A Lawman's Justice (Sweetwater Ranch Book 8)

by Delores Fossen

  The problem was that Annette was so tangled up with Roy that Seth didn’t have a good shot. But he couldn’t just stand by and let this play out. If Annette managed to get Roy’s gun, no doubt she would start shooting.

  Roy rolled on top of Annette, trying to get control while she threw punches at him and kicked him. Jewell tried to help. Not a good idea. Because the moment his mother leaned down to latch on to Roy, Annette grabbed Jewell’s arm and pulled her into the fray.

  Hell. Enough of this. Annette still had those explosives strapped to her, and Seth didn’t want them going off.

  “Keep your gun aimed at her in case she tries to run, and if she does, shoot her in the head,” Seth told Shelby.

  It took Seth a moment to find a part of Annette he could reach, and he yanked her by the hair to pull her out of the tangle of bodies. He was succeeding.

  Until the gun went off.

  Everything seemed to freeze. All except Seth’s mind. It was racing with all the bad possibilities. Shelby, Roy or his mother could have been shot.

  Roy untangled himself, pulling Jewell out with him.

  And that was when Seth saw the blood.

  * * *

  THERE WAS SO much blood on Jewell’s shirt that it took Shelby a moment to realize Seth’s mother hadn’t been hit.

  All that blood belonged to Annette.

  The woman was flat on her back on the ground, her left hand sprawled out to the side, her blank eyes fixed on the ceiling.

  “Annette grabbed my gun,” Roy said, his voice shaky. The rest of him was shaky, too. “She pulled the trigger.”

  After everything Annette had done, Shelby doubted the woman had meant to kill herself. No. She’d probably been trying to kill Roy or anyone else she could shoot. Thank goodness her sick plan had backfired, and Shelby felt nothing but relief about that.

  Roy’s phone dinged, indicating he had a text message.

  “Cooper,” Jewell said. There was so much breath in her voice that Shelby was surprised she could speak. The woman’s legs buckled, and Shelby quickly stuffed the gun in the back waistband of her jeans so she could take hold of Jewell.

  “Is Cooper okay?” Jewell asked. “What about the others?”

  “Cooper’s still fine,” Roy answered when he read the text. He fired off a reply. “He’s going to keep watch, but he’s making his way to the barn.”

  Good. Maybe it wouldn’t be long before the firefighters could get on the property, as well.

  But Shelby’s heart sank when she looked out the door and saw the house. Oh, mercy. The fire was about to bring it down to the ground, and even if the fire department arrived in the next minute or so, there wouldn’t be much to save.

  “Your home,” Shelby said, touching her fingers to her lips.

  Jewell made a sound of agreement, but Seth didn’t. His attention was back on Annette, and there was such alarm on his face that Shelby looked to make sure the woman hadn’t managed to come back to life.

  “Did Annette touch the explosives when you were fighting?” Seth asked Roy.

  The question caused Shelby’s heart to go to her knees. No, please. This couldn’t be happening now. Not after everything Annette had put them through.

  “Maybe she touched them,” Jewell conceded.

  Roy nodded in agreement. “Why?”

  “Because some of the sticks of explosives have been moved, like maybe they’ve been shoved apart.” Seth went closer, motioning for them to stay back. “Maybe they got moved during the struggle.”

  Shelby did stay back, but she watched as Seth leaned in and had a closer look at Annette’s torso. She wasn’t sure how he could see anything with all that blood, but he must have noticed something.

  Something that caused Seth to curse.

  “Get out of the barn now!” he shouted.

  Seth didn’t wait for them to do that. He grabbed Shelby and got her moving. Roy did the same to Jewell.

  “The explosives are on a timer,” Seth told them. “I couldn’t see when it’s set to go off, but it could be any second.”

  That got Shelby moving even faster, and Seth hurried them in the direction of the detached garage.

  “Run!” Seth shouted to Cooper, and then to Darnell and Quint. The ranch hands took off, heading for the pasture.

