Guardian Ranger

by Cynthia Eden

  “Jimmy’s outside,” she said. “Wyatt thinks that he shot the deputy.”

  Gunner’s hold tightened on his weapon. “Take her to the back. I’ll check it out.”

  Wyatt’s fingers were trembling. How must he feel? To have shot Jimmy.

  “I nearly raised him...” Wyatt whispered as he shook his head. “That boy...how could he do this?” He pulled her down the hallway. “How?” Pain deepened his voice.

  More stumbling steps and they were near the end of the hallway. The room that housed Cale was to the right.

  “Go on in there,” Wyatt said with a nod toward the door. “Stay with Cale until we make sure Jimmy is...” Wyatt’s breath blew out on a rough sigh. “Just stay with him.” Then he was gone. Rushing back down the hallway.

  She opened the door. The handle turned easily beneath her fingers. She would have thought that Gunner had locked the room, but maybe her brother had—

  The room was empty. Cale was gone. The slats of wood had been pried off the window.

  Gunfire blasted once more.

  * * *

  JASPER AND LOGAN HAD their weapons out. They were scanning the area around Veronica’s ranch. So far, there were no signs of Jimmy.

  Not yet.

  “The front door’s open,” Logan whispered.

  Jasper nodded to show he’d heard. Then he gave a quick gesture with his hand. He’d go in first, and Logan could follow for cover.

  One, two...

  By three, he was in the house. And the house had most definitely been searched. Ransacked. Not just Veronica’s room this time. Not just Cale’s room.

  Everything had been destroyed.

  Was the guy still in there? Only one way to find out. Another fast hand gesture, and he and Logan swept through the kitchen. Sydney had her weapon out now, too, and she flanked them. Room by room, they searched.

  Downstairs.

  Upstairs.

  Broken furniture. Overturned chairs.

  But no Jimmy Jones.

  Jasper peered down from Veronica’s window. “He could be in any of those buildings.” Just like before. Only this time, the guy was watching them, not Veronica.

  “If he’s out there, why hasn’t he taken us out?” Sydney asked. “He could have gotten shots off when we came on the porch.”

  “Maybe our cover was too good. He didn’t have a clean shot,” Logan said instantly. “Maybe—” He broke off, frowning, then pulled his phone out of his back pocket. The phone made no sound, but Jasper knew the device would be emitting a small vibration. “It’s Gunner.” Logan put the phone to his ear. “Area isn’t secure yet. We’re—”

  Jasper saw his eyes widen.

  “When? Damn it, yes, we’re on the way.” He shoved the phone back into his pocket. “Gunner says we aren’t going to find the deputy out here. He’s back in town, shooting at Wyatt.”

  “He lured us away,” Sydney said with a shake of her head even as they all raced for the stairs. “That guy wanted to separate us so he could attack better. He left his phone for us to track.”

  Now he was heading in to take out Cale. And Veronica. They rushed out of the front door. The porch creaked beneath their feet.

  But then they heard the peal of a ringing cell phone, a sound that came from within the house. Jimmy’s phone? Sydney glanced back at the house. “Why...” Then her eyes widened. “The bomb at the sheriff’s station—it was triggered by a cell! He could be doing it again! Run!”

  But there wasn’t time to run. The house exploded behind them. The force of the blast sent Jasper flying into the air, and then he hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud.

  * * *

  VERONICA RUSHED BACK down the hallway. There was no more gunfire. Just silence. She crouched low, not wanting to make a target, and turned the corner that would take her back to the small lobby.

  “Wyatt?” Veronica whispered. He was bent near the front desk.

  He turned around, eyes widening. He had his phone in his hand. “I can’t get Logan and the others.” Worry hardened his words. “No one’s answering.”

  She swallowed over the lump in her throat. “And Cale’s gone.”

  Wyatt tensed. “What?” Then, suddenly, Wyatt was right in front of her, grabbing her arm and pulling her close. “Hell, he’s supposed to be cuffed back there.”

  “The handcuffs were on the floor. The room was empty. He’s gone. H-he must have picked the lock and managed to pry the boards off the window.” The EOD had underestimated him. Her brother had gotten out of plenty of tight spots over the years. As if that little room would have held him for long.

