Kade

by Delores Fossen

  Kade kept his gun ready, and he watched. On one screen he could see Mason and three ranch hands. All armed, all headed toward the gunman. The gunman stayed put behind the tree, but he took a small device from his jacket pocket and aimed it toward the house.

  “The gunman has infrared,” Kade mumbled along with some profanity.

  Kade fired off a text message to let Mason know that the gunman now had a way to get a visual of who was in the house. He wouldn’t be able to see actual images, but he could tell from the heat blobs on his screen where they were.

  “He came here to kill us.” Bree’s voice was barely a whisper, and Kade heard the fear now.

  She turned so that her body was between Leah and the gunman. She was protecting their child, and Kade moved in front of them to do the same.

  Kade braced himself for the gunman to come closer, especially now that he no doubt knew where they were.

  But the man didn’t do that.

  He dropped the infrared device and fired. Not at the house. He fired in the direction of Mason and the ranch hands. They all dived to the ground as the bullets pelted around them.

  “They’re pinned down.” The fear in Bree’s voice went up a notch.

  Kade felt his own fear rise, too, and he frantically searched the screen to see if any other ranch hands were close enough to respond and provide Mason and the others with some backup.

  They weren’t.

  Probably because Mason had ordered everyone to stay away from possible gunfire. And they were doing just that. At least a dozen of them were guarding the house, but it wouldn’t do Mason and the others any good.

  “I have to go out there,” Kade told Bree. He hated to tell her this, but he had no choice. “I can approach him from this direction.” He tapped the screen to the gunman’s right. “While he’s keeping my brother pinned down, I can sneak up on him.”

  Bree shook her head, but then she groaned and squeezed her eyes shut a second. She knew this had to happen.

  “Be careful,” she said.

  “That’s the plan.” Kade gave Leah and her one last look. Hopefully, a reassuring one, and he grabbed the Colt .38 from the table so he could put it by Bree’s side. Things would have to have gone to hell in a handbasket if she had to use it, but Kade didn’t want to leave her defenseless.

  He raced out of the room, barreling down the steps and out the front door. He stopped just long enough to holster his handgun and grab a rifle from the weapons’ safe just off the foyer.

  “Text Mason for me,” Kade instructed the ranch hand guarding the front of the house. “Tell him I’m approaching the shooter from the west side.”

  The shots kept coming. Not rapid fire any longer, probably because the guy wanted to conserve ammunition, but the bullets were spaced out just at the right pace to keep Mason and the others on the ground.

  Kade ran to the side of the house and peered around, but the angle was wrong for him to see the gunman. He headed toward the first outbuilding—the stables—and he raced along the side until he reached the back.

  Now, he had the right angle.

  The shooter was still a good distance away, but the guy wasn’t looking in Kade’s direction. Or, thankfully, the direction of the house.

  Kade took aim. Not for a kill shot. But for the man’s right arm.

  And he fired.

  The shot blasted through the air. Kade saw the man’s body snap back when the bullet slammed into his shoulder.

  But the shooter didn’t drop the rifle.

  Despite the bullet wound, the guy pivoted, lightning fast, aimed at Kade. And he fired.

  Kade ducked behind the stables in the nick of time. The shot slammed into the exterior wall in the exact spot where his head had just been.

  Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t an amateur.

  Kade stayed low, glanced around the stables, but before he could get a good look, another shot came at him.

  Then another.

  Kade tried to see this as a good thing. This way, Mason might be able to return fire, but it was hard to see the good side of things with the bullets coming at him.

  He got even lower to the ground and looked out again. The man had taken aim but not at Kade.

  At the house.

  His heart went to his knees. Yes, Bree and Leah were somewhat protected, but this guy could maybe get off a lucky shot.

  Kade couldn’t risk that.

  He came out from the stables, his rifle already aimed at the intended target. No arm shot this time. He went for the kill.

  And Kade pulled the trigger.

