“Helen and Melanie are still whining about leaving,” Grayson went on. “If they keep annoying me, I just might let them.”
Of course, if it was one of them who’d hired the gunmen, then that person would be safe. The other could be toast.
“Any news?” Drury asked.
“Nothing on the wounded shooter or Nicole, but Gage just loaded the security footage.” Grayson tipped his head to the laptop on his desk. “Kade’s going through it, too, but it wouldn’t hurt to have another pair of eyes on it.”
Drury welcomed the task. Anything to get his mind off the flashbacks and that haunting look in Caitlyn’s eyes. She must have welcomed it, too, because she joined him at the desk. Not exactly a good idea, though.
“You don’t have to see this,” he reminded her.
She dragged in a deep breath. “I have to do something.”
He understood. Standing around with too much time to think was the worst way to deal with raw nerves. That said, he didn’t want her to watch the actual shooting. Hell, he wasn’t sure he wanted to watch that part, either.
Grayson left them, probably to go another round with Helen and Melanie, and Drury had Caitlyn sit at the desk. He stood behind her and pressed the keys to load the security footage. There were four cameras, one on each side of the building, and the screen had the feed from all four. Drury focused on the one at the back.
He fast-forwarded through the footage, not really seeing much until Lucas and Kade pulled to a stop next to the rear exit. No sign of Nicole or the gunmen, though, so he froze the frame and zoomed in on the area where he’d shot the man.
Still nothing.
It took a few more tries before he finally spotted the gunman in the tree. He was well hidden behind a thick live oak branch, and it didn’t help that his dark clothes and ski mask camouflaged him.
“I only see the one gunman,” Caitlyn said. “You?”
He was about to agree, but then Drury saw the slight movement on the camera that faced the parking lot. It covered just the edge of the park, and he finally saw the second and third gunmen come into view.
And he also saw Nicole.
She was coming from the other side. No car. She was on foot, but it was possible she’d parked a vehicle somewhere nearby. If so, the deputies would find it, and it could be processed for evidence.
Drury continued to watch as Nicole moved closer to the spot where she’d called out to them. She was staying low, looking all around her. Definitely the way a frightened person would be acting, but that didn’t mean this wasn’t all just that—an act. Especially since Nicole was clearly staying out of Lucas’s and Kade’s line of sight. In fact, so were the gunmen. That meant they must have scoped out the place beforehand and knew just where to position themselves.
Nicole ducked behind those shrubs, and Drury tried to calculate the angle of the gunmen. The guy in the tree would have definitely seen her. Probably the other two as well, but they hadn’t tried to take or shoot her. So, why wait?
Drury didn’t like the answer that came to mind, and it twisted at his gut.
Because maybe the thugs were waiting for Nicole to lure Caitlyn out of hiding.
It was less than a minute before Drury saw when he’d opened the door. There was no audio on the feed, but he could tell from their reactions as Nicole had called out for them not to shoot. Seconds later, the shots had started, and Grayson, Caitlyn and he had been pinned down.
“What is that?” Caitlyn asked, pointing to the camera feed from the right side of the building.
Drury had been so focused on the gunmen and all the shooting that he’d missed it. But he didn’t miss it now. It was just a glimpse of a man, and like the others he was dressed in black and wearing a ski mask. Skulking along just at the edge of the parking lot, he aimed something at the camera. The screen flickered, and not just a little motion, either. The man had jammed it so that the images were clouded with static.
“Why would he have done that?” Caitlyn looked up at Drury for answers.
Answers he didn’t have. It didn’t make sense to jam the camera on that side, not when the other camera was capturing the shooters and Nicole.
Drury leaned in, hoping to pick through all the static to catch sight of the man. And he did. Fragments that he had to piece together. The man was on all fours, crawling toward the back door of the sheriff’s office.
Maybe.
If he’d come at them from that angle, they wouldn’t have been able to see him. Neither would Kade or Lucas. So, why hadn’t he attacked?
“He took something from his pocket,” Caitlyn said at the exact moment that Drury caught the motion.
It was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, and it wasn’t a gun. Nor was it the same device he’d pointed at the camera. A few seconds later, Drury saw what the man did with it.
He placed it beneath the rear of the car and then scurried back to the side of the building before he stood and took off running. Not toward them. But away from the sheriff’s office.
“You think it’s a tracking device?” Caitlyn asked.
No. Something worse. “I think it’s a bomb.”
Caitlyn didn’t have much color in her face, and that didn’t help. “Stay here,” he warned her.
Drury hurried out of the office and made a beeline for the back exit just off the break room. The door was slightly ajar, and Lucas and Kade were back there with a CSI team. So was the car. It was still parked right where his brother had left it when they’d come inside after the attack.
“I think there’s an explosive device on the car,” Drury warned them.
Lucas cursed, and he quickly relayed the warning to the CSIs. All of them scrambled inside the break room and then toward the front of the building just as soon as Lucas kicked the door shut.
“I’ll call the bomb squad,” Lucas volunteered.