  Even though they were in a footrace against those explosives, Seth still kept watch around them. For a very good reason. At least one hired gun was still missing, and Annette might have left orders for him to shoot to kill.

  The moment they reached the garage, Seth pulled them to the side, and Roy pressed a keypad on the exterior. The heavy doors began to grind open.

  But it wasn’t soon enough.

  The blast ripped through the air, so powerful that it shook the ground.

  Shelby didn’t have time to react before Seth pulled her to the ground, and, as he’d done before, covered her with his body.

  Just as the fiery debris from the barn came raining down in the yard.

  Instantly, there was more smoke, more heat, more flames, and some of the debris smacked into the fire-eaten house, causing portions of it to collapse. When Seth started to get up, he had to drop back down again to keep from getting hit.

  “Mom?” Seth called out.

  Shelby had been certain that Jewell and Roy were right there with them, but she looked around as best she could and didn’t see them.

  Mercy, had they gotten hit with some of the rubble?

  Now that the garage doors were fully open, Shelby could see they weren’t inside there, and it certainly didn’t help when Jewell didn’t answer.

  However, Shelby did hear something.

  “No,” Roy said.

  Not a shout, but there was certainly enough anger and emotion in his voice for Shelby to know that something else was wrong. But what exactly that was, she couldn’t tell. Because she still couldn’t see either Jewell or Roy.

  Where were they?

  “Stay down,” Seth told her, and he hurried toward the sound of Roy’s voice on the other side of the detached garage.

  Shelby didn’t move, but she could see the change in Seth’s body language. Every one of his muscles turned rock hard, and he pointed his gun at something.

  Or rather someone.

  Nothing could have stopped her at that point. Shelby still had her gun, and she had to try to help.

  She inched her way to the corner of the garage, fully expecting to see Annette’s hired thug there, holding his weapon on Jewell and Roy.

  But she was wrong.

  Partly anyway.

  The hired thug was indeed there, his weapon aimed at Seth and Roy. However, someone else had Jewell at gunpoint.

  “Shelby,” her father said. He even smiled at her. “I’m so glad you’re okay and that Annette didn’t get to finish what she started.”

  But her father clearly had plans to finish something.

  Whitt had Jewell on her knees, his gun jammed to the back of her head.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The adrenaline was already slamming into Seth, but now he got another jolt of it. Along with the sickening feeling of dread.

  No. This couldn’t be happening.

  But it was.

  Whitt was finally showing exactly what kind of a man he was: a killer.

  It hurt Seth too much to see his mother’s face. So pale. So afraid. But also ready to die if it meant she could somehow save them.

  “Let her go,” Roy demanded.

  “Right. As if that’ll work. Keep watch behind us,” Whitt told the hired gun. “And if Roy and Seth don’t drop their weapons, kill them. I’d rather they watch while I settle things with Jewell, but I’m not opposed to a change in plans.”

  Unlike Annette, W
hitt didn’t seem to be flat-out crazy. Those were the eyes of a man hell-bent on revenge and his warped sense of justice. Even though Jewell was the one in need of some real justice here.

  “Please let Roy, Seth and Shelby go,” Jewell begged.

  Whitt didn’t even spare her a glance. “Drop your guns,” the man snapped, volleying his gaze between Seth and Roy.

  It took Seth a moment to realize that Whitt hadn’t demanded the same of Shelby. That was because she wasn’t holding a gun. It was tucked in the back of her jeans, and her hands stayed limp by her sides.

  “Dad,” Shelby whispered, her voice strained and raw. Like the look on her face. Not shock or disappointment. Something even stronger.

  Horror.

  “Yeah,” Whitt said to her. It sounded like the start of some kind of apology. “I didn’t want it to go down this way. Annette went off the deep end and set up this dog and pony show. I’m just cleaning up her mess. That’s one of the reasons I came back, to make sure she didn’t kill you.”

  It cut Seth to the bone to see Shelby this way. To see those tears in her eyes. Of course, she’d known her father was a rapist and liar, but she’d probably held out hope that he wasn’t also a killer.

