Six-Gun Showdown

by Delores Fossen

  Mercy.

  They were being attacked on three sides, and while the cruiser was bullet resistant, it didn’t mean those shots soon wouldn’t get through. Plus, it seemed as if the gunmen were trying to shoot out the engine. If they managed that, Jax and she would be sitting ducks.

  There was only one place for Jax to go. To the left. And that’s the way he went. He jerked the steering wheel to the left, gunned the engine and the cruiser barreled off the road, crashing through a white wood fence and into a massive cornfield.

  The cruiser bobbled and bounced on the uneven surface, the high stalks and the corn slapping against the car. The noise was practically deafening, but it didn’t drown out the shots that continued to come at them.

  The gunmen were either in pursuit or they had some of their buddies stashed in this cornfield. All in all, it wasn’t a bad place to hide since she couldn’t see anything except for corn stalks and the shattered glass in the windows.

  Jax cursed when he hit a bad bump, and Paige’s head collided with the dash. Right in the very spot where she had stitches. The pain shot through her so bad that she nearly lost her breath, but she had a huge incentive to regain it when the phone buzzed and she saw Chase’s name on the screen.

  “Is Matthew okay?” she asked, her words running together.

  “Yes.” Chase paused a heartbeat. “I didn’t answer because I was on the line with Jericho. He’s on his way out to you. Two of the hands are coming from the ranch.”

  “No, I want all the hands and you there with Matthew. This could be a trap.”

  “Maybe, but if so it didn’t work. One of the hands shot the guy with the rifle, and there aren’t any signs of another gunman.”

  Despite the nightmarish situation Jax and she were in, the relief came. She’d experience a thousand attacks aimed at her if these goons just kept her son out of it.

  “Give him our location,” Jax instructed.

  She did. Well, as best she could. She’d driven by this cornfield hundreds of times over the years, but she had no idea just how much acreage was involved or what was even on the back side of it. There were plenty of ranch trails out here. Plus, there were no doubt rocks and such that could cause them to have a blowout.

  “They’re following us,” she heard Jax say.

  Paige stayed down, but she levered herself up just enough to see out the side window. She spotted the black SUV tearing through the cornfield behind them. The gunmen weren’t leaning out of the windows. It wouldn’t be safe enough for them to do that, but they’d no doubt be ready to resume this attack when they were out of the field.

  Which happened a lot sooner than Paige expected.

  The cruiser shot through the last row of corn, skidding onto what felt like gravel. Jax fought with the steering wheel, trying to regain control.

  And Paige soon saw why he needed to do that.

  There was a creek just to their right, and even though she couldn’t see exactly where the water began, they seemed to be only a few inches from it.

  It seemed to take an eternity for Jax to get control, and he managed to maneuver the cruiser away from the water. Barely in time. They likely wouldn’t have drowned if the cruiser had gone in the creek, but it would have made it easy for the gunmen to kill them.

  Once he was centered on the trail, Jax gunned the engine again, and Paige braced herself for more gunfire.

  It didn’t happen.

  No shots at all. And that’s why she wasn’t sure why Jax cursed.

  Paige looked in the mirror to see what was going on. The SUV wasn’t following them. The driver was now on another trail, headed away from them.

  She blew out a breath of relief. But it didn’t last.

  “Where does that trail lead?” she asked Jax. “Where are they going?”

  A muscle flickered in his jaw. “To the ranch.”

  Chapter Twelve

  It was hard to speed down a dirt and gravel trail that wasn’t much wider than the cruiser, but that’s exactly what Jax did. He’d never been on this particular part of Herman Dawson’s acreage, but he wasn’t far from the ranch. Probably only a couple of miles.

  The trick would be to make it there ahead of the gunmen.

  “Call Chase again,” Jax told Paige. “Let him know what’s going on.”

  She did that while Jax continued to maneuver his way around the winding trail. It wasn’t meant for vehicles like his but rather as a way for tractors and utility vehicles to get to remote parts of the property. This one clearly hadn’t been used in a while because in places there were bushes and weeds several feet high.

