Sawyer

by Delores Fossen

  “Don’t worry,” Grayson said. “We’ll keep an eye on him. And I’ll call you the moment the lab has anything. Go ahead and get Cassidy out of here.”

  “You mean, take her back to the safe house,” Bennie said with the same disdain he’d used discussing the DNA sample.

  Her brother stared at that sample in Grayson’s possession and cursed under his breath. “I have to talk to you,” Bennie said to Cassidy. “In private.”

  No. Cassidy didn’t like the sound of that, and she didn’t like Sawyer’s reaction, either. He was shaking his head before Bennie finished.

  “She’s not going anywhere with you,” Sawyer insisted. “You’re a suspect in her kidnapping.”

  Even though Bennie already knew that, she saw the temper flare in his eyes. “I wouldn’t hurt my sister,” he insisted. And he waited as if he expected her to jump to defend him.

  Normally, she would have done just that, but Cassidy was too weary—and too troubled—to do it today. Besides, right now it wasn’t safe to go anywhere with anyone other than Sawyer.

  Grayson excused himself, saying something about having a courier pick up Bennie’s DNA sample, and disappeared into his office. Bennie stayed as if waiting for Sawyer to do the same, but he didn’t move.

  “This is a private discussion,” Bennie argued. “It’s between me and my sister.” But he stopped, stared at her. Cursed again. “Whatever I tell you, you’ll just repeat to him, won’t you?”

  She nodded. “If it pertains to this investigation.” And she prayed it didn’t, but one look at Bennie’s body language, and Cassidy could only groan.

  Yes, it did pertain to the investigation.

  “Tell me,” Cassidy ordered.

  Her brother shook his head. Mumbled something. Dodged her gaze. “Am I free to go?” Bennie asked Sawyer. Not a troubled tone and expression, just furious.

  Cassidy was sure she was the cause of a lot of that fury. But she wasn’t backing down. Bennie had something to say, and he was going to say it—even if it got him arrested.

  “What did you need to tell me?” she demanded.

  Even though Bennie had been the one to insist on this discussion, it still took him several moments to get started. “I did have an affair with April.”

  Sweet heaven. There it was, all spelled out. Bennie’s motive for murder.

  “That’s not exactly a news flash,” Sawyer said under his breath.

  Bennie cursed, looked away. “And the timing is right, so the baby could possibly be mine. Possibly,” he repeated.

  Now it was Cassidy who wanted to curse. “So, you lied to us earlier when you denied it.”

  “Yeah, I lied,” he readily admitted. “Because it was a private matter between April and me.”

  Cassidy’s mouth nearly dropped open. “This is a murder investigation and therefore no longer a private matter.” She groaned and stepped away from Bennie when he reached to take hold of her arm.

  It sickened her to think of the lies he’d told. Lies that could cause Sawyer to bring charges against him. Of course, there was something more important in all of this.

  Emma.

  If she was indeed Bennie’s daughter, then he would have a claim to her. Cassidy still loved her brother, but he was nowhere near responsible enough to raise a child. However, there was a silver lining in all of this. If Bennie was the father, then maybe that would mean Cassidy would have an easier time getting custody of the little girl.

  If that’s what she wanted to do.

  And she realized she did.

  Except it was more than that. Her stupid mind had been weaving a fantasy of Sawyer, her and Emma. A fantasy that she was certain Sawyer didn’t share, even though it was obvious he cared for the baby. Of course, he might not care for her so much now if it turned out that Emma had Bennie’s blood.

  She glanced at Sawyer to see if he, too, was thinking of Emma, but he had his attention nailed to Bennie. “No more lies,” Sawyer warned him. “Did you kill April?”

  “No,” Bennie snapped. And he repeated it when he glanced at both of them. “I had no reason to want her dead.”

  “Really?” Sawyer said with a boatload of sarcasm. “From what we’re learning, April was mentally unstable and a gold digger. I’m betting she didn’t take it calmly when you tried to end things with her.”