  Even from this distance, he heard the sickening thud of the bullet tearing into the shooter’s body. The man’s rifle dropped to the ground.

  Seconds later, so did the man.

  Kade started running toward him.

  Maybe, just maybe, he could get to him in time, before he took his last breath. And then Kade could learn the identity of the person who’d sent this monster after Bree and his baby.

  Chapter Nine

  Bree almost wished the latest adrenaline crash would numb her to the fear and desperation that she was feeling. Not for herself.

  But for Leah.

  Their situation wasn’t getting better, and judging from Kade’s stark expression, he felt the same way. He sat across from her, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated to her.

  “You had no choice but to kill him.” Bree knew that was true because she’d watched the nightmarish ordeal play out in front of her on the laptop screen.

  First, she’d been terrified that Kade, his brother or one of the others would be killed. Then, her terror had skyrocketed when the shooter took aim at the house. For a couple of horrifying moments, Bree had thought he might shoot. That a bullet could tear through the walls and reach Leah.

  But Kade had made sure that didn’t happen. The gunman hadn’t even had time to pull the trigger again before Kade shot him.

  And killed him.

  She’d watched that, too, while she’d held her baby close and prayed that nothing else bad would happen. Leah was okay, thank God. But the shooter hadn’t been able to say anything before Kade got to him. No dying confession to clear his conscience, and that meant they were right back at square one.

  Well, almost.

  Kade’s brother Grayson had arrived just minutes after the fatal shooting and immediately taken over the necessary mop-up of an inevitable investigation. Grayson was pacing their suite while talking on the phone, and from what Bree could glean from the conversation, he was within minutes of turning over the investigation to one of his deputies so he could leave for San Antonio.

  With Leah, of course.

  That was good, Bree kept reminding herself. However, in this case good felt like something beyond bad.

  “We’re doing the right thing sending Leah with Grayson,” she whispered. She tried not to make it sound like a question, but it did, anyway. She prayed she wasn’t sending her baby from the frying pan into the fire.

  Kade eased down his hands, looked at her. Then looked at Leah, who was in Bree’s lap. “Yeah.” He no doubt knew everything Bree was feeling because he was feeling it, too. He paused. “I also need to make arrangements for you.”

  Bree shook her head. “Once Leah is away from the danger, what I’d really like is a showdown with whoever’s responsible for this.”

  That sent another jolt of anger through her. She wanted to find this person fast and be the one to put them in jail or do what Kade had just done. End it with a bullet.

  “You’re up for that?” Kade questioned.

  Probably not. Her hands were still shaky, and she felt years removed from her FBI training. Right now, she felt like a mother with a child who’d just been placed in harm’s way. And that was a far stronger motivation than she’d ever had to bring down a criminal.

  Bree touched her daughter’s cheek, and even though Leah’s eyes were closed, she gave Bree one of those b
aby smiles. The feeling of warmth replaced the anger. But not the determination for Bree to keep her safe.

  However, Leah wasn’t the only person for her to be concerned about.

  “Are you okay?” she asked Kade. “And before you give me a blanket I’m fine answer, I’d like the truth.”

  Kade stayed quiet a moment. “Ever killed a man in the line of duty?”

  “Once.” A cut-and-dried case of defending herself, just as Kade had done.

  “It doesn’t get easier,” Kade mumbled.

  Bree rubbed his arm and hoped that would help. But how could it? He’d done what he had to do, but he’d also have to come to terms with taking a life.

  Yet something else they had in common.

  As if they needed more.

  Sometimes, like now, Bree felt that Kade and she were speeding headfirst, no helmets, into a brick wall. One of them, or both, would get hurt, but there didn’t seem to be anything that would stop it. She didn’t know whether to fight it or just save her energy and surrender.

  Grayson ended his call, and when he didn’t make another one, both Kade and Bree looked at him.

  “The dead shooter’s name is Tim Kirk,” Grayson explained. “He worked as a security guard at the Fulbright clinic during your undercover investigation.”

