When she made it to the doorway, Elise immediately saw the spilled can of red paint. Or rather what was left of it. The person who’d written that message had used most of what remained to put that garbage on the wall.
But who had done that?
“I don’t suppose a handwriting expert can figure out who wrote it?” she asked.
He lifted his shoulder. “I’ll send a photo of it to the crime lab, but graffiti’s hard to match. Still, we might get some prints off the paint can and the brush.”
That was a start, but if they did find Buddy’s prints on it, he could claim they’d gotten there from the time he’d admitted to vandalizing her barn. That left Joplin and Meredith, and neither should have been inside her barn and near that paint can.
Of course, she hadn’t seen paint on Meredith’s white outfit, so it if had been the woman’s doing, then she’d used gloves and had avoided any splatter. Still, she didn’t seem the sort of woman who’d get her hands dirty.
Colt cursed again, and Elise followed his gaze to see what had gotten his attention. There, on the inside of the wall was yet more red paint. Unlike the other warning and profanity, this appeared to be just one word, but Elise couldn’t make out what it was.
She stepped closer at the same moment that Colt did, and Elise felt something bump across the front of her leg. At first she thought it was twine from an old hay bale, but she saw the sunlight glint off it.
A wire.
“Move!” Colt yelled.
There was the groaning sound of the wood as the roof collapsed and fell right toward them.
* * *
COLT HOOKED HIS arm around Elise and snapped her backward. Away from the falling wood.
It wasn’t a second too soon.
The roof of the rickety barn swooshed down, one of the thick beams glancing off the toe of Colt’s boot, but he managed to get Elise out of the way. He pushed her into what was left of the doorway and then outside.
And he kept going with her in tow.
He dragged them behind the first thing he reached, an old watering trough, while the rest of the barn crashed to the ground. The dust, wood bits and debris kicked up all around them.
Elise’s breath was already gusting, and her eyes were wide. “There was a wire,” she managed to say.
“Yeah. I saw it a little too late.” And that wire meant someone had rigged the roof to fall. Probably the same person who’d written the latest rounds of threats.
“Are you okay?” Reed called out. He came from the back of Elise’s house, running toward them with his gun drawn.
Colt did a quick check to make sure Elise hadn’t been hurt. She was visibly shaken, but thank heaven she didn’t seem to have any new injuries. They’d gotten lucky—again—and Colt hated to rely on something like luck when it came to Elise’s safety.
“Someone trip-wired it,” Colt let his fellow deputy know.
Reed mumbled something under his breath when he saw the pile of rubble that’d once been the barn. “I’ll get someone out here,” he said, stopping to take out his phone.
Good. Because they’d need help. Maybe they would be able to get something to identify the sick SOB who’d done this. It was attempted murder. Not just Elise this time but Colt, too.
Elise looked at him, her bottom lip trembling. “What was the word written on the inside wall of the barn?”
Even though it wouldn’t do anything to settle her nerves, Colt opened his mouth to tell her, but he heard something that stopped him. Some kind of movement on the other side of his truck. He looked up, didn’t see anything.
Then he heard the shot.
“Get down!” he shouted to Reed, but the deputy was already doing just that.
Colt’s heart jumped to his throat, and he shoved Elise lower so he could shield her with his body. Thankfully, Reed was still close enough to the house that he took cover by the side of the porch.
Just as another shot came their way.
The bullet went over their heads and into the barn debris. The trough that Colt was using was cast-iron but rusted through in spots. Definitely not enough protection from bullets, but it was too risky to try to move now. Especially when the shooter fired another shot.
Hindsight being twenty-twenty, Colt knew it’d been a huge mistake to bring Elise here to her ranch. A mistake that could cost them, big-time. All he could do now was stop this idiot and beat some answers out of him.
“I’m so sorry,” Elise mumbled.
He wasn’t looking for an apology, especially when this wasn’t her fault, but Colt couldn’t take the time to reassure her. Too much of a distraction. Instead, he focused on the angle of the shots. Whoever was trying to kill them was on the far side of his truck, probably behind some trees that rimmed the fence around Elise’s property.
“You see him?” Colt shouted to Reed.
“Not yet. But backup’s on the way.”
Colt lifted his head just a fraction to see if he could get a glimpse of the guy, but Elise pulled him right back down. “Don’t,” she insisted. “He could kill you.”
He wasn’t especially fond of the idea of risking his life, either, but the shots couldn’t go on like this. Even if one didn’t hit them directly, there were too many things that could cause a bullet to ricochet.
The next shot came, and it was a lightbulb-over-the-head moment for Colt. Each of the shots was aimed at the same place. Not just nearby.
But in the exact spot in what was left of the barn.
If the shooter had actually been aiming at them, the bullets would have gone into the trough. Or into him when he’d lifted his head.
“I don’t think he’s trying to kill us,” Colt mumbled. But that didn’t mean that he could just jump out there and test the theory.
“Take out my phone,” he told Elise, maneuvering toward her so she could do that. “Text Reed and tell him to circle around the back of your house so he can get a look at this guy.”
