“There is. A bomb set to go off with just a flip of a switch. And if you want that to change, then convince your sister to come out and chat with us. You come, too. In fact, I insist both of you come.”
Even though Colleen looked on the verge of a panic attack, Lucas blocked Hailey from going closer to her. If Colleen was truly innocent, then he’d owe her a huge apology, but for now his priority had to be keeping Hailey safe.
“What exactly do you want from the women?” Lucas asked the kidnapper.
“Any and all files they have about the DeSalvo family,” he answered without hesitation.
“And then what?” Hailey added.
“Then, tomorrow morning you’ll get that ransom money, and you’ll get both the women and the kid.”
Lucas seriously doubted it. Judging from the sound she made, so did Hailey. Colleen was the only one of them who was clearly eager to do this.
“Let me know if the women are coming out,” the kidnapper said. “Once they do, the shots will stop on our part. You’ll have to make sure the Rylands and the ranch hands stop, too.” And he ended the call.
“Call him back,” Colleen insisted. “Have him tell me where Hailey and I need to go to get my baby.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Lucas assured her. “Not on Hailey’s part anyway.”
But what was his next move?
He wanted to get Hailey to the main house, where she’d be safer and with Camden. However, he couldn’t just leave Colleen here, either.
“Call Mason,” Lucas told Hailey. “Let him know that Colleen is here, and I’m trying to figure out what to do with her. I also want to know if the road is clear between my house and his.”
“You don’t need to figure out what to do with me,” Colleen shrieked. “We have to get the baby.” She snapped toward Hailey. “This is all your fault, anyway. You probably have all sorts of information stashed away on Preston and Eric. Information that could send me to jail, too.”
“Are you admitting to some crimes?” Lucas immediately asked her.
“No! But Hailey always had it in for Preston. I figure Eric, too. And if she hadn’t been so hell-bent on putting them in jail, none of this would be happening.”
Maybe that was true, but in this case, being hell-bent was the right thing to do. “Preston was a criminal. He deserved to be behind bars.” And that was all the breath he was going to waste on Colleen. “Call Mason,” he repeated to Hailey.
“I really am innocent,” Colleen continued while Hailey located the number. “Darrin forced me to go to the hospital. He said it was the only way to get my baby. But he lied. And then he tried to kill me when he ran me off the road.”
If that was true, then it was another reason Lucas was glad that Darrin was out of the picture. Hailey made a sound of agreement, probably because she felt the same, and she finished making the call to Mason. She also put it on speaker.
“What’s the latest on the gunmen?” Lucas asked the moment his cousin answered.
“Pinned down, for now. But they’re not budging, and I can’t have the hands, Dade or the others go in any closer.”
So they were at a stalemate. Well, in a way. Hailey was still in danger.
“Grayson called,” Mason went on. “He spotted a vehicle just up the road from the ranch, and he’s going to do a quiet approach to see if Minton and the baby are there. One of the deputies is with him.”
“Tell the sheriff to be careful,” Colleen blurted out.
“Who the hell is that?” Mason asked.
“Colleen. I’m in my garage with Hailey and her. Colleen was hiding in here.”
Mason cursed. “And your plans?”
“Still debating that. How safe would it be for me to drive Hailey to the main house and then come back here to wait with Colleen?” That was just in case she was innocent and therefore in danger.
But Hailey was shaking her head before Lucas even finished his question to Mason. “That’s too risky for you,” she insisted.
“Hailey’s right,” Mason agreed. “When the gunmen spot your truck, I figure they’ll start shooting at it.”
Lucas wasn’t giving up just yet on this particular plan. He wanted some distance between Colleen and Hailey. Between Hailey and those shooters, too. “Maybe the hands could continue keeping them occupied?”
“They could, but why don’t you stay there for a couple more minutes. That’ll give me time to hear from Grayson. If the baby is in that vehicle, I’ll need to send him some help. Plus, I’d rather the gunmen not have any reason to get to the main house.”
No way could Lucas disagree with any of that, but he definitely didn’t like the idea of staying put, either. Maybe he tempted fate with that thought, because he heard a sound. Not one of the normal gunshots. This was more of a blast. One that he’d heard four other times before.
It was the sound of another gas canister being fired.
And this time it didn’t smash into the house. It hit the garage door, and from what he could tell, it bashed into the wooden part of the door and not the glass inserts just above it. However, that didn’t stop the gas from spewing in around the sides and bottom.
Mercy. Lucas definitely hadn’t wanted things to go this way, but they had to move. That was especially true when the next canister came crashing through the glass.
“In the truck, now,” he told Hailey and Colleen. He grabbed the keys from the wall hook.
They were already starting in that direction anyway. First Colleen. Then Hailey, who got in the middle. They were already coughing, too, and he hoped the tear gas didn’t water his eyes so much that he wouldn’t be able to see.
The moment Lucas started the engine, he hit the remote control to open the door, and once he had enough clear space to get out, he gunned the engine.
Driving right into that cloud of tear gas.
