Aiden nodded. “Do the same for me.”
Colt and Reed assured him that they would, and Reed got her moving toward the front door. However, he didn’t let her go out to the parking lot.
“Wait here with Colt,” Reed instructed, “and I’ll bring the truck around. Someone could be out there watching.”
And that someone could be waiting to kill them.
While Reed went for the truck, Colt called Cooper to fill him in on what’d happened, but Addison couldn’t hear Cooper’s response because of the wail of sirens coming toward the county sheriff’s office. Not only was the ambulance too late to save the lawyer or the kidnapper, but the noise was also unnerving because it could mask the sounds of anyone nearby who might be planning on attacking them.
Maybe that had been part of the plan all along—to get them hurrying out of the county sheriff’s office. But Reed was obviously taking precautions to make sure another attack didn’t happen. As promised, he pulled his truck directly in front of the door so that she only had to take a few steps outside.
“I’ll be driving right behind you,” Colt said, and hurried to his own truck in the nearby parking lot. Reed didn’t pull away until Colt was in his vehicle and ready to go. The ambulance screeched to a stop behind them, and the medics barreled out, heading inside.
As he’d done on the drive over, Reed kept watch around them, but they’d hardly made a few hundred feet from the sheriff’s office when his phone buzzed, and Addison saw Cooper’s name on the screen. Maybe this wouldn’t be yet more bad news.
“I found one of the adoptive parents for the first baby that Mellie gave birth to,” Cooper said when Reed answered. “It wasn’t a surrogate situation as we originally thought. Mellie got pregnant when she was seventeen, and she gave the baby up. This was a private adoption, one where the adoptive mother paid a considerable sum of money to get the newborn.”
Addison felt her pulse jump. “Is the baby okay?” Because things could perhaps go wrong with a private adoption.
“As far as I can tell. I did a quick background check on the adoptive mother. She’s single, has a record for embezzling and probably wouldn’t have gotten a child through a regular adoption agency. Still, there are no reports that the baby has been harmed in any way. I’ll check though to make sure,” Cooper added before she could ask.
“Thank you. But what does this mean? And what about the second baby Mellie had?” Addison asked.
“Nothing yet, but we’re still looking. It doesn’t help that there’s no official adoption papers for that particular child.”
Addison prayed they would find the child, unharmed. But she also added another prayer—that Mellie and Cissy weren’t actually involved in whatever it was that had initiated these attacks.
“If Mellie was part of the baby farm, why wouldn’t she have just told someone?” Reed pressed.
“Money, maybe. Or she could have been coerced in some way.”
Coerced as in forced to become pregnant. Maybe not by the adoptive parent but by whoever was behind the baby farm.
Like Quarles.
Of course, according to the judge, it could be Rooney or Dominic who’d set up the illegal farms.
“The adoptive mother of Mellie’s first child has consented to a DNA test for the baby,” Cooper explained. “I’m going to get someone over there with a kit today.” He paused. “Are you two okay?”
Reed opened his mouth, maybe to confirm that they were, but his attention went to the side mirror. Addison looked behind them and saw a black car had cut Colt off. Just like that, her thoughts jerked back to all those bad memories of Emily’s kidnapping and the aftermath. God, this couldn’t be happening again.
“It could be nothing,” Reed said as if trying to convince her. And himself. “Cooper, I’ll call you back,” he added, and ended the call so he could no doubt focus all his attention on the black car.
“I only see one person inside,” Addison said to him.
Reed nodded and kept volleying his attention between the car and their surroundings. Since this was the main street that led to the hospital and a shopping area, there was a steady flow of traffic both ahead of and behind them. All normal. Except after everything that’d happened, nothing about this felt normal.
Addison was so focused on the car that when she heard the loud banging sound, it took her a moment to realize what had happened.
And it wasn’t good.
A huge truck had come from a side road and had plowed right into the passenger’s side of Colt’s vehicle. Of course, that brought Colt to a stop. However, that wasn’t all Addison saw.
“He’s got a gun!” Reed said, taking the words right out of her mouth.
Addison caught just a glimpse of the driver of the black car.
And the gun that he lifted toward Reed and her.
Chapter Ten
Reed couldn’t risk stopping to make sure Colt was okay. Especially because that particular collision had likely been designed to prevent Colt from being able to help Addison and him and give them much-needed backup.
If so, it’d worked.
Colt was at a standstill, and the driver of the black car looked ready to kill them.
“Hold on,” Reed told Addison a split second before he gave his steering wheel a sharp turn to the left.
There was no one else on the side road, thank goodness, because Reed took the turn way too fast and had to fight to keep control of his truck. Still, that was better than being shot, and it got them out of the immediate line of fire.
But they weren’t out of the woods yet.
The black car made the same turn and raced right back toward them. It wouldn’t be long before the driver got himself in a position to take aim at them again.
“Call Cooper,” Reed said, tossing Addison his phone. He also drew his gun. “Tell him what happened and that we might need backup.”
