Finger on the Trigger

by Delores Fossen

  Too late.

  One look at him, and she knew he was feeling things that he also shouldn’t be feeling.

  “Right,” Thea mumbled. Her mouth quivered as if she might smile, but Griff’s glare stopped that. “Don’t forget about the pizza,” she added, and headed to the kitchen.

  “Feed Scout,” Griff called out to her. “And make sure he has plenty of water.”

  Thea mumbled that she would and disappeared from sight. Griff’s house wasn’t huge, but there was a wall separating the kitchen from the foyer.

  “You should eat something,” Griff pointed out. Maybe because he didn’t want to talk about these feelings simmering between them.

  Rachel didn’t want to talk about it, either, and thankfully, she didn’t have to because her phone rang, and she saw her dad’s name on the screen. She needed to talk to him, to tell him about Buddy being in Silver Creek, but Rachel dreaded this conversation. Everything she’d say would no doubt seem like an accusation.

  And that’s exactly what it might be.

  She answered the call, put it on speaker and immediately heard her father’s voice. “Rachel, I’m sorry. I just now saw the missed call. I guess I fell asleep.”

  That could be an effect of the drug he’d been given, and she hoped his head was clearer now than it had been during their previous conversation.

  “Dad, when Buddy texted you, did he say anything about going to Silver Creek?” she asked.

  “No.” He didn’t hesitate. “I kept the text, and he wanted to meet me in San Antonio. Did he go to Silver Creek?”

  “Yes, he was at the inn where I was staying, and he told the owner’s son that you’d hired him to find me.”

  Her father cursed, something he rarely did when she was around to hear it. “No way in hell would I have hired Buddy to do something like that. He’s a good CI mainly because he’s a druggie rat who can’t keep a secret and always needs money. But I wouldn’t have let him get anywhere near you.”

  Rachel believed him, and that meant someone else had sent Buddy there.

  “Buddy didn’t answer when I tried to call him,” Griff said. “Any idea where I can find him?”

  “His favorite bar is a seedy place called the Moonlight on the south side of San Antonio. But if you go there, don’t take Rachel. It’s not a safe place.”

  It tightened her stomach to hear her father being so protective of her when she was still furious with him. But she couldn’t expect him to stop being a father simply because he’d screwed up.

  “By any chance do you remember seeing Brad anytime in the past twenty-four hours?” Griff asked.

  “Brad Gandy? Why? Does he have something to do with this?”

  Rachel found it interesting that her father didn’t jump to deny that Brad was involved.

  “He was in Silver Creek, too, and in the same area as Buddy,” Griff explained. “That means they were both there when the attack happened.”

  It sounded as if her father bit off more profanity before it could make its way out of his mouth. “How soon are you bringing in Brad?”

  “As soon as he gets back from a business trip,” Griff assured him. “By any chance do you remember anything else that happened last night?”

  “No. I’m sorry about that.”

  So was Rachel, because if her father could remember who’d given him that drug, then they’d have the ringleader. Well, maybe. It was possible the ringleader had used another patsy so they wouldn’t be able to ID him or her.

  “I’ll let you know if Brad or Buddy gives us anything,” Griff added to her father.

  “Good. Make sure Rachel gets some rest.”

  She didn’t respond to that, but did give her father a quick “goodbye” before she ended the call. She looked up at Griff as she put her phone back in her pocket. “The person behind this could consider my father a loose end. One that needs to be eliminated.”

  “Yeah. That’s why Egan has a deputy at the ranch, and the hands have been told to be on the lookout for anyone suspicious.”

  That was good, but it made her feel a pang of guilt. If she’d gone to the ranch with Griff, her father would have been better protected, and Egan wouldn’t have needed two deputies standing guard, one at each house. It definitely had her rethinking her pressing Griff to bring her here.

  “It’ll all work out,” Griff said, and he brushed a kiss on her forehead. The kind of kiss he’d given her in the break room at the sheriff’s office. Coming from any other man, it wouldn’t have been as hot as it was.

  He looked down at her, their gazes connecting, and mercy, that sent the heat swirling again. For a moment she thought he might kiss her again. A real kiss this time. But he took hold of her arm to get her moving.

  “You really should eat something,” he said.

  She silently cursed the disappointment she felt. Silently cursed what else she did, too. Rachel stopped and pulled him to her. She had to go on her tiptoes to kiss him, but she managed it. In fact, she managed it even better when Griff leaned down. He hooked his hand around her waist, dragging her even closer, and he deepened the kiss.

  Just like that, things went from hot to scalding, and Rachel knew this had been a huge mistake. It would be hard to put up those barriers that she’d just knocked down.

  Griff seemed to have some common sense left, though, because he let go of her and took a step back. His breathing was too fast. So was hers. In fact, hers was coming out in gusts, and she was light-headed. Obviously, she didn’t think straight whenever she was around him.

  “We can go two ways with this,” Griff said. “We can forget it happened or talk about it.”