  Wyatt glanced over his shoulder. “Is that Jimmy out there shooting at us...or Cale?”

  Shock squeezed her heart. “B-but you said...Jimmy...”

  “I never saw the shooter.” His confession was a rough rasp. “I just assumed...” He shook his head. “Never mind. We have to get out there. Gunner needs to know who he’s facing.” His gaze penned hers. “You stay low and you move fast, got it?”

  She had it, all right. But she’d feel better if she had a weapon. If she had something. Her gaze flew around the room. The filing cabinets. The desk.

  She swiped out with her hand, grabbing the small weapon that probably wouldn’t do her a bit of good.

  Then she followed Wyatt. She stayed down. She moved fast. Just as he’d told her. Just as...

  “Get in,” Wyatt ordered roughly.

  They were at his patrol car. He was trying to push her into the back.

  There was no gunfire. No sign of Gunner or Cale or Jimmy.

  And Wyatt was sweating so much. From fear. From adrenaline. From...something more?

  Her fingers were curled around the small letter opener that she’d grabbed from the desk. “You didn’t say we were going to leave Gunner.”

  “I don’t see him.” His gaze darted to the left. To the right. “So the only thing we can do is go to the ranch and try to find the others. Then we’ll come back.”

  “But Jimmy could get away. Cale could—”

  He pushed her toward the backseat. “We don’t have time to argue, Veronica! Let’s go!”

  But she hesitated. Something just felt wrong.

  “Veronica!”

  Cale’s voice. She started to smile then. It was going to be all right. It was—

  Wyatt spun at Cale’s shout. He brought up his gun and fired.

  She screamed when her brother fell back. Screamed—and shoved that letter opener into Wyatt’s shoulder. The bellow of pain was his, but she was already moving, trying to jerk his gun away. He was strong, though, far stronger than she’d realized, and he shoved her, sending her tumbling into the back of his patrol car. She lunged up in an instant.

  And found herself staring down the barrel of his gun.

  “Didn’t want it to be like this,” Wyatt muttered, with a shake of his head. “Not for you. I had other plans for you.”

  “Wyatt?”

  Another gunshot rang out. It ricocheted off the open patrol car door. Wyatt swore and dropped low. She rushed forward, but he slammed the door, sealing her inside.

  There were no handles on the back door. No way to lower the windows. A wire cage separated her from the front seat.

  More gunfire erupted. One bullet hit Wyatt in the shoulder. He was snarling and lifting his gun, spinning around and seeming to fire right up into the air. Then he was lunging into the front of the patrol car. Revving the car’s engine and racing away. Veronica was yelling for him to stop. But he wasn’t.

  She spun back to look behind her. Cale was trying to sit up. His chest was soaked with blood and his hand was up, as if he were reaching for her.

  Gunner ran up behind Cale, a gun still gripped in the agent’s hand. Gunner lifted that gun, as if he’d fire.

  Then his gaze locked on hers.

  Help me.

  Gunner didn’t fire.

  Wyatt left them with a scream of his tires.

  * * *

  JASPER PUSHE
D TO his feet. The house was an inferno, blazing out of control. The house that Veronica had loved.

  “That’s how he did it at the station,” Sydney murmured. She didn’t seem to be aware that a one-inch gash was dripping blood down her cheek. “He had the bomb already wired. He knew we were bringing in the kidnappers. He just had to press a few buttons, make one call.”

  And the station had exploded.

  Sydney yanked out her phone. Dialed fast. Then, “Gunner, listen, the ranch has just—” She broke off, inhaling sharply. Her stare was on Jasper and he saw the horror in her eyes. Saw the faintest tremble of her lower lip, and he knew the news she’d gotten had been bad.

  Veronica.

  “But...but you’re all right?” Sydney whispered uncertainly.

  Sydney was never uncertain.

  Jasper took a step forward. Logan was on his feet now and they were both closing in on Sydney even as the house burned. “We’ll be right there,” she said. “But—what? What has Cale done?”

  He wouldn’t hurt Veronica. Cale would never...

