by Barbara Gee
Tuck followed Ryan down the rollaway steps and they jogged toward a waiting black SUV. Ryan asked the driver whether there were any stores that carried outdoor gear between the airport and their destination. The driver promised to stop at the best one, and as they drove, Tuck told Ryan what Emma had found.
“So it looks like we have six bad guys. Four mercenaries, a sniper, and Abe,” Ryan said grimly. “And there’s two of us, a deputy in the house, and who knows how many, if any, outside. At best, we’re even. At worst, three against six.” He looked at Tuck, his gaze was hard, focused and determined. “Sounds about right.”
Tucker shoved his worry for Maddy and Libby into a compartment in his brain that wouldn’t interfere with what he’d been trained to do. Being outmanned didn’t scare him. He was very good when it came to a fight, and he suspected that Ryan was as well. Together they would figure this out.
“They’re definitely going to attack the house,” he stated. “And since there’s at least one sheriff’s car parked out front now, they know we’re onto them. We won’t be able to surprise them.”
Ryan pondered that for a moment. “You didn’t have a choice, Tuck. You had to get some protection out there.”
“Yeah, I’m not second guessing it, just figuring out how to compensate.” Tuck’s eyes narrowed as his formidable mind filtered through scenarios. “They’ll expect us to come rushing in to save the day at some point. They might already have the sniper set up to pick us off. Damn.” He picked up his phone.
“Sheriff Dalton, Tucker Simon here. Any word from your men on the scene?”
Tuck put his phone on speaker so Ryan could hear. The sheriff said his man inside reported no activity, and he had just heard from three other men who were only five minutes out from the ranch. He also said one of his men had spotted a black Chevy Suburban with North Carolina plates the previous day, parked at a motel in an adjoining county, about an hour’s drive from Barlow. With that knowledge in hand, the sheriff was in a much more cooperative mood. He had already put out a ‘be on the lookout’ for the vehicle, and was working on calling in even more men.
“I appreciate that, Sheriff,” Tuck said. “Advise your men to take up covered positions, and to get to them quickly when they exit their vehicles. We believe there’s an experienced sniper in the group we’re after and I don’t want to take any chances.”
“I’ll let ‘em know. Thanks for the heads up.”
Tuck hung up and immediately called Emma. “Send me a zoomed in Google earth shot of the ranch house, with a one mile radius all around.”
“You’ll have it in a few minutes. Are you guys on the ground?”
“Yeah, on our way to catch the chopper. Do you have anything new for me?”
“No facts. But we’ve been talking here, Tuck. We’re all feeling like Jimmy has nothing to lose, so he’ll want to end this feud in a big way. We think it was his contingency plan. He gave Abe an assignment, which he was to carry out if Jimmy got caught. He probably has an obscene amount of money filtering through one of his dirty attorneys, promised to Abe and his men if they complete the job. We’re trying to get access to the financial transactions of the attorneys he’s known to associate with, but you know that can be tricky.”
“Ryan and I think he’s going to attack the house. We agree with you guys, they’re not after hostages this time.” Tuck rubbed his eyes. “The question is, when are they going to do it? We can only pray it’s not planned for sometime in the next few hours. We need time to get on site and come up with a plan of our own, and we need darkness for cover. We think it’s going to take place in daylight, given that a sniper is involved. That means either this evening in the next few hours, or tomorrow morning, probably early. If it goes down this evening, we’re in trouble.”
“We’ll keep on it here, Tuck,” Emma promised. “I’ll send you everything we find out.”
Their driver soon pulled into the parking lot of a store that carried outdoor gear. Ryan and Tuck hurried through the aisles, gathering what they needed. Although they hadn’t settled on a specific plan as of yet, both men were experienced enough to have a general idea of what needed to be done, and the equipment they needed to do it.
