Safeguarding the Surrogate

by Delores Fossen

  Daniel’s phone dinged again, and the soft sound went through her as effectively as a scream. Her body braced. Her hand tightened on her gun. And with her breath held, she waited while Daniel scanned his laptop screen.

  “It’s the camera at the back of the inn this time,” he snarled.

  Unfortunately, they couldn’t see that particular spot from these windows so they had to hurry back to the room they’d just left. This time it was Daniel who went to the window, but he kept his attention on the laptop.

  And he cursed.

  That sent Kara running to him, and she looked around his shoulder, trying to see what had caused that reaction. Nothing. Not at first, anyway. Then she zoomed in on a shadow at the back of the yard. It wasn’t out in the open but rather next to a spindly Texas mountain laurel tree.

  Maybe a person.

  It was hard to tell, so she watched, waiting for some kind of movement. But nothing. Kara was so focused on that one spot that she gasped when the sound of Daniel’s phone ringing shot through the room. He passed her the laptop so he could take out his phone and answer it.

  “Daniel,” Barrett blurted out the moment he was on the line. “Is everything okay there?”

  “Someone or something keeps triggering the cameras. It could be a kid who thinks this is a fun prank.”

  Judging from Daniel’s tone, he didn’t believe that. Neither did Kara.

  Barrett stayed quiet a couple of moments. “There’s blood in the guesthouse where Rizzo was staying, and there appears to be signs of a struggle.”

  Kara tried to look at that from several angles. Maybe Rizzo had indeed been the victim of a crime. Heck, he could be dead. Then again, he could have orchestrated all of this to make himself look innocent, and at this very minute he could be waiting by that mountain laurel.

  But there was no way she could just focus on Rizzo as the culprit. Eldon could have done this. Or even Sean. His shoulder injury might be the real deal, but that wouldn’t necessarily stop him from breaking into Rizzo’s guesthouse and abducting him at gunpoint.

  “I’m calling in a crime scene team,” Barrett added a moment later, “and then I’m heading back your direction.”

  Good. Because Kara had the feeling that Daniel and she were going to need all the help they could get.

  Daniel ended the call and went back to his search for a possible intruder. He slid his cop’s gaze from the laptop screen back to the edge of the window. Kara moved, hoping that a slightly different angle would help her get a better look at that shadowy figure, but before she could do that, there was another sound.

  A blast.

  And the glass from the window came flying at them.

  Tossing his laptop aside, Daniel hooked his arm around her waist, pulling her to the floor, but Kara was already heading in that direction. A little too late, though. She felt the shards of glass slice over her face and arms. She felt the sting of the cuts. Felt her blood on her skin.

  Felt the fear slam into her.

  She turned to make sure Daniel was okay, but she didn’t even manage a glimpse of him before there was another shot. Not a bullet this time. But a small metal canister burst through what was left of the window and landed on the floor next to them.

  Smoke spewed from it, filling the room.

  * * *

  DANIEL HAD A flashback of the nightmare of the smoke that’d billowed through the hospital. Of Kara and him having to run to safety. Of the shots that’d followed once they’d made it to the parking lot. Even more memories of the bullets that had come within a breath of killing them and the others they’d been trying to get out.

  And he braced himself for that to happen again.

  At least now they didn’t have a baby in the path of those bullets, but Daniel had no doubts that this was going to go from bad to worse in the blink of an eye. Someone could hear the shots and come to try to help. He seriously doubted a killer would just let that happen. No. He’d gun down whoever got in his way because it was obvious whoever was doing this wanted to make sure this was the last attack.

  The one that’d leave Kara and him dead.

  But who was doing this? Daniel quickly pushed that question aside. It wouldn’t help him now because no matter who it was, he had to make sure the person didn’t succeed. He couldn’t let this SOB kill Kara and anyone else.

  “Stay low and start moving,” he snapped to Kara, but the anger roiled inside him when he saw her face.

  The blood.

  Hell, there was so much of it in her hair and on her face that he couldn’t tell how serious her injuries were. He wanted to take out the killer for doing this to her. Wanted him to pay and pay hard. But he had to put that on hold and try to get her out of there. No choice about it. The smoke was already starting to smother them.

  Regardless of the blood and what had to be pain from her injuries, she started crawling. And despite the coughing, Kara managed to keep hold of her gun. Daniel wasn’t sure, however, that she could see well enough to shoot straight.

  Each inch they crawled felt like a mile, and he felt the pieces of broken glass dig into his own hands and knees. That didn’t stop him, though, because Daniel knew the person who was doing this could continue to send more of that glass raining down on them.

  There was another shot, and it ripped into the wall just as they made it into the hall. Daniel quickly reached up and slammed the door shut. A bullet could still go through the wood, but he was hoping to stop some of the smoke from filling up the rest of the house.

  Kara sat up, putting her back against the wall while she gulped in some long breaths. Daniel used his shirtsleeve to wipe away some of the blood from her face, but it was too dark to tell if she had any deep gashes. He thought he might have a deep cut of his own on his knee, but he’d have to deal with that later.

