“Like when you try to remember a person’s name you used to know and can’t? Then later it just pops into your head?”
“Exactly.”
She glanced at the heavier traffic and lights in the distance. “Are we almost to your ranch?”
“Yeah, another ten minutes.”
She relaxed and let out a long sigh. “I miss holding Kaleb. This has got to be hard on him. He’ll be glad to see Mr. Teddy.”
“Mr. Teddy?”
“I figure I’d give the bear a name. Kaleb can’t yet.”
Drake chuckled. “I like it.”
When he turned into the drive that led to his family home, he scanned the terrain before him and slowed his SUV to a crawl. “Call again.”
The stiff tone to his words caused Kay to perk up and sit forward. “What’s wrong?” She glanced at the house, where a few lights glowed in the dark.
“Probably nothing, but the Christmas tree is always lit up every night around five o’clock and left on all night. It’s a tradition. My father calls it a beacon of light for people who go by on the road.”
“They’re probably all at the barn and forgot.” But when she looked that way, all she saw was one light shining near the main double doors, which was on every night.
“I hope that’s it, but something doesn’t feel right. My dad and Anna are creatures of habit. If one doesn’t turn on the Christmas tree lights, the other does before it grows dark. My mom started it years ago, and they have carried out the tradition since she died.” He pulled over to the side of the gravel road. “Call the house again while I get a few things from the back. Stay put. I’ll be right back.”
She grabbed the sat phone and hit the recent-call button while Drake switched off the headlights and climbed from the vehicle. Seconds later, he opened the hatch, retrieved something and headed back to the driver’s seat with night-vision goggles and his rifle slung over his shoulder.
Again, all she heard was a busy signal. The sight of a second weapon sent her heart racing. Feeling the tension emanating from Drake, she asked, “What’s going on? Do you think it’s the other guy I remember from the canyon?”
“I don’t know, but considering what’s been happening lately, I’m not taking any chances. We’re going to walk the rest of the way to the house. I’m probably overreacting, but I’d rather be doing that than something unexpected occurring.”
“They all could have gone somewhere else.” To hide or flee because of me. She didn’t want to voice that thought out loud, though.
“I told Dallas about the second guy. He’s good at his job. If they went somewhere else, it was for a good reason.”
“Then why is the phone giving us a busy signal? Why didn’t Dallas or your dad call and let you know? We shouldn’t have gone. I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“You learned a lot more today. All of that may help us piece together what happened. We got back as fast as we could.” He twisted toward her.
Although she couldn’t see him, she felt the sweep of his gaze, taking her in as though the overhead light shined. She balled her hands, her fingernails stabbing her palms. “I’m coming with you.”
“I wasn’t going to leave you here, but I want you to stay close. If I tell you to do something, do it without question.”
“I will.” As though his wary feelings were contagious, a heavy foreboding pressed down on her. “Should we call the police?”
*
“No, not yet,” Drake answered, not wanting to voice his suspicion. What if someone at the police department had leaked Kay’s whereabouts? He couldn’t take a chance until he figured out what was going on. “C’mon.”
He grabbed the sat phone, then put on his night-vision goggles to scan the terrain for anyone before going inside. As he sneaked toward his family home with Kay following, he kept to the dark shadows. He didn’t want to enter until he’d circled the house. There were times he hated to think the worst of a situation, but he had to be prepared in case he was right. Being wrong wasn’t an option when he was responsible for others’ safety.
At the window where the Christmas tree sat, drapes pulled open, he crept up to the sill to peek into the den. One light on the end table dimly illuminated the room. No one was there, which was unusual, because his dad loved to watch television and enjoy the holiday decorations.
“Do you see anything?” Kay whispered close to his ear.
“No. Let’s go to the rear deck and enter the house that way.” Drake continued his trek toward the kitchen.
As he neared the back door, the silence bothered him more than anything. The only window he’d been able to look inside was the one with the Christmas tree. He paused and swung around, grasping Kay’s upper arms. He wanted to leave her outside in case something was wrong, but he couldn’t take that risk.
The quiet sharpened his senses as he eased the door open. He entered as though clearing the house of a possible suspect. With gun drawn, he kept it lowered but ready to lift and shoot at a second’s notice. After sweeping the kitchen, he crept into the hallway and made his way to the living and dining rooms then the den. Everything was as it should be, except that the Christmas tree lights weren’t on. Out of habit, he crossed to the pine in front of the window and plugged the lights in, as if that would make the tightening in his gut go away.
“We’ll check your bedroom first, then the rest.” Drake moved past Kay.
She clasped his arm and whispered, “Where are they?”
He shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to think of the possibilities. His family knew they were on the way home. Why didn’t they call or leave a note? Unless Anna, Kaleb, Dallas, his dad and Frank turned up before they finished going through the house, he would have to call the captain at the police station. Captain Brad Vincent had been a good childhood friend while growing up. Drake would have to trust him.
As he slunk down the hallway, each muscle tightened even more as though he expected an attacker to jump out at any moment. The hairs on his nape stood up, and he forced deep breaths into his lungs.
When he stepped into Kay’s bedroom doorway, he stiffened.
