been wrong about this being Tanner’s man. Or maybe Tanner wasn’t going to give in to Maggie’s threat. Of course, the gunman could just be stupid, and if so, he might end up killing them both.

  Enough of this.

  “Stay down,” Jake warned Maggie, and he lifted himself up a little so he could actually see into the trees. It took him a few seconds to locate the silhouette of the shooter who was dressed in camouflage.

  It took Jake another second to aim.

  Jake double tapped the trigger and sent the two bullets into the man. There was no groan of pain, just the sickening thuds of the shots slamming into the body.

  He saw the man drop to the ground, but Jake didn’t waste any time. He took Maggie’s arm again, dragging her from the ground, and he started running toward the truck. She kept the Beretta aimed in the direction of the fallen man, but Jake figured the guy was incapable of returning fire.

  Of course, he could have a partner.

  Or two.

  And that’s why Jake ran as fast as he could. Sunny didn’t have time for Maggie and him to fight off any other hired guns.

  Since the passenger’s side door was still wide-open, Jake dove in, scrambling across the seat, and he pulled Maggie in with him. The engine was running, just as he’d left it, and he didn’t wait for her to close the door. He threw the truck into gear, and he hit the accelerator.

  Maggie slammed the door and turned in the seat so she could watch behind them. She was the cop now, and even though that brought back bad memories of her investigation that had gotten Anna killed, he wouldn’t refuse having her as backup.

  Temporary backup, that is.

  The plan was still to get her to Sweetwater, but first he had to call Royce and warn him. Nothing would stop Jake from getting into the prison and tearing Tanner limb from limb if the man had already sent his hired guns to the ranch.

  Jake took out his phone while he volleyed his attention between the side mirror and the road ahead. There was no sign of the sheriff’s cruiser. No sign of a gunman, either, so maybe that meant they could actually make it out of there without having to dodge any more bullets.

  He pressed in Royce’s number, and his brother answered on the first ring. “Where the hell are you?” Royce demanded.

  Jake ignored that question. “You need to secure the ranch. Tanner could have men on the way out there.”

  His brother said something that Jake didn’t catch. “I’ll call you right back.” And Royce hung up.

  Jake prayed his brother could put enough security measures in place to keep Sunny safe, and he cursed Maggie and himself for the deal that she’d made with Tanner. The deal might have kept them safe for the past two and a half years, but now it could get them killed. He should have anticipated something like this. Nothing was ever easy when it came to dealing with Tanner.

  Or Maggie.

  “Wade must have spilled his guts to Tanner or David right away,” Maggie mumbled. She was still keeping watch behind them.

  Yeah, that was possible, because Tanner and his son still had a boatload of money, and even with Tanner behind bars, that didn’t mean the father and son criminal duo couldn’t hire all the guns and muscle they needed.

  Guns and muscle that could be aimed at Sunny.

  “Tanner doesn’t want to hurt Sunny,” Maggie said, as if reading his mind. But it sure sounded as if she was trying to convince herself. “You’re the one he’ll go after.”

  “Sunny is your niece,” he reminded her. Hell, he wished he could transport himself back to the ranch so he could protect his baby.

  “There’s something else that might be playing into this,” she said. “Tanner knows about that kiss in the barn.”

  Jake’s left hand tightened on the steering wheel. “How the hell would he have known about that?”

  “I’m not sure. I think your father said something, and it got around town. All I know is that Tanner brought it up when I went to talk to him about that deal.” Maggie paused. “He thinks you have feelings for me and vice versa.”

  Well, Tanner was wrong about that. “Surely, he knows the truth by now?”

  “Maybe not. Maybe he thinks your talk of hating me is to cover up the feelings that went behind that kiss.”

  “It’s not a cover,”
Jake snapped. And the kiss hadn’t been about feelings. It’d been about his stupid clouded judgment because he’d lost his wife just a couple of months earlier.

  Months that Maggie hadn’t volunteered that she had been the reason Anna was killed. There was a chance she hadn’t known that exact information at the time, but she sure as heck could have told Jake about the investigation she’d started against Tanner. Two months was a long time to conceal that information.

  The moment his phone buzzed, he glanced at the screen, saw his brother’s number, and he pressed the answer button.