  “Chase said there’s no sign of the gunmen so far,” Paige relayed.

  Good. Maybe it’d stay that way. In fact, maybe they weren’t headed to the ranch but rather the highway so they could escape and regroup. Jax prayed that was the case, anyway.

  The minutes and the miles crawled by while Paige and he kept watch around them. She kept glancing at the phone, too. If it rang, it could be bad news, but thankfully there was no call from Chase by the time Jax reached the road. The second he was on the asphalt again, he gunned the engine.

  Jax spotted some armed ranch hands when he made the final turn and drove past his house. The CSI van was parked in the driveway. They had no doubt still been searching for any other cameras or bugs when the gunman had climbed over the fence. Now they’d be processing the scene of a shooting. But Jax couldn’t feel bad about a dead gunman. He would have shot the man himself to stop him from getting near his family.

  There were ranch hands at the main house, too, and Chase and Levi were waiting for them just inside the door. Thankfully, there were no signs of the gunmen who’d just attacked them.

  “Everyone’s fine,” Chase said right off. “Matthew’s having fun with all the attention he’s getting.”

  Good. That was something at least.

  As he’d done since this whole mess had started, Jax got Paige inside the house. And that’s when he noticed the blood. There was a streak of it running down the side of her head.

  Damn.

  It’d probably happened when her head hit the dash. But Paige obviously hadn’t noticed, and she would have rushed to find Matthew if Jax hadn’t stopped her.

  “Matthew shouldn’t see you like that,” he told her.

  The words obviously didn’t get through to her. Even though Paige was still struggling to get away from him, Jax led her into the nearby powder room, and she froze when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

  “Oh, God.” She leaned in, examining it while Jax took a hand towel and wet it.

  “I think you might have popped a stitch,” he said, dabbing at the wound. “And it looks as if you have a new cut, too. I’ll need to get the medic out here.”

  He reached for his phone, only to realize Paige still had it. And she wasn’t just holding it; she had a death grip on it. Her hands were shaking, and she was fighting back tears.

  “I’m not going to cry,” she insisted. She practically dropped the phone on the vanity. “I don’t want Matthew or your family to see me crying.”

  Jax was sure he didn’t want to see it, either, but he was surprised she hadn’t broken down by now. “Just take a minute,” he said, because he didn’t know what else to say. He shut the door to give her a little privacy while she pulled herself together.

  Paige gulped in several long breaths, blinked hard against those threatening tears. “I might need a year to steady my nerves.”

  Yeah. He might need longer. And while he wasn’t a fix for raw nerves, Jax eased her into his arms for a hug. She melted right against him, as if she’d never been away from him. That was the trouble with hugs. With being close to her like this. And yet Jax needed it as much as he thought she did.

  They stood there, several moments, and when Jax’s lungs started to ache, he realized he was holding his breath. He inched back, meeting her gaze. No tears. And the bleeding had stopped. That should have been his cue to move away from he
r.

  He didn’t, though.

  Jax didn’t see the kiss coming. But he sure as hell felt it. The moment Paige put her mouth to his, he hooked his arm around her, dragging her closer. The frustration was there. She didn’t want to be doing this. She didn’t want to want him.

  But she did.

  Jax was right there with her. In regard to both the frustration and the want. Except his was more of a need. Always was when it came to Paige.

  She was the one who moved back. “Wow,” she said, her voice silky soft. “Your kisses always did pack a punch.”

  But for some reason he didn’t think a punch was nearly enough. He hauled her back to him, and he kissed her again. Now, here was the cure for the nightmarish images in his head. The taste of her kicked out all of the bad stuff, and he was suddenly lost in the heat.

  Paige made that sound of pleasure. One he knew all too well. Because he’d heard that sound a lot when they were having sex. Of course, just the reminder of it made his body start suggesting that sex might be just what they needed right now.

  Of course, his body was wrong.

