Rustling Up Trouble

by Delores Fossen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Blue cursed.

  From the moment he’d seen Caleb outside the ranch house, he’d figured that trouble wouldn’t be far behind. Too bad he’d been right.

  He didn’t have to tell Rayanne to get down. She ducked to the side of the window, her gun ready in her hand.

  Blue positioned himself on the other side, and he put his phone on the windowsill to free up his hands in case he had to return fire or protect Rayanne.

  It might come down to both.

  “Who fired the shot?” Rayanne asked.

  But Blue had to shake his head. From what he could see, it certainly wasn’t any of their “guests” or the three armed ranch hands guarding them. All six men went to the ground, scrambling to take cover in front of and around Caleb’s car. Caleb snatched up his gun from the ground, and both Wendell and Gandy drew theirs.

  Right before the sound of another shot blasted through the air.

  The bullet slammed into the ground right in the spot where one of the ranch hands had just been standing, and again, it hadn’t come from any of the six.

  It’d come from behind them.

  From the woods.

  “Who’s shooting out there?” Blue heard Roy call out. He didn’t sound close but rather on the first floor near the stairs.

  “We’re not sure yet. Who else is in the house?” Blue asked the man.

  “Right now it’s just me and the housekeeper, Mary. Colt’s already left for work. Rosalie’s still at the guest cottage. She was supposed to be leaving for the safe house in an hour or so.”

  Well, that wouldn’t happen until this situation was under control.

  “Call Rosalie now. Tell her to take cover,” Rayanne insisted. “And Mary and you need to do the same,” she added, but it wasn’t with the same desperate urgency that she’d given to her twin sister.

  Blue heard the fear in Rayanne’s voice. Saw it more in her face and body language, and he cursed. She and the baby were right back in danger again, and so far he hadn’t been able to do a darn thing to stop these attacks from happening. Now here they were right smack-dab in the middle of another one.

  “You should call your brothers Tucker and Cooper,” Blue reminded Rayanne. “They might not have left for work yet.”

  Even though they didn’t live in the main house, they both had places nearby and both had children. Of course, if they were home, they’d likely already heard the shots and had taken cover, but Blue wanted to make sure.

  She nodded, started making the calls, which seemed to help steady her nerves. Good. Anything to keep her stress level down and get her mind focused on something other than the bullets flying.

  “Tucker and his family are still out of town,” she relayed. “Cooper’s at his place. He’s staying put to watch his wife and son, but he’s called for backup.”

  Good. Blue was afraid they might need it. There were a lot of possible targets at the ranch, and he didn’t want anyone getting hurt. Or anyone being used to draw out Rayanne and him.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Caleb asked. “Is it one of the hired hands shooting at us?”

  “No.” Blue hoped not, anyway. “The shots are probably coming from the woods across the road.”

  A second later Blue was able to eliminate the probably when the next shot rang out.

  Yeah, it’d definitely come from the woods.

  Blue could pinpoint the general area of the shooter, but he still didn’t see anyone. Of course, the guy could be perched behind or even up in some of the live-oak trees, which were still green and thick with leaves.

  Another shot.

  This one slammed into Caleb’s car, pinging off the back bumper, and it was close enough to send the men scrambling again. Gandy reached up, opened the back door and dived inside. Wendell crawled beneath the car and out of sight. The ranch hands hurried to the sides of the porch.

  Caleb threw open the driver’s-side door, too, but he didn’t get in. He used the door for cover and took aim at whoever was shooting at them from the woods. He didn’t fire, probably because he knew the shooter was out of range of his Glock. Of course, he might have held fire for another reason.

  Because he could be responsible for this entire mess.

  Heck, any of the three men out there could be.

  Maybe the culprit thought it would take suspicion off himself if he was in the center of an attack like this, but if so, Blue wasn’t buying it. So far none of the shots had gone anywhere near their suspects, and that meant any one of them could have orchestrated this.

