Jamie shook her head. “I have the backups.”
Kade didn’t know who looked more shocked—Bree or him. Now, this was something he hadn’t expected to hear in the meeting.
“Where are they?” he demanded.
“Hidden safely away. They’re my insurance that Kirk’s boss won’t come after me. He knows there’s enough incriminating evidence on them to put him in jail for years. McClendon knows I have them, too.”
Well, that explained the threat McClendon had made at the sheriff’s office.
“McClendon knows you’re trying to cut a deal with us?” Bree asked her.
“I don’t think so.” But Jamie didn’t sound at all convinced of that. “McClendon threatens me a lot, but I’ve told him that if something happens to me, then those backups will find their way to the FBI.”
Kade gave that some thought. If what Jamie was saying was true, this gave McClendon motive for trying to use Bree. Of course, maybe those backups showed someone else engaged in criminal activity.
Like Coop.
Anthony.
Or even Jamie herself.
“You can give us a copy of the backups,” Kade suggested. “And that way you’d still have the originals to keep yourself safe.”
“The backups can’t be copied,” Jamie explained. “It’s the way McClendon set up the system. The backups have an embedded code to wipe them clean if anyone tries to burn a copy.”
Well, hell. Now Kade had to figure out a way to get the originals from Jamie. If the woman really had them, that is.
He wasn’t sure she was telling the truth. About this. Or about anything else.
“I wasn’t there when Kirk or whomever did the insemination on Bree,” Jamie went on. “I wasn’t there for the C-section, either. But later Kirk told me that the obstetrician had been killed.” Jamie shivered. “He even showed me a picture of a mutilated body and said the same thing would happen to me if I didn’t keep my mouth shut.”
Kade huffed. “You’re an accessory to murder.”
Jamie frantically shook her head. “No. I swear, I didn’t know until afterward, and that’s when I knew I had to do something. Kirk was saying they didn’t need Bree anymore, that the baby was leverage enough to get you to cooperate.”
Yes, and it might have worked. Kade would have done anything to protect Leah.
“So, how did you talk Kirk into keeping me instead of Leah?” Bree asked.
“I didn’t. Couldn’t,” Jamie corrected. “He ordered me to take the baby to a house in San Antonio where a nanny was waiting and when I returned he was going to kill you. Instead, I drove the baby to the Silver Creek hospital and left her there.”
Because Bree didn’t look too steady on her feet, Kade moved closer to her. Not too close, though, because he wanted them both to have room to draw their guns if something went wrong. There was still a chance of that happening. Whoever had hired Kirk wouldn’t want Jamie to spill this.
“Kirk couldn’t have been pleased about you not delivering the baby to San Antonio.” Kade made a circling motion for Jamie to continue.
Jamie touched her hand to her lips. Her fingers and mouth were trembling. “He wasn’t. I told him someone had run me off the road and kidnapped her. He was furious and said he had to see his boss immediately. I knew I had to get Bree out of there, too.”
“But you didn’t, not right away,” Bree reminded her. “Why?”
“Because Kirk kept watching me. He didn’t trust me after what happened with the baby. Then one night I slipped him a drug, and that’s when I went on the run with you. When I was sure I wasn’t being followed, I left you at that motel and then made the anonymous call so Kade could come and get you. Before Kirk did.”
Well, it had worked. So far. Bree and Leah were both alive, and the man partly responsible for what had happened—Kirk—was now dead.
Kade moved closer to Jamie, hoping it would make her nervous enough to tell them whatever else she was keeping from them. “Who was Kirk’s boss?”
“I don’t know.” She answered without hesitation. “Kirk used to call him, but I never heard him say the person’s name. I always assumed it was McClendon.”
Good assumption.
But it could be a bad one.
Kade glanced at Bree and realized she was no doubt thinking the same thing.
Bree cleared her throat. “Did Kirk do anything else to me?”
Jamie looked in her direction for a moment. “No. Nothing like rape or torture. He just kept you drugged as much as he could. More so after the C-section.”