First, black boots, black cargo pants, long sleeved black shirts, black face paint and black knitted hats. They could only hope the rest of the evening would be uneventful, giving them the opportunity to don the black attire and do what they needed to do in the dark of night. Next it was binoculars, walkie talkies, penlights, backpacks, and sand bags added by Ryan, in case he had to set up somewhere with his own rifle.
“I’d pay a fortune for some night vision goggles,” Tuck said as they hurried to the checkout lane.
“Do you have any contacts out here who could round some up?”
“Not in time. We’ll have to make do without.”
Minutes later they were back in the car, poring over the Google earth shot Emma had sent. It was hard to work with the small screen on Tuck’s phone, but he knew the land well, and with the help of the photo he was able to give Ryan a decent idea of what they had to work with.
Tuck and Ryan reasoned that the sniper was in charge of planning the attack. Abe was an expert on computers, not ground fighting, which made it logical that he would turn that part over to his war buddy.
“He’ll give himself a big role,” Ryan said. “Snipers who go mercenary are usually the ones who can’t give it up, they live for adrenalin and accolades. Even if it makes more sense to attack the house at night, Alleman will go for daylight hours so he can show everyone what he can do.”
Tuck contemplated that. “He’ll want to do something to scare everyone out of the house so he can pick them off. But he can’t cover more than two sides of the house from a set position, so whatever they’re planning will be concentrated on a section of the house that leaves only one escape route. One that will take them into Alleman’s sights.”
Ryan tapped the screen on Tuck’s phone. “My guess is he’ll set up either on this low butte, which looks to be about a third of a mile from the house, or on the roof of the stable, if it’s relatively flat. Those are the only two vantage points that are far enough away to avoid being seen and still give the height needed to make the shots.”
“But both are obvious locations,” Tuck pointed out. “Surely he knows we’ll anticipate him being there.”
“Not if he thinks we don’t know there’s a sniper on the team. He has no idea we found his phone number.”
Tuck sat back and thought about that as they entered the airfield gates. “Using a sniper makes no sense. All they need to do is blow the house. A couple of grenade launchers with incendiary rounds can send it up in flames, and if anyone makes it out, it would be a lot more effective to just have men positioned near all the doors to finish the job. A sniper leaves a lot more to chance.”
“But if you let a sniper plan the offensive, he’s going to write himself into the script,” Ryan insisted. “If he’s not going to be the one to pick off the girls, he’s going to be after the deputies guarding the house. Or us. But he will be involved, you can count on that. The only question is whether it’ll be before sundown tonight, or in the morning. My gut says morning.”
“We need your gut to be right,” Tuck said raggedly.
The SUV stopped near a helicopter with its engine already powered up. Tuck and Ryan grabbed the bags containing their recent purchases and ran toward it. The pilot had the doors on both sides open and waiting for them.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I’m Dell Penning, out of Fargo.” He shook hands quickly with the other two men as they introduced themselves.
“I’ve been told time is of the essence,” Dell said. “So go ahead and strap in and we’ll be on our way.”
Minutes later they were in the air. Tuck and Ryan put on their headsets.
“Can you both hear me?” Dell asked. When they answered in the affirmative, he pointed behind them. “There’s a backpack on the floor back there, courtes
y of an FBI agent named Harrison.”
Tuck grabbed it and tugged the zipper open, a smile curving his lips for the first time since receiving Maddy’s call at the café.
“Do you believe in miracles?” he asked, pulling out two sets of night vision goggles as well as a comms unit that had ear pieces and mics, a vast improvement over the walkie talkies they had purchased.
Ryan grinned. “You’ve got some real good people watching your back,” he said.
“The best,” Tuck agreed, mentally thanking Tim for contacting the Fargo office. “These will be game changers if we can get through the evening.”
The pilot thoughtfully switched off of their channel so they could talk privately.
Tuck rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension in his body.
“So what’s it going to be, Tuck? Which scenario do we go with?” Ryan asked.