In this case, backup would have to come from the nearby county sheriff’s office. Something that Aiden wasn’t going to like, since he had his hands full with two dead bodies. But there wasn’t much of a choice. Colt could be especially at risk, as he was a sitting duck. At least Reed could try to get away from this idiot.
Addison’s voice was shaking, but she made the call while Reed tried to put some distance between them and the black car. Not easy to do. The driver just sped up until he was right on Reed’s bumper.
“Cooper said he’d get someone out to help Colt and us ASAP,” Addison relayed when she finished her call. “He can track us both through your phones.”
Good. Reed knew that Cooper could do that. The phones were issued through the sheriff’s office, but that still didn’t mean someone could reach Colt or them in time to stop another attack.
“I don’t recognize the guy behind us, do you?” Addison asked a moment later.
That was when Reed realized she was peering into the side mirror. She was way too high in the seat, so Reed pushed her right back down.
“No, I don’t recognize him.”
But he was almost certainly connected to the earlier kidnapping attempt. Maybe the baby farms, too. If so, the driver had likely been sent there to kill Addison.
Reed had to make sure that didn’t happen.
A shot blasted into the back of his truck. Reed heard the metal pinging sound when it bounced off the tailgate. Maybe the bullet had ricocheted and hit an innocent bystander. There wasn’t anyone else on the road, but there were nearby buildings, and someone could be inside.
Reed’s instincts were to get the shooter far away from town and all the civilians, but that probably wouldn’t be the safest thing for Addison. If their attacker managed to stop them the way Colt had been stopped, then Addison would almost certainly be killed.
Another shot came at them, this one blasting into
his side mirror. Obviously, the guy was having trouble shooting from a moving car, but Reed couldn’t risk him getting lucky.
Reed took another sharp turn down a narrow side street. Then another. He cursed when he saw the sign for the elementary school just ahead. He wasn’t familiar with this area of Clay Ridge, but the last he wanted to do was endanger any children.
And that led him to a really bad thought.
“Call Cooper again,” he told Addison, and he made a turn, one that would take him in the opposite direction of the school. “Make sure everything’s okay at the ranch.”
As expected, that caused the color to drain from Addison’s face, and she jabbed the call button so hard that Reed was surprised the phone didn’t break. He wanted to assure her the call was just a precaution, but they might be well past the precaution stage. With Colt’s accident this could be a three-pronged attack meant not only to take out Addison but to get Emily, as well.
“My baby,” Addison managed to say the moment Cooper answered. “Is she all right?”
Reed couldn’t hear Cooper’s response, and he couldn’t take his attention off the driver of that black car. Especially when the guy stuck his arm outside the window again and fired another shot. This one missed the truck completely, but the next one crashed into the rear window. The safety glass sprayed everywhere, but thankfully the shards missed both Addison and him.
Reed could no longer see out the back, but he had no trouble spotting the green SUV on a side road. However, he flew by it so fast that he didn’t get a glimpse of who was inside.
“Oh, God,” Addison said at the end of a gasp.
Reed’s heart practically jumped out of his chest. “Is something wrong with Emily?”
Addison shook her head and pressed the end call button on the phone. “Cooper said all was well at the ranch.” She pointed back to a side road that they’d just passed. “I gasped because I think Rooney was in that SUV we just passed.”
Rooney?
What the heck was he doing here in Clay Ridge?
Rooney had said he was staying at a hotel in Sweetwater Springs, so maybe he’d followed Addison and him to the county sheriff’s office.
Reed glanced in his rearview mirror and got another look at the dark green SUV that was there. Maybe parked or maybe waiting to pull out onto the main road where Reed and their attacker were.
It didn’t take long for Reed to get an answer.
The SUV screeched out from the side road and was headed in their direction.
Mercy.
Reed hoped Rooney wasn’t about to start shooting at them, too. One attacker was more than enough with Addison in the truck with him.
He pushed the accelerator even harder, putting some distance between them and the school. Between them and the town, as well.
Reed prayed there wouldn’t be any trouble with Cooper tracking them. Of course, by now someone had no doubt noticed the shooter, had probably even reported the gunfire, but since Reed couldn’t stay in one place, it could still take some time for Cooper or Aiden to catch up with them.
“Hold on,” he warned Addison right before he took another sharp turn onto another road.
The driver of the black car fired two more shots, both of them slamming into the truck. And worse.
One went into the tire.
The steering wheel jerked to the right, making it next to impossible for Reed to keep control of the truck.
“Get the gun out of the glove compartment,” he told Addison.
She nodded and grappled with the handle of the glove compartment. Her breathing was way too fast, and there wasn’t much color left in her cheeks, but she managed to get the gun out. He hated that once again she was in a position where she might have to defend herself, but Reed didn’t have a lot of options here.
From what he could tell, there was only one person in the car, and he could no longer see Rooney’s SUV. Even if Rooney was planning to get in on this attack, Reed figured his odds were better when it came to facing down the two of them rather than continuing to try and outrun them with a flat tire.