Kade was relieved that other horrible things hadn’t been done to Bree, but Jamie was wrong about the torture. Being held captive while pregnant was the stuff of nightmares, and he figured those nightmares would be with Bree for the rest of her life.
And someone would pay for that.
Kade took out the small notepad he kept in his pocket and dropped it on the table by Jamie. “Write down the address of the house where Bree was held.”
Jamie shook her head. “They burned the place to the ground. Kirk told me that when he called to threaten me to stay silent.”
Hell. But still a burned-out house was better than nothing. “I want the address, anyway,” Kade insisted. He’d get a CSI team out there ASAP. Maybe they could find something that would give them clues about the identity of Kirk’s boss.
Of course, the biggest clue might be sitting in front of them.
When Jamie finished writing the address, he took the note paper but kept staring at her. “I want those surveillance backups.”
“I can’t. I told you they’re my insurance so that Kirk’s boss won’t kill me.” Jamie yanked off her glasses, and he could see that her eyes were red. Maybe from crying. Kade had to consider that she was truly afraid, but he couldn’t put that above Leah’s and Bree’s safety.
“You can give them to us.” Bree also moved closer to the woman. “And you will. In exchange we’ll provide you with protection.”
Jamie jumped to her feet. “You can’t protect me. No one can. My advice is for both of you to leave town for a while. Get lost somewhere and enjoy the time with your baby. Because as long as you continue this investigation, the danger will be there for all of us.”
She turned as if to walk away, but Kade stepped in front of her. “The backups,” he reminded her. “I won’t let you leave until you tell us where they are.”
The threat was real and had no sooner left his mouth when he caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. Something in the trees. And it wasn’t the spot where Mason had said he would be. This was farther down by the end of the pond.
Bree must have noticed it, too, because her head turned in that direction. “Get down!” she yelled.
But Kade was already moving. He latched onto Bree and Jamie and dragged them down with him. It wasn’t a second too soon.
A bullet sliced across the top of the wooden table above them.
Chapter Twelve
Bree didn’t take the time to berate herself for coming to this meeting in such an open place, but she might do that later. However, the bullet meant Kade and she were in a fight for their lives.
Again.
Since Kade was already holding Jamie and her, Bree drew her weapon and scrambled forward, using the table for cover. It wasn’t much, but it was the nearest thing. The trees and their vehicles were yards away.
Mason, too.
Though maybe Mason was already trying to figure out how to stop what was happening.
Another bullet bashed into the table. Then another, until they were coming nonstop. Jamie screamed with each one and covered her head with her hands.
Kade turned, took aim in the direction of the shooter and fired.
Bree was ready to do the same, but Jamie’s screams got louder, and the woman tried to bolt from the table. She probably thought she could make it to her car that was parked nearby. But Bree knew that once Jamie was out in the open, she’d become an easy target.
“The shots are going over us,” Kade mumbled.
Somehow, Bree managed to hear him over the noise
of the shots, Jamie’s screams and the sound of her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. She listened and watched.
Kade was right.
The first two shots had gone into the table, but these were much higher.
Bree kept a grip on Jamie’s arm, and she looked where the bullets were landing. In the trees near Kade’s truck and Jamie’s car.
“He’s not shooting at us,” Bree said. If Jamie heard her, it didn’t stop the woman from struggling.
There was another shot. Different from the others. From the sound of it, it had come from a rifle.
Mason.
Thank heaven. Because the shooter stopped firing.
Bree shifted so she could try to see what was going on, but in the shift, Jamie threw off Bree’s grip. She reached for the woman again, but Jamie bolted out from beneath the table.
“Get down!” Bree yelled to her.
Jamie didn’t listen to that, either. She got to her feet and started running to her car.
She didn’t make it far.
Another shot tore through the air, and Bree watched in horror as it smacked into Jamie. The woman screamed and fell to the ground.
Bree didn’t think. She started toward Jamie, but she felt Kade put a hard grip on her shoulder.
“No. You can’t,” he insisted.
And Bree knew he was right. If she went out there, she’d be shot, too. In fact, that was probably what the shooter wanted her to do.