While his brother did that, they all got as far away from the car as they could while remaining inside.
Hell. Drury thought this was over, and it was possible that it was just beginning. If it was indeed a bomb, it could blast through the building.
Gage went out front, no doubt to make sure the area stayed clear. Both the building and the parking lot were roped off with crime scene tape, but they had to make sure gawkers weren’t too close just in case the device detonated.
Caitlyn and Drury went back into Grayson’s office and shut the door. Not only in case of a possible explosion but also because Helen was peering out of the interview room. And she was cursing them because she was in danger.
“The gunmen probably intended to set it off once we were in the car,” Caitlyn said.
He couldn’t disagree with that. But there was an even worse possibility. It could have been timed to go off once they arrived back at the ranch. If so, the baby could have been hurt. Hell, a lot of people could have been hurt.
If that was the intention, then that led him right back to Jeremy.
Jeremy was the only one of their suspects with a strong motive to get rid of his brother’s heir. Of course, Melanie might not be too thrilled about it, either. Still, it didn’t rule out Helen simply because the bomb might have been rigged to have another go at murdering Caitlyn.
And that meant they were back to square one.
Well, they were unless the wounded gunman somehow managed to stay alive. Then there was Ronnie. Once the bomb threat was taken care of, Grayson would no doubt figure out if Ronnie was blowing smoke or if he truly had something to make a deal.
All of those thoughts were racing through Drury’s mind, but he hadn’t forgotten about Caitlyn. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, it wouldn’t be long before she crashed. There was an apartment on the second floor. More of a flop room, really, but if they ended up being stuck here for a while, he might be able to co
ax her into getting some rest.
Alone.
With all the energy still zinging between them, it definitely wouldn’t be a good idea for him to get close to her right now. Caitlyn had a different notion about that, though. She stood, slipping right into his arms, and she dropped her head against his shoulder.
“Don’t you dare apologize,” Drury warned her. “Because none of this is your fault.”
“This is my fault,” she argued, and Caitlyn glanced at the now-close contact between them.
Yes, it was, but that still didn’t cause Drury to back away from her. No way could he do that because this was soothing his nerves as much as he hoped it was soothing hers. It wouldn’t last, of course. Because he knew the comfort would turn into so much more.
Even now he wanted her.
Hell, he always wanted her, and he couldn’t seem to get it through his thick skull that being with her could complicate his life in the worst possible way. Drury wasn’t sure how long they stood there, but the sound of his phone buzzing had him finally breaking the contact. He expected to see his brother’s name on the screen, but his chest tightened when he saw that the caller had blocked his identity and number.
Caitlyn saw it, too, and she sucked in her breath. “Put it on speaker,” she insisted.
Drury did, but he would have preferred to buffer any bad news, and he figured this would fall into the bad news category. He hit the answer button but waited for the caller to speak first.
“Agent Ryland?” a man said. Drury couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like the same person who’d fired shots at them. The one who’d taken Nicole at gunpoint.
“Where’s Nicole?” Drury snapped.
“Alive for now. If you want her to stay that way, then I’ll be needing some cash. Lots of it. I know she’s not Ryland kin. Hell, she’s probably not even someone you’re sure you can trust, but hear this, I will kill her if you don’t pay up.”
The caller was right about Drury not being certain that he could trust Nicole, but there was something in this guy’s voice. Something to let Drury know that he would indeed kill the surrogate.
“How much?” Drury asked.
“I’m lettin’ you off cheap. A quarter of a million. Chump change for folks like you and Caitlyn.”
“Caitlyn’s already drained her accounts paying the ransom for the baby. And why should I pay? The surrogate is nothing to me.”
It was a bluff, of course. She was something to him. Not just because she was a human being who probably needed protection, but also because Nicole could perhaps give them answers that would put this thug and his boss in jail for the rest of their miserable lives.
“You’ll pay,” the man answered, “because you’re one of the good guys. A real cowboy cop with a code of honor and junk like that. I, however, have no such code. Start scraping together the money, and I’ll call you back with instructions on how this drop will happen.”
“I want to talk to Nicole. I want to make sure she’s all right,” Drury countered.
“She’s all right,” the guy snapped.
“Then prove it,” Drury snapped right back.
The guy cursed, and a few seconds dragged by before Drury heard something he didn’t want to hear.
Nicole.
Screaming.
Chapter Fifteen
No matter how much she tried to shut it out, Caitlyn couldn’t stop Nicole’s scream from replaying in her head. Couldn’t stop the fears she had about the woman’s safety, either.
She could be dead.
They had no way of knowing because right after that scream, the kidnapper had ended the call. It was possible that he’d killed her on the spot, but Caitlyn was praying that he’d only frightened Nicole into making that bloodcurdling sound. After all, if Nicole was dead, he wouldn’t get the quarter-of-a-million-dollar ransom. Maybe that alone would be enough for him to keep her alive.
