Surrendering to the Sheriff, page 16
part #7 of Sweetwater Ranch Series
This couldn’t be happening again. Kendall and the baby couldn’t be in danger. Maybe this was literally a false alarm.
But Aiden had to ditch that hope fast.
The front door was open just a fraction. Enough for him to hear a strange sound out in the front yard. Since this could be some kind of diversion, he motioned for Sarah to keep watch of the kitchen, and he glanced behind him. The sound turned to more of a crackle, and while he watched, both his truck and Sarah’s cruiser burst into flames.
Hell.
Not just little fires, either. These were full light-ups. As he didn’t smell any accelerants, that meant someone had likely put some kind of incendiary devices on them. It also meant Aiden couldn’t use the vehicles to get Sarah and Kendall out of there.
Time to do something other than just stand around and wait for something bad to happen, because the bad had already started.
“I’m Sheriff Braddock,” he called out to whoever might be in the house. He eased the front door shut so that he wouldn’t be ambushed from behind. “If you have a weapon, put it down and come out so I can see you.”
He didn’t expect that order to work. And it didn’t.
Certainly no one surrendered a weapon or stepped out. But he did hear someone moving around in the direction of the back door. Aiden figured that with the breakin and the fires, the intruder wasn’t leaving.
Aiden hurried across the entry, fully expecting someone to fire a shot at him. He thanked his lucky stars that it didn’t happen, and he joined Sarah and Kendall in the narrow hall. Both were unharmed as far as he could tell, but Kendall had her hand over her stomach and was looking many steps past the terrified stage.
“He set the vehicles on fire?” Kendall asked in a whisper.
Aiden nodded.
“And I tried to call for backup, but the phone lines are jammed,” Sarah added. “I can’t get in touch with Leland.”
That was not what Aiden wanted to hear. It wasn’t hard to jam lines, but along with the fires, it meant whoever was behind this was serious about kidnapping Kendall again. If the person had simply wanted them dead, he could have set fire to the house and then shot them when they ran outside. Heck, he could have gunned down Aiden, too, when he went to check on the horses.
But he hadn’t.
Why?
If the goal was just to get Kendall or kill them all, then why hadn’t this idiot already struck?
“Are you waiting for your boss to arrive?” Aiden called out.
Yeah, taunting this guy probably wasn’t smart, but he wanted to hear something, anything, to pinpoint his location.
And to make sure he wasn’t outside setting fire to the house.
Again, there was no answer. Well, no verbal one anyway, but again Aiden heard somebody moving around in there.
“Take Kendall into the bathroom,” Aiden whispered to the deputy. “I’ll see what this guy is up to.”
Kendall frantically shook her head. “You don’t have backup.”
True, and he might not get it. But at least he had Sarah to protect Kendall. Now he needed to eliminate any possible danger so he could get Kendall the heck out of there and to a safe house.
Aiden was about to insist that Sarah and she get going to the bathroom. Not ideal, but the tiles would better protect them if bullets started flying. However, the moment he opened his mouth, he heard something else. And this time it wasn’t coming from the kitchen.
But rather the guest room. The same area where he’d been about to send Kendall and Sarah.
It sounded as if someone was coming through the window.
“Change of plans,” Aiden whispered. “The three of us are getting out of here now.”
The question was—which way? There were fires in the front of the house. Someone was in the kitchen by the back door. Someone else was about to come at them from the hall. That didn’t exactly leave many options, and none of them was a sure thing when it came to keeping Kendall out of harm’s way.
He looked around, his attention landing on the side window. Away from the fires, away from the back door. And that probably meant the brains behind this had already figured out that it was the escape route Aiden would take.
In other words, a trap.
Even though he hated to do this, Aiden figured their best chance of survival was eliminating the threats one by one. And to do that, it meant taking Kendall with him and Sarah into the lion’s den.
“Come on,” he whispered to them.
Aiden headed toward the kitchen, knowing that he was about to face down yet another hired gun.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
With each step that they took toward the kitchen, Kendall’s heart raced even harder.
Her thoughts were racing, too. This could turn deadly fast, and with the vehicles now on fire, it meant they would have to escape on foot. As it was still dark outside, there could be even more hired guns waiting to attack.
First, though, they had to deal with the two thugs who might already be inside the house. That pair would be more than enough to finish what had already been set in motion.
Aiden was ahead of her. Sarah behind. Both were armed, but Kendall wished she had a gun. It was too late for her to try to grab one, so maybe they could get out of this without shots being fired.
Of course, they hadn’t managed to avoid violence with the other attacks, and because of it, four men were now dead. Too bad that body count hadn’t stopped their boss from hiring yet another crew to do the job where the others had failed.
Kendall kept her hands over her stomach. Not that her hands would do much if someone did start shooting at them. But she had to do something to protect the baby, and this was all she had.
Aiden inched them across the living room, past the very spot where days earlier the other two gunmen had held her captive, waiting for Aiden to come home. Kendall had no idea how long she’d been forced to kneel on that floor. It’d felt like hours before Aiden finally arrived.