  Maybe that’s why he’d seemed familiar to Bree. “Kirk’s connected to one of our suspects?” And she didn’t include Coop in that list, despite what Anthony had told them during his visit to the ranch.

  “He is. And he’s also connected to the man who tried to kill you at the motel. Mason checked Kirk’s cell, and yesterday morning he called the prepaid phone of the triggerman who turned up dead.” Grayson paused. “However, the last person he called was Anthony.”

  Anthony, who’d accused Coop of wrongdoing. Of course, that accusation hadn’t gotten Anthony’s name off their suspect list. Now he was at the top of it.

  “SAPD is sending someone over to Tim Kirk’s apartment to check it out now. There might be more evidence linking him to Anthony. Or one of the others,” Grayson added.

  Maybe Coop, judging from Grayson’s tone. Well, good. Bree wanted them to look, but she was sure they wouldn’t find anything.

  “While they’re at Kirk’s place, I hope they’ll search for those surveillance backups that went missing from the Fulbright clinic,” Kade reminded him.

  “They will.” Grayson shrugged. “But unless Kirk was planning to use them to pin the blame on someone else, those backups might have been destroyed.”

  Yes, Bree had considered that. She had also considered if that had happened, they might never have enough evidence to convict any of their suspects to long jail sentences. Heck, it was possible that even with a conviction Anthony and Jamie would get as little as probation.

  Kade and she needed more evidence.

  Grayson looked at Bree. “Any luck remembering where you were held during your pregnancy? Because there might still be some evidence there we can use.”

  Bree pushed her hair from her face and forced herself to think. “It was a house in the country.” Which she’d already told them. “High brick fence with guard dogs. Dobermans.” She shook her head. “I can remember the rooms clearly now, but I can’t tell you what was past that fence.”

  If that disappointed Grayson, he didn’t show it. “When one of the kidnappers helped you escape, do you have any idea how long it took you to get from the fenced house to the motel?”

  Those images weren’t so clear. In fact, they were nonexistent.

  “I don’t have a clue about the time frame, but I do know we didn’t go directly from the house to the Treetop motel. We went to another hotel first. In Austin, I think. And she gave me a heavy dose of drugs before we left.” Bree stopped a moment. “But she was in a hurry. The man wasn’t there, and she said we had to get out before he came back because he was going to kill me.”

  Since Kade’s leg was touching her, she felt him tense. “Why did he want to kill you?” Kade asked. “Leah was gone by then. Why did he or his boss feel you were no longer of any use to them?”

  Again, Bree forced herself to think. “Maybe I saw something. Or maybe something changed in his situation. His boss might have found a different kind of leverage to tamper with the investigation.”

  But what?

  Bree drew a blank on all counts.

  “It sounds as if you were around the female kidnapper a lot,” Grayson commented. “Any chance it was Jamie Greer?”

  “A good chance,” Bree admitted. “The height and body build are a match.” Still, she had to shake her head. “But she certainly didn’t dress like Jamie, and the prosthetic mask was very good. I couldn’t see any of her features behind it.” She shrugged. “Of course, the drugs probably helped with that. Hard to see a person’s features when they’re swimming in and out of focus.”

  “Keep trying to remember,” Grayson insisted after a nod. He checked the time and blew out a weary breath. “McClendon, Anthony and Jamie are all on their way to my office. Or they sure as heck better be. If not, I warned them they’d all be arrested.”

  Good. Maybe they would defy that order, and that would get them tossed in jail. A temporary stay was better than nothing.

  “I need you to help Mason question them,” Grayson added, his attention on Kade. “Are you up to it?”

  “Absolutely.” Kade got to his feet. “Anthony accused Bree’s boss of being a dirty agent, said he had a witness. Maybe he’ll bring that witness with him.”

  Bree adjusted the baby to the crook of her arm and stood, too. “I’d like to get in on this.”