She sank down onto the bed of the small second-floor apartment where Drury had told her to wait. It was definitely bare bones, a place for the cops to rest when pulling long shifts.
Like now.
All the Silver Creek lawmen, including Drury, were scrambling to remedy this nightmare, and she figured they wouldn’t be doing much sleeping until they made an arrest.
Whenever that would be.
She finished the sandwich that Drury had brought her earlier. Not because she was hungry. She wasn’t, and her stomach was still in knots. But she didn’t want to give him anything else to worry about since he’d insisted that she eat something.
The bone-weary fatigue was catching up with her fast, so Caitlyn went to the small bathroom and splashed some water on her face. It didn’t help, but nothing would at this point. Well, nothing other than the person behind this being caught so everyone could try to get on with their normal lives.
For her, though, it’d be a new normal.
Since Grant’s death, she’d been working again as a CPA and had a full list of clients. That would have to change since she wanted to spend as much time as she could with Caroline. She was looking forward to that.
Not looking forward, though, to dealing with the fallout from Drury.
And there would be fallout. Caitlyn wasn’t sure how she was going to get over this broken heart. Nor was she sure she could stop herself from falling in love with him. Talk about stupid. But it was as if she had no choice in any of this.
She wiped away a fresh set of tears when she heard someone coming up the steps that led to the apartment. As Drury had instructed, she’d locked the door, and she didn’t jump to open it. Not until she heard Drury’s voice, that is.
“It’s me,” he said, and he relocked it as soon as she let him in. It was just a precaution, he’d assured her, but Caitlyn knew he had to be concerned about another attack. She certainly was.
“Bad news?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing from the kidnapper anyway. But the bomb’s been disarmed. No one was hurt.”
Good. There’d been enough people hurt. “Was the bomb on a timer?”
“No, it was rigged with a remote control, and there weren’t enough explosives to blow up the car, only to disable it.”
It took Caitlyn a moment to process that. “You think they wanted us stranded on the road?”
“That’s my guess. That’s why Grayson’s having all the roads and ditches checked between here and the ranch. It might take a while, though.” He paused. “That means we might have to stay here all night.”
Part of her had already figured that out, but it didn’t hurt any less.
He brushed a kiss on her cheek, got the laptop from the desk and brought it to her. He sat down on the bed next to her. “I thought maybe you’d like to see the baby. Tillie is setting up the video feed. It should be ready any second now.”
Drury had managed to make her feel as if she were melting when he kissed her, but this was a melting feeling of a different kind. Caitlyn was so touched that she kissed him even before she knew she was going to do it.
It was a good thing that the movement on the screen stopped the kiss before it had a chance to catch fire. A good thing, too, because Caitlyn soon saw her precious baby on the screen.
“She had a bottle about ten minutes ago,” Tillie said. She wasn’t on camera. Only Caroline, who was sleeping in the bassinet that one of the Ryland brothers had brought over, was.
“Has she cried much?” Caitlyn asked.
“Hardly at all. And she’s got such a sweet disposition. So calm. Unlike Mason’s boys. Those two can run you ragged pretty fast.”
“They can,” Drury agreed. “Max and Matt. When they team up with Gage’s boy, Dustin, all the nannies at Silver Creek Ranch have to join forces just to keep them out of trouble.”
Caitlyn smiled throug
h the happy tears. The conversation was something that families had all the time, and since she’d lost both her parents when she was young, she’d missed this. Missed having the support system that Gage and Mason clearly had.
Drury, too.
“Thank you for watching her,” Caitlyn said. “I know you have plenty of other things you could be doing.”
Tillie went to the side of the bassinet so that Caitlyn could see her. “She’s no trouble at all. Besides, we’re in between newborns at the ranch right now. A rarity, I can tell you, and newborns are my favorite.”
Caitlyn was thankful for that, but she still wished she was the one there taking care of her.
“Soon,” Drury whispered, slipping his hand over hers.
Caitlyn wasn’t sure if Tillie could see the gesture, but she smiled. “Lynette’s coming over to get some cuddle time and to spend the night,” she went on. “That’s Gage’s wife.”
“Yes, I remember her.” She owned the town’s newspaper. “Uh, is it safe for her to be outside, though?”
“The ranch is under heavy guard right now. Mason even hired some private security to patrol the fence. Don’t worry, Lynette will be careful. We’ll all be careful,” Tillie added.
Caroline squirmed and made a face, and Caitlyn watched as the nanny scooped her up in her arms. “I think it’s time for a diaper change. Tell you what, if you’re still stuck in town come morning, we’ll have another computer chat over her morning bottle.”
Caitlyn thanked the woman again, blew her daughter a kiss and watched until the screen went blank. Almost immediately, she felt the loss. Mercy, these were the moments she should be spending with her daughter.
“I’m sorry,” Drury said, putting the laptop aside. “I thought it might make you feel better.”
“It did.” She wiped away the tears. “Seeing her helped.”
“You’re sure about that?” He used his thumb to brush away a tear on her cheek that she’d missed.
Drury Page 14