  “Are you just gonna let this go on?” Wendell shouted. Even though the man was no longer near Caleb’s phone, Blue heard him loud and clear.

  Blue didn’t get a chance to answer Wendell, because the next two bullets slammed through the window right next to Blue’s head. Glass spewed over the room, and Blue practically threw himself over Rayanne to stop her from being cut or worse.

  The pain shot through him, and it took Blue a moment to realize he hadn’t been shot again. He’d just knocked his shoulder against the wall. He tried to muffle any sound of pain. Failed. And that brought Rayanne off the floor.

  There was fire in her eyes, and she tried to bolt to the window, no doubt so she could try to shoot back.

  Blue didn’t let that happen.

  No way would he allow her to put herself in harm’s way, so Blue held on to her and wrestled her back to the floor. That didn’t help the pain, but because of the hold he had on her, she wasn’t in the line of fire when the next bullet came crashing into the room.

  The shot slammed into the floor.

  Outside, there were other shots. So many that Blue wondered if there was more than one shooter. Heck, maybe the moron behind this had sent an entire army after them.

  “I’m hit!” Blue heard Caleb shout through the gaping holes in the window.

  Blue scrambled closer, took a quick look outside and saw Caleb. His former boss was still behind his car door. He had his gun in his right hand, which was also clamped around his left forearm.

  And, yeah, there was blood.

  “I’m calling Cooper to make sure he’s sending an ambulance,” Rayanne mumbled. Though both knew the medics wouldn’t come into the middle of a shoot-out.

  “I’m coming in,” Roy warned them, and several seconds later the door flew open.

  “Stay down!” Blue ordered, but Rayanne’s father was already doing that.

  Roy was practically on the floor, a rifle with a scope in one hand and binoculars in the other, and he crawled his way to them.

  “Are you all right?” Roy asked, giving both of them glances.

  “We weren’t hit,” Blue settled for saying, but he still had to take some deep breaths to force back the pain. Mercy, this was not a good time for his injury to rear its ugly head.

  “How’s Rosalie?” Rayanne asked her father.

  “She’s okay. I told her to go into the bathroom at the guesthouse and get in the shower. It’s got a stone surface, and it’s the safest place to be in case a bullet ricochets in her direction.”

  It was, and with the bullets flying, hopefully Rosalie would stay put until this was over. While he was hoping, Blue added that maybe this attack was just limited to the idiot firing at them.

  “Maybe I can help,” Roy said. “No need for Rayanne to be in the middle of this.” His gaze dropped to her stomach. He didn’t mention the baby. Didn’t have to.

  “I’m fine, really,” Rayanne snapped, but she didn’t stop Roy from taking up position at the side of the window where she’d just been.

  Roy nodded, and if his daughter’s curt assurance hurt his feelings, he sure didn’t show it. Probably because he was focused on stopping the danger to her and his unborn grandchild.

  “There’s an old tree house in one of the live oaks out in those woods,” Roy said, peering through the binoculars. “The boys built it there years ago, but if it’s still sturdy enough, I’m betting that’s where the shooter is
.”

  Roy passed the binoculars to Blue. “Look at the tallest tree and see if you can make out anything.”

  Blue gave it a try, but he saw only the leaves, not a shooter. However, he did see remnants of a tree house. There was enough of it left that it would have made an excellent hiding place for a sniper attack.

  “Since your shoulder’s messed up, maybe you’d like for me to try to take him out,” Roy offered. “This rifle’s got a kick, and it won’t feel so good when it hits those stitches.”

  The man was right about that, but Blue wasn’t exactly eager to put Roy right in the middle of this fight. Except he already was since the shooter was firing into the house. Still firing outside, too. Several bullets smacked into Caleb’s car and the ground around it.

  Roy maneuvered closer to the window but had to quickly duck when another bullet slammed into the room. Obviously, this idiot had them in his sights, but maybe Blue could do something to distract him.

  “Grab that chrome lamp,” Blue told Rayanne, tipping his head to the nightstand. “Don’t come any closer but slide it across the floor toward me.”

