One of the last things Lucas wanted to do was surrender his gun. But he didn’t want to risk Colleen and Hailey being shot, either. So he tried to reason with this guy.
“Whatever you’re getting paid, I’ll double it,” Lucas offered. “I can make the call now and have the funds transferred to your bank.”
“That sounds real nice.” The sarcasm dripped from his voice. “But doing something like that would get me killed. Besides, I’m getting paid pretty good for this. Now, throw out that gun.”
Lucas felt something against his back. Hailey’s hand. And it wasn’t empty. She had hold of his backup weapon, no doubt a reminder that he could use that. But the problem was that once Lucas didn’t have a visible weapon, this thug might change his mind about shooting.
And yes, the bullet could go through him and kill Hailey.
Even if it didn’t, it could kill him, and then this thug would be able to do whatever he wanted with Colleen and Hailey.
“Time’s up,” the guy said without warning.
The shot blasted through the air.
Followed by Colleen’s piercing scream.
Lucas felt as if someone had slugged him, and he had to fight his instincts to move away from Hailey and leave her unprotected. But it also sickened him to hear Colleen make sharp sounds of pain.
And to see the blood.
“Oh, God,” Hailey said, and she would have come over Lucas if the thug hadn’t pointed his weapon right at her. She stopped, freezing, but she kept repeating, “Oh, God.”
“I only shot her in the arm,” the man said as if that was some huge concession. Which, in a way, it was. Because he could have just as easily killed her.
The blood spread quickly across Colleen’s arm, and she looked at Lucas, silently begging him to help her. He’d wanted proof that Colleen was innocent in all of this, and the gunshot was it. He seriously doubted that she would have agreed to a henchman shooting her as part of the deal.
In the distance, Lucas heard another blast from the launcher. More smoke bombs, no doubt.
“No more warnings,” the gunman said to Lucas. “Toss out the gun or I shoot her again. This time I might not be so careful where I aim.”
He wasn’t bluffing, so Lucas had no choice but to throw his gun out of the open truck door. Now he only hoped he could get to his backup weapon when he needed it. And he would need it. He was certain of that.
“Now what?” Lucas snapped.
“We wait.” The guy glanced at the back of the house, where the smoke was still the thickest. He also peeled off his gas mask. Probably because the rain had rid them of the tear gas. Lucas’s eyes were still burning, but the sensation wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been.
Hailey still had his phone, and Lucas heard it buzz. Mason or Grayson was probably calling. But the thug shook his head. “Let that go to voice mail.”
Hailey did, and she eased the backup weapon to Lucas’s side. Ideally the gunman didn’t see what was going on, but he had his attention nailed to them.
“Help me,” Colleen said. She was shaking now. Maybe going into shock. And she needed medical attention. However, the only way she was going to get that was for Lucas to get rid of his thug so they could call for an ambulance.
“When I move, get down,” Lucas whispered to Hailey.
He felt the muscles in her body tense. Clearly, she didn’t like the idea of him moving. Probably because she knew what the outcome could be. But thankfully Hailey didn’t argue with him.
Lucas got ready to launch himself at the gunman. Maybe he’d be able to knock both him and his gun to the ground. Of course, Colleen would be in the middle, and Lucas prayed she didn’t get hurt any worse than she already was, but if he didn’t do something fast, they’d all be dead.
His phone buzzed again, distracting him for a moment. Something bad was probably going on. Maybe that bad thing didn’t include Camden, but even if it did, Lucas had to put it out of his mind and try to finish this.
He didn’t get far.
Lucas hadn’t even started moving when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Someone was coming toward the back of the truck. Maybe one of his brothers or a Ryland cousin.
But it wasn’t.
The gunman smiled, and while he still had hold of Colleen, he moved away from the truck door, making room for their visitor.
“Told you it wouldn’t be long,” the gunman taunted. “The boss is here.”
* * *
LUCAS SHIFTED HIS body so that it was hard for Hailey to see. He did that so he could reach the gun she was trying to give him, but it also meant she didn’t know who had just arrived. She had no trouble recognizing his voice, though.
“Finally,” he said.
Eric.
She hadn’t known which of their suspects would be coming at them through the smoke, but Eric certainly wasn’t a surprise. But was he working with Minton? Or had he come up with this all on his own?
Whatever this was.
“Can we leave now?” the thug asked Eric.
Eric shook his head. “Soon, though. I’m getting another vehicle up here since your idiot comrades shot out the radiator of Lucas’s truck. Not very smart, and they’ll pay for that.”
So Eric was planning on using it to escape. But she doubted that he and his hired gum would be leaving alone. No.
Eric would try to take Colleen and her with him, and that meant Lucas would try to stop it. He could be hurt or killed in the process.
Hailey put aside the laptop so her hands would be free in case things were about to get worse than they already were. Lucas took the gun, but there was no way he could lift it without causing Eric and the thug to shoot first. Both had their weapons aimed at Hailey and him.
“You bastard,” Colleen spat out. “You took my daughter, and now you had your hired gun shoot me. And why? I erased all those files. I did everything you told me to do.”