  She was leaning toward forgetting. If that was even possible. Still, she should try. But Rachel didn’t get a chance to give him her answer because she heard the dog bark. From the sound of it, Scout was in the backyard, and that wasn’t an ordinary bark. The dog sounded frantic, as if he’d spotted something that shouldn’t be near the house.

  “He barks at deer sometimes,” Griff said, but he drew his gun. “Thea, turn off the lights,” he called out to his sister, and the rooms were close enough for Rachel to see that Thea did that.

  Griff did the same to the foyer light and moved Rachel to the corner of the living room, putting himself in front of her. It put him in a good position to look out the front window, but the only view she had was of his back. Once again, Griff was protecting her.

  Scout continued to bark, and Rachel didn’t think it was her imagination that the dog was becoming even more agitated.

  “Do you see anyone?” Thea asked. She was obviously still in the kitchen. Like Griff, she was probably at the window and had her gun drawn.

  “No,” Griff answered. “And no vehicles came up the road, because we would have heard them.”

  That didn’t mean someone hadn’t parked nearby, though, and gotten to his ranch on foot.

  “Wait,” Thea said a moment later. “I think someone’s by your barn.”

  That put Rachel’s heart right in her throat, and she was about to ask Griff for his backup weapon. But there wasn’t time for her to do that.

  Because a shot slammed into the house.

  * * *

  GRIFF DIDN’T TAKE the time to curse himself for bringing Rachel to his place, even though that bullet confirmed that he’d made a huge mistake and had put her life at risk again.

  Another shot came, and this one blasted through the front window. It meant the gunman was on the move, since the second one was a good ten feet from the first one that’d been fired.

  “Get down,” Griff told Rachel, though it wouldn’t be nearly enough to keep her safe. If the shooter was using cop-killer bullets, then the shots could easily get through the wall to her.

  Griff tried to hear if there was any movement outside the house. He didn’t want this guy trying to break i
n. But he didn’t hear anything.

  Not even Scout barking.

  Hell, he hoped that didn’t mean their attacker had done something to his dog. Since Scout wasn’t much of a guard dog, he might not have actually attacked the gunman, but would have continued to bark to alert Griff that something wasn’t right.

  Since there could be more than one gunman out there, Griff fired off a quick text to Egan. It would take him at least fifteen minutes to get to the house—an eternity when someone was trying to kill you.

  The gunman fired three more shots, one after another, and each one caused his heart to race even more. They were almost certainly doing the same thing to Rachel. Maybe even something worse, and he hoped like the devil that this didn’t trigger another seizure, when she hadn’t even had time to recover from the last one.

  Griff made sure Rachel was as far down as she could get before he moved away from her and went back to the front window. Not directly in front of it, but rather to the side. He glanced out, but before he could try to spot the gunman, another shot slammed into the window right next to him.

  The glass spewed across the room, probably some of it flying in Rachel’s direction. He made a quick check on her, but couldn’t tell if she’d been cut.

  Another shot took out more of the glass, and Griff knew he had to do something to stop this. He couldn’t just stand there and let this jerk continue to rip the house apart. Griff readied his gun, leaned out from cover and fired in the direction of the shooter. He had no idea if he’d hit the guy, but at least it stopped the shots, if only temporarily.

  He heard the footsteps a split second before his sister said, “It’s me.” Thea was crouched down as she made her way from the kitchen to the living room. “Do you have eyes on him?” she asked.

  “No.”

  She scrambled to the other side of the window and looked out, just as the gunman sent more bullets their way. Part of Griff wanted to tell his sister to get down. He wanted to protect her, too. But Thea was a cop, and not only would she not appreciate him playing big brother, Griff also needed her as backup.

  “If you give me a gun, I can help,” Rachel said.

  Her voice was shaking. She probably was shaking, too, but he knew her offer was genuine. However, he would pass on her helping. She was already in a dangerous enough position without putting her closer to the line of fire.

  “Scout is in the kitchen,” Thea said, while she took another quick glimpse out the window. “I think the gunshots scared him, because he came in through the doggy door and ran into the pantry.”

  Good. Maybe he’d stay there, so that would be one less thing for Griff to worry about.

  Especially since he had plenty to be concerned about right now.

  The proof of that was more shots coming through the window. These next bullets took out what was left of the glass. In a way that was good, since they couldn’t be hit with any other flying pieces, but the reflection off the glass had probably made it a little harder for the gunman to see them.

  “If we fire at him together, it might cause him to back off,” Griff said to Thea.

  His sister didn’t hesitate. She nodded and waited for his cue. Griff didn’t have to warn her to make this fast. Thea would. And maybe, just maybe, it would work.

  “Now,” Griff said.

  Thea and he leaned out together and started shooting. Griff emptied the clip and ducked back behind cover to reload. Thea did the same, and their joint gunfire worked. For a few seconds, anyway. But the gunman just started shooting again, and Griff could see the bullets tearing through the wall right next to where Rachel was crouching.

  He cursed, hurried to her and moved her behind the sofa. It was still lousy cover, which meant he couldn’t wait for Egan. He had to do something now.

  “Wait here with Rachel,” he told his sister, and he saw the flash of concern in Thea’s eyes.