  “For the record,” Whitt added to Shelby. “I never tried to kill you or Seth. Never. That was all Annette’s insane doing. You’re my little girl. My princess. And I’ll always love you.”

  The words sounded perverse coming from Whitt. Did he think he could sway Shelby to his way of thinking? Of course, Shelby was in shock. Perhaps very close to breaking down, so anything might work right now.

  “But you did kill someone,” Seth tossed out there. He kept an eye on the thug. Kept watch around them, too, in case Whitt had other hired guns nearby. “Marcel.”

  Seth hadn’t been sure his theory was right, but he saw the confirmation spark in Whitt’s expression. Annette had confessed she’d murdered the others but not Marcel. In fact, Annette had been upset about his death, and that meant someone else had killed him.

  “Marcel,” Whitt repeated. “I feel a little bad about that. Annette let something slip to him, and he found out I was alive. Marcel called me. He said I should do the right thing by Jewell so she could get out of jail and that he’d recorded our call to turn over to the sheriff. Of course, he didn’t say anything about a recording until near the end of our conversation, or I’d have been more careful with my choice of words.”

  “I’m guessing you confessed to the rape,” Seth threw out there.

  Whitt only glared at him. “I mentioned something about wanting Jewell to rot in jail. I wanted her there until it was time for her to get the punishment she deserved for leading me on and then crying rape. No woman rejects me. No. Woman!”

  Now Seth could see how Whitt wanted his sick plan to play out.

  “So you came back to Sweetwater Springs to get the recording, kill Marcel and stop Annette,” Seth said. “You knew your arrival would get Jewell out of jail, but you probably figured that would just make it easier for you to kill her.”

  “And I don’t plan on letting Roy have her,” Whitt finished. “Not in this lifetime anyway.” He jammed the gun so hard against Jewell’s temple that she gasped in pain.

  Hell. It took every bit of strength for Seth not to launch himself at the man and tear him to pieces.

  “So you’re going to kill all of us?” Shelby asked.

  Whitt shook his head. “No. Not you. Not even Seth and Roy. They’ll live.”

  It was no doubt Whitt’s way of torturing them. If Seth was to believe the man, Roy and he would be alive, but they’d have the nightmarish memories of Jewell dying in front of them.

  “I’ll have to leave soon,” Whitt continued, talking to Shelby. “And you’re more than welcome to come with me.”

  Shelby swallowed hard, her gaze frozen on her father. “Why are you doing this? Why?” Her voice shattered, and the tears came sliding down her cheeks.

  “Because Jewell lied. It wasn’t rape. She wanted to be with me.”

  “No,” Jewell whispered, but that only caused Whitt to dig the barrel of the gun into her skin.

  “You wanted me,” Whitt argued. “But then you grew a conscience and called it rape. Well, if you hadn’t planned on getting in that bed with me, you wouldn’t have come to the cabin.”

  In Whitt’s delusional mind, that probably made sense, but Seth knew the reason Jewell had gone there. To tell Whitt to back off. But Whitt’s ego hadn’t been able to handle a rejection like that.

  “You’re the reason I had to leave,” Whitt went on, his rage aimed at Jewell. “I couldn’t be sure you wouldn’t spread that lie around town and have me arrested. I wasn’t going to spend one second in jail because of you.”

  “I didn’t want you,” Jewell said, “and I didn’t tell anyone about the rape until after you came back.”

  Whitt ignored that and shifted his attention back to Roy. “Last chance. Drop your gun now, or I pull the trigger in three seconds. And I’ll change my mind about letting you live and shoot you first.” He didn’t waste any time starting the countdown. “One, two—”

  “I’ve spent twenty-three years protecting you from this man,” Jewell said, her focus on Roy, too. “Don’t throw that all away. Please put down your gun.”

  Roy didn’t look at her. He kept his glare on Whitt. Seconds passed. Slowly. Then Roy cursed and tossed his gun to the ground.

  “Good boy,” Whitt said.