“You knew it was Eric?” Lucas asked, and he didn’t sound pleased that Colleen might have withheld that from them.
Colleen shook her head. “No. But I suspected it. He knew Preston had left me money, and taking my baby was the only way to get it back.”
Eric lifted his shoulder. “You didn’t deserve a penny of DeSalvo money just because you slept with my father.”
“I had his child!” Colleen practically shouted, but the outburst combined with the blood loss must have drained her, because she sagged against the gunman holding her. He shoved her back up, jamming the gun against her head again.
“You think that matters to me?” Eric didn’t wait for her to answer. “Because it doesn’t.”
Hailey saw the anger rise on Eric’s face and knew she couldn’t let his short fuse and horrible temper come into play here. “Why did you do all of this?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I don’t want to die in jail like my father. You have files and information that could put me behind bars.”
True, but it wasn’t for anything serious.
“You made the deal with the DA,” Lucas reminded him.
“It included only the recordings from my father’s office.” He glanced around, no doubt looking for the vehicle that was coming for them.
Lucas’s phone buzzed again. The third time someone had tried to call them in the past couple of minutes. It was no doubt important. Maybe even about Camden. But Hailey didn’t answer it.
“When the FBI, CSIs or some other agency with initials analyzes the voice on those tapes, they might be able to identify Melvin here.” He tipped his head to the gunman. “Melvin has worked for me for years. He has a record, and it wouldn’t take much to connect him to me if they were able to match his voice.”
“There was no dirty agent,” Lucas concluded. “But you let your father believe there was.”
“You’d be surprised what I learned from the old man when he thought he was talking to an actual agent. I made lots of money on deals where my father gave the fake guy some insider information. Of course, I had to share some of that cash with Daddy to make him think he was running things.”
Yes, but Preston wouldn’t have known his own son was working behind the scenes to milk him of family funds. It was all so senseless since Eric would have inherited most of it anyway.
At least, he would have, unless there’d been another child.
Oh, mercy.
“What are you going to do with your half sister?” Hailey blurted out.
That put some new alarm in Colleen’s face. Probably because she’d pieced it together, as well. Eric wouldn’t want any competition for the DeSalvo estate, and it was possible that the baby—and therefore Colleen—would have a claim.
“Yes,” Eric said, looking at Hailey. He’d obviously seen the realization in her eyes. “And of course, you have to go, too. You know too much. Plus, I’m betting you have some dirt on me squirreled away.”
Hailey was about to say that she didn’t have anything else now that Colleen had deleted the files. But she changed her mind and went with something that might save them.
“If anything happens to me, the files I have will be sent to every news agency in the state,” she lied.
Eric laughed, but the laughter stopped just as quickly as it’d started. “Where are the files?” he snapped. His temper was definitely showing again.
“I’m not telling you. Not until you get Colleen an ambulance and you and your hired killers are off Ryland land.”
Eric’s mouth tightened. “Nice try. But you’re all dying. Including him.” His glare slashed to Lucas. “Thanks to Hailey including you in this, she’s signed your death warrant.”
“Hailey didn’t involve me,” Lucas said, his voice low and dangerous. “You involved me when you tried to kill her and put my son in danger. How the hell do you possibly think you’re going to get away with this?”
“Easy. I plan on pinning all of this on Minton. He’s an idiot. And soon he’ll be dead like the rest of you.”
Sweet heaven. If Minton was anywhere near the baby, then she could be hurt, too. Or worse.
Hailey heard the sound of a car approaching from the back of the house. A moment later she saw the black SUV, the one that had brought in the gunmen. Had no doubt brought Eric, too.
“All of you will come with me,” Eric insisted. “And that way I’ll have some leverage to make sure Hailey gives me everything that she possibly has on me.”
By leverage he meant they would become his hostages.
Eric would no doubt torture Lucas and Colleen to get Hailey to give him something she didn’t have. Once he figured that out, he would indeed kill all of them. Probably Minton, too.
“Let’s move,” Eric said, and he used his gun to motion toward the approaching SUV.
Hailey knew that time was up. They had to do something now even though Lucas didn’t have a clean shot. Eric was staying behind Colleen and his hired gun.
And Lucas did something, all right.
He sprang from the seat, barreling out of the truck, and he crashed into Colleen, Eric and the gunman.
They all went to the ground.
But the only sound Hailey heard was the shot that one of them fired.
* * *
THE SHOT WAS DEAFENING, but Lucas prayed that it hadn’t hit Hailey, Colleen or him. It was hard to tell because the impact of slamming into the ground had knocked the breath out of him, and the pain spiked through him when his jaw collided with the hired gun’s Glock.
Lucas hadn’t wanted things to play out this way, but Eric hadn’t given him much of a choice. If they’d gotten into that SUV with him and his hired killers, Colleen, Hailey and he would have soon been dead.
Colleen screamed when they fell, but Lucas still didn’t know if she’d been shot again. That’s because the fight started almost immediately. The thug slammed his gun against Lucas’s head so hard that it probably gave him a concussion.
That didn’t stop Lucas from fighting, though. The stakes were too high for him to lose. He still had hold of his gun, but it was too risky to get a shot off now. He had to get Colleen out of the way first, and that wouldn’t be easy since she was trapped between Eric and him.