Plus, Reed would have a much harder time returning fire while he was driving, and no way did he want Addison trying to do that.
Because he had no choice, Reed slowed down, ready to pull off the side of the road, but the car only sped up and rammed into them. The jolt was instant, and even though Addison and he were wearing seat belts, it slung them both forward.
Reed barely managed to hang on to his gun, and Addison’s went flying. She reached down to get it just as the car rammed into them again.
Hell.
Addison’s head smacked against the dashboard, and she tried to bite back a sound of pain. She didn’t quite manage it, but she was able to pick up the gun.
Just as the driver hit them for a third time.
Obviously, the car’s front bumper was reinforced in some kind of way. It wasn’t crumpling from the double impact. Nor had the driver’s airbag deployed. That likely meant this had been part of their attacker’s plan.
And Reed suddenly figured out what that plan was.
Their truck was being forced into a deep and muddy ditch. Once that happened, Addison and he would be unable to move. That would make them much easier pickings for the gunman. Then, if he wanted to try to take Addison alive, he could. That didn’t mean Reed was going to let this dirtbag succeed.
The car rammed into them again. Then again.
Reed fought to keep the truck out of the ditch, and he pushed the button to lower the window. He took aim at the car as best he could and fired. The bullet hit the front windshield, but it didn’t shatter.
Bulletproof glass.
Yeah, this wasn’t an ordinary car. It’d no doubt been designed to make it easier for the gunman to launch this attack while keeping himself protected.
Reed threw the truck into gear, and even though the flat tire didn’t give him much traction, he somehow managed to get them back on the road.
For a few seconds anyway.
Then the car came at them again. And again.
Reed had to choice but to gun the engine and try to get away. Not that he could do that too fast because of the tire, but maybe he could buy a little time so backup could arrive.
“Rooney,” Addison said. Again, she was looking out her side window.
Reed glanced behind them, too, and spotted the SUV making its way up the road toward them. He wasn’t sure if Rooney was there to help or join the attack so Reed kept to his plan of trying to get them out of there.
The flat tire slapped on the asphalt, and it didn’t take long for the tire rim to cut through the rubber. Reed kept on moving. But so did the car and Rooney. However, the car didn’t ram into them again. Like an animal waiting to pounce, it just continued to follow them, dropping back in speed as Reed was forced to do.
Reed’s phone buzzed, and Addison snatched it up. “It’s Rooney.”
This definitely wasn’t the time for a conversation, but Reed did want to know why the P.I. was out there. “Answer it.”
However, Reed tried not to let the call distract him. He kept driving. Kept watch of both the car and the SUV.
“I can help,” Rooney blurted out the moment Addison put the call on speaker.
Reed wasn’t sure he could trust Rooney’s idea of help. “Who’s the guy in the car?” he asked Rooney.
“I don’t know. I got a call from a criminal informant who said there was going to be trouble in Clay Ridge. I drove here to check it out.”
And Rooney just happened to be on the same road with them at the time of the attack? The timing was certainly suspicious, but then maybe Quarles or Dominic had wanted to make Rooney look guilty so they could throw suspicion off themselves. If so, they could have staged a call from a criminal informant, since it was
easy enough to pay one of them off to do something like this.
“What do you want me to do?” Rooney asked Reed.
“Try to distract the guy after us.”
He wasn’t sure how Rooney would do that—or if he would attempt anything that would actually help—but Reed was a little surprised when Rooney rammed his SUV into the back of the car. Maybe the rear bumper wasn’t reinforced like the front, because the impact definitely gave the gunman’s car a jolt.
Good.
It might only be a small temporary distraction, but at this point Reed would take what he could get.
Rooney rammed into the car again, and even over the sound of the bumpers colliding, Reed heard something he definitely wanted to hear.
A siren.
Help was on the way.
Rooney rammed into the car for a third time, and Reed got a glimpse of the driver’s face. The dirtbag was smiling as if this was some kind of adventure.
Or maybe just part of some sick plan that Rooney and he had devised.
The tire rim of Reed’s truck continued to scrape against the pavement, and the black smoke started to billow up in front of them. It didn’t take long for the stench of burning rubber to pour through the truck’s cab and cause both Addison and him to start coughing.
Worse, Reed could no longer see the road surface in front of them. “I have to stop.”
That didn’t help Addison’s uneven breathing, and she raised her gun, ready for the next wave of attack.
But it didn’t come.
The driver of the car jerked the steering wheel to his left and hit the accelerator. He sped around Reed’s truck and kept going.
So did Rooney.
“He’s getting away!” Reed heard Rooney shout through the phone.
And Rooney took off after the man.
Chapter Eleven
“Rooney’s still not answering his phone,” Reed said.
Addison figured that wasn’t a good sign. It’d been over an hour since Rooney drove off after the gunman who’d attacked them. If Rooney had managed to catch up with the guy, he would almost certainly have called Reed to let him know. That hadn’t happened. So it could mean the gunman had taken out Rooney.
Reining in Justice Page 9