Kelly’s hands were shaking as she locked the nursery door. Actually, she felt shaky all over, but she tried to contain her fear and concentrate on what had to be done.
“We need to call the sheriff,” she said, and reached for the phone.
“I’ll do it once we’re out of here,” Greta volunteered.
First, though, she opened the door to what Kelly thought was a walk-in closet. But it was no ordinary closet. There was another door concealed at the back of it. Greta pressed in a code on a keypad tucked in the corner, and the door opened. Kelly soon saw that there was a short set of stairs that led to what Nick had referred to as the panic room. An apt word, since Kelly felt like panicking.
Greta and she each scooped up a baby and hurried into the room. It was larger than the nursery and decorated in a similar style, but there were no windows, and the door that Greta used to shut them off from the rest of the house was metal. No doubt bulletproof.
“You can use that to keep an eye on Mr. Lattimer,” Greta suggested, pointing to the security monitor on a table on the far side of the room. She put William on the floor to play, and Kelly did the same with Joseph.
Kelly didn’t refuse Greta’s offer. While the woman made the call to the sheriff, Kelly stepped around the babies, who began to play with some stuffed animals, and hurried to the monitor. She quickly figured out how to use the tiny keyboard to switch camera angles.
Kelly zeroed in on the intruders. Even though they had something covering the lower parts of their faces, she could see that one of them had dark hair. The other was at least a head taller and had a stocky build.
They were in a pasture dotted with huge round hay bales, and were slowly making their way straight for the house. She did a quick assessment of their location and realized they were on the opposite side from the nursery and panic room. That didn’t mean they would stay there.
“The sheriff’s on the way,” Greta relayed.
Good. Unfortunately, they might need all the help they could get. But the question was—would the sheriff get there in time to stop something terrible from happening?
Kelly used the keyboard to bring up new camera angles, until she found Nick. He was by one of the many barns, slowly making his way toward the men.
Oh, God.
He was going for a showdown, even though he was outnumbered. And why? To protect them, of course. He was risking his life for them. Kelly didn’t want to thank him for that. She wanted to throttle him. Why hadn’t he just stayed inside the panic room with them until the sheriff arrived? She switched between the images of Nick and the gunmen until she finally figured out a way to put the images on a split screen.
“Greta,” someone said from over the intercom. It was Esther. “I can’t find Cooper.”
“Keep looking,” Kelly interrupted.
Though she had to wonder—where was Nick’s security guru when they needed him most?
“Mr. Lattimer knows how to take care of himself,” Greta said softly.
They were words meant to comfort her, no doubt. But Kelly wouldn’t be comforted until Nick was back inside and safe.
“He shouldn’t have gone out there alone,” Kelly mumbled.
And then she saw something on the screen that caused her fears to shoot through the roof. The two men stopped, said something to each other and one motioned in the direction of the barn where Nick was.
Then the men split up.
“Mercy,” Kelly said under her breath. “They know where Nick is.”
“What?” Greta asked, hurrying to the monitor.
Kelly tapped the image of the man on the lower portion of the screen. “The dark-haired one is trying to sneak around so he can ambush Nick.”
She didn’t have to wait long to have her theory confirmed. The taller gunman stood and fired a shot at the barn.
Nick took cover behind the barn and aimed his weapon. He probably didn’t know the fired shot had been a ploy to distract him so that the other man could sneak up behind him.
“I can’t sit here and watch him die.” Kelly got to her feet. “Is there anyway we can call Nick?”
“His cell phone.”
“It’s on his desk.” She remembered him pushing it aside when he used the monitor. He hadn’t taken it with him.
And that left Kelly with a huge decision.
Except it wasn’t really a decision. Nick had already saved her from the kidnappers once. Now, she had to do something to save him.
“Is there an extra gun in the house?” Kelly asked—though she already knew the answer. With Nick’s concern about safety, there were probably plenty of firearms around.
Greta’s blue eyes widened, but she didn’t seem shocked by the question or by what Kelly intended to do.
The nanny went to a cherub painting on the wall and lifted it. Beneath it was a safe. She hurriedly opened it and extracted a Glock.
