More cattle.
And these weren’t loping around.
They were running right toward them, and it meant they were in the middle of a stampede. The cows couldn’t run through the truck, but in a panic, they could trample all of them.
Sawyer caught onto Cassidy and moved her back onto the hood of the truck. As before, he and Grayson tried to position themselves to best protect her. But the shots just kept coming. And this time they weren’t hitting the roof of the truck.
They were coming right at them.
“Get Cassidy back in the truck,” Grayson insisted. “I’ll try to stop these guys.”
He didn’t give Sawyer a chance to disagree—something he definitely would have done. Grayson was a husband and father, and despite that sheriff’s badge clipped to his belt, Sawyer didn’t want him taking these risks. This was his fight, and he should be the one going after the gunmen.
Grayson eased off the hood, and staying close to the truck, he worked his way to the back.
“Let’s go,” Sawyer told Cassidy, and he started the trek over the hood and back into the cab. They moved fast. Had to. The bullets were coming at them nonstop now.
“If you want her to live, you’ll let her go,” someone shouted. Sawyer didn’t recognize the voice.
The truck’s headlights were still on, and it was enough for Sawyer to see the frozen look on Cassidy’s face. “It might be the only way to get us out of this,” she whispered. “They won’t kill me. They only want the ransom money.”
That argument wasn’t going to work, and he pushed her down onto the floor of the truck. “Remember what they did to April. They probably hadn’t planned to kill her, either.”
Well, unless April had double-crossed them in some way. And there was the problem—Sawyer didn’t know who was behind the bullets, and it might not even matter. Cassidy could end up like April if these goons got their hands on her.
“At least consider it,” Cassidy said.
He paused a heartbeat. “Considered it, and the answer’s no. You’re not sacrificing yourself for me or anyone else.”
And he hoped that put an end to any further argument because he wanted to focus on their attackers and not talk about something that wasn’t going to happen—ever.
The shots slowed until there were several seconds between each one. Sawyer hoped that didn’t mean the gunmen were closing in on them. Instead, maybe it meant they were low on ammo, but he didn’t think he, Cassidy and his cousin would be that lucky.
He could no longer see Grayson. His cousin had disappeared amid the cattle and the darkness. Grayson was a smart lawman, and maybe he’d be able to stop at least one of the shooters. That would leave the other for Sawyer. Maybe there were just two of them, and he could manage to get Cassidy safely away from here. If he did, he was moving her straight to the safe house, where she would stay until he had arrested every person involved in this mess.
And he would arrest them.
No way would he let them get away with this.
Sawyer heard the shot on the left side of the truck. Maybe it had come from Grayson because the angle and sound were different from the others. He waited, listening, but there were no other shots and nothing from Grayson to indicate what had just happened.
Some movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention, and Sawyer looked into what was left of the side mirror. The broken pieces created an eerie broken image of the moving cows. No gunmen though.
But Sawyer quickly amended that.
There was someone using the cattle for cover.
“Stay down,” he said to Cassidy, and Sawyer adjusted his position so he could blast this idiot to smithereens.
He fastened his attention to the spot where he’d last seen the person, and it didn’t take him long to get another glimpse. And then a look at the face.
Hell.
* * *
EVEN THOUGH SAWYER didn’t say a word, Cassidy could tell from his body language that something else had just gone wrong. She prayed something bad hadn’t happened to Grayson or that they weren’t about to be ambushed.
She lifted her head just enough to follow Sawyer’s gaze, and her shoulders snapped back. No. It couldn’t be. But it was. She could see the person staring straight at them.
Bennie.
Oh, God. He’d been the one behind this.
Her chest tightened into a vise. Her breath vanished. It felt as if someone had taken hold of her heart and was crushing the life right out of it.
“I’m sorry,” Sawyer said a split second before he shoved her back down. Out of the line of possible fire. Sawyer’s gaze also fired all around them, probably looking for the second gunman.
But Cassidy couldn’t stay down. She couldn’t let her brother finish what he’d obviously started, and she couldn’t sit by while he shot Grayson or Sawyer.
“Bennie, don’t do this!” Cassidy called out.
She wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she’d get, but Cassidy was a little surprised when Bennie just stood there and shook his head.
“Sawyer, don’t shoot,” Bennie added, surprising her even more.
Sawyer must not have anticipated that response either because he mumbled, “What the heck’s going on?”
Cassidy had no idea.
However, that didn’t stop Sawyer from taking aim at Bennie. “Put down your gun and get your hands in the air so I can see them,” Sawyer ordered, sounding very much like the lawman that he was.
But Bennie shook his head. “I can’t. I’m not armed. And my hands are tied.”
Sawyer glanced at her to see if she knew what this was all about, but she had to shake her head, too.
“Don’t you get it?” Bennie snapped. “Someone kidnapped me again. That’s why I’m out here. The kidnapper brought me to you.”
“It might be a trick,” Sawyer whispered.