  But that didn’t stop him. Didn’t stop Paige, either. It was as if they were pouring every bit of their fears and frustrations into that kiss. Her arms tightened around him again, but Jax did his own share of holding her. Keeping her right against him. Body to body.

  Yeah.

  This was what he wanted.

  And even though he knew it was wrong, he deepened the kiss and touched her. His hand sliding over her breasts. His hands wanted to go a whole lot lower than that, though.

  That was the problem with Paige being his ex. They knew all the right spots to drive each other crazy. Paige took her mouth to his neck. Jax dropped his hands to her lower back, aligning them just right so that his erection was in the right place, too.

  She made that silky sound of pleasure again. The one that made him want to push this even further. Something that couldn’t happen.

  At least not in a powder room with his family in the house. Besides, there were plenty of other things he needed to be doing, and Paige wasn’t exactly in any shape to be making out with him. That didn’t stop him, but it slowed him down so he could come to his senses.

  Jax gave her one last kiss and moved back.

  This was probably a good time for him to admit that the kissing had been a mistake, but he didn’t have a chance to say anything because there was a soft knock at the door.

  “You two okay?” Chase asked.

  That moved them even farther apart. Not that there was a ton of room for them to separate. They were still way too close. Jax gave her a second. Gave himself one, too, before he opened the door.

  “We’re fine,” he said to Chase.

  Chase eyed him, then Paige, and grumbled something under his breath that Jax didn’t catch. A reminder that his family, or at least Chase, wasn’t on board with his getting involved with Paige again. It wouldn’t do any good to tell Chase that it was the attraction and not anything that Paige and he had consciously decided to do. But Chase likely already knew that, anyway.

  “I called for a medic,” Chase explained. “He should be here soon to check those stitches.”

  Paige looked ready to argue about that, but she must have realized it’d be a lost cause. She was seeing a medic.

  “Is the house locked up?” Jax asked.

  Chase nodded. “I reset the security system, too. Levi’s standing guard by the front door. Weston is at the back.”

  “And what about Cord?” Paige pressed.

  “He left right before you got here. He’s dropping off that camera for Jericho before he heads out to look for those gunmen who attacked you.”

  Jax welcomed any and all help, though he figured those men were long gone since they hadn’t shown up by now.

  “Come on.” Jax put his hand on Paige’s back to get her moving. “I’ll take you to the playroom so you can see Matthew.”

  “What about going to a safe house?” Chase asked, following them.

  Paige immediately shook her head. “It isn’t a good idea for Matthew to be out there right now. There could be more of those thugs waiting to attack, and this time we might not get so lucky.”

  Jax agreed. Having their son at the ranch house wasn’t ideal, but with all their layers of security, Matthew was safer here than he was out on the road. At least until they could track down those gunmen.

  When they made it to the playroom, Matthew spotted them the second they stepped into the doorway, and he raced out of his grandmother’s arms toward them. “Mommy, Daddy,” he said, hurrying to them.

  Jax scooped him up and kissed him before he moved him closer to Paige so she could do the same. Matthew’s attention went straight to the wound on Paige’s head.

  “Boo boo,” he said, but it didn’t hold his attention for long. Matthew reached for Jax’s badge, and Jax unclipped it so he could play with it.

  Not that he needed any playthings.

  The room was filled with all kinds of toys to accommodate his mom’s grandchildren. Jericho’s son. Chase’s daughter. Matthew. And now Addie’s son, who was sleeping in the playpen.

  Jax handed off Matthew to Paige, and he could practically see some of the tension fade from her face. She kissed Matthew again and joined Alexa and Addie on the sofa. Jax stepped out into the hall with Chase.

  “What about Herman Dawson?” Jax asked. “Did the fire department make it to his place?”

  Chase nodded. “Herman wasn’t there. No one was. The house was totaled, though.”

  Herman’s home was gone, and all because somebody wanted to use the smoke to help set a trap.

  “There could be a problem with Belinda,” Chase said a moment later, getting Jax’s attention. “While Paige and you were...in the bathroom, Jericho called, and he said Belinda left.”