Even though her hands were shaking as hard as the rest of her, Elise managed to get out his phone and send the text. The shots continued, spaced out about every five seconds. All still going into the same spot.
“If someone’s trying to scare me,” Elise whispered, “they’re doing a good job of it.”
Yeah. And maybe that was the only thing this nut job had in mind. If so, it could be Buddy or Joplin. Of course, Meredith might be getting plenty of pleasure from watching Elise being too terrified to go to her own home.
His phone buzzed. Elise still had it in a death grip, but Colt managed to see the screen and the message from Reed: Spotted a rifle in the trees by the fence. Can’t tell who’s shooting. Moving in closer.
Colt didn’t have to remind Reed to be careful. Reed was a good deputy and would be. Still, if he spooked the shooter, the guy could send some of those shots Reed’s way.
Another shot came, and Colt counted off the seconds in his head. Five, just like the others. And not a degree of variation on the angle of the shot. The recoil alone should cause most shooters to move their hands just a little to throw off the individual shots so that each bullet wouldn’t land in the exact spot each time.
Hell.
“Text Reed to tell him that I think the rifle’s rigged to a remote control,” he said to Elise.
Elise looked back at him, her eyes widening again. While she texted, she glanced at the next bullet that bashed into the heap of wood. Each new shot confirmed Colt’s theory. However, that didn’t mean the shooter wasn’t still out there, ready to gun them down if they stepped from cover.
The seconds crawled by. The shots continued.
Colt held his breath and hoped like the devil that Reed wasn’t walking into some kind of trap. Or that the shooter wasn’t closing in on Elise and him now that Reed didn’t have their backs. Just in case, Colt kept watch all around them.
His phone buzzed again, and Reed’s message popped up: You’re right. Remote control. No shooter in sight.
But unless the remo
te control was on a timer, the shooter would have to be close enough to operate it. Too close, and there were plenty of places for someone to hide.
I’m moving in, Reed texted.
Colt scrambled over Elise and to the end of the watering trough so he could try to provide some backup for his fellow deputy. He immediately spotted Reed darting from one tree to the other and directly toward the fence. It seemed to take an eternity, but Colt figured it was less than a minute before Reed made it to the rifle.
The shots stopped.
“Stay down,” Colt warned Elise.
Even though the bullets were no longer a danger, they were far from being safe. He levered himself up and tried to pick through the surroundings to see if he could find who’d just set this all in motion.
Nothing.
No timer, Reed texted.
So, whoever had done this had to be close. Colt couldn’t go after him because he couldn’t leave Elise alone, but he watched, waited. While he kept his gun ready.
Finally, he heard something. A snap. As if someone had stepped on a twig. But it hadn’t come from anywhere near the disarmed rifle and Reed. It’d come from behind Elise and him. On the other side of the barn.
Colt pivoted in that direction and saw the blur of motion. Someone moving behind an old storage shed. With just that brief glimpse, he couldn’t tell if it was one of their suspects or someone else.
Maybe another hired gun.
But if it was a hired gun, why hadn’t he just shot them? Why had the person instead rigged a gun on the remote control?
Maybe the plan was to pin them down and then come in for the kill. Someone who wasn’t so sure of their shot might do something like that.
Colt motioned to the shed. “Text Reed again,” he said to Elise. “Tell him that’s the location of the person who set all of this up.”
She nodded but had barely gotten started when Colt heard another sound that he definitely didn’t want to hear.
Someone running.
Whoever was out there was getting away.
Chapter Eight
“This is a really bad idea,” Elise mumbled.
Not her first time to mumble it, either, since they’d driven away from her house. Elise had been saying it since Colt had told her that the gunman had gotten away.
And that he was taking her to his family’s ranch.
She needed protection. The latest attack had proved that. But she wasn’t sure that walking into the lion’s den, aka the McKinnon ranch, was the best way to make that happen.
“You know your brothers and father don’t want me there,” she added.
“My brothers are at work, and my sister Rayanne and her husband are at a doctor’s appointment in San Antonio.”
That still left his father.
“Maybe the Rangers can find a different place to take me,” she added.
Colt didn’t say a word, but the glance he gave her said loads. She wasn’t going anywhere with anybody until they got to the bottom of this.
Whatever this was.
Someone had rigged that barn to fall on them. Perhaps like the shots from the rifle being controlled remotely, it’d only been meant to scare her and get her running.
But why?
Did that mean her attacker hadn’t wanted to kill her? Or maybe he hadn’t wanted to get close enough to try to kill her with Colt around.
Part of her wanted to do just that—run. But the other part of her hated that someone was trying to force her out of her home. Maybe force her from testifying against Roy, too.
Which led Elise to repeat her mumble about this being a bad idea.
“Your father won’t want me at the ranch,” she reminded him. And she wouldn’t blame him one bit. In this case, the truth wasn’t going to set him free. Just the opposite. It didn’t matter that she was in the middle of a fight for her life. Technically, Roy McKinnon was, too.
A muscle flickered in Colt’s jaw. “You won’t have to stay long. Just while I set up a safe house. I figured it was better to come here since it’s closer than going back to the sheriff’s office.”