“You know how to use this?” Greta asked, handing her the gun and the magazine of ammunition.
Kelly nodded. “My late husband was a cop. He taught me how to shoot.”
But Kelly had never thought she would have to use that particular skill.
“When the sheriff arrives, let him know what’s going on,” Kelly instructed. She went to the babies, leaned down and kissed both of them.
She didn’t linger. Didn’t waste any time. Because Nick’s life hung in the balance.
“Be careful,” she heard Greta say.
Joseph babbled bye-bye and William echoed it, the sounds nearly breaking Kelly’s heart. She wanted to stay with the babies, to make sure they were safe, but right now the only one in real danger was Nick.
Kelly left the panic room, went into the kitchen and found the cook and the head ranch hand, a lanky cowboy with weathered skin and a battered Stetson. He was seventy if he was a day. He introduced himself as Zeke and immediately tried to talk her out of leaving the house.
She didn’t listen.
However, Kelly did inform him of her plan. She’d get as close to the barn as possible so she could alert Nick and keep an eye out for the dark-haired gunman who was trying to sneak up behind him.
She opened the back door cautiously, and looked out to see if she could spot the men. Neither was in her line of sight, but that didn’t stop her. Kelly eased down the porch steps, into the backyard and raced toward a hedge. She hid behind it, probably using the same route that Nick had and made it to the edge of the barn.
No sign of Nick.
Or the second gunman.
She stopped and listened for footsteps, but all she could hear was the brutal November wind assaulting her. Kelly ignored the cold and the goose bumps riffling over her skin, quietly went to the front edge of the barn, and peeked around the corner.
There was suddenly a gun right in her face.
She choked back a shriek and had already geared up for a fight for her life before her brain registered that the person on the other end of the gun was Nick.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” he whispered in a snarl.
It took her several moments to find enough breath to speak. “One of the gunmen is about to ambush you.”
The words had no sooner left her mouth than she saw movement at the corner of the barn behind Nick. It was the dark-haired gunman.
And he took aim.
Nick must have sensed what was happening because he tackled her and sent them both plummeting to the ground. The fall was cold and hard, and Kelly felt pain shoot through her. Nick didn’t waste any time. With his body covering hers, he turned, aimed and fired.
Just as the gunman shot at them.
The bullet clipped off a chunk of the barn.
Nick and Kelly were out of position to return fire, but Nick quickly remedied that. He rolled off her, and in the same motion, he spun around and took aim.
But it was already too late.
The gunman wasn’t there.
She caught just a glimpse of him running across the pasture.
Nick sprang from the ground and went in pursuit. Kelly shouted for him to be careful, but she doubted he heard her. His attention was totally focused on the gunman. Correction. The gun
men.
When she raced to the end of the barn, Kelly spotted both of them.
The dark-haired man was hightailing it out of there, but the taller one was still in the pasture, and he took aim at Nick.
Nick fired at him first, and the shot slammed into the gunman’s weapon. Sparks flew, literally, and some must have caught the tall guy in the right eye because his hand went in that direction.
“Put down your gun!” Nick shouted to him.
The gunman didn’t. Instead, he darted behind a massive bale of hay, and Kelly caught a glimpse of him running away in the same direction as his comrade.
Nick began to run, as well. He used the hay bales and the fence for cover. The men were so far ahead of him that it was almost impossible for him to catch up with them. And if he did, what then?
Kelly didn’t want to think about that.
Using the same cover that Nick had, she followed in his footsteps in case it did come down to a gun fight. She couldn’t stand by and just watch him get hurt. Or worse.
But the gunmen no longer seemed interested in a confrontation. They didn’t even look back. They just continued to run until they barreled over the fence and disappeared into the dense woods on the other side.
And that left Kelly with one burning question. Why had they given up so easily?
Maybe because they hadn’t expected anyone to return fire? But that didn’t make sense. On a Texas ranch there was a solid chance that someone would have a weapon and know how to use it. So maybe the men had come for a quick in-and-out kidnapping and had gotten scared when that didn’t happen? It was a question that she was certain Nick would want answered ASAP.