  “What do you mean she left?” Jax snapped.

  “She had a short chat with Jericho and told him her prints might be on the camera that was found under the porch swing. After that, she excused herself, saying she needed to lie down in the break room, and she sneaked out the back.”

  That got his attention, too, and not in a good way. Jax would address the part about her leaving, but first he wanted to hear about that camera. “Did she have a good reason as to why her prints would be on it?”

  “No. But she had a bad one. She said she dropped something while she was on the porch, saw it beneath the swing but thought it was some kind of hardware to hold the swing in place.”

  “And she touched it?” Jax didn’t bother to take the skepticism out of his voice.

  “You think she could have really been the one to put that camera in place?” Chase went on.

  “Maybe.” But for him to believe that, he would also have to accept that she might indeed want Paige dead.

  Except there was a problem with that.

  Those gunmen had been trying to kill both Paige and him, so that would mean Belinda could want him dead, too. It put a huge knot in his stomach to even consider it. This was the woman he’d trusted with his son. Trusted with nearly every aspect of his life. Could she have betrayed him because she was jealous?

  Or was she innocent in all of this?

  Even though Paige couldn’t hear their conversation, she looked at them, the concern in her eyes again. Probably because she saw the concern on his own face. He’d have to tell her about this, but it could wait for now so she could have some moments with Matthew.

  “Belinda could be in grave danger,” Jax admitted. “If she was telling the truth about not setting up that camera and the truth about the intruder being in her house, she could have a killer after her. So, would she just sneak out of the sheriff’s office?”

  Chase shrugged. “Giving her the benefit of the doubt, she could have panicked. Unlike the rest of us, she’s never had anyone gunning for her before. Added to that, she might feel a little, well, betrayed by you.” He immediately held up his hands in defense. “Hey, I didn’t say
it was true. I was just looking at this from her perspective.”

  Yeah. And Jax tried to do that, too. Maybe Belinda sensed the attraction still there between Paige and him. Jax took out his phone and pressed Belinda’s number. If she answered, maybe he could talk some sense into her. But she didn’t answer. His call went straight to her voice mail.

  “Anyway, Dexter’s out looking for Belinda,” Chase went on. “He can’t force her to agree to protective custody, but he’ll try to talk her into it.”

  Maybe he could. Belinda wasn’t an idiot. And that reminder didn’t help the niggling feeling in his gut. If she truly thought she was in danger, why would she have left the group of people who could protect her?

  “Belinda could have lied about having an intruder,” Chase tossed out there. “Not because she’s behind the plot to kill Paige but because she wanted to get some attention from you. When that failed, she could have decided to cut her losses and get out of there.”

  Sadly, that was the best-case scenario in all of this. Belinda was innocent, and no one wanted her dead.

  “Where’s this thing leading with Paige and you, anyway?” Chase asked a moment later.

  Normally, he wouldn’t have minded his brother prying into his private life, but this wasn’t exactly a private thing. Being around Paige put them all in danger. “I’m not sure,” Jax confessed. “I kissed her. Twice.”

  Chase made an hmmp sound. “I figured you’d already done more than that.”

  “Not yet,” he mumbled.

  And he wished that was a joke. It wasn’t. Because while his brain was telling him it’d be a mistake, Jax could feel himself on a collision course. One that would land him in bed with Paige.

  His phone buzzed, and Jax expected it to be an update from Jericho. It wasn’t. “Unknown caller” was on the screen.

  His heart slammed against his chest, and Paige must have noticed his reaction because she left Matthew playing on the floor and hurried over to him. When Jax showed her the screen, she jerked in her breath and held it.

  Jax didn’t want to answer the call. Didn’t want to hear the killer, or rather someone pretending to be the Moonlight Strangler, taunt Paige again. But he didn’t have a choice here. Every conversation was a chance to figure out who this person was. And Paige must have realized that, too, because she led Jax away from the playroom door. No doubt so their son wouldn’t be able to hear any part of this. She motioned for Jax to hit the answer button, and he put the call on speaker.