  Sydney lowered her phone. “Logan, use your pull. Call D.C. and get them to send some county backup over to us now. The deputy’s still missing, and Veronica...” Her gaze cut back to Jasper. “She’s been taken.”

  Jasper was already shaking his head because that just wasn’t an option. She couldn’t be taken by anyone. She couldn’t be hurt. He needed her too much and—

  “It was the sheriff,” Sydney said. “Gunner told me the guy shot Cale and then Wyatt forced Veronica into the back of a patrol car. He took off, going hell fast, but Cale’s following him. I guess a bullet can’t slow him down for long.”

  Everything seemed to slow down for Jasper. Even the heat of the flames seemed to die away.

  Wyatt forced Veronica into the back of a patrol car.

  “He’s dead,” Jasper whispered.

  Sydney flinched. She put the phone back to her ear. “Gunner, do you have Cale within sight? I know he took the motorcycle but...” Her worried stare wasn’t leaving Jasper.

  Only he could barely see her. In his mind, he just saw Veronica. Scared. He didn’t want her to be scared.

  He’d said that he would keep her safe.

  And he was damn well gonna do it.

  Sydney was off the phone now, but Logan had yanked out his phone to call for backup. Jasper wasn’t about to let any more time waste. “Tell me that you can track Cale,” he said to Sydney. Sometimes the EOD would put tracking chips under the skin of certain witnesses, witnesses who were in danger of being abducted or killed. Logan’s Juliana had been one of those witnesses. That tracking device had saved her life. Maybe—

  Sydney shook her head.

  No.

  “The sheriff took her,” Jasper gritted out. The man had been right there, with them every step of the way. He should have known. He should have suspected.

  But he’d been focused on the mission, on capturing Cale. Then he’d been blindsided by Veronica.

  I’m coming, Veronica. I won’t let you down.

  “The sheriff knows every inch of this county,” Logan said, coming back to them. Flames crackled behind them. “He’s gonna have the advantage on us.” The guy could just disappear. Or just dump Veronica’s body someplace and then vanish.

  Jasper turned away, began walking at first, then flat-out running toward the car.

  “Jasper!” Logan called out.

  Jasper didn’t stop. He jumped in the vehicle. Sydney had another car. He wasn’t abandoning the other agents. He just wasn’t waiting. Veronica needs me. Jasper jerked the keys in the ignition, and the engine snarled to life.

  Logan’s hand slammed against the driver’s-side door. “You don’t even know where to look,” Logan snapped. “Let us get some intel together and—”

  “You get your intel. Get Sydney to run all those phone searches and GPS hunts like she does.” His fingers clenched around the wheel. “I’ll go back to town and tear every building down if I have to. I won’t let her—”

  His phone rang. He grabbed it instantly. “Veronica!”

  A faint laugh rolled into his ear. “No, but she’s close,” Jasper was told.

  Then he heard Veronica scream.

  He almost crushed the phone in his hands.

  “Want to see her, Ranger? Then you ditch those other EOD jerks,” Wyatt told him, voice grating. “You lose every single one of them, and you get yourself out to the old ranch at the end of Derby Road.”

  Derby Road? He had no idea where that road was, but he’d load the name into the GPS and find that ranch.

  “You’ve got twenty minutes to get there, or I’ll put a bullet into Veronica.”

  Jaw clenching, Jasper looked back up at Logan. Logan was his friend, his team leader. He knew the way situations like this were supposed to go down.

  Except this wasn’t just a case. Not a normal mission. It was Veronica.

  “I love her,” he said, the only thing that he could say. Logan would know who’d just made that call.

  Logan’s gaze told him that he understood, but Logan shook his head. “Give us the location. You need some backup. We can help!”

  Jasper shook his head. “Get away from the car.”

  Logan’s jaw clenched. But he jumped back.

  Jasper raced away from that burning ranch house. He couldn’t think of anything, anyone else just now...only Veronica.

  * * *

  “HE’S GOING AFTER her?” Sydney asked softly as she watched the car rush down the narrow highway. The flames burned behind them, the heat seeming to scorch her flesh.

  “Wyatt called him. I’m betting the SOB told him that if he brought backup, the girl would die.”