Cassidy was already considering it. Her brother could be so desperate for money that he’d be willing to fake his kidnapping twice. And in doing so, he could have put them all in danger—again.
“Who kidnapped you?” Cassidy pressed.
He didn’t jump to answer that. In fact, he seemed to dodge her gaze. Never a good sign. “The same men who kidnapped you and me before,” he finally said. “They grabbed me and put me in the truck.” He tipped his head to the vehicle on the road. “They used a tracker to follow you.”
“A tracker?” she repeated, and Cassidy certainly didn’t make it sound as if she believed him. Because she didn’t. “Did you put some kind of tracking device on the truck?”
“Not me,” Bennie insisted. He shook his head, repeated it. “But someone did. One of the men, I suspect. When I saw what they were doing, I tried to warn you, but I couldn’t get to one of their phones.”
She hoped that was true, that her brother had tried to help her, but again, Cassidy wasn’t sure. What they needed were answers.
“You must know who brought you here,” Sawyer challenged. “And how the heck did the kidnappers get past the cop guarding you?”
Bennie opened his mouth to speak, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything else. A guy wearing a dark ski mask came up behind him, and Cassidy had no trouble seeing the gun that he jammed against Bennie’s head. She also had no trouble seeing her brother’s reaction.
He was terrified.
Cassidy’s own reaction was automatic. There was that overwhelming need to protect him. She’d done it for so long that it had become second nature. But she couldn’t let her second nature get Sawyer and Grayson killed. Because Bennie could have hired the man with the gun to convince her that he’d indeed been kidnapped. If so, it was very convincing. That gun was real, and the man’s finger was on the trigger.
“Cassidy, you’ve got one choice and one choice only,�
�� the man threatened. “Surrender or your brother dies where he stands. I figure you got less than ten minutes to make up your mind about it because that’s when the boss gets here.”
That thinned her breath, and her pulse was crashing in her ears, making it hard for her to hear. She forced herself to remember that the threat could be another part of the setup to draw her out into the open. Not that Sawyer would have let her anyway, but Cassidy had no plans to surrender.
Well, unless it was the only way she could save Sawyer.
Something he definitely wouldn’t appreciate.
There was no chance she could convince Sawyer that this was her fault. She should have seen what Bennie was up to and nixed it. She should have stopped him before anyone got hurt. And that was something she’d have to learn to live with. Still, that didn’t make the pain in her heart any easier.
“Who’s your boss?” Sawyer snapped.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” the gunman taunted. “Guess you’ll find out soon enough, won’t you?”
Judging from the profanity Sawyer mumbled, that didn’t help him choke back the anger. Cassidy was having a hard time choking it back, too, but it wasn’t the only emotion she was feeling.
“Bennie, why is this happening?” she asked. Her voice broke. She thought she might break, too. This was tearing her heart into a dozen little pieces, and she doubted it would get better any time soon. “Just how deep are you mixed up in this?”
Her brother didn’t jump to deny his innocence. He only shook his head and looked away again as if he was afraid she’d see the guilt in his eyes. But Cassidy could see it without eye contact. Everything about Bennie’s body language told her what she didn’t want to hear.
“How deep?” she pressed, her voice raised.
Bennie groaned softly but still didn’t look at her. “I didn’t mean for it to come to this. I swear, I didn’t.”
That was it—his admission of guilt. Something she’d prayed she wouldn’t hear and yet something Cassidy had already expected.
“You did it for the money,” she said. And it wasn’t a question. Only money drove Bennie, and this time there was a lot of money at stake. “You needed to pay off that bar owner.”
He nodded. Groaned again. “He would have killed me. Maybe killed you, too. I thought I was saving us both.”
“You thought you were saving yourself,” Cassidy argued.
“I was thinking of you, too!” Bennie shouted back.
“Enough of this,” Sawyer snarled. He gave her a look. One of sympathy. But it didn’t last long. His jaw muscles turned to iron when he looked at Bennie. “Tell your henchman to put down his gun,” he added.
“He’s not my henchman,” Bennie insisted.
“Right,” Sawyer said. “You hired him. Now, tell him to drop the weapon or you both die.”
Cassidy didn’t think that was a bluff. Bennie had obviously gone too far over the edge to be saved. All it would take was for the gunman to make a move to shoot again, and Sawyer would have no choice but to fire first. With Bennie between them, he could easily be shot.
“I hired him,” Bennie admitted, his voice low and weary. “But he no longer works for me. I pulled out of the kidnapping plan. Or rather, I tried to do that, but they wouldn’t let me get out.”
Cassidy stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“I needed that money. You knew that. I told you I needed it—”
“You never said you’d be killed because of it,” she interrupted, “or that you’d be willing to risk my life to get it.”
“Your life was already at risk. The loan shark who owns the bar would have come after you if I hadn’t done something. I was desperate to save us both.”