Despite the gunshot wound, he’d managed to rescue her, and while she hated relying on anyone to do that for her again, if she needed a rescuer, she preferred it to be Aiden. Other than her, no one else would fight harder to keep their baby safe.
Their baby.
Not a good time for the image of that ultrasound to skip through her mind. It only revved up her heartbeat and breathing even more. She didn’t need that. She needed to focus in case there was some way she could help Sarah and Aiden.
They walked past the sofa, and Aiden focused his attention ahead while Sarah kept watch behind them. There was no one in the living room. No sounds to indicate the intruders were still in the house, but she doubted they’d just leave without getting what they had come there to get.
And what they no doubt intended to get was her.
But why?
Why did this keep happening?
Too bad she might finally know the answer when it was too late to do anything about it, but she figured it had something to do with the evidence against Jewell. Or maybe the person behind this wanted to silence her for good.
Aiden stopped just short of the entry into the kitchen and glanced around. There were half walls that divided the living room from the kitchen, but toward the back door was also a pantry and laundry room. Someone could be lurking there.
“Hell,” Aiden cursed.
Kendall’s heart went to her knees. So did she, because Aiden pushed her down and took cover behind the wall. He also aimed his gun at something or somebody toward the back door.
“Come out with your hands up,” Aiden snarled.
Kendall didn’t hear any indication the person was doing that.
Sarah stayed on her feet, hovering over Kendall while she continued to keep watch all around them. Kendall looked, too, and listened.
Did she hear someone breathing?
If the intruder was there, then why hadn’t he just fired at them?
“Behind you, Sarah!” Aiden shouted.
Even though Sarah had been keeping watch in that direction, she obviously hadn’t seen the intruder in the shadows. She snapped toward the living room, already aiming her gun.
“Wouldn’t pull that trigger if I were you,” the man said.
Like all the other attackers, he was wearing a ski mask, and he had a gun pointed right at them.
Or rather right at Kendall.
“We can do this the easy way,” the man continued, “and Miss O’Neal can come with us.”
“That’s not gonna happen,” Aiden snapped. “But you can make this easy on yourself by surrendering.”
Kendall couldn’t be certain, but she thought the guy might have chuckled. Probably because surrendering was the last thing on his mind, but he had to have known that Aiden wasn’t just going to let her walk out of there with a kidnapper.
“You don’t have a way out of this,” someone else said.
Yet another man, and this was the one in the kitchen. Kendall couldn’t see him, but she figured he was on the other side of the fridge. Behind cover. So even if Aiden shot the one in the living room, this one would be there to continue the attack.
“You’re not taking Kendall,” Aiden growled.
“Oh, no?” That came from the guy in the living room. “You’ll want to rethink that.”
Before Kendall could even consider what to do or say, Aiden shoved her to the side of a chair and turned, pointing his gun at the guy in the kitchen. Sarah took aim at the one in the living room.
“Don’t shoot!” someone called out.
Not the voice of the thugs. This was a woman, and Kendall immediately recognized who it was.
Carla.
Aiden and Sarah both froze, and because Kendall didn’t want to distract Aiden by leaving cover, she just pulled in her breath and held it. Waiting and praying.
God, no.
Of course, she’d known all along that Carla could be the one behind this, but it was another thing to have it confirmed. Aiden had to be falling apart inside, but he kept his gun and aim steady.
“What are you doing here?” he asked his mother.
Carla made a rough sobbing sound. “Please, just put down your gun. If not, they’ll kill you.”
Now Aiden reacted. His nostrils flared, and his teeth came together. “You’d really have them kill your own son?” he snapped.
Silence. For what seemed an eternity.
Sarah volleyed glances between the living room, Aiden and the kitchen. She was clearly waiting for Aiden to tell her what to do, but Aiden stayed silent as well, glaring at his mother.
But then he flinched.
Aiden’s grimace changed, and a single word of profanity slipped from his mouth. Even Sarah turned to the kitchen to gape and stare.
“I’m sorry,” Carla said, her voice barely audible. “But if you shoot, they’ll kill me, then you.”
Kendall didn’t get up, but she did lift her head slightly so she could take a quick look over the half wall. She wanted to see what had grabbed Aiden’s and Sarah’s attention.
And she soon saw what.
Carla was there all right, partly hidden in the shadows of the dark kitchen. Her face was stark white, and she appeared to be trembling. She wasn’t armed.
But the person standing behind her was.
That person had a gun aimed right at Carla’s head.
*
AIDEN HADN’T THOUGHT this night could get any worse, but obviously he’d been dead wrong about that.
“Hell.” And because Aiden didn’t know what else to say, he repeated it.
When Aiden had first seen his mother in the kitchen, he thought for certain that she was in on this latest kidnapping plan. After all, she had motive, means and opportunity. Well, motive if he counted her wanting to get back at Jewell and her family by making them look guilty as sin of trying to destroy evidence. However, with the missing money and news of her being in a mental hospital, Carla had gone to the top of his suspect list.
She didn’t look so much like a suspect now.
Unless she was faking all this so she could clear her name. Anything was possible, including that.
“Are you in on this?” Aiden asked her.