  It took her a moment to get it unplugged, and she used her foot to get it to him. There was plenty of sunlight now, and he hoped the glare off the chrome would shield Roy from the shooter so Rayanne’s father could get off a shot.

  Blue looked at Roy, and when the man gave him a nod, Blue moved the lamp onto the windowsill. In the same motion, Roy took aim with the rifle.

  And he fired.

  The blast was heavy and thick, echoing through Blue’s head, and Roy quickly followed it up with another shot. He’d been right about that kick. Both times the impact jerked back Roy’s shoulder.

  Blue looked through the binoculars and finally spotted something.

  Or rather someone.

  He caught just a glimpse of a man dressed in dark clothes scrambling down from what was left of that tree house.

  “Shoot at him again,” Blue told Roy.

  Roy quickly took aim and sent two more bullets the guy’s way. Blue couldn’t tell if he hit him or not, but the gunman stopped firing.

  It suddenly got so quiet that the only sound came from their heavy breathing and the cool morning air rushing through what was left of the window.

  Then the sirens in the distance.

  Backup. Maybe an ambulance, too.

  Blue had another look with the binoculars, moving the sights from the tree house to the ground below it.

  Oh, mercy.

  There was the shooter, all right, and he was running. Getting away. And there was nothing Blue could do about it.

  His lawman’s instinct was to hurry out of the room and go after him. To catch him and force him to tell them what was going on.

  But doing that would mean leaving Rayanne in the house.

  Yeah, her father was there, but if there was indeed an army out there ready to attack, Blue wanted to be close to her and not out in the woods chasing down a triggerman. In fact, this could be yet another ruse to draw him out so that Rayanne would be an easier target.

  “He got away?” Rayanne asked, obviously picking up on Blue’s body language.

  He nodded.

  She mumbled some profanity and made a call to tell Cooper that it was safe enough for backup and the ambulance to come closer.

  It didn’t take long for the sirens to get louder, and Blue glanced down at the yard to check on everyone’s locations. And to make sure none of the suspects were about to turn a gun in Blue’s direction.

  But Blue didn’t like what he saw.

  Or rather what he didn’t see.

  Caleb was no longer by the car door, and with the bullets flying, Blue had lost sight of him. There was no sign of Gandy or Wendell, either. Maybe they were still in hiding, but Blue didn’t like the knot that tightened in his gut.

  Something was wrong.

  “Wait here with your dad,” Blue told Rayanne.

  She was shaking her head before he even got to his feet. “The shooter could come back, or he could still be waiting out there for you.”

  “I figure he’s long gone.” And likely regrouping for another attack. That was something Blue kept to himself, though Rayanne probably already knew. “Just please stay put.”

  Whether she would or not was anyone’s guess, but he brushed a kiss on her forehead, hoping it would remind her that he had her best interest at heart. For good measure, he dropped a kiss on her stomach, too.

  “You’re playing dirty,” she grumbled.

  “Yeah,” he readily admitted. And he kissed her on the mouth, too.

  That probably earned him a glare, but Blue didn’t take the time to verify it. With his gun still ready and gripped in his hand, he went down the stairs and peered out the sidelight windows.

  He still couldn’t see anything.

  Where the heck were they?

  However, when he eased open the front door, he spotted the ranch hands still on the sides of the house, and Cooper was making his way on foot toward them. Cooper’s own house was just yards away, and another of the hands, Arlene, was standing guard on his front porch. Probably because Cooper’s family was still inside.

  “Is everyone okay?” Cooper called out to him.

  Blue nodded. “Your dad’s upstairs with Rayanne.”

  Cooper lifted his eyebrow. He didn’t say anything, but the surprise was in his eyes, verifying what Blue had already guessed. That Rayanne and her father didn’t interact much.

  Well, until this morning.

  Roy had likely saved their lives. That would create an interaction whether Rayanne liked it or not.

  “You look like crap,” Cooper said to him. “Are you in pain?”