  “I alerted all the ranch hands. Nell and Dad, too,” Royce said. “Everyone is armed, but how soon can you get back?”

  Jake glanced at Maggie and at the Colt that he still had gripped in his hand. He needed to get her to a doctor or a hospital for that test, but he couldn’t do that with his little girl at risk.

  “I’ll hurry,” Jake answered, “but I’m still about three hours out.”

  “Get back as fast as you can. Nell said Sunny was upset when she saw her granddaddy running to get his gun.”

  Hell. The image of that was too vivid in his head, and Jake automatically sped up.

  “Take the back road to get to the ranch,” Royce added. “And keep a low profile once you’re—”

  “Maggie’s with me,” Jake interrupted. He glanced at her again, and she was clearly waiting to hear what was going on back in Mustang Ridge.

  Royce didn’t answer right away. “I’ll let Dad know she’s coming, too.”

  Jake could hear the dread in Royce’s tone. That same dread went through Jake. This would not be a pleasant homecoming for any of them, especially Maggie.

  “I’ll remind Dad that Maggie came to help,” Royce said. “She did come to help, right?”

  Jake settled for a “Yeah.”

  “One more thing,” Jake added. “A gunman fired shots at Maggie and me in the woods east of Coopersville. I had to leave a dead body behind, but you need to figure out a way to get someone out there to investigate.”

  Royce cursed again. “I’ll turn it in as an anonymous tip, but if it was Tanner’s doing, he’ll probably have already arranged for his own cleanup.”

  That was fine with Jake. One less thing on his plate, but he wouldn’t mind someone other than Tanner’s henchmen checking the body for any evidence to prove who’d hired him.

  “I’ll see you when I get back,” Jake told Royce.

  “Wait. There’s something else. Like I said, use the back roads, and whatever you do, don’t come into town.”

  “Why?” Jake asked cautiously.

  “The U.S. marshals showed up about fifteen minutes ago. I’ve talked them out of going to the ranch because of Sunny’s illness. I swore to them I’d get you to come here to the sheriff’s office instead.”

  Royce paused, a long time. “Jake, they’re here to arrest you.”

  Chapter Five

  Maggie had so many bad feelings about going to the McCall ranch, but none of those could override the fact that Jake had no choice in the matter. He couldn’t risk Tanner coming after Sunny. He needed to be there at home with his daughter in case there was an attack.

  And that meant Maggie would be there, too.

  She’d taken as many precautions as she could. She had made a call to her boss, Gene, to try to convince him that she was all right. And that she’d be back in a day or two. That was an outright lie. She couldn’t go back to Coopersville, and within seconds of telling Gene that lie, Maggie had ended the call, disassembled her phone and tossed the parts out the window.

  Now, she kept watch out the side mirror as Jake snaked the truck over the familiar farm roads that led to the ranch. Maggie recognized every part of the scenery, since she’d been born and raised in Mustang Ridge. She also had no trouble recalling from memory all the details of the McCall ranch.

  Or the threat that Chet had made the day she left.

  Something about killing her and the horse she rode in on if she ever returned. Maggie didn’t think that colorful threat was all bluff, either, but maybe Chet could put his hatred aside long enough for her to get this test done.

  Jake finished his call to Royce, the fourth on their nearly three hour drive from Coopersville, and he slipped the phone into his pocket. “Dr. Grange will come out to the ranch to do the bone marrow test on you,” he relayed to her.

  Maggie silently groaned. “Tanner can buy off the doctor.” But the same was true for just about anyone.

  Jake made a weary sound of agreement. “Royce told Doc Grange that he needed to check on Sunny. He doesn’t know you’ll be at the ranch.”

  Well, that was a start, but Grange would soon know that it was a lie. Somehow she had to convince him to keep her return a secret. After convincing the doctor, she’d have to get in touch with Tanner and remind him of their agreement. An agreement that had been broken because she was back in Mustang Ridge.

  But maybe she could keep that from him.

  Jake took the final turn onto one of the ranch trails. Winter was hardly the best time to be sloshing through the icy dirt paths, but this was one more step in keeping her arrival a secret. They passed the outbuildings. Barns.

  Including the barn of the infamous kiss.

  She glanced at Jake, but he was looking everywhere but there, which only seemed to call more attention to it.