No sound of outrage or drama from his mother. She just shook her head as tears trickled down her cheeks. It was hard to push those tears aside, but Aiden still wasn’t convinced she was innocent.
“I’m going to fire a shot at that jerk behind you,” Aiden said to Carla. “And since he’s already said he’ll fire back, now would be a good time for you to come clean of any of your own wrongdoing.”
Carla shook her head. “Please don’t shoot. He’ll kill you.”
“Yeah, I will,” the guy verified. “I’ll kill her, too. Saving her isn’t part of the plan. In fact, the only one I’m supposed to save for sure is the pregnant woman.”
If Aiden could have believed this guy, it would have made him feel a little better to know that Kendall could be spared. But the idiot was a hired gun, and even if killing her wasn’t in the plan, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen.
Kendall touched her fingers to her mouth, both her hands and lips trembling. Yes, she was afraid. So was Aiden. But he also saw the fire in her eyes. She wasn’t giving up without a fight.
That was both bad and good.
Good because he might need her help in the next couple of minutes. Help that might include her running for cover somewhere else in the house. But he didn’t want the fire in her eyes spurring her to get in the middle of this fight.
“I want you to think of the baby first,” he whispered to Kendall.
Oh, that didn’t sit well with her, but he could see that it sank in. Good. She’d run if it came down to it, and Aiden was afraid that it would. Now he only hoped Sarah could eliminate the thug in the living room. While he was hoping, Aiden didn’t want there to be any other hired guns waiting outside.
These two along with his mother were plenty enough.
“This is a little bit of déjà vu for me.” Aiden motioned around the living room. “The last time two clowns tried to kidnap Kendall, that didn’t work out so well for them. So, is that your plan, to die tonight like they did?”
“I’ve got your mother,” the one in the kitchen growled. “You’ll cooperate.”
Carla’s mouth tightened. “Clearly, you don’t know the strained relationship between me and my son. He’s not going to put protecting me over his unborn child. And he shouldn’t.”
If she meant that, it was a sentiment that Aiden had never expected to hear coming from her, and later, he’d thank her for it. For now, though, that was still a big if.
“I’m a good shot,” Aiden said to the man. “And since you’re a head taller than my mother, it won’t be hard taking you out. Even if you try to scrunch down.” He hiked his thumb to Sarah. “My deputy’s a good shot, too. You want to test that, or do you two just want to put down your guns right now?”
The guy in the kitchen laughed. “He said you had a smart mouth, and he was right.”
Aiden picked right up on that. “He?”
“He,” the guy verified without clarifying it. “Now, here’s the way this is really going to work. If the O’Neal woman doesn’t come with us, then we start shooting. First, your mother. Then you and the deputy.”
So the three of them were expendable, making him wonder who they’d nab to destroy evidence. If that was still what they wanted to do, that is. Maybe there were new rules now.
“Your plan sucks,” Aiden insisted. “How soon do you think I’ll leave you alive once you’ve pulled the trigger? You’ll have a bullet in your head before my mother hits the floor.”
Aiden knew it sounded cold and uncaring. He had to be right now. Because if he showed any fear or any indication that he would back down, then it’d start a gunfight. Not only would his mother be killed, maybe Sarah, too, but a stray bullet could hit Kendall.
“Who’s behind this?” Aiden asked his mother. “And if it’s you, I want to know now.”
“It’s not me.” Carla’s voice cracked on the last word.
Aiden hoped he didn’t regret it later, but he believed her, and that meant if she hadn’t hired these men, somebody else had. Somebody with plenty of money and enough hatred for him and his family that he didn’t mind seeing them die.
“I can’t say anything else,” his mother added in a mumble.
The gunman behind her touched his finger to the communicator that was in his ear and then cursed. “Time to put an end to this now!”
He no longer sounded cocky, just nervous that this wasn’t going down as planned. Well, Aiden wasn’t too easy about it, either, but he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. He couldn’t shoot without risking Kendall’s, Sarah’s and his mother’s lives, and he couldn’t let these goons take Kendall.
“No,” Aiden said, and he didn’t mumble it, either. “If you want to try to take Kendall, you have to come through me.”
That didn’t please the masked guy because his profanity went up a notch, and it took Aiden a moment before he realized the hired gun wasn’t the only one talking. He heard another voice. This one coming from his back porch.
“Hell, kill them all,” the man said. “Burn the place to the ground so I can finish this.”
And Aiden recognized the voice of the man who’d just ordered their murders.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lee Palmer.
Kendall knew she shouldn’t have been surprised to hear Palmer’s voice. After all, he was a suspect. But it was the first time she’d heard him speak with such venom toward her.
Kill them all.
Kendall lifted her head, staring at him, and she knew this wasn’t a bluff. Palmer wanted them all dead, including her precious baby.
That realization got Kendall standing so she could face him down. By God, if he was going to try to kill them, she wanted to know why. She also wanted to know if Carla was in on this. One look at Aiden’s mom, though, and Kendall was thinking no. The woman seemed just as terrified as Kendall.
“Why are you doing this?” Kendall demanded, staring at Palmer.
