“I knew,” she lied. “But conversations don’t mean anything. After all, we’re having one now, and that hardly means we’re on friendly terms.”
Even in the moonlight, she saw the anger flash in his eyes. Wendell wanted only to hurt and didn’t want to hear logic.
“Disarm them,” Wendell snapped to his two goons. “Then get them inside the car.”
Rayanne didn’t budge and knew that if she got in, neither she nor Blue would be alive much longer.
“You intend to kill us to punish my mother,” Rayanne said. She stepped to Blue’s side, despite his attempts to stop her, and she slid her hand over her stomach.
She’d never used the baby card, but she would now. She would do whatever it took to survive so that her precious baby could survive, too.
“You really think you can kill a pregnant woman?” she demanded.
Wendell kept tossing her glares while he continued to keep watch around them. He didn’t seem to notice the men making their way across the pasture, coming from the direction of the ranch house.
Cooper? Maybe some of the hands. Whoever they were, Rayanne hoped she could distract Wendell long enough for someone to get off a shot and send this monster to his maker.
Of course, it could be more of Wendell’s hired guns out there, too, but Rayanne couldn’t let her thoughts go there. Blue and she had to survive this for the sake of their baby, and while they were surviving, she had to make sure Wendell didn’t take out anyone else to quench his need for revenge.
“I can do whatever it takes to avenge my son’s murder,” Wendell answered. “Besides, losing a grandchild will make the cut even deeper for Jewell.”
And there it was, all spelled out for her. Rayanne hadn’t thought for one minute that she could actually negotiate with Wendell, but now she was sure.
“If you’re going to kill us, anyway,” she said, “then we might as well die on McKinnon land. You, too. Because I figure Blue and I can get off a shot before your men take us out. One shot’s all we’ll need to make sure you’re dead.”
The corner of Wendell’s mouth lifted. “You always were a scrappy one. I’m sure Jewell will take it especially hard when she finds out you’ve been murdered.”
“If Jewell lives,” Blue tossed out there. “This could all be for no reason. That probably leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, huh?”
The two goons tightened their grips on their weapons, obviously waiting for their boss to give the word to put them in the car. That was when Blue and she would need to make their move. Hopefully by then, whoever was in the pasture would be in place to help them.
Wendell didn’t respond to Blue’s verbal jab. He just made another sweeping look around. Thank God whoever was in the pasture ducked down just in time. So that probably meant it was friend and not foe.
“For someone so hell-bent on wanting us dead,” Blue went on, “you saved us by phoning in that there was a bomb in Rayanne’s truck.”
“I didn’t do that. Ruby-Lee did.”
Ruby-Lee, his caretaker, who’d been with Wendell when he’d come to the ranch. “Why would she try to help us?” Rayanne asked.
“Because she’s a sap, that’s why.” The disdain was crystal clear in his voice. “She listened in on conversations she shouldn’t have and thought one of my men had set the bomb. She figured I didn’t know about it or I would have done something to stop it. Right. She tried to stick her nose where it didn’t belong, and now she’ll pay for that, too.”
If the woman wasn’t already dead, she soon would be. That was yet another reason to stop this monster and try to rescue the woman who’d saved them.
“Did you set up Caleb and Woody?” Blue asked. Maybe as a distraction ploy so Wendell wouldn’t notice the men in the pasture.
Wendell huffed. “Good grief, what does it matter now?”
Blue glared at him. “You did set them up. How?”
“You can hire hackers, good ones, for a lot less than explosives experts. I figured if I could set up the feds, then maybe I could walk away from this clear. But it’s too risky. Once you two are dead, that leaves too many McKinnons who might be able to piece things together.”
And not just McKinnons but Seth, too. No way would he drop this without getting to the truth.
“Take them to the hospital,” Wendell said to the men. “Finish things there and send me photos.”
“Photos?” Rayanne and Blue asked in unison.
“You don’t think I’d wait around for your brothers to arrest me, do you?” Wendell didn’t wait for an answer. “Not a chance. I’m headed out of the country, where I’ll be well out of McKinnon reach. All that’s left now is the grieving, and if Jewell lives, she’ll be doing plenty of that. Because your deaths are just the start. I’ll finish all of you off.”
And with that death order, Wendell slammed the car door, and his driver hit the accelerator.
He was getting away.
Rayanne wanted to fire into the car to stop him, but she didn’t get a chance.
The hired killers came right at Blue and her.
* * *
BLUE DIDN’T FIRE when the armed men charged them. Rayanne was still too close, practically right in the line of fire, and if he pulled the trigger, they almost certainly would, too.
Wendell had already given them orders to kill, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to believe they would go ahead and murder Rayanne and him right here.
Or rather, try to kill them.
Blue wasn’t going to let that happen.
He jumped in front of Rayanne, using his body to block them from getting to her. Both men rammed into him, one hitting his shoulder and nearly knocking the breath right out of Blue.
That didn’t stop him.
Blue bashed one of the men on his head with his gun. It caused him to stagger back. Just enough. Blue was able to get off a shot.