Nick didn’t turn and come back as she figured he would. He sprinted right over the fence after those men.
N
ICK WAS SEVERAL STEPS
past being furious. These SOBs had come onto his property, shot at Kelly and him and had planned to do God knows what. He wanted to find them and beat answers out of both of them.
But he stopped and thought of Kelly and the babies.
Running in a thick forest after two armed men wasn’t the brightest thing he could do. In fact, the men might be out there waiting to ambush him. If that happened, they might be able to gain access to the house. Or they might just grab Kelly and run.
Nick glanced behind him and confirmed that Kelly was still standing there.
Cursing and feeling totally useless that he couldn’t end this threat here and now, Nick turned around and raced toward her. She levered up and aimed her gun. She was watching his back. Nick was thankful for it, but he hated that she had to put herself in a situation like this. He’d lived with danger most of his life, but this wasn’t something Kelly should have to experience.
“Are you okay?” Kelly asked the moment he got to her.
He didn’t take the time to answer. Nick didn’t want her out in the open a second longer. She’d already had more than enough risks.
Nick caught her arm to get her moving, and they ran back into the house. Esther was there. Alarmed, of course. And she’d apparently called his head ranch hand because Zeke Dixon was there as well.
“What do you need me to do?” Zeke immediately asked. Nick trusted Zeke who’d been with him the entire time he’d owned the ranch.
“There’s plenty to do,” Nick answered. “First things first—did anyone find Cooper?”
Both Zeke and Esther shook their heads. Nick cursed again. Here, there’d been a major breach in security and his security manager wasn’t around—again. The same thing had happened the night Kelly came to the ranch and tried to sneak into the nursery.
“Zeke, when Sheriff Cross gets here, explain to him what’s going on. Have him send some deputies to search those woods.” Nick put his weapon back into his slide holster. “Esther, I need you to call Rosalinda McMillan, Eric’s former secretary. You’ll find her name in my Rolodex in my office. Ask her to come to the ranch immediately. I need to talk to her.”
“What does Eric’s former secretary have to do with this?” Kelly asked when Zeke and Esther hurried out to do what he’d asked of them.
“I need her to tell me everything she knows about Eric so that maybe I can get him arrested.” He left out the part about his working for the feds. For now. “That’s the only way these attacks are going to stop.”
Nick headed toward Cooper’s office, and Kelly was right behind him.
“What if she’s still loyal to Eric?” Kelly asked.
“I’ve considered that she might be stringing me along so she can report back to Eric that I’m out to get him. But Eric already knows I’d do just about anything to put him away, so she wouldn’t exactly be telling him anything new.”
But Nick hoped that Rosalinda was on the up and up. He desperately needed something.
They went by the panic room on the way to Cooper’s office, but Nick could hear cries before they even opened the door. The cries belonged to not one baby, but both. The nanny was trying to rock them, but they were obviously not happy.
Nick scooped up William, kissed him and the baby hushed immediately.
“I think they sense that’s something’s wrong,” Greta commented.
“No doubt,” Kelly said. She traded Greta her gun for Joseph. The little boy’s cries tapered off.
Nick decided it was a good idea for the babies to be with them anyway, so he hitched his shoulder toward the door. “I need to check something in Cooper’s office.”
Kelly nodded, held Joseph snugly against her and followed him. When they made it to Cooper’s office, Nick sat at the desk and started going through the surveillance images of the past half hour. He stopped when the saw the file open on Cooper’s computer.
“Denny Russell,” Nick read aloud.
“What about him?” But Kelly didn’t wait for an answer. She went behind the desk with Nick and looked at the screen.
Nick quickly read through Cooper’s notes and found something he certainly hadn’t known about. A vehicle registered to P.I. Denny Russell had been spotted at the locked front entrance gate to the ranch just the night before. According to Cooper’s evaluation of the surveillance tapes, Denny had actually gotten out of his car and tried to climb the fence before the alarm sounded. Then he’d gotten back into his vehicle and driven off.