  “She didn’t,” Bennie admitted under his breath. His gaze fired to Sawyer again. “But that doesn’t mean I killed her. I figured eventually she’d find someone else and move on.”

  “Hard to move on when she was pregnant,” Cassidy pointed out.

  “Yeah.” And that’s all Bennie said for several moments. “But I didn’t believe her when she said the baby was mine. I thought it was just her way of hanging on to me.”

  Cassidy huffed. “For Pete’s sake, you were sleeping with her. You must have at least considered that Emma could be yours. Why didn’t you offer to help out, maybe pay April’s medical bills? If you’d come to me with that, I would have helped you.”

  Bennie shook his head. “I needed your help with those loans from Rex Ross. I figured April had her own sources to pay the bills.”

  Cassidy wanted to scream at his sheer selfishness. Wanted to scream at herself, too, since she’d helped to make him this way by always getting him out of trouble. Well, that ended today.

  She got right in his face. “If Emma is yours, you will do the right thing for her, even if it means giving her up. And if there are criminal charges, you’ll face those, too.”

  Bennie didn’t argue, but he did look as if she’d slapped him. “Am I free to go?” he repeated to Sawyer.

  Sawyer didn’t jump to answer that, but he eventually nodded. “Don’t leave town.” That was likely the best he could do since he couldn’t arrest Bennie without evidence.

  Cassidy watched her brother skulk away, leaving through the front door. Only then did she realize Willy wasn’t out there any longer. She hadn’t noticed him leaving, and she wondered just how much of their conversation he’d heard.

  “I’m sorry,” Sawyer said. He slipped his arm around her.

  Cassidy was about to tell him that she was okay, that she didn’t need him to hold her. But she quickly realized she was wrong. She was trembling. And furious. And terrified that her brother might have indeed murdered the mother of his own child. If so, that made him the worst kind of monster.

  The tears came, and she swiped them away, hoping they wouldn’t return. But they did.

  “Come on,” Sawyer whispered. “Let’s head back to the safe house.”

  She didn’t resist when he started leading her down the hall, though it would take them an hour or more to get back to the house. That’s because Sawyer wouldn’t take the direct route, and he would have to drive around first to make sure no one was following them. It would mean a lot of time in his truck while she was on the verge of falling apart. Still, if anyone could help her through this, it was Sawyer.

  Cassidy cringed at that thought.

  She shouldn’t be leaning on him like this. Shouldn’t be taking comfort in his arms. Because that could only lead to a broken heart.

  Sawyer led her to the back door and the parking lot where he’d left the truck. But the moment he opened the door, he immediately stepped in front of her and drew his gun.

  That put her heart in her throat, and Cassidy peered over his shoulder to see what had caused Sawyer to react that way.

  It was Willy.

  He was still talking on the phone and was pacing across the small parking lot. Willy stopped both the pacing and talking when he saw Sawyer’s gun.

  “I might have a lead on Diane,” Willy said, putting his hand over the phone.

  “Call me with it,” Sawyer snapped. Without taking his attention off Willy, he reached inside the door and
took one of the keys off a peg on the wall. “Grayson, I need to use your SUV. My truck might have been compromised.”

  Oh, mercy. She hadn’t even considered that, but she was glad Sawyer had. Willy could have put some kind of tracking device on the truck so the kidnappers could find the location of the safe house.

  “I’ll check it after you’re gone,” Grayson assured him, and he joined them in the doorway.

  “No need to draw your guns,” Willy snarled. “I’m just trying to help you.”

  “Thanks,” Sawyer snarled back. “But right now, you can help us by leaving. You’re making my trigger finger itch.”

  Willy didn’t seem particularly concerned about that. But he was angry. Maybe because of the gun. However, he kept glancing down at the phone, and he continued to do that even as he was leaving.

  Sawyer waited several minutes before he stepped out. “Cassidy, stay here with Grayson,” he insisted.