But that was just the start of their troubles. Because the gunmen started shooting at them.
* * *
HAILEY TRIED TO clear her eyes and throat so she could help Lucas get them to safety. If that was possible. The shots were coming at them so fast that it was like being trapped in a hailstorm.
The bullets tore through the windshield, and Hailey took hold of Colleen and pushed her lower on the seat. She got lower, as well, but Lucas couldn’t while driving.
Lucas cursed. “Hell, they shot into the radiator.”
No doubt to disable the vehicle. But how had they even known Lucas, Colleen and she were in the garage in the first place? Hailey hoped it was a guess on their part and they didn’t have some insider information from Colleen. Her sister could have called or sent those thugs a text when she saw them come into the garage.
“Where are we going?” Hailey managed to ask Lucas even though she was having to fight for every breath. And she was shaking from the wet and cold. She had such a tight grip on the laptop and Lucas’s phone that she was afraid they might shatter.
“Away from those shots. Away from the main house, too.”
Good. As much as she wanted to get to safety, it was too risky to go in that direction. Too risky to stay put, too, and Lucas didn’t speed toward the road but rather across the backyard and to the side of his own house. That put an instant buffer between them and the gunmen. What it didn’t do was get rid of the lingering tear gas.
Probably because the thugs sent two more canisters their way.
The gunmen were trying to flush them out, trying to force them out into the open, where they’d be easier targets.
“Watch Colleen,” Lucas said to her. A reminder that he didn’t trust her sister. Neither did she, and her alarm went up a significant notch when Colleen threw open the glove compartment.
“I need a gun,” her sister insisted.
Hailey wanted that, too, but sh
e hoped there wasn’t one for Colleen to find. There wasn’t. But Lucas took out his backup weapon, and when he handed it to Hailey, she had to shift the laptop under her arm so she could take it. Hailey put it in her pocket.
Giving her the gun earned Lucas and her a glare from Colleen, but Hailey didn’t care. She preferred not to be in a closed vehicle with one of their armed suspects.
She lifted her head enough so she could adjust and pull out the laptop. She opened it and prayed the Wi-Fi signal was strong enough outside the house.
It was.
She pulled up the security camera screens so she could help Lucas keep watch. After all, the gunmen could sneak around the front of the house and attack. Hard to see much of anything, though, with the darkness, the tear gas and the rain, but at least the rain was washing away some of the gas. That should make it easier for them to breathe and see.
Despite the nightmare going on around them, Lucas’s gaze met hers. For just a couple of seconds. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was that this had happened again.
She wanted to say a lot of things to him.
But since it wasn’t the time or the place, Hailey went back to keeping watch. Right now, that was the best thing she could do for all of them. Too bad she didn’t see something on the screens that would help Dade and the others close in on the gunmen. She switched the angle.
Nothing.
Then she switched it again, and that’s when Hailey saw the movement. With the thick rain, it was just a blur, but someone had definitely moved up behind the two gunmen.
Another man dressed all in black. This one, though, was also wearing rain gear—a coat with a hood.
Hailey wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there, but it was possible he’d come from the vehicle that had crashed through the fence. That SUV was only yards away from the other thugs.
“There’s a third gunman,” she relayed to Lucas.
And it made her wonder if there were others in the SUV. It tightened her stomach even more to think that there could be enough of them to overrun the ranch. Plus, there were the two across the road with the sniper rifles who had pinned down Josh and Sawyer.
“If any of the gunmen move,” Lucas said, “let me know.”
The words had no sooner left his mouth when the newcomer did move. He hurried behind a tree.
Coming closer to the ranch.
Closer to Lucas’s house.
More movement caught her eye, and when she adjusted the camera angle, she saw the guy aim the tear gas launcher. No, not again. But he fired. Not one but two canisters.
Except these were different.
The gas coming from them was thicker, and it was milky white.
Hailey turned the laptop so that Lucas could see it, and he cursed. “Smoke bombs.”
Hailey knew the reason for his profanity. As bad as the tear gas was—and it was bad—the smoke bombs could be worse. Because they could conceal the gunmen trying to move closer to the house.
And that’s exactly what was happening.
The smoke began to spread, and it continued when the men fired off several more.
“Keep watch as best you can,” Lucas advised her.
She would, but it was next to impossible to keep track of the men now. Maybe the rain, though, would work in their favor and quickly wash the smoke away as it was dissipating the tear gas.
A buzzing sound shot through the truck, and Hailey’s heart jumped to her throat. At first she thought it was their attackers, but it was only Lucas’s phone. With all the chaos going on, she’d forgotten that she was still holding it.
“It’s Grayson,” she relayed, looking at the phone screen. She answered it right away and put it on speaker.
“Please tell me you found my baby,” Colleen jumped to say.
“No, but I’m close enough to the car to see inside. There are two men in the front seat and an infant carrier in the back. The person I don’t see is Minton. Any idea where he is?”
Hailey quickly scanned through all the camera angles. Even with the smoke, she could see Dade and the others pinned down. She couldn’t see the gunmen, though, who’d been shooting and launching that tear gas and the smoke bombs.