Tuck rubbed the back of his neck. “There are too many variables. We don’t know enough about Alleman to know whether he’ll make himself central, or take a more logical, blow everything up approach. We can’t narrow things down enough for me to feel comfortable trying to anticipate one, or even two scenarios. If we guess wrong, people are going to get hurt.”
He met Ryan’s gaze, his blue eyes hard and calculating. “We can’t anticipate, but I’m sure as hell not going to sit back and wait to see what they do and then be forced to play catch up.”
Ryan raised his brows. “So what’s the alternative?”
“We’re going to bank on you being right about the sniper planning a morning attack,” Tuck said coldly. “And tonight we go on the offensive. We stop them before they start.”
Ryan nodded, showing no hesitation. “Sounds good, boss. I’m down for that.”
Chapter 36
Maddy and Libby eagerly tucked into the supply of pretzels, cookies, apples, and bananas the deputy brought them from the kitchen. He assured them that more men had arrived, and everything was still quiet outside.
Maddy kept her phone right beside her, hoping Tuck would contact her soon. They were approaching the five hour mark he had given and she prayed his time estimate would be prove to be accurate. She knew everything would be okay once he got there, and she longed to feel his strength and hear him tell her it would all be over soon. She hoped and prayed that the local law enforcement officers would be able to locate Abe and take him down on their own, so that all Tuck would have to do was wrap things up and get Abe back to North Carolina to be prosecuted.
When her phone chimed with a text message, she grabbed at it, relieved beyond belief to see Tuck’s name on the screen.
Call me using the house phone.
“He wants me to call from this phone,” Maddy said as she hurried over to Virgil’s desk. She dialed Tuck’s number with shaking fingers.
“Hey, Maddy.”
She closed her eyes at the beautiful sound of his voice.
“Hi, Tuck. Are you here?”
“We’re close, baby. Go ahead and put me on speaker. I need to talk to both of you.”
Maddy hit the speaker button and Libby leaned in close.
“Hey, big brother. You coming to save the maidens in distress?”
“That’s the plan, Lib. I wanted to use the land line in case Abe is set up somewhere with a good internet connection. I don’t want to risk him tapping into Maddy’s phone.”
“Are you sure he’s here?” Maddy asked.
“He’s here. And he has help, we think at least five other men.”
Maddy and Libby exchanged horrified looks but stayed calm.
“I need you two to listen carefully. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything, okay? You need to know what we’re up against.”
“We can handle it, Tuck,” Libby assured him. “Especially now that you’re here.”
“I can’t come to you yet,” Tuck said, and Maddy’s stomach dropped. That could only mean he was going to be putting himself in danger in an effort to protect them.
The girls listened as Tuck explained what he believed was going to happen. He told them that the next few hours were key, and if there was no attack by nightfall, he was pretty sure they’d be okay until morning. He said he expected the attack to be focused on destroying the house, most likely by fire, in an effort meant to either trap them inside or drive them outside where Abe’s men would be waiting.
Maddy closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths. When Tuck said he wasn’t going to sugarcoat things, he’d meant it. She appreciated his honesty, but it was hard not to succumb to the terror his words caused. Being trapped in a burning house, forced to choose between death by flames or bullets—it was unimaginable.
Tuck told them that if the house was attacked, they were to try to identify an escape route, but stay inside for as long as possible, to give him and the deputies a chance to eliminate the men who would be trying to gain position outside. If they were forced outside, their best chance was to run for cover, splitting up so as to make more than one target.
“What about you, Tuck?” Maddy asked. “You can’t take on six men by yourself.”
“I have help.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“Tuck—”
“Trust me, Maddy, okay? Just be alert these next few hours, and fill the deputy in on what I told you. We’re going to try to get word to the guys guarding the perimeter, but we don’t want to use their radios because it’s too easy for Abe to monitor those.”
“I’ll go tell the deputy now,” Libby said.
“Stay away from windows,” Tuck reminded her.