  With his gun still drawn, he fired glances all around before he used the keypad to unlock Grayson’s black SUV that was parked on the side of the building. If Willy or someone had indeed managed to plant a tracking device onto the truck, maybe they hadn’t done that to the other vehicle, as well.

  When Sawyer reached the SUV, he stooped down and looked beneath it. Not just in one place but all around the vehicle. He unlocked it and opened the passenger’s-side door before he motioned for her to come out of the building.

  Cassidy did, and she didn’t dawdle. She hurried to the SUV, and the moment she reached Sawyer, he helped her onto the seat.

  There was some movement from the corner of her eye. Sawyer saw it, too, because he whipped in that direction. But it was Willy, still talking on the phone, this time while he paced on the sidewalk in front of the sheriff’s office.

  Even though Willy didn’t appear to be paying any attention to them, Sawyer kept his gaze fastened to the man while he reached to shut her door.

  However, reaching was as far as he got.

  A shot exploded through the air.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sawyer didn’t wait to see who’d fired the shot. He shoved Cassidy across the seat and plowed in after her. It wasn’t a second too soon because another shot tore through the door where he’d just been standing.

  “Is it Willy shooting at us?” Cassidy asked.

  Her voice was shaking. The rest of her, too. And he hated that she had to go through something like this again. He’d been a damn fool to take her out of the safe house, and that mistake could end up being a fatal one.

  Sawyer cursed himself and lifted his head just slightly so he could look over the dash. He didn’t see Willy, but Grayson was in the back of the sheriff’s office, where Cassidy had just exited. His gun was drawn, and he was ready to return fire. But like Sawyer, Grayson probably couldn’t see the shooter, either.

  That, however, didn’t stop them from hearing another shot.

  “Who’s doing this?” Cassidy asked, putting her hands over her ears.

  “I’m not sure.” But he intended to find out. He stayed in place with his body positioned in front of hers, and he looked around for any signs of the shooter.

  Nothing.

  To free up his hands, Sawyer shoved the keys in the ignition, but he didn’t turn on the truck’s engine. He wanted to be able to hear so he could pinpoint the location of the gunman. Plus, he didn’t want to drive away. Not until he knew it was safe. At least here he had backup and not just from Grayson. Mason was inside, too, and with one call, his other cousins could be on the way to help. But if he drove off, trying to get away from the shooter, he might make the situation even more deadly than it already was.

  Sawyer’s phone buzzed, and he saw Mason’s name on the screen. “You see who’s doing this?” Sawyer immediately asked him.

  “No, but I think the guy’s perched on the roof of the building across the street. I thought I saw the sunlight glint on the barrel of a rifle.”

  “Any chance you can get someone over there to check it out?”

  “I’m headed over there now. Gotta clear the streets first though.” With that, Mason hung up.

  Good thing his cousin had thought of clearing the streets. Sawyer certainly didn’t want anyone walking by to be hit with a stray bullet. But just as important he had to keep Cassidy out of the path of any other shots.

  Sawyer pinned his gaze to the roof of the building. Took aim.

  And waited.

  The seconds crawled by. With his heartbeat crashing in his ears. Cassidy’s heart was drumming out of control, too, because he could feel her pulse against his back.

  Finally, Sawyer saw some movement. Not on the roof where Mason thought the shooter was, but rather on the back corner of the building across the street. It was just a blur of motion, and when Sawyer saw nothing else, he thought maybe it was the sunlight making everything difficult to see.

  But no such luck.

  The next thing he saw wasn’t a blur but someone reaching out from the building. That someone was holding a gun, and he fired a shot right at the truck. The bullet blasted through the window on the passenger’s side and sent the safety glass pelting Cassidy and him.

  Praying that Mason had indeed gotten the sidewalks cleared, Sawyer levered himself up a little, and using the now-gaping hole in the glass, he returned fire. The gunman ducked out of sight, and before Sawyer could pull the trigger again, another shot came right at them.

  This time from the roof.

  Hell, there were two of them. At least. And if this was another kidnapping attempt, then the men were taking some huge risks because any one of those bullets could hit Cassidy and kill her.