But there was no sign of Minton.
“I don’t know,” Hailey told Grayson. “According to what the kidnapper showed us, he was in the car with the baby earlier.”
“Yeah, but he’s not there now, or if he is, he’s down on the floor where I can’t see him.”
“Does that mean the bomb isn’t there, either?” Colleen blurted out.
“I can’t tell. But I’m going closer as soon as I have the backup that Mason’s sending.” Grayson paused. “Do I want to know how bad things are at the ranch?”
“The gunmen haven’t gotten to the houses,” Lucas answered.
What Lucas didn’t say was—they hadn’t, not yet. But there was always the possibility that they would unless the Rylands and ranch hands figured out a way to stop them.
“I’ll call you back when I can,” Grayson said before he hung up.
Hailey hoped he could get the baby out of there. That would be one less worry on their minds. Because even if Colleen was guilty, Hailey still wanted her niece far away from this dangerous situation.
“Where’s the third gunman you saw?” Lucas asked her.
That sent Hailey’s attention back to the computer screen. As she’d done before, she panned around the camera angles, looking at the tree where she’d last spotted him. But even when the smoke cleared a little in that area, there was no sign of him now.
Sweet heaven.
Because she’d gotten so preoccupied with Grayson’s call, Hailey had lost sight of him. That could turn out to be a fatal mistake. Especially considering the gunman could be hiding in one of those smoke clouds that were drifting toward Lucas’s house.
“Any chance the third gunman could be Minton?” Lucas added.
Hailey went back through what she’d seen of the man, but she had to shake her head. “I never saw him standing fully upright, so it’s hard to know how tall he is. Plus he was wearing a hood, so I couldn’t see any part of his face. But it’s possible it’s Minton. Or Eric.”
However, it was just as likely that it was another thug who’d been hired to kill her.
“Grayson has to get to my baby,” Colleen said.
Obviously she wasn’t thinking about the third gunman. Maybe not even thinking about who was responsible for this. Her focus seemed to be solely on the baby. And she was crying.
Hailey was definitely affected by those tears, and it tore at her heart to think how much her sister could be suffering right now. She slid her hand over Colleen’s, causing her sister to flinch. At first. Then Colleen gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
“No matter what happens,” Colleen said, “I’m sorry for the way things have turned out.”
Hailey was about to ask her exactly what she meant by that. But she didn’t get a chance to say anything. That’s because the passenger door flew open, and before Hailey could even register what was going on, someone latched onto Colleen and dragged her from the truck.
That someone put a gun to Colleen’s head.
Chapter Eighteen
Lucas whipped his gun in Colleen’s direction. But it was too late. The man already had her before Lucas could do anything to stop it.
However, Lucas could do something to keep Hailey safe. He crawled over her, putting himself in front of her. He didn’t lower his weapon. He kept it aimed at the guy. He also watched Colleen’s reaction.
She called out for help, tried to get away, but the man only jammed the gun harder against her head. It seemed convincing.
Seemed.
But Lucas reminded himself that this could all be part of the ploy to get to Haile
y. A ploy he hadn’t been able to prevent because he hadn’t seen the guy sneaking up on the truck.
Behind him, he could hear Hailey’s breath gusting, and he knew she had to be scared. Lucas hoped, though, that she would continue to keep watch around them, because heaven knew how many hired guns could be coming at them.
“Let Colleen go,” Lucas demanded, though he figured this would get zero results.
And it didn’t.
The guy laughed. He was wearing a tear gas mask that covered the lower part of his face, but Lucas could see enough of him to know that this wasn’t Minton or Eric. He was likely just another hired gun.
“Sorry, can’t let her go,” the man finally said. “Got my orders, and I’m to keep this gun on her.”
“Who’s giving those orders?” Lucas snapped.
“It’s not my place to tell, but you’ll know soon enough. The boss is on the way. He should be here any minute now, and then things will get real...interesting.”
Hell. Lucas had figured as much, but it was gut-tightening to hear it spelled out for him.
“Keep an eye on the security feed,” Lucas told Hailey, but he wasn’t even sure there was enough room for her to maneuver the laptop around so she could look. There hadn’t been a lot of time when he’d moved in front of her, and she was literally jammed against him, the steering wheel and the door.
“Don’t let him kill me,” Colleen begged while she stared at Lucas. “Please. I don’t want my daughter to be an orphan.”
Neither did he, but Lucas wasn’t sure yet how to put a stop to this. Especially when the guy shifted the gun and took aim at him. Hailey must have seen that, because she came over his back, putting her head in front of his.
Lucas cursed at her, tried to get her to move back, but she fought him.
“He won’t kill me,” Hailey insisted. “Not until he’s sure I’ve given him everything I have on the DeSalvo family. But he’ll kill you.”
“The little lady’s right,” the gunman verified. “And since I can’t risk a bullet going straight through you and into her, then I have to settle for just telling you to toss out that gun.”
Lucas Page 16