Behind him, Kay said, “No!”
He glanced back at her. She cupped her hand over her mouth, her eyes huge. “Let’s finish checking the house.” He pivoted away from the trashed room with sheets yanked from the bed, drawers emptied and the playpen gone.
“Give me your rifle. I’ll stand guard here while you do.”
“You know how to shoot?”
“I can pull the trigger if a bad guy comes down this hall.” Kay drew up tall, her face set in a look of determination. “I’ll do whatever I have to to protect Kaleb.”
“I’ll be back. Don’t take your eyes off the hallway.” A steely coldness embedded itself deep in Drake as he continued his search. Someone other than his family and Dallas had been here. Whoever it was would regret ever stepping onto his property.
In his dad’s room, he headed straight for the phone on the bedside table. When he picked it up, the line was dead. He retrieved the satellite phone from his pocket and punched in Captain Vincent’s number.
“I’m at the ranch. My family, the baby and Texas Ranger Sanders are gone. The house phone is dead, probably the line cut, and one of the rooms is ransacked. I have Kay with me.”
“I’ll let the sheriff know. I’ll be there as soon as I can with a couple of my men, too.”
When Drake disconnected the call, he swung around to examine the cold room. His gaze caught a message scrambled on the dresser mirror. “Gone to Mom’s peace.”
Mom’s peace? He continued his survey, discovering the source of the chill. The door to the deck was ajar. Had someone gotten in this way, or had his dad left through this exit? He carefully swung the opening wider without touching the knob and peered outside into the darkness. As he stepped back into the house, his attention fixed on several drops of what looked like blood on the tiles by the entry.
EIGHT
Kay ke
pt her focus on the corridor. She’d told Drake she could use the rifle. She’d said it before she even thought about what that meant. Maybe she did know how to shoot. Either way, she wouldn’t let whoever was after her win. If Kaleb had been kidnapped, she wouldn’t rest until she found him. She hadn’t hiked for miles carrying him to let him be taken from her.
Another memory teased the edges of her mind. The mist cleared, giving her a picture of herself standing at a shooting range holding a handgun and firing.
For a second, she sliced her gaze toward the upheaval in the guest bedroom. Were they looking for something besides Kaleb? As she started to return her attention to the hallway, she glimpsed a small hole in the wall near the dresser.
A bullet hole!
She gasped and faced forward. She wished Drake was back. What if someone was still in the house? Throwing a quick peek at the corner he’d disappeared around, she fortified herself with a newly discovered resolve. She didn’t give up easily.
“I’m coming back, Kay.”
As the sound of his footsteps grew closer, she relaxed the tight muscles in her arms and brought the rifle down. “I have something to show you.”
“Me, too.”
“What?”
“You first, then we need to check out the garage. Dallas’s truck is still here and Frank’s is by the barn, but what about Anna’s or my father’s vehicles?” He stopped only a foot from her.
Every time she saw him, her heart kicked up a notch. The strong planes of his face and his muscular build reassured her he could protect her. That eased the panic surging at the sight of the bullet hole.
She turned and pointed at it. “Something more than trashing the place went on here.”
“In my dad’s room, I found the deck door open and blood on the floor, leading outside. I followed a trail, and it went across the deck and down the steps.”
“You think your dad was shot?”
“Could be. His pistol is gone. He could have been defending himself.”
Drake entered the room and examined the hole in the wall by the dresser on the far side. “There’s blood here, too.” He faced her. “I called the police. Help is on the way. Let’s see if any vehicles are gone from the garage.”
When they reached the door to the garage, Kay recalled the first time she’d been in it, when Drake had brought her home after the assailant tried to kidnap Kaleb in the field. “Drake, I think Kaleb is at the center of this.”
“Why?”
“Because behind the café, my attacker tried to take Kaleb from me. Maybe someone is trying to kidnap him, and I’ve been on the run, trying to prevent that.”
“That could be what happened. Usually in a baby snatching, there’s a reason, like ransom or baby trafficking. If it was for a reason like ransom, I could see them pursuing you, especially if someone paid them, but in baby trafficking, I doubt they would have gone to all that trouble. They would find an easier target.”
For ransom? That usually meant a person had money to pay it. If she came from a wealthy family, why wasn’t it broadcast that she and Kaleb were missing? Not much made sense to Kay, and when she thought about it, her head usually began to throb with all the questions. There was no time to deal with them right now. They had to find Kaleb and Drake’s family.
He reached for the rifle in her hands.
“No, you can’t shoot both weapons at the same time. While standing guard, I had a memory of being at a shooting range. I know my way around a gun.”
“Until I see your ability with a gun, I’m taking both. Stay behind me.” He moved toward the kitchen.
She couldn’t blame Drake for insisting he keep the weapons, but Kaleb was hers, and she needed to be involved in protecting him. She held her breath as he flipped the switch and opened the door to the garage. When he stepped down onto the concrete floor, Kay glimpsed both Anna’s and Tom’s vehicles.
“Stay here. I’m going to check around.”
When Drake returned from his search of the garage, grim lines cut deep into his expression. “Either they were taken or—” he passed her in the entrance and walked across the kitchen “—they’re hiding somewhere on the ranch.”