  Wasn’t that always the way it was.

  Sydney pulled out her phone. Scrolled through the carefully designed apps she had in her system—applications that she’d designed herself. “How long of a head start do you think Jasper wants?”

  Because Jasper would know that the EOD would be able to follow him. As long as his phone was still on, they could track him.

  Maybe Jasper was worried that Wyatt had a partner—that missing deputy—who might be watching them right now. So he wanted to make it look as if he were going in alone. Or maybe he just was thinking with his heart and not his head. Either way, the EOD never left a teammate on his own.

  Never.

  “Ten minutes,” Logan said with a nod. His gaze was still on Jasper’s fleeing vehicle. “That’ll give him time to get to his destination, go in and take out the sheriff.”

  Ten minutes. Plenty of time for an EOD agent to complete a mission. Only...

  It was also plenty of time for a man to die.

  “The sheriff got the drop on three other agents,” she reminded Logan, trying to keep her voice calm. “He’s not your average killer.” That fact should have turned up in her search. Where had the guy gotten all of his training?

  “Make it five minutes,” Logan said, and she could see the tension that had tightened his face. “Make sure Gunner’s on the move with the same intel, too. We want to give Jasper as much cover as we can.”

  In the distance, she could finally hear the scream of a fire truck’s siren. Volunteers, had to be for a town this size, but with one phone call, Logan had gotten them mobilized. The EOD had some pretty powerful strings.

  Would the EOD be strong enough to save one of its own? “Five minutes,” she repeated, and punched in the button for Gunner. They would save Jasper and Veronica. They hadn’t lost one of the Shadow Agents yet, and they weren’t about to start now.

  * * *

  THE OLD RANCH on Derby Road was just as Veronica remembered it. Sagging roof, busted windows, a wooden gate that was barely standing. The place had been in disrepair for over ten years.

  Since before Jimmy’s mother had left the kid alone there.

  The patrol car braked to a stop. Veronica had been yelling when Wyatt was on the phone. She’d tried to tell Jasper to stay away.

&
nbsp; Because it’s a trap.

  As soon as Wyatt saw him, she knew the sheriff would take aim at Jasper, just as the man had taken aim at her brother.

  Her fingers curled over the wire caging that separated her from the front seat. “Is Jimmy dead?”

  Wyatt jumped, then whirled toward her. “Why would you think that?” He shook his head. “I’ve always taken care of Jimmy.”

  The way you’ve taken care of me? “Where is he?”

  Wyatt’s breath eased out on a low sigh. “Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing Jimmy soon enough.”

  The words sounded like a threat. Probably because they were. “You shot my brother.”

  Wyatt’s eyes bored into hers. “Your brother’s a killer, Veronica. Cold-blooded. Soulless.”

  No, Wyatt was the cold-blooded one. “I—I heard what you said to Jasper—”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not killing you...yet.”

  But he would. As soon as he was finished using her as bait.

  She licked lips that had gone desert dry. Veronica knew she had to get away from him. Had to stop him, before he hurt someone else that she cared about. Or before he just killed her.

  But then Wyatt was climbing out of the driver’s seat, coming back toward her and opening her door. “If you fight me, I’ll shoot you. Jasper won’t be able to tell if you’re alive or dead from a distance.”

  She couldn’t even speak in response to the brutal words. This was the real Wyatt? He’d had weekly dinners at the ranch. Spent Christmas with her and Cale.

  Now he’s going to kill me.

  “Don’t fight, Veronica,” he warned her as he reached inside the car and locked his hands around her wrists.

  She didn’t fight him. But she started to plan.

  Then she was in front of him. She tipped back her head to stare up at his face. A monster shouldn’t have such a normal face. You should be able to see the evil. It shouldn’t have hid so easily behind kind eyes.

  “I always liked you, Veronica.” Wyatt’s words were soft, tinged with a hint of regret. “Cale should have made certain you stayed out of this mess.”

  “C-Cale didn’t bring me into it. I went looking for him.”

  “Because you’re loyal.” He was too close. She wanted to swing at him, but she had a really crummy punch. Cale had said that was her weakness, but...