  Another shot came through the glass. The windshield this time. Sawyer shifted his position so he could push Cassidy onto the floor. It wouldn’t stop a bullet from reaching her, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances.

  Grayson came out the back door and took aim at the roof. Since he had that particular area covered, Sawyer concentrated on the side of the building. He hoped by now that Mason was closing in on these morons.

  Sawyer’s phone buzzed again, and because he didn’t want to look away, he handed it to Cassidy. She hit the answer button, put it on Speaker and almost immediately the sound of a woman’s voice poured through the truck.

  “Don’t shoot,” she said.

  Even though he had only heard her voice a few times, Sawyer had no trouble recognizing it.

  It was Diane.

  “Where are you?” Sawyer demanded.

  “On the side of a building in Silver Creek. I’m with the man who just fired a shot. But please, don’t shoot back because he’s using me as a human shield.”

  Sawyer cursed. That was not what he wanted to hear.

  “Listen to her,” a man snarled, “or she’s right—she’ll die.”

  “Who are you?” Sawyer snapped.

  “Somebody who’s gonna kill the doc unless you do exactly as I say. We’ll trade the doc for Cassidy.”

  It took Sawyer a moment to get his teeth unclenched. “Not a chance. Why do you want her anyway?”

  “This ain’t personal,” the man said as if that would make everything better. “It’s just about the money. We want the other half of that ransom she was supposed to pay for her brother. I figure if we have her, then her brother can pay.”

  Yeah, but the last time these idiots held a woman captive, she ended up dead. That wasn’t going to happen to Cassidy.

  “Let Dr. Blackwell go,” Sawyer ordered them, though he knew there was no way he could enforce that order. “And then we’ll talk.”

  “I must sound pretty stupid if you think we’d do that,” the man snapped. “The doc’s not going anywhere until I see Cassidy out of that truck and making her way toward us. Youʼve got three minutes t
o make up your mind, or we start shootin’ again.”

  “You’re not getting Cassidy,” Sawyer practically yelled into the phone, but he was talking to the air because the kidnapper had already hung up.

  “They won’t shoot me,” Cassidy said. “I—”

  “No.” Sawyer had no intention of letting her finish, because it wasn’t even an option on the table. “You’re not going out there.”

  “But they could kill Diane.”

  “They could kill both of you,” Sawyer pointed out. “All of this could be a trick to get you out in the open, and as soon as they get the ransom money, you could end up like April.”

  Yeah, it was harsh, but she needed to know that he wouldn’t budge on this.

  “Call Grayson for me,” Sawyer instructed.

  She did, but Cassidy still didn’t stop mumbling about going out there.

  “They have Diane,” Sawyer said the moment Grayson answered. “She said she’s on the side of the building.”

  Sawyer heard Grayson relay that to his brother. “One of them called Mason,” Grayson added to Sawyer a moment later. He paused. “The man told him that they had Bennie, too.”

  “No!” Cassidy would have bolted from the seat if Sawyer hadn’t caught on to her.

  “They’re probably lying,” Sawyer reminded her. “If they had Bennie, don’t you think they would have used him instead of Diane?”

  That stopped her from struggling, and after a few seconds she gave a shaky nod. “Old habits,” Cassidy said under her ragged breath. “It’s instinct to try to rescue him.”

  Sawyer understood that, and he was betting that Bennie’s irresponsibility had led Cassidy to rescue him plenty of times. But it wouldn’t happen today—even if by some miracle Bennie was indeed out there.

  More movement caught his eye, and Sawyer saw Grayson dart out from the back of the sheriff’s office, and he hurried across the small parking lot to a building to the right of the vehicles. He had his phone in his left hand and his gun in the other.

  “Mason’s about a block up from the sheriff’s office. He’s going to cross the street so he can try to sneak up on the one who’s holding Diane,” Grayson explained. “We need to distract the shooter on the roof. If he’s still there.”