  However, it was much more than just a flash in Rachel’s. She took hold of his arm when he started to move away from her. “You can’t be thinking about going out there.”

  That’s exactly what he was thinking. “I’ll go out back and duck behind the shrubs on the side of the house. I might be able to spot this guy and take him out.”

  Rachel shook her head. “And he might be able to spot you first.”

  That was true, but anything they did right now was a risk, including staying put.

  He dropped a quick kiss on her mouth, knowing it wouldn’t stop her protest or reassure her. Still, he couldn’t take the time to try to make this better. The only thing that would help was to stop the guy from shooting.

  Thea stayed by the window, but the shots forced her to drop down to the floor. Griff didn’t tell her to be careful, but he hoped that she would be, and he raced out of the room to the kitchen. He had to take a moment to disarm the security system, since he didn’t want it going off. The blare of the alarm would mask any sounds if the shooter tried to get into the house, and he definitely wanted to be able to hear something like that.

  The shots continued as Griff went onto the back porch. He paused only long enough to look around and make sure no one was lurking out there, ready to gun him down. He didn’t see anyone, so he hurried to the side of the porch and jumped down into the yard. Thankfully, there was a line of mountain laurels that would conceal him enough.

  Well, hopefully they would.

  He used the shrubs as cover as he made his way to the front of the house, then peered around the corner to the area across from his driveway. There were plenty of trees there, which made it an ideal place for a gunman to hide.

  Still, there was something troubling about this attack. Thea had said she’d seen someone near the barn, and the shooter wasn’t anywhere near there. Did that mean he’d run from the barn to the trees? If so, that would have been a risky move, since Thea could have spotted him. Just in case there was someone still near the barn, Griff continued to glance over his shoulder while he pinpointed the shooter’s location.

  Finally, he saw the gunman. Or rather, the rifle the guy was using. Griff took aim.

  And fired.

  He sent three bullets right at him, and just like that, the shots stopped. Maybe that meant he’d killed him, or the guy could just be on the run. Either way, at least he was no longer firing into the house.

  Griff paused, listening, but kept his gun ready in case he had to fire again. He waited and watched for any signs of movement in those trees.

  Nothing.

  But he did hear a sound behind him, and pivoted in that direction, bracing himself for an incoming shot.

  But that didn’t happen.

  “Don’t shoot,” someone said. Whoever it was had slurred his words and sounded drunk. “I’m comin’ out now. And I got my hands in the air.”

  The man staggered out from the barn, and just as he’d said, he did have his hands raised.

  It was Marlon.

  Chapter Nine

  Rachel forced herself to drink the tea that Ruby had fixed for her, but it tasted like dust. Probably because her stomach was still twisted in knots. In the past two days, someone had tried twice to murder her, and both times Griff had gotten caught up in the attack. This last time, so had his sister.

  They could have all been killed the night before at Griff’s house. And there was no guarantee someone might not try again. Because the person who’d shot at them with that rifle had managed to escape.

  That certainly didn’t help her stomach.

  Neither did being back at the ranch with her father upstairs. But they hadn’t exactly had a lot of options as to where they could stay.

  Griff’s house had been shot up, and there’d been no time to put together a safe house. So it had been either the ranch or sleeping at the sheriff’s office. Egan had nixed the last idea because that was where they’d taken Marlon for questioning—after a trip t
o the hospital. The man had been either too high or too drunk to answer any questions, but Egan planned on doing that as soon as the doctor released him.

  Truth was, Rachel hadn’t especially wanted to be near Marlon, either. However, she had wanted answers from the man, and so far Marlon was plenty short on those. He hadn’t managed to tell Griff or Egan a single thing of importance after he’d turned up by Griff’s barn.

  She heard footsteps coming toward the dining room, set down her teacup and automatically got to her feet. To put it mildly, she was on edge, and part of her expected the gunman to come walking in. But it was Griff. Judging from his creased forehead, he’d either gotten more bad news or else was worried about her. She probably looked as wound-up as she felt.

  “Your dad seems better this morning,” Griff said in greeting. “Still no memory of what happened, though.”

  That was too bad, but at least Griff and he were talking. Maybe Griff could spur him to recall something that would help them, especially since Marlon wasn’t being any help.

  “How’s Scout?” she asked. It certainly wasn’t the most pressing question she wanted an answer to, but it was important, since the dog had also been shaken up from the shooting.

  “He’s fine. I just got a text from Ian to let me know that Scout was having fun playing with his kids.”

  Deputy Ian Mead had taken the dog to his place for a day or two. Ian had a house in town with a big yard, and Griff had figured that would be a better place for him than the ranch, what with all the security they had in place. Plus, the hands still had to manage the daily operation of the ranch, so it was better not to put Scout in the middle of that.

  “Marlon had the same drug in his system as your dad did,” Griff continued a moment later. “And like your dad, he says he doesn’t remember anything about the attack. He claims he doesn’t even know how he got to my house.”

  Rachel wasn’t sure she believed that. “He could have followed us from the sheriff’s office, parked up the road and walked to your barn.”