Maddy picked up the phone as Libby left the room.
“Tuck, please don’t take too many chances. I don’t want you to put our safety above yours, but I know you will and I hate it.”
“I’ll come for you, Maddy. Believe that. If they attack this evening, just do what I said and try to buy me some time.”
“I’ll be praying for you nonstop. Please, please be careful.”
“I will. We’ll get through this. Abe is the last piece, the last loose end. When this is wrapped up, we’ll be together. No more separations, okay?”
“I can’t wait.” Maddy held the phone so tight her fingers were white. “I’d give anything to be with you right now, Tuck.”
“Soon, baby,” he said softly. “Hang tight for me.”
And then he hung up.
After one more phone call to the sheriff, to let him know they were going to try to thwart a morning attack and ask him to be on alert in case they needed backup, Tucker was ready to get moving. The helicopter dropped them off several miles from the ranch, so as to not alert Abe and his men of their arrival. He and Ryan changed into their all black clothes, blacked their faces, and stowed their gear in their backpacks. Ryan left his rifle in the care of the pilot, relieved that it wasn’t likely to be needed this trip.
Their helicopter pilot was going to stay where he had put down, and if things went bad at the house yet this evening, he could pick Tuck and Ryan up and have them on site in minutes. It was the best way the men could come up with to both be in position to take down the enemy after dark, yet also be available to help Maddy and Libby if the worst case came to pass.
It was still a couple of hours until dusk, giving the two men plenty of time to reach their starting point by the time full dark fell. Tuck was beyond grateful for the heavy cloud cover, which looked like it would stick around all night, helping to mask their movements.
They knew Abe’s men were camped out somewhere on the ranch, and they had already identified the most likely areas. Sneaking a vehicle onto the ranch and then concealing it left only a few options. Tuck had a strong feeling that he knew exactly where they were, but it would be foolish to head directly there based solely on that feeling. They would split up and criss cross their target area, and eventually Tuck would reach the place where he expected to find them. The place he hated to see them defile.
He expected to find them either on top of the big
butte that held so many memories for him and Libby, or hiding in the scrub trees that grew at its base on the south side.
An hour later, the men had gone as far as they dared until full dark. They had to assume Alleman would have men posted as lookouts, and they would have binoculars, just as Tuck and Ryan did.
Tuck willed the sun to hit the horizon. As the minutes passed, his hopes rose that they would be given the night to take out their adversaries, and save the two women who meant the world to him.
“I’m eager to meet her,” Ryan said, wiggling his long body to get more comfortable in the deep grass as they waited.
Tuck looked at him and arched a brow. “Who?”
Ryan gave a slow smile. “The girl who has you by the balls.”
Tuck’s teeth glinted momentarily, startlingly white in his painted face. “I’m not even gonna try to deny it.”
“I have a feeling many have tried. Is she the first one to succeed?”
“No one else even came close.”
“She must be quite a woman.”
“You’ll understand when you meet her,” Tuck said, bringing the binoculars to his eyes and sweeping the area again.
“I look forward to it.” Ryan squinted up at the sky. “I think we’re going to be spared an evening showdown. Once that sun hits the horizon it’s going to get dark quick.”
“Yeah. Now we just have to hope we’re right about them not striking during the night.”
“I’m sticking with my theory that the sniper is cocky. He wants a piece of this.”
Shadows lengthened, then disappeared. They waited another fifteen minutes, then moved out.
The girls and Deputy McCoy exchanged smiles as the longed for darkness fell. They were sitting together in a corner of the kitchen, the room with the smallest windows and two outside doors on separate walls. They’d all agreed it would offer the most protection, and the best chance of escape if fiery things busted through the windows. They’d also found three fire extinguishers, which they kept nearby along with their weapons. None of them knew what to expect, but if whatever came in didn’t explode and catch things on fire immediately, maybe they could put it out and delay the need to exit.