Where they could be attacked again on the drive over.
Of course, they could be attacked anywhere, including his family’s ranch.
That was no doubt the reason Colt was keeping a vigilant watch all around them. Elise was, too, and she wondered just how long it would take her to stop looking over her shoulder.
A long time, especially if the attacks continued.
The only way they would stop was for them to find the person responsible and put him or her behind bars, but they seemed no closer to making that happen than when this had first started.
“Reed and Cooper will keep looking for the shooter,” Colt continued. “And there might be some prints or something on the rifle and the stand. We might even be able to find the remote control he was using.”
Elise knew that Colt’s brother and Reed were good lawmen and would do their best, but their attacker had headed straight for the woods. Hard to find someone in there if they didn’t want to be found. Besides, the guy probably had an escape plan in place before the attack even started.
“What about the barn?” she asked.
He paused a moment as if gathering his thoughts. “It wouldn’t have been hard to set a trip wire to bring down an old barn like that. But the person would have needed some time to do it.”
She shuddered because that likely meant someone had sneaked onto her land during the night or had done it while they were at the sheriff’s office. And that led Elise to her next question.
“Would Buddy have had time when he went up in the hayloft to get that box?” she asked.
“Not really. He was only in there a couple of minutes, and it would have taken more time than that to brace those rafters to be brought down by a trip wire.” He paused, groaned and wearily scrubbed his hand over his face.
“What is it?” she pressed.
“Buddy could have already had everything in place before he showed up. Maybe things he’d put in place on another visit. If so, he wouldn’t have needed much time to string the wire onto whatever he’d rigged to bring down the roof.”
She didn’t have any idea of the mechanics of such a thing, but Buddy knew every inch of that barn. Of all their suspects, he would have known the best way to orchestrate this particular attack. He would have also had the easiest time sneaking onto the ranch since he no doubt knew the trails on the property.
It sickened her to think that Buddy would do something that could have killed them, but then he’d been nothing but hostile to her since her return. It didn’t take much to believe that he could have escalated things with the booby trap and then the shots.
So, the culprit could have indeed been Buddy. In fact, as far as she was concerned, he was number one on their list of suspects.
“What was written on the wall?” she asked when Colt didn’t continue.
She braced herself to hear yet another threat or warning for her to get out of town, but Colt’s silence had her turning in the seat to face him. “What was it?” Elise pressed.
“It said ‘For Roy.’”
It took her a moment to realize what that meant. Another moment for it to hit her like a punch to the stomach.
Elise pressed her fingers to her mouth. “Oh, God.”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Colt quickly said. “Buddy could have put it there to take suspicion off him. Meredith and Joplin, too.”
He was right, of course, but it didn’t make this easier to swallow, especially since they were so close to a meeting that she didn’t want to have. Colt took the turn to his family’s ranch where she would no doubt come face-to-face with Roy McKinnon, the very man that her testimony would implicate in a murder.
Of course, Roy’s name on the wall implicated him in some way in the attacks against her. Or rather it implicated someone who wanted to protect him.
“This is a bad idea,” she repeated—again.
“I cal
led ahead. They know you’re coming.”
That didn’t help, either. It also didn’t help when Elise saw the woman standing on the porch.
Colt’s sister Rosalie.
Once Elise and she had been childhood friends despite the three-year age difference between them, and while Rosalie had welcomed Elise’s testimony so that it’d clear her mother’s name, Elise still wasn’t sure of the reception she’d get. From all accounts, Rosalie had reconciled with her father, so Elise braced herself for a frosty welcome.
That didn’t happen.
Rosalie came down the porch steps when Elise got out of the truck, and immediately pulled her into her arms. “I’m so sorry. Are you both okay?” she asked, volleying glances between Elise and her brother.
Elise managed a nod and was feeling a little better about this visit. Until she spotted Roy in the doorway, that is.
“Dad,” Colt greeted him. “You remember Elise.”
“Of course.” The corner of his weathered mouth lifted into what she thought might be a welcoming smile. “Sorry about the trouble you’re having.”
He sounded genuine enough, but Elise didn’t expect to get the warm, fuzzy feeling that she’d just gotten from Rosalie.
Colt looped his arm around Elise’s waist and got her moving up the steps. Good thing, too, because she no longer felt steady on her feet. “Elise just needs a place to rest and wait until I’ve made other arrangements.”
His father nodded. “She’s welcome here anytime. And for as long as she needs.” His gaze came to hers. “I was sorry to hear of your grandmother’s passing. She was a good woman.”
Elise somehow got her mouth working and thanked him, and Roy stepped to the side, motioning for her to go in. She did, with Colt and Rosalie trailing right along behind her.
“The guest room’s ready for you,” Rosalie said, but she immediately stopped when she heard a baby fussing. “That’s Sadie, my daughter, and she’s obviously not happy with her lunch. I need to go and help Mary.”
Elise didn’t need an explanation as to who Mary was. She’d been a housekeeper at the McKinnon ranch for as long as Elise could remember. Yet someone else that she had fond memories of from childhood. Too bad all those memories didn’t ease the discomfort she was feeling now.
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