The bullet hit the guy squarely in the chest, and even though he was wearing a Kevlar vest, the impact of the shot dropped him like a stone, and he gasped for breath. The injury wouldn’t kill him, but it would incapacitate him enough that he wasn’t a threat.
Blue hoped.
He kicked the man’s gun from his hand and turned to deflect the other goon when he jumped right at him. Blue’s gun was out of position to fire.
But Rayanne’s wasn’t.
She fired, her shot also going into the second man’s chest. She reached down to disarm the man, who was now groaning and clutching his chest, but a sound stopped her.
It was the cruiser, coming from the other end of the ranch road. Colt had obviously managed to circle around. The moment he pulled the cruiser to a stop, both Reed and he jumped out, training their weapons on the men.
“Wendell’s the one behind this,” Blue said.
“And he’s getting away,” Rayanne added, already heading for the hired guns’ car, probably because it was blocking the road, and the cruiser wouldn’t be able to get past it.
Rosalie and Roy got out of the cruiser, aiming their guns at the men on the ground, too, and Blue had to run to catch up with Rayanne.
“Don’t you try to stop me,” she warned him, and he could tell from that determined look in her eyes that stopping her wasn’t even possible. “You know if Wendell gets away, that the attacks won’t stop. He’ll just keep hiring people to come after us.”
Blue cursed. Because it was true.
“Can you handle this?” Blue asked Reed.
The deputy nodded and motioned toward Cooper and some ranch hands who were making their way toward them. “I’ve got plenty of backup.”
Colt nodded and got behind the wheel. Blue took over at shotgun, and Rayanne jumped into the backseat behind her brother. Colt threw the car into reverse and hit the gas while they buckled up.
“Wendell’s on his way to the airport,” Blue told Colt. “What’s the fastest way there?”
“This way,” Colt answered the moment they reached the end of the ranch road and turned right. He
spun out onto the highway and put the pedal to the metal.
Blue couldn’t see Wendell’s car, but then, they’d had a head start.
Colt took out his phone and punched in some numbers. “Call the airport,” he told whoever answered.
Blue had never been to the airport but knew it was just a small strip, mainly used for private planes and crop dusting. It was likely that Wendell would be the only “customer” at this time of night.
“No answer at the airport,” Colt said a few moments later, and he added some profanity. “Either Wendell’s paid them off or he’s fixed it so they can’t answer.”
Which could mean he’d had them killed.
It sickened Blue to think of just how far Wendell would go to get back at Jewell. Heaven knew how many lives he’d ended or put in danger, and two of those lives were in the backseat. Blue caught a glimpse of her in the rearview mirror.
“Hurry,” was all she said when their gazes met.
Colt did.
He took the curvy highway as fast as he could and requested backup and roadblocks. Maybe, just maybe, it’d be enough, because Blue didn’t want him and Rayanne to live the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders.
“The turn for the airport’s just a half mile up on the left,” Rayanne told Blue.
Colt probably had no plans to slow down until the last possible second. However, when he rounded a sharp curve, he had to slam on his brakes.
Because Wendell’s car was there.
Smack-dab in the middle of the road.
The cruiser’s brakes squealed on the asphalt, and Colt turned the steering wheel to avoid a head-on collision and came to a stop.
But before any of them could even take aim, Wendell’s driver fired at them through his already-opened window.
The shots blasted into their car, but thankfully, none of them hit them. Unfortunately, the glass cracked and webbed, making it next to impossible to see.
Not good.
Because Wendell’s driver stopped firing and hit the gas, no doubt ready to turn the car around and speed away.
“Not this time,” Rayanne mumbled. She leaned out the window on the driver’s side.
Blue leaned out on his side.
And they both fired.
Not at the car itself, because it was likely bullet resistant. They aimed for the tires before the driver could move.
It was pitch-dark, hardly the best conditions to stop a killer, but Blue and Rayanne kept firing.
Wendell’s driver managed to right the angle of the car, and he hit the accelerator again. Colt went in pursuit with Rayanne and Blue still firing.
Within seconds, both the driver and Colt had the vehicles flying down the road.
“Get back in and put on your seat belt,” Blue shouted to Rayanne.
She didn’t listen. They both fired shots, each of them slamming into the rear windshield of the car. Blue immediately saw the car fishtail, and almost like a swoosh of breath, it left the road.
And slammed into some trees.
Colt hit his brakes, trying to turn the car around so they would have a better shot if Wendell or his driver came out firing.
But they didn’t.
The sound of the blast ripped through Wendell’s car. A fireball that thundered through the night.
Blue had a split-second realization that there must have been explosives in the vehicle. Another split second to remember that Rayanne was still leaning out the window.
And the fiery debris came right at them.
Chapter Twenty
Rayanne didn’t have time to react, but Blue certainly did. He caught on to her and pulled her back inside the car.
It wasn’t a second too soon.
A piece of Wendell’s car came flying right at her and skidded off the top of their vehicle.
“Get us out of here!” Blue shouted.
Colt did. He hit the gas, and they sped away just as there was a second blast. The impact shook their own car and blew the rest of Wendell’s vehicle to smithereens.
“Explosives,” Colt mumbled. “I’m betting Wendell hadn’t counted on that happening.”
