A Lawman's Justice (Sweetwater Ranch Book 8)

by Delores Fossen

  “Stay down,” Seth warned through his own coughs, and he slid the barn door shut before he took cover behind another tractor.

  There hadn’t been much light in the place, and closing the door certainly didn’t help. But it did keep out some of the tear gas and smoke.

  Shelby held her hand over her mouth, hoping it would help, and she blinked hard to try to clear her eyes. She still couldn’t see much of anything, but Seth apparently could. He turned, pivoting to all sides of the barn. No doubt to make sure no one was lurking inside, ready to kill them.

  “Seth?” one of the ranch hands called out.

  “In the barn,” he managed to answer before the gunshots started again. It wasn’t the barrage it’d been before, but it probably was enough bullets to keep any of the ranch hands from getting close to the barn.

  Oh, mercy.

  Did that mean the killer had set a firebomb in the barn, too? If so, he or she was planning to burn them alive. That nearly got Shelby bolting again, but then she heard the sirens in the distance. The fire department. Maybe they’d make it in time to stop whatever was about to happen.

  Or not.

  Because the next sound Shelby heard was a voice. Not Seth’s or that of any of the ranch hands, but it was a voice she recognized.

  “Come out so I can see you,” the woman said.

  It wasn’t a shout. Her voice was as calm as if discussing the weather. But Shelby figured they finally knew the identity of the killer.

  Annette.

  But was Annette working alone? Or was Whitt in on this?

  “Why are you here?” Seth asked her. “And where’s Whitt?”

  “I don’t know where he is. And as for why I’m here, isn’t it obvious?” Annette countered.

  Shelby moved enough so she could peer around the tire, but all she could see was the shadowy figure on the side of some shelves. A moment later, a light came on. Still not very bright. It was a single exposed bulb dangling from the ceiling. But it was more than enough to verify that it was indeed Annette.

  Armed.

  And she had something strapped around her chest.

  “Why don’t you spell it out for me?” Seth insisted. “Tell me why you’re here. And why you’re wearing explosives.”

  Sweet heaven.

  Both Jewell and Shelby gasped. Yes, they were explosives, all right. They looked to be sticks of dynamite lined up vertically and taped around her body.

  Clearly, Annette had lost it, and there was no telling what she would do. This was something worse than a nightmare because now the danger wasn’t to just Seth and her but to his mother and Roy, as well.

  “I’m here to kill the traitor and the witch who lured Whitt away from me,” Annette said. “Shelby shouldn’t have written that stupid blog post, questioning Jewell’s guilt. And Jewell never should have gone after Whitt in the first place. She has to die, too.”

  Shelby felt the punch of dread in her gut. Not dread for herself, but because she was the reason all of this had been happening. Of course, Jewell was no doubt feeling something similar even though she’d never gone after Shelby’s father. That was all a figment of Annette’s messed-up head.

  “If you shoot me,” Annette continued, her voice still calm, “I’ll push the button and set off the explosives. The blast won’t just kill us but anyone who’s nearby.”

  Shelby saw the device in Annette’s left hand. It looked like some kind of tube, but it probably was a trigger. One that the woman might be able to press if Seth did indeed shoot her.

  “If you wanted Shelby and my mother dead, why didn’t you just shoot us when we were on the porch?” Seth asked her.

  “I didn’t have everything in place yet. I do now.”

  “You mean your hired guns and the fires.” Seth moved to the other side of the tractor, no doubt trying to get into position to do something about this.

  But what?

  “And the body by the fence,” Annette readily admitted. “I needed to do something to lure some of the ranch hands away from the house, and I figured that body would do it. A nice little surprise for all of you.”

  Who had she killed this time? And the first answer that came to Shelby’s mind was her father. After all, Whitt had said that Annette had forced him to leave the Braddock ranch at gunpoint.

  Maybe the woman had carried that one step further.

  Of course, it could be something even sicker than that if Annette had gone after someone in Jewell’s family.

  “Don’t think your lawmen stepbrothers are coming to save you,” Annette went on. “I’ve set up a roadblock. He has orders not to kill Cooper or the others, but he’ll shoot out the engines the way he did to the truck and keep them pinned down. And those firemen won’t come closer when they hear shots.”

  That was true, but Shelby hoped that none of Jewell’s sons or the firefighters got hurt, or worse.

  “How’d you even get in here?” Roy called out. No calmness in his voice. Pure anger.

  “I sneaked in last night. I’ve been waiting ever since. I figured Shelby would be more likely to cooperate if others’ lives were at stake. Like Seth’s and yours. Shelby and Jewell are the only ones I plan to kill.”

  “That’s not gonna happen,” Seth assured her. “You really want to get the death penalty for killing the woman you believe is an old rival and someone who wrote a blog post?”

  “It wasn’t just a blog post!” Annette shouted. “It was a betrayal by a traitor. For years I’ve worked to bring her father’s killer to justice, and then she gave it all up when she looked at your pretty face.”

  “You’re wrong,” Shelby spoke up. “I wrote that post before Seth and I even got involved. And besides, I was right. Jewell didn’t kill Whitt.”