  The brothers exchanged glances and were no doubt thinking she wasn’t mentally or physically ready for this. She wasn’t, but that wouldn’t stop her. “When I hear what they have to say, it might help me remember where I was held captive.”

  Grayson finally nodded. “Tape the interviews and follow the rules. If one of them is guilty, I don’t want them slipping through the cracks on a technicality.”

  Bree was on the same page with that. Someone would pay for what had happened. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be Kade, her or Leah.

  “It’s time,” Grayson said, and with those two little words, Bree knew exactly what he meant.

  Kade did, as well, because he leaned over and kissed Leah’s cheek. “This won’t be for long,” he promised the baby in a whisper.

  Bree kissed her, as well, but she didn’t trust her voice to speak. Oh, mercy. This was much harder than she’d imagined it would be; something she hadn’t thought possible.

  “Three of the ranch hands are making the drive with us,” Grayson let them know. He picked up the diaper bag, looped it over his shoulder and then walked closer.

  Waiting for Bree to hand Leah over.

  Bree gave her baby one last kiss. Kade did the same. And she eased Leah into Grayson’s waiting arms.

  “I’ll take good care of her,” Grayson promised. And just like that, he hurried out of the room.

  Bree’s heart went with him.

  Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked them back when Kade slipped his arm around her.

  “Everything will be okay,” he said, his voice clogged with emotion. He cleared his throat. “And the sooner we question our suspects, the sooner we can maybe end this.”

  So that Leah could come home.

  Well, come to the ranch, anyway. It was her home, of course, but Bree knew that might change when Kade and she worked out some sort of custody arrangement.

  “Let’s go to the sheriff’s office,” he insisted, and with his arm still around her, he led her to the door where Grayson had just exited.

  Kade stopped.

  He looked down at her and opened his mouth. Closed it. Then shook his head. “Later,” he mumbled.

  Bree nearly pressed him for an answer, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to open any cans of worms with Kade right now. One thing at a time, and the first thing was to get through these interrogations.

  By the time
they made it outside to Kade’s truck, Grayson had already driven away. To safety, Bree reminded herself again. And if Kade and she could do their jobs and make an arrest, their time apart from Leah would be minimized. That was all the motivation she needed to end this quickly.

  “What if Anthony produces a witness who says that Coop is dirty?” Kade asked her. He started his truck and headed for town.

  “Then, I’ll assume Anthony paid off the person to lie.” Bree figured this wasn’t the answer Kade wanted to hear. She stared at him. “Why are you so willing to believe Coop worked for McClendon?”

  He stayed quiet a moment, mumbled something she didn’t quite catch. “For the worst of reasons.” Another pause. “I think I might be jealous of him.”

  “What?” Bree couldn’t get that out there fast enough.

  “This is hard for me to admit, but Coop seems possessive of you.”

  “In a boss to employee sort of way,” she clarified. “There has never been anything personal between Coop and me.”

  “You’re sure he knows that?”

  Again, she jumped to answer, but then stopped. And Bree remembered something that’d happened over a year ago. “Coop kissed me.”

  “He did what?” Kade volleyed glances between the road and her.

  “He’d had too much to drink. And he apologized.”

  Kade made a yeah-right sound.

  “Hey, you kissed me, and you apologized,” Bree reminded him.

  “The apology was a lie. I’m attracted to you and so is Coop.” He cursed. “But that attraction probably means he wouldn’t betray you.”

  Bree felt relieved. For a moment. However, the uneasy feeling came. “I pushed him away that night,” she recalled. “I told him I didn’t feel that way about him.”

  She waited for Kade to say something about a scorned man seeking revenge, but he only shrugged. “If you hadn’t been kidnapped, he probably would have tried again. I would have,” Kade added in a mumble.

  Bree stared at him. Yes, he would have. “If you hadn’t, I would have,” she confessed. “And if you think that pleases me, think again.”