  Maggie spotted several ranch hands, all armed, and there was another in the backyard where Jake finally brought the truck to a stop. He’d barely had time to kill the engine when the door opened and his sister, Nell, stepped out. Once, Maggie and she had been friends. Judging from Nell’s troubled eyes, Maggie wasn’t expecting that friendship to resume.

  It was understandable.

  Nell had been friends with Anna. In fact, they weren’t just in-laws; they’d worked together at the county clerk’s office in town.

  “Is she a match?” Nell asked the moment Jake opened the door.

  “We’ll soon find out. That’s why the doc is on the way.” He motioned for Maggie to come across the seat on his side. Probably so she wouldn’t be out in the open any longer than necessary, and he quickly ushered her inside.

  Nell held the door open for them and studied Maggie’s uniform and then her muddy shoes. “I’m guessing you had a rough morning, too.”

  Maggie nodded. It’d been nearly three years of rough mornings.

  The kitchen was toasty warm and smelled liked Christmas cookies. Leave it to Nell to bake cookies when all hell was breaking loose, but then that’s what Maggie had always admired about her cool-under-pressure former friend.

  Nothing had changed much in the time she’d been gone. The place looked exactly as it had when Anna and she had started visiting as teenagers. In those days, they’d both had crushes on Jake.

  Something that would be a good idea to forget.

  Like the house, Nell hadn’t changed much, either, though Maggie thought she was looking more and more like her late mother. In fact, she was pretty sure she’d seen Mrs. McCall wear that very apron. The cross necklace and the engagement ring, too, though Nell was wearing the ring on her right hand instead of her left.

  “I’m sorry about your mother’s death,” Maggie told her. Breast cancer, Jake had told her when she’d asked on the drive over.

  Nell nodded. “It was a tough loss for Jake, Royce and me.” She didn’t add her father to that list, and Maggie knew why. Even though they stayed married, Nell’s parents had had a rocky relationship.

  “I went ahead and sent Betsy home,” Nell told Jake. She put on the oven mitt and took out another baking sheet of cookies from the oven. “I didn’t figure it’d be a good idea if she was here, what with possible trouble brewing.”

  “You’re right.” Jake glanced at Maggie. “Betsy Becker, the nurse who’s been taking care of Sunny.”

  Oh, that Betsy. Maggie remembered the kindly woman, and Nell had been right to get her away from this. The fewer people, the better.

  “You h
ave a security system?” Maggie asked, looking at the windows and then the door.

  Jake nodded. “And the ranch hands are watching both roads.”

  Maybe that would be enough. Maybe. But the Tanners had a long reach when it came to settling a score.

  Nell turned to her brother. “Why would Tanner try to come after us now? And why are those marshals waiting at your office to arrest you?”

  That last part snagged Maggie’s attention. “What marshals?”

  “The ones who arrived several hours ago,” Nell clarified.

  “You knew about this?” Maggie asked him, but there was no answer required. She could tell from his expression that he knew. The marshals obviously hadn’t had any trouble tracing the hacking job back to Jake.

  “Well?” Nell pressed.

  Jake shrugged. “It’s a long story.”

  “Shorten it,” Nell insisted, staring at Maggie now.

  Since the cat was out of the proverbial bag, Maggie didn’t see a reason to keep it secret. “Jake hacked into the classified database to find me.”

  “Mercy,” Nell mumbled. “Is that why the ranch hands are all armed—to keep the marshals away?”

  “No. Royce is supposed to keep the marshals away.” Jake tipped his head to Maggie for her to finish.

  “I made a deal with Tanner so he’d leave all of you alone. He might believe I broke that deal.” She lifted her shoulder. “Technically, I did.”

  “What did Tanner threaten to do if you broke the deal?” Nell asked.

  “To hurt one or more of you.” She had to pause. “I have evidence against his son, so that might be enough to tie Tanner’s hands.” Another pause. “Unless he thinks he can have the evidence negated in some way.”

  Or maybe Tanner would let his temper get the best of him and lash out despite the consequences.

  “The idea is to get Maggie out of here fast and back into WITSEC,” Jake explained. “Then, I can deal with the marshals.”

  Nell practically slammed the cookies onto the counter. “And you’ll be off to jail.”