  “That doesn’t matter!” This shout was even louder than the last one. “All that matters is you’re a traitor. You cut your daddy to the core when he read it.”

  Maybe. But Annette obviously was unstable, so there was no telling how much of this was truth and how much was fantasy.

  “And as for the death penalty, that won’t happen,” Annette insisted. “Because I don’t intend to stay around afterward. If Whitt can disappear for twenty-three years, then so can I. Now, enough of this talk. Shelby and Jewell, get out here now, or I press this button and we all die.”

  It was a risk, but Shelby figured she’d try to distract the woman a little longer just in case Seth could defuse this situation. Plus, Shelby was banking on the fact that Annette truly didn’t want this to be a suicide mission.

  “So because I upset my father, you murdered at least five people?” Shelby asked. “And now you want to add Jewell and me to your list?”

  “I didn’t kill Marcel.” Annette’s voice broke, and a loud sob came from her mouth. She repeated it in a whispered tone that sounded as if she was genuinely grieving for the man. “I think Hance did that,” she added, saying Hance’s name like a profanity. “To punish you. And me. He knew killing Marcel would be personal.”

  Shelby couldn’t discount that. After all, Hance had murdered his own wife. But then, Annette was a killer, too. She hadn’t denied murdering the others, though.

  She heard Roy’s phone buzz. Maybe a text message. But Shelby couldn’t see what popped up on the screen.

  “I worked so hard to put Jewell away so that Whitt and I could have a life together,” Annette went on. She was crying now. Sobbing, actually. Maybe the tears would distract her enough so that she wouldn’t see Seth inching his way toward her.

  “A life together?” Shelby questioned, hoping the sound of her voice would cover Seth’s movements. “What did you do, Annette? What?”

  She shook her head. “Everything. I pressed the DA to bring charges against Jewell. And I’m the one who planted the bone fragments I took from Whitt’s
house. Randy Boutwell helped me.”

  Boutwell, the first dead man.

  “Why’d you kill him if he helped you?” Shelby asked.

  “Because he was blackmailing me, that’s why. I killed Meredith because she was asking too many questions, and I didn’t want her around to tempt Whitt. Women are always throwing themselves at Whitt,” she added. “Plus, killing her was a good cover for Boutwell’s murder. The cops would be focused on a serial killer and not specifically Boutwell.”

  That was partly true. Seth and the other lawmen certainly hadn’t suspected that Boutwell was the original target.

  “Now get out here!” Annette screamed. “And put down those guns.”

  Since Seth still wasn’t in place yet, Shelby just kept pushing. Yes, it was a risk. Anything was at this point, but she had to try. She motioned for Jewell and Roy to get all the way onto the floor, but they both stayed put. In fact, Roy looked ready to jump at Annette.

  “You’re right about women always throwing themselves at my father,” Shelby continued. “Is that why you shot him in the cabin twenty-three years ago?”

  Annette froze, a strange look coming over her face. “That was an accident. I knew that he’d been with Jewell, and I got mad. So mad that I grabbed a gun and went inside to confront him. But the gun went off. I swear, I didn’t pull the trigger on purpose.”

  Just talking about it seemed to put her in some kind of trance. Maybe because she couldn’t deal with the fact that she had indeed nearly murdered the man she purportedly loved.

  Or maybe Annette had now murdered him. And left his body as a distraction for the ranch hands.

  Shelby didn’t have time to dwell on that because she saw Seth move. Thankfully, Annette didn’t seem to notice that he’d managed to get so close to her. Shelby didn’t know exactly what he had in mind.

  But she soon found out.

  Seth came running from behind the tractor and launched himself at Annette.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Seth knew he had to do this fast, or they were all going to die.

  He rammed into Annette, latching on to her left hand, which held the triggering device for the explosives. Maybe the explosives weren’t even real, but it was a chance he couldn’t take. He had to stop her from pushing the button.

  It wasn’t easy.

  Annette and he fell to the floor. Hard. So hard that it knocked the breath out of him for a few seconds. Still, he managed to keep hold of her wrist while trying to wrench the trigger from her hand.

  But Annette managed to pull another trigger. The one on her gun.

  The sound blasted through the barn. The bullet slammed into the ceiling.

  She pulled the trigger again. And again. Each shot so close to his ear that it’d be a while before he could clearly hear anything.

  And worse.

  Seth wasn’t sure where those bullets had gone.

  Annette fought like a wild animal. Screaming obscenities. Kicking and biting. She clamped her teeth onto his arm, and Seth could have sworn he saw stars.

  Still, he held on to her left hand and finally managed to yank the triggering device from her. He couldn’t just toss it for fear it’d go off, but he eased it aside so he could try to deal with the woman. He had to be careful, though, not to let the scuffle land them on the button that could blow them to bits.

  Part of him wanted to shout out to Jewell, Roy and Shelby to get out of there. Just in case those explosives also were on some kind of timer. But he couldn’t do that.

  Not with those gunmen outside.

  Seth hadn’t heard any shots fired in the past couple of minutes, but that didn’t mean the hired thugs weren’t there waiting to carry out their boss’s final orders.

  Seth caught the movement behind him and cursed when he spotted Shelby. She was right there. Too close. And Annette was trying her damnedest to aim her gun at Shelby.