Eric spewed out a string of profanity, and for a guy who didn’t work with his hands, he was fighting hard. He was also trying to shoot Lucas. Eric brought up his gun, but Lucas managed to knock it away in the nick of time.
Eric’s shot blasted into the ground right next to Lucas.
Hailey yelled out something. Something that Lucas didn’t catch, but he hoped she would stay back.
She didn’t.
He saw her out of the corner of his eye. She had gotten out of the truck and had picked up his gun. The one he’d thrown out of the truck. She was trying to take aim, but there was no way she’d have a clean shot.
But Eric did.
The goon was punching Lucas, but he still managed to see Eric lift his gun again. And this time he aimed it at Hailey.
“Get down!” Lucas shouted to her.
He wasn’t sure if she did—not in time, anyway—before Eric pulled the trigger again. Lucas didn’t look to see where the shot had gone. Instead he shifted his weight, shoving Colleen out of the way so that he could pin down Eric.
Melvin was obviously looking out for his boss, because he walloped Lucas in the head again. More than anything, Lucas wanted to shoot the guy, but he couldn’t let go of Eric to do that.
Someone fired, though.
Hailey.
She’d shot into the ground. Maybe to distract Eric and Melvin. If so, it worked in a bad way. Melvin looked at Hailey.
And he took aim.
That meant Lucas had to release Eric so he could dive at Melvin. Melvin still managed to pull the trigger, but Lucas was able to throw Melvin enough off balance that he didn’t shoot Hailey. But Melvin had come darn close to doing just that.
Too close.
Lucas couldn’t tell her that now because he was fighting for their lives, but later he wanted her to know that she should never take a risk like that again. Because she could have been killed. He could have lost her.
Colleen scurried away from them, and while she was holding her injured arm, she ran to Hailey. Maybe because Hailey didn’t see it coming, Colleen wrenched the gun from her hand. Colleen pointed it at the men.
“Give me back my daughter, Eric,” Colleen shouted. “Or so help me, I’ll kill you right now.”
Lucas prayed she didn’t shoot, because the way she was shaking, there was no telling who Colleen might hit. His cousins were likely nearby, and a stray shot could kill one of them. It also caused his heart to slam against his chest when he saw that Hailey was trying to get the gun back from her sister. No way did he want Hailey in a struggle—any kind of struggle—where there was a gun involved.
Since every second this went on was another second when someone could get killed, Lucas threw his own gun aside so he could latch onto Melvin’s. Of course, Eric took full advantage of that. He tried to take aim again, but Lucas stopped him by slamming his elbow into Eric’s jaw. Eric howled in pain and dropped back down to the ground.
A shot cracked through the air.
Lucas’s breath stopped, and despite being in a fistfight with Melvin, he glanced at Hailey to make sure she was all right. She wasn’t. She was seemingly frozen with both Colleen’s and her hands on the gun.
Melvin cursed, and he froze as well.
Lucas looked on the ground beside him and saw Eric. Bleeding. The shot that Colleen had fired had hit him in the stomach.
“You’re gonna pay for that!” Melvin yelled, and he tried to turn his gun
on Colleen.
Lucas didn’t let that happen. He used the new surge of adrenaline that he got to grab Melvin’s gun. Of course, Melvin didn’t just give it up. He kept trying to aim it at Colleen. But instead, Lucas turned the gun on the hired killer.
Just as Melvin pulled the trigger.
The bullet went into his chest. Since the shot was at point-blank range, Melvin didn’t even draw another breath. It killed him instantly.
Lucas didn’t waste a second on the gunman. Instead, he took the guy’s weapon and aimed it at Eric. He also kicked Eric’s gun from his hand and took aim at him in case he tried to move. He did, but it was only to clutch his stomach and his chest.
And he laughed.
“You think this is over,” Eric said, looking at Colleen and Hailey. “It’s not.”
That’s when Lucas realized that Eric wasn’t just holding his hand to his gunshot wound. He pressed something on his chest. A small box that resembled a remote control on a garage.
A split second later, Lucas heard a sound he definitely didn’t want to hear.
An explosion.
Chapter Nineteen
“No!” Colleen yelled.
Lucas didn’t yell, but he frantically looked around to see if he could find the source of the explosion. It hadn’t come from the area where the tear gas had been launched. No. This was further away. Just up the road from the ranch.
In the same area where Grayson had said he’d spotted the kidnapper’s vehicle.
Colleen must have realized that, too, because despite her injury, she turned and started to run in that direction.
“Stop her,” Lucas told Hailey. Though he hated to give an order like that since Colleen was still armed. It was obvious she was hysterical, and there was no telling what she might do.
Lucas checked first to make sure there were no weapons near Eric. He was bleeding, maybe dying, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be able to shoot them. It would be the ultimate way to get his revenge.
Hailey hooked her arm around Colleen’s waist but didn’t have a solid enough footing and her sister slung her to the ground. That meant a change of plan. Lucas scooped up one of the guns and handed it to Hailey.
Lucas Page 17