No, but Wendell had obviously been using bombs right and left to get to them. They’d been lucky that Wendell and his goons hadn’t succeeded. Well, not with them, anyway.
Her mother was a different story.
“We need to get to the hospital,” she insisted.
Thankfully, neither Blue nor Colt argued with her. While he continued to drive, Colt took out his phone to make some calls, and Blue climbed over the seat and dropped down next to her. He pulled her into his arms and then checked her over from head to toe.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I wasn’t hurt,” she settled for saying. “You?”
Blue settled for giving her the same lie.
They’d gotten lucky. None of them had been physically hurt, but her mother had been and maybe others. Wendell hadn’t cared how many people he involved in his revenge scheme.
“Wendell’s dead,” she said. No way could he have survived that. Rayanne hadn’t been sure how she would feel about that, but she felt only relief. This way, he couldn’t hurt her or her family again.
Unless...
“We need to make sure Wendell didn’t somehow make it out of the car before it exploded,” she mumbled.
Blue nodded and took out his phone, but Colt said something before Blue could dial.
“Reed’s taking the two henchmen to jail,” Colt relayed to them after he finished his call. “Cooper’s getting a CSI team out to the site of Wendell’s explosion.”
Good.
Rayanne wouldn’t breathe easier until she knew for sure.
“I’ve got a call into the hospital to get an update on Jewell,” Colt continued. “Dad’s bringing Rosalie to the hospital, too. They’re not far behind us.”
It had become second nature for Rayanne to scowl anytime Roy was mentioned, but it was hard to scowl at a man who’d tried to save her life.
Ditto for Blue.
Of course, she’d quit scowling at him about the same time they’d landed in bed together. Later they’d need to talk about that and hopefully figure out where to go from here. For now, though, her priority was her mother.
Colt and Blue continued to make calls, each of them asking for reports and updates. Rayanne considered making one of her own to try to personally speak to a nurse or a doctor at the Clay Ridge hospital, but part of her was terrified of what she might learn.
Her nerves were raw, right at the surface, and with the adrenaline still rocketing through her, she couldn’t take any more bad news tonight.
“That was Agent Hale,” Blue explained when he finished another call. “He’s looking into the possibility that Wendell hired someone to set up Caleb and Woody with those illegal weapons.”
“I don’t think it’s just a possibility,” she said. “I’m pretty sure Wendell was telling the truth. In fact, he was bragging about all the criminal things he’d done... Oh, God. What about Ruby-Lee? He said he was going to have her killed.”
“One of the Clay Ridge deputies is on his way to her place now,” Colt volunteered.
Rayanne said a quick prayer for the woman. Ruby-Lee had tried to stop a monster and now might have paid for it with her life.
With every muscle in her body rock hard, she was surprised when she felt the little flutters in her stomach. Except this was slightly more than a flutter.
It felt like a kick.
“What’s wrong?” Blue immediately asked. “You gasped.”
Had she? Rayanne hadn’t even noticed, but she took his hand and placed it on her belly. “The baby.”
She hadn’t expected Blue to be able to feel it, but it was as if the baby wanted to prove a point.
That he or she was alive and well.
The next thump landed right against Blue’s palm.
He laughed. It was laced with nerves and fatigue, but it also made her smile.
&nb
sp; “Uh, are you two okay?” Colt asked, eyeing them in the rearview mirror.
“Just parent stuff,” Blue answered.
Despite the horrible nightmare they’d just left behind and the one they might still have to face at the hospital, it felt good to share this moment with Blue.
He kissed her.
Until he touched his mouth to hers, she hadn’t realized just how much she needed it.
Needed him.
Rayanne didn’t pull away from him when the kiss ended. She stayed there in his arms.
“You know I’m not going away when this is over, right?” he asked.
There was already too much buzzing through her head for her to try and think that through. Was he talking about moving closer to her, or was this about something else?
“What about your job?” she asked, because that was a lot safer than asking about that “something else.”
He pointed to the Clay Ridge city-limits sign that was just ahead. “I can get reassigned here or else to Sweetwater Springs.”
So they were talking about distance. Rayanne wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Okay, she was.
Yes, she wanted Blue closer. She wanted him to be a big part of their baby’s life. But it terrified her to realize that she wanted more from him.
Blue’s hand went to her stomach. “You just gasped again.”
“Not because of the baby,” she mumbled.
Blue stared at her, obviously waiting for her to explain that, but Rayanne had no idea how to even start.
“I’m in love with you, Blue,” she blurted out.
That was it?
The best she could do?
Yes, her head was fuzzy, but judging from Blue’s poleaxed look, she should have eased into it better. Or maybe she shouldn’t have brought it—
He kissed her, cutting off the rest of that thought. In fact, it cut off a lot of things. Her fears. Doubts.
Common sense.
And for that moment, that one wonderful moment, Rayanne got totally wrapped up in his arms and in his kiss.
“Uh, I hate to interrupt,” Colt said, “but we’re at the hospital.”
Oh, mercy. Yes, she was losing it, but the sight of the hospital brought it all home. Her mother could be inside there dying, and she had to focus on that and not the punch from one of Blue’s kisses.
Rustling Up Trouble Page 17