  It ate up precious seconds, but Daniel took the time to message Barrett to let him know what was going on. “We’re under attack,” he texted. “Approach with caution. Active shooter in the area.”

  Maybe that would keep his brother and the other deputies safe. He definitely didn’t want them walking into an ambush.

  He took hold of Kara’s arm and moved her away from the room. Away from the stream of smoke that was already seeping under and around the door. They definitely couldn’t just sit there and let the smoke overtake them, but he wasn’t sure where he should take her.

  And then he caught a whiff of something else.

  That “going from bad to worse” had just happened.

  “We need to get down the stairs,” Daniel told her.

  She shook her head, maybe not understanding why he’d said that, but then Kara lifted her head. She sniffed and cursed when she no doubt caught the scent of the accelerant.

  Gasoline.

  Daniel didn’t think the killer had actually gotten it in the house. Probably the back porch, though. But it would still be enough to burn the place down, especially since the fire department wouldn’t be able to respond until they were certain there were no other shots being fired.

  He considered going back in the room to get his laptop, but it was too risky. Instead, Daniel had a quick look on his phone to view the feed from the security cameras. The phone screen suddenly seemed way too small, but he saw the fire. Not on the back porch but rather the front one.

  There didn’t appear to be anyone in the backyard where the cruiser was parked. But, of course, a killer wouldn’t just stand out in the open for them to see.

  Daniel cursed himself for not having brought any Kevlar vests to the inn. Cursed his plan that had brought Kara here in the first place so all of this could be set in motion.

  Now, because of the bad decisions he’d made, he might get her killed.

  The realization of that squeezed at his heart, and it sickened him. But Daniel battled back those feelings and got her moving to the stairs. H
e had to try to get Kara out of there. Later, he could take the time to berate himself.

  If there was a later, that is.

  Despite the smoke and the fire, Daniel didn’t run with her down the stairs. It was pitch dark, and he couldn’t risk them falling. Right now, any other injuries could be just as dangerous as the killer’s bullets because it could trap them inside.

  He didn’t know if it was the killer’s actual intention to burn the place to the ground, but Daniel couldn’t risk staying inside where the smoke could overtake them and leave them unconscious.

  Each step was another effort, and despite the darkness, he kept watch. He didn’t see anything other than the dark shadows of the furniture, but he could hear plenty. Somewhere in the house, a clock chimed, and the old stairs creaked. And he could hear the crackle of the flames as the fire battered away at the front porch. There was black smoke seeping beneath this door, too.

  “This way,” he whispered, taking hold of Kara’s arm so they wouldn’t get separated in the darkness.

  Daniel headed to the kitchen, already dreading the wall of windows that he knew was there. There were side exits, two of them, but both of those would put them much farther away from the cruiser. The back door was much closer.

  Something that the killer almost certainly knew.

  “We’ll have to go out there,” he heard Kara mutter. It wasn’t a question, but it was laced with as much concern as Daniel felt.

  “Yeah,” he verified. “But we’ll take some precautions.”

  Such that they were. They wouldn’t just go running out into the backyard, but they were going to have to get to the cruiser. So that meant using whatever they could for cover.

  By the time they reached the kitchen, the smoke had already made it back to this part of the house, and he doubted the front door would hold up much longer. Once it was gone, the fire would begin to make its way throughout the rest of the inn. Daniel didn’t know how much time they had before that happened, but he figured they had mere minutes.

  With his hold still on Kara, he made sure she didn’t go directly in front of the windows. That meant crouching down and heading to the door. Daniel had to turn off the security system—a huge risk since the gunman could sneak inside and ambush them from behind—but he needed to be able to hear. He couldn’t do that with the alarm blaring.

  “We crawl out onto the porch,” he explained. “Stay behind the railing, and we’ll make our way to the steps.”

  If they managed that without anyone shooting at them, then they could go into the yard.

  Kara nodded, and using her forearm, she swiped away the blood that was trickling into her eyes. She clearly needed medical attention. If he managed to get her into the cruiser, he could take her to the sheriff’s office and call the EMTs to come and treat her.

  For now, though, they had to leave.

  Daniel sent another text to Barrett to let his brother know that Kara and he would be outside, and then he took out the keys to the cruiser, and using the remote function on the keypad, he unlocked it. Next, he unlocked the back door, automatically pulling Kara to the floor with him.

  “Let’s go,” he said after taking a deep breath.

  Daniel opened the door and got them moving.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Kara began to crawl, her bloody palms pressed against the cool wood of first the kitchen floor and then the porch.

  She tried to force her hands to stop shaking. It was hard to do because of the fresh slam of adrenaline she’d just gotten, but she had to stay in control. Well, as much control as she could manage, considering she was bleeding in too many places to count and was terrified.

  The terror wasn’t for herself but rather for Daniel. She knew he would go to any lengths to protect her. Any. Lengths. That would include putting himself between her and any gunfire that’d come their way.

  He could end up dying for her.