  “Some,” Blue admitted. “Not enough to stop me from helping you catch this jerk.”

  “I’d rather you help by staying put. I don’t want anyone getting upstairs to Dad. Or Rayanne,” Cooper added, and he shot a glance at the car.

  Where he’d last seen their three suspects.

  Blue doubted any of them would bolt toward the house, but it wasn’t a risk he was willing to take. Rayanne and the baby had already been through enough today, and one of the men could be a killer.

  The sirens stopped when an ambulance pulled into the drive. Colt was right behind them in a cruiser. The medics stayed put, but Colt got out, and along with Cooper, they started to converge on Caleb’s car.

  “Is everyone all right?” Cooper shouted.

  If anyone answered, Blue wasn’t able to hear them. He could only watch as Cooper and Colt made it to the car. Their guns drawn. Their attention nailed to the interior of the vehicle, probably in case one of their suspects came out shooting.

  Colt went to the left side of the car, Cooper the right. Both pivoted, aiming their guns.

  And Cooper cursed. He looked up, his gaze meeting Blue’s. “He’s been shot.”

  “Who? Caleb?” Blue asked.

  Cooper shook his head. “Rex Gandy. And from the looks of it, he’s dead.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Rayanne was afraid if she stood up from the kitchen table, her legs would give way and she’d fall. Hardly what she wanted, considering she felt wimpy enough without doing something to prove it.

  This pregnancy had changed everything.

  And Blue had, too.

  Six months ago she would have taken on that shooter and not batted an eye. Well, she was doing more than eye batting now. It sickened her to think of how close Blue, she and the baby had come to dying again. It sickened her even more to know that the threat likely hadn’t been stopped.

  Not even with Gandy’s death.

  Because they still didn’t know how the man had died. Or why. Until they learned that, the threat was still just as real and fresh as it had been two days ago when her life had turned on a dime.

  “You need to eat,” Blue prompted her, pulling his attention from his latest phone call so he could slide the sandwich and glass of milk closer to her.

  Rayan
ne picked up the sandwich, only because Blue, Rosalie and Roy were all giving her concerned looks.

  Heck, even Colt seemed worried about her. A first. Well, a first since she’d returned to the ranch. Once, a million years ago, Colt and she had been close.

  They were all in the massive kitchen at the ranch. All of them, except her, contributing in some way to the investigation and crime-scene cleanup. Rosalie had checked Blue’s bandage several times and was now helping Mary make sandwiches for everyone. Colt and Blue were making nonstop calls. Roy was going over instructions with Arlene on how to beef up security.

  Cooper was no doubt making calls back at his own place, where he could better watch his wife and son. Rayanne couldn’t blame him. The latest attack had literally been too close to home, and like Roy, he would need to make his own security arrangements.

  “I’m okay,” Rayanne insisted when Blue continued to stare at her.

  She took a large exaggerated bite from the ham-and-cheese sandwich. It tasted like dust. Probably because her mouth was bone-dry and the last thing her stomach wanted her to do was put food in it. Her mind was numb from the adrenaline that’d come and gone, leaving her exhausted.

  Blue finished his call with the Floresville P.D., scrubbed his hand over his face and looked at her again. “After you eat, you should get some rest.”

  She would have bet the balance of her checking account that he was going to say that. “Ditto. I’m not the one healing from a gunshot wound and a concussion. Now, what did you learn about Ace Butler? Did he really die in the Floresville hospital or not?”

  “He died, all right. His prints were in the system, and they’re a match to the body. There’s no surveillance footage of the person who tried to bribe the doctor to keep it quiet, but the cops are interviewing people who might have seen him.”

  Rayanne had to fight through the fatigue to process that. “So Gandy was telling the truth.”

  Interesting. Gandy was dead, so he couldn’t tell them why he’d doled out that info to them. Or why he’d given them the photo and audio clip. Rayanne had figured it was so it would make him seem innocent, and in light of his death, maybe he was innocent.

  About this, anyway.