She hurried after him as he left by the back door and strode toward the barn, his gaze sweeping the terrain around them the whole time.
Halfway to the barn, Drake stopped. “‘Mom’s peace’ was written across my dad’s dresser mirror.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Mom loved riding Blue Bonnet when she had a problem to work out, but I don’t think that’s it. That’s too obvious.” He pivoted and headed in the direction they’d come from. When he reached the yard, he made his way toward a garden in the back with lush bushes in the center. “If they’re anywhere, it’s the bomb shelter.”
“A bomb shelter like from the Cold War?”
“Yep. My granddaddy had it installed in the early 1950s. Since then, it’s come in handy a few times for a tornado warning. It’s not common knowledge.”
A shot rang out in the still of night. Kay reacted as though she’d been fired upon before. She dived behind a large brick barbecue grill while Drake ducked around a matching three-foot brick wall.
“Are you all right?” Drake rose partway and returned fire.
“Yes. How about you?”
“Stay down. The shot came from the barn. The police will arrive any minute.”
He didn’t answer her question. Had he been hurt? He’d jerked to the left when she heard the shot. Keeping the brick structure between herself and the barn, she sidled along it until she could see Drake in the dim light from the house.
“Where were you hit?”
“It’s nothing,” he said as a bullet struck the top of the wall near him, chunks of brick flying in the air. He crawled toward Kay until he could stand up, using the outdoor grill as his shield.
Sirens in the distance reverberated in the quiet.
Immediately Kay saw the blood seeping through Drake’s jacket from a wound on his upper left arm. She reached for the rifle. “At least let me have a weapon.”
“I don’t think—”
Another shot sounded, hitting where Drake had been a moment before. As a man flung open the rear barn door and ran, Kay took the rifle, aimed and fired.
Kay struck a leg, and the man went down while a second intruder left his shelter, firing two handguns toward them. She flattened herself behind the barbecue grill. From the other side, Drake discharged his weapon twice.
The man on the ground started crawling away. His comrade disappeared around the side of the barn, shielded from them, and fired his weapon again.
The police couldn’t be more than half a mile away.
“I’m not letting the hurt man get away. Keep a lookout while I catch him.” Drake charged forward across the ground between the yard and where one of the shooters grasped the wooden slat of a fence.
As Drake raced toward the hurt man, Kay kept vigilant for the other intruder. The sirens grew even louder. Then she caught sight of multiple headlights coming down the gravel road. When several stopped not far from her, she hurried toward the first officer, who exited his car.
“Drop the gun, ma’am,” he said, raising his.
She hadn’t even realized she still held the rifle. She immediately followed his directions. “I’m Kay. Texas Ranger Jackson is securing one of the gunmen behind the barn.” She pointed in the direction. “Another man fled around the far side of the barn. Probably halfway across the field by now.”
Captain Brad Vincent approached them. “Officer Thomas, go help him.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Dispatch the other officers to search the field on the east side of the barn.” After his man left, he faced Kay. “Are you all right?”
“I am, but Drake has been shot. According to him, it’s nothing.”
A brief smile flashed across the captain’s mouth. “Knowing Drake, that doesn’t surprise me.”
More patrol cars drove tow
ard the house, along with an ambulance, probably because Drake had told them he had found a blood trail. The adrenaline that had pounded through her during the skirmish slowly subsided, and all she wanted to do was sink to the ground. She didn’t. She still had to find Kaleb.
Crack!
The captain shoved Kay to the ground while drawing his firearm and turning toward the sound of the gunshot. In the distance, she heard what she thought were the police officers in the field returning fire.
She immediately searched for Drake at the back of the barn with the downed suspect. A surge of adrenaline flooded her body again. Drake knelt next to the wounded attacker on the ground. Earlier he’d been trying to get away, but now he was still, his head rolling to the side. Had the man been shot by his partner?
When it quieted down, she lifted her head to get a better sense of what was going on. The ambulance pulled up near the rear of the barn while sheriff’s deputies came to the aid of the police officers hunting the other assailant in the field.
When Captain Vincent received a radio call, he answered, “Let the sheriff’s deputies take over. We still need to find the family and secure the area.” After disconnecting, the man swiveled around and extended a hand to help her up. “The other suspect was killed in the field.”
The viciousness of the past half hour overwhelmed Kay. As she rose, her legs shook, and she wasn’t sure she could even walk. She glanced toward the back of the barn and saw the paramedics lift the intruder onto the gurney, then cover his body, including his head, with a sheet. Two men had died tonight. What was going on? So much violence, all because of her, and she couldn’t even give a reason why. She hugged her arms to her chest, trying to ward off the chill that encased her. But it drilled deep into her bones.
Lord, I have to remember more than bits and pieces. How can I protect Kaleb when I don’t know who’s behind this?
*
Drake stopped long enough to let a paramedic bandage his upper arm where a bullet had grazed him. It hurt, but he didn’t have time to go to the hospital, as the EMT suggested. He’d had worse wounds than this one.
Lone Star Christmas Rescue Page 9