  And she didn’t want that. Kara didn’t want to leave her niece an orphan, so if it came down to Daniel and her under a killer’s bullet, she’d make sure that he wasn’t the one to die.

  They’d gone only a few inches outside the door when there was another shot. This one blasted into one of the windows, causing more glass to shatter down on them. And worse, the glass now littered the porch, making it even more dangerous for them to keep going.

  “Try to get to the railing,” Daniel whispered, and as she’d predicted he would do, he levered himself up enough to cover her body with his.

  The railing wasn’t far, only about six feet away, but Kara was sure she left a bloody trail each time her hands and knees scraped over the wood. Her heart was pounding so hard that it was throbbing in her ears, making it hard to hear. Hard to think, too. Still, she got there and pressed herself against the wrought iron railing.

  She wished the railing had been a solid metal sheet. Or any kind of solid material for that matter. But there were several inches of gaps between each of the metal stakes, and that meant Daniel and she could still be easy targets.

  Especially Daniel.

  He was still looming over her while he fired his gaze all around the yard, but Kara did something about that. She took hold of the front of his shirt and yanked him farther down.

  “If he kills you, then I’ll be a much easier target,” she managed to say.

  She knew it was playing dirty to remind Daniel of something like that, but it worked. He cursed. And he stayed down.

  The moments crawled by while they both tried to pinpoint the shooter. Tried to pinpoint other sounds, too. There were no wails of sirens, but Kara heard a vehicle approaching the front of the inn. Probably the fire department. A moment later, she got confirmation of that when Daniel got a text.

  He didn’t take his attention off their surroundings, but instead Daniel passed his phone to her. She saw the text from Barrett.

  I’m out front with the firefighters, his brother messaged. We’ll hold until I get the green from you.

  The green. The go-ahead to let him know it was safe to come to the back of the inn, safe for the firemen to get out of their vehicle and fight the blaze. But neither of those things might happen.

  What’s your location? Barrett texted.

  It took some doing because of the blood on her hands, but Kara answered, On the back porch.

  She would have added that they were under fire, but there was no need for her to do that. At that exact moment, two more shots came. These came from the back left side of the yard, and both bullets slammed into the window, bringing down yet more glass. Once again, Daniel covered her, his back taking the falling shards.

  The anger came, as hot as the fire that slimy snake had set. Whoever was doing this was trying to rip Daniel and her to shreds, and they couldn’t just lay there and let it happen. Plus, if the fire wasn’t contained soon, it could spread to other buildings. People could be hurt. Or worse.

  “I’ll fire over his head,” she whispered. That way, she wouldn’t hit any bystanders. “He might run again.”

  Daniel made a sound to let her know he wasn’t convinced that would happen, but he shifted, levering himself up again. “I’ll do it.”

  And he did. He lifted his gun and fired. Two thick blasts that were deafening.

  They waited. Listening. There were no sounds of hurried footsteps. However, there was another shot from the gunman. This one smacked into the porch railing. Obviously, he knew where they were, and he’d given up on the windows. Now, he was going for the direct kill.

  Daniel cursed again and used his forearm to cover her head. “Stay down,” he whispered. “I’m going to try to get to the other side of the porch.” He tipped his head in that direction. “I think I can drop down off the side and get to the cruiser.”

  “No.” She couldn’t say that fast enough. “That’d only make you an easy target.” Kara had to pause a moment to gather
her breath. “We’ll both get to the other side of the porch,” she suggested. “That’ll put some distance between us and the shooter, and when we both drop down to the ground, we can run to the front where your brother’s waiting. We’ll have backup.”

  It was an awful plan, one that was filled with risks that could get them killed, but at the moment it was the only chance they had. If this shootout went on much longer, Barrett would likely storm in, and then he could be gunned down. They had to move fast.

  And now.

  “Come on,” Kara insisted, shifting out from beneath Daniel. “Let’s just hurry and do this.”

  She was counting on the gunman not having stellar marksmanship skills. Plus, Daniel and she would have the meager cover of the railing. She prayed both of those things would work in their favor.

  “Let’s go,” Daniel said as soon as he got into a crouching position.

  They did. Daniel and she scrambled across the porch. As expected, the shots came, one of them smacking into the railing and ricocheting off with a loud pinging sound of metal striking metal. Another hit the wood pillar on the corner of the porch. No glass this time, but instead they got hit with a spray of splinters.

  The moment they were on the other side, Daniel and she dropped back down so they were flat on the porch. She could see better here, thanks to the illumination coming from the lights on Main Street. What she saw past the railing was a row of thick hedges where they’d need to jump, and the trick would be not to get tangled up in them.

  Of course, first they had to get over the railing, which meant there’d be seconds where it’d be easier for the shooter to kill them.

  “What the hell?” Daniel grumbled.

  Kara’s head snapped up, and she followed the direction of his gaze. Not toward the shooter. Or rather not from the area where the shooter had fired those last two shots. Daniel was looking at that Texas mountain laurel where earlier they’d seen the shadow.