  Roy came out from cover, too, and aimed his gun at Annette, and Shelby went after the triggering device.

  “Don’t touch the button,” Seth warned her, though she likely already knew what they were dealing with. “But get it away from Annette.”

  Shelby picked it up as if it was a fragile piece of glass that might shatter in her hands, and she moved it to the tractor seat.

  One thing down. Now, to deal with Annette.

  Seth bashed the woman’s hand against the barn floor, and her gun finally went flying. It landed far enough away for it to be out of her reach.

  “You can’t do this,” Annette cried. The tears returned with a vengeance.

  But Seth didn’t feel a single grain of sympathy for the woman. She had killed and would have killed again if she’d gotten the chance. He stood and dragged Annette to her feet.

  “Should we take off those explosives?” Roy asked.

  Seth shook his head. “Annette might have some kind of booby trap device on them.”

  The woman was crazy enough to have done pretty much anything. That was why Seth holstered his gun so he could take hold of both her hands.

  “I got a text from Cooper,” Roy told them. “He’s all right, but someone put a spike strip on the road that was the same color as the asphalt so he didn’t see it in time. He has flat tires, but he’s making his way on foot to the ranch. I told him to be careful.”

  That only seemed to enrage Annette even more, and she started to struggle again. Seth didn’t care for slugging a woman, but if she kept it up, that was what he might have to do. He didn’t have time to babysit her, not with her two hired guns still out there. Cooper or one of the ranch hands could be shot.

  “The fire,” Jewell said. “It’s destroying the house.”

  Seth realized then his mother was looking out the barn door at the house. He got to her and motioned for her to step back. “Find something to gag Annette. I don’t want her shouting out orders to those thugs.”

  Shelby quickly took care of that. She ripped off her shirtsleeve and tied it around Annette’s mouth. Shelby wasn’t especially gentle about it, either, and Seth didn’t blame her. Annette had come darn close to killing her. Later, he’d do something to try to soothe the anger and fear he saw in Shelby’s eyes, but for now he had to get them to safety.

  Seth shoved Annette to her knees. “Put your hands on top of your head,” he ordered. “Keep a gun aimed at her,” he told Roy once Annette had done that. “If she moves or tries to get away, shoot her. Just don’t hit the explosives.”

  Roy didn’t hesitate in taking aim at her, and Seth motioned for Jewell and Shelby to move so he could look outside. He took out his gun, opened the door slowly and listened for any sound that would alert him to the positions of the gunmen.

  Nothing.

  No one was shooting, but Jewell had been right about the fire. It would soon take down the house. It sickened him to the core to see the damage that Annette’s insanity had caused.

  He finally spotted Darnell. The ranch hand had taken cover by the front of the detached garage, and Quint was at the back. They both had their guns raised.

  “Where are the shooters?” Seth called out to them.

  “The one on this side of the house went running off toward the fence,” Darnell answered. “I don’t know about the other one.” Quint verified that with a nod.

  Not good. Because the one who’d run could double back, and the other one still could be in place to continue the attack.

  “Any sign of Cooper?” Seth asked.

  Darnell shook his head. “But some of the other hands went over to Colt’s to make sure they were okay and give them some backup.”

  Good. Because Seth definitely didn’t want this danger headed in the direction of the wives and kids. Since Cooper’s wife and son were also at Colt’s, that might be where he was going, too.

  “Text
Cooper,” he told Shelby. “I want to find out his location.” Because if bullets started flying, Seth didn’t want Cooper to get caught in friendly fire.

  The wind had carried away most of the tear gas, thank goodness, but the smoke and heat from the fire were still making their way into the barn. Worse, sparks were flying.

  Literally.

  And if one of those sparks made it to the barn, the fire could spread there. Seth already had too few options and didn’t want to lose the cover of the barn.

  “Cooper’s out in the west pasture making his way here,” Shelby relayed. “I told him to be careful and watch for the shooters.”

  Good.

  If Cooper made it there in the next couple of minutes, then they could do something about getting Roy, Shelby and Jewell out of there. Cooper also could arrest Annette. But with the danger from that fire, Seth might have to run to a car and drive it back to the barn for the others. At least he still had the cruiser, and it was bullet resistant.

  Of course, there were a good thirty yards between him and the car. And it might be rigged with explosives.

  The detached garage was closer, and there were certainly some vehicles inside, but he didn’t want to take the time to hotwire anything, and he wanted as much protection for Shelby and the others as he could get. That meant he’d need to check the cruiser to make sure no one had tampered with it. That’d eat up precious time, too.

  Someone fired a shot. Not nearby, but on the west side of the burning house. Seth held his breath. Waiting. And he finally saw Cooper step out.

  “The gunman’s dead. How many more are there?” Cooper called out.

  “I’m not sure. One of them ran away.”

  Without warning, Annette let out a fierce scream. Somehow, she’d managed to remove the gag, and even though she was still on her knees, she threw her body at Roy, her head bashing into his legs. It was just enough to throw him off balance, and he staggered back.

  “I’ll kill you all!” Annette shouted, and she tried to claw her way toward Shelby.