  Seth was afraid that patronizing tone was going to cause Roy to snap. While Seth wouldn’t blame Roy for doing that, he didn’t want anything to spin this further out of control. He had to figure out how to get Whitt’s gun away from Jewell and make sure the thug didn’t end up killing them all.

  “Now it’s your turn, Seth. Drop your gun,” Whitt ordered.

  “I will, but why don’t you go ahead and let Roy and Shelby go. They don’t need to see this.”

  “Oh, but Roy does. He needs to see what it’s like to lose.”

  Seth had to get his teeth unclenched before he could continue. “Then, let Shelby go.”

  “No,” Shelby spoke up. “I’m staying.” She wiped away some tears. “Dad, please. Don’t do this.”

  If Whitt had any reaction to that, he didn’t show it. He kept his attention nailed to Seth. “Time’s up. You should have put down your gun when you had the chance.”

  And Whitt pulled the trigger.

  * * *

  THE SHOCK HIT Shelby so hard that her vision blurred, and despite the deafening blast from her father’s gun, she had no trouble hearing the screams. First, from her own mouth.

  And then from Jewell’s.

  The blood came. Spreading across Jewell’s sleeve, and it took Shelby several heart-stopping seconds to realize Whitt hadn’t shot Jewell in the head but rather in her arm.

  “You bastard!” Roy shouted, and he came at her father.

  Roy didn’t get far. The hulking hired gun rammed his shoulder into Roy’s body and sent Roy straight to the ground. The impact must have knocked the breath from him because Roy started to gasp and wheeze. Shelby wanted to go to him, but the thug shook his head as if he knew what she was considering.

  “The next shot will hurt Jewell even worse because it’ll go in her gut,” Whitt spat out, his venomous eyes aimed at Seth. “Now put down that gun and get Shelby out of here.”

  When her father looked at her, Shelby thought she might see genuine concern on his face.

  Might.

  But considering he’d just shot Jewell, Shelby doubted he had any real concern left for anyone. Including her.

  Cursing, Seth lurched forward and probably would have thrown himself at her father if Shelby hadn’t stopped him. Whitt would shoot him. She had no doubts about that now. And he’d shoot Roy, too. In fact, despi
te her father’s reassurance that he would let everyone but Jewell go, Shelby didn’t believe him.

  Jewell clamped her teeth over her bottom lip, clearly trying to fight the pain. “Seth, please. Just take Shelby and Roy and leave. It’s the only way you’ll be safe.”

  “We’ll never be safe as long as Whitt’s alive.” Seth’s voice was low and dangerous.

  It was true. But at least if they stayed alive, they’d be able to track down Whitt and bring him to justice. That wouldn’t happen if her father managed to kill them all right here.

  “Well?” Whitt spat out, looking at Seth again now. “What will it be? I can put bullets in your mother all day if that’s what you want. Enough bullets for her to bleed out right in front of you. Or you can give me what I want and put down the gun.”

  Think.

  She had to do something to stop this.

  Then she remembered the gun she’d tucked in the back of her jeans. Her father hadn’t seen it. Or if he had, he’d obviously thought she wouldn’t use it against him. Shelby would if she thought she could shoot him before he killed one of them. But she knew her aim wasn’t nearly good enough to make a tight shot such as that. Not with Jewell and Roy so close.

  But Seth could.

  Shelby looked at him. “Go ahead. Put down your gun. It’s what your mother wants you to do.”

  She hoped the words were right. Enough to convince her father that she was helping to move his sick plan along. However, Shelby also hoped that Seth knew what she was truly offering.

  Her gun. To him.

  She didn’t want to motion toward the weapon in case her father or his goon noticed, but as observant as Seth was, she had to believe he’d seen it.

  “Please, Seth,” Jewell added. “Please put it down.”

  The woman’s breath came in jagged bursts now, and she was trembling. No doubt from the blood loss and pain. She needed an ambulance. Roy perhaps did, too, and that was all the more reason to speed this along.

  The muscles in Seth’s jaw tightened. His neck corded. But he finally dropped his gun on the ground in front of him.