Bree waited and watched while Jamie squirmed on the ground and clutched her left arm. There was blood, but thankfully it didn’t appear to be too much. And the wound seemed to be limited to her arm. Still, she needed medical attention.
“I need your phone,” Bree told Kade.
With his attention fastened on the area around the shooter, he retrieved it from his pocket and handed it to her. She called the emergency dispatcher to request backup and an ambulance.
“Stay down,” Bree called out to Jamie the second she finished the call. Maybe, just maybe, Jamie would listen this time.
“No more shots,” Bree heard Kade say.
He was right. There hadn’t been another shot since the one that injured Jamie. And that meant either Mason had managed to neutralize the shooter or…
The thought had no sooner crossed her mind when Kade’s phone buzzed. “It’s Mason,” Bree said.
“Answer it,” Kade instructed since he was still keeping watch.
Bree pressed the answer button.
“He’s getting away,” Mason said. “I’m in pursuit through the east side of the park.”
Oh, God.
This wasn’t over.
“I heard,” Kade let her know, and he moved out from beneath the table. “Stay with Jamie. I’m going after this SOB.”
* * *
K
ADE KEPT LOW, STARTING
away from Bree and Jamie, and he headed for the area around the pond where Mason had said he was in pursuit.
It was a risk.
And he had to do this in such a way that he could still keep watch to make sure the shooter didn’t double back and come after them again.
Specifically Jamie, since she seemed to be the target this time around.
He hoped her injuries weren’t life-threatening, and while he was hoping, he added that the ambulance would be there soon. Backup, too.
Kade didn’t want to leave Bree and her without as much protection as possible, but if Mason and he could catch this gunman then that could put them one step closer to making an arrest.
Behind him, Jamie was still yelling, and he could also hear sirens in the distance. Thank God. Kade threw a quick glance over his shoulder. Bree had stayed put under cover of the table, and she had her gun aimed and ready.
Good.
Kade followed along the edge of the pond. It wouldn’t save him, but if the gunman started firing again, at least he could dive into the water. He hoped it wouldn’t come down to that. Bree had already had enough shots fired near her today. Jamie, too.
He saw movement in the trees but didn’t fire. Good thing, because it was Mason. His brother motioned to his right and then disappeared into the trees.
Kade hurried.
Mason was a good cop, but he didn’t want him facing down a professional hit man on his own.
If that’s what the shooter was.
Something wasn’t right about all of this, but Kade couldn’t put his finger on exactly what was wrong.
Kade heard the ambulance come to a stop behind him so that meant Jamie would soon have the medical care she needed. Added to that, the gunman hadn’t fired in minutes so he was probably trying to get out of the area. Not stopping to take aim.
Neither did Kade.
He broke into a full run to the spot where he’d seen Mason. No sign of him yet, but he zigzagged his way through the trees and underbrush. Kade knew what was on the other side of the trees.
The back parking lot.
He listened for the sound of a car engine, but Kade couldn’t hear anything over his own heavy breath and the sirens from both the ambulance and a deputy’s car. Kade shoved aside some low hanging branches and ran out into a clearing that led to a hill.
Mason was there.
He had his left hand bracing his right wrist, and his gun was aimed at the parking lot.
His brother fired.
That made Kade run even faster. He barreled up the hill and caught just a glimpse of the black car before it disappeared around a bend in the road.
Mason cursed.
Kade did the same.
“Did you get a look at him?” Kade asked.
Mason cursed again and shook his head. “He was wearing a ski mask.” He pulled out his phone and hit a button. A moment later, Kade heard the emergency dispatcher answer. “The assailant is driving a late model black Chevy on Elmore Road. He’s armed and dangerous.”
Kade knew the dispatcher would send out all available deputies to track down this guy, but he also knew it would only be a matter of minutes before the shooter reached the interstate. Once there, he’d be much harder to find.
“I’ll do everything I can to catch up with him,” Mason promised, and he started running toward the road where he’d no doubt left his truck.
Kade would have liked to go in pursuit, as well, but with the shooter already out of sight, he had to check on Bree and Jamie. He could still see through the trees, but he wouldn’t breathe easier until he’d talked to Bree.