“Stop all this yakking,” the gunman growled. “I thought I was pretty clear when I said what had to happen. I’ll trade Bennie for his sister, and that’s gotta happen before the boss gets here. After that, all bets are off, and I start shooting.”
“You were clear, all right,” Sawyer agreed, “but if you think I’ll turn Cassidy over to you or your boss, think again. You need to come up with a different plan. One that involves putting your gun on the ground and surrendering.”
Grayson was out there, somewhere, and hopefully could step up to help. Maybe the backup would be here soon, too.
The gunman laughed. “Hey, it’s not my plan. I’m just following orders. And if you think I won’t ice ol’ Bennie here, then think again. He’s not playing on our team anymore. But I tell you, when he was playing for us, he was real eager to put that kidnapping plan into action. Desperate men sure do stupid, desperate things.”
Cassidy had to get her teeth unclenched. Bennie had been desperate, all right, but it had been of his own making. No one had forced him to get involved with a loan shark.
“So, you faked our kidnapping so I’d pay up and never know the truth about what you’d done.” Again, Cassidy wasn’t asking a question. She was pretty sure where this was going, and it wasn’t a direction she liked.
“I changed my mind,” Bennie argued. “I tried to call it off, but these goons said they’d kill April if I didn’t go through with it.”
“April?” Sawyer and she questioned in unison.
It wasn’t much of a surprise that the woman’s name had come up. April had clearly been involved in some kind of way with the kidnapping. But until now Cassidy hadn’t known if April was a victim or the person behind the abductions.
She knew it now.
“Why would they threaten to kill April?” Sawyer asked.
Despite having a gun pressed against his head, Bennie took his time answering. “Because they thought they could use her to make sure that I cooperated.”
“Tell ʼem,” the gunman snarled when Bennie paused. “They’ll get a kick out of hearing this.”
But Bennie still didn’t belt out an explanation for several long moments. “The baby’s mine,” he finally said. “April had a test. An amnio, and it proved I was the father. These goons said they’d use the baby and her to make sure I collected the ransom money.”
Cassidy touched her fingers to her lips. It was so hard to hear this. Hard to learn that Bennie was Emma’s father and that these monsters wanted to use the newborn as a pawn.
“Emma’s yours,” Sawyer said under his breath. Not loud.
But plenty loud enough for Cassidy to hear him and the emotion in his voice. He had to be feeling so many things right now, but he was no doubt pushing them aside because of that gunman.
Cassidy tried to do the same—push the emotion aside. Hard to do. Here, all this time, she’d been with her own blood kin, her niece, at that, and she hadn’t even known it.
“You killed April?” Sawyer asked her brother.
“No.” Bennie not only shouted his answer, he frantically shook his head. “It was one of them.” He tipped his head to the man behind him.
“Yeah, it was me,” the man readily answered. He checked his watch. “Now, time’s up for Bennie here. Either come and trade places with him or he dies.”
The demand didn’t make sense because the gunman could ask for ransom from her for Bennie’s release. So, there had to be more.
But what?
And just how many more crimes would her brother confess to before the night was over? Maybe a confession to the ultimate one—that he was the boss.
“What are you not telling me?” Cassidy demanded, and she aimed a glare right at Bennie.
But he didn’t answer.
Because the shot cracked through the air. Not fired from the gun near her brother. This had come from the other side of the truck where she’d last seen Grayson. Cassidy couldn’t see him now, but the cows that were still nearby started to run again.
Something or someone had stampeded them.
As if i
n a panic, some of the cows bashed into the side of the truck. And the panic wasn’t just on that side but where Bennie was standing, as well. The masked man with the gun cursed, hooked his arm around Bennie’s neck and yanked him back.
That’s when Cassidy saw that her brother’s hands were indeed tied.
And she saw something else.
Another person dressed all in black walking through the cows and directly toward them.
That person took aim at Sawyer and fired.
Chapter Nineteen
Sawyer pulled Cassidy down onto the seat but not before he got a good look at the person who’d just shot at them.
Diane.
She certainly didn’t look like a woman who’d recently been kidnapped. Just the opposite. Unlike Bennie, her hands weren’t tied and no one was holding a gun to her head. Sawyer didn’t know exactly how Diane fit into all of this, but he intended to find out.
He glanced in Bennie’s direction to make sure the gunman there wasn’t about to start firing, as well. But the goon didn’t look on the verge of pulling the trigger. He had his hands full with Bennie struggling and the cattle darting in front of him.
Despite the stampede, Diane fired again, the shot taking off a chunk of the steering wheel, but like her comrades, she wasn’t aiming to kill, either. She wanted to take them alive. Or at least take Cassidy alive. And Sawyer had to figure out how to use that to his advantage.
“You’re looking pretty fit for a woman who left her blood on that warehouse floor,” Sawyer shouted.
“I am fit. Drew the blood myself and planted it there. I thought it would take me off your suspect list. No such luck. I also thought the fake robbery at the lab would get me off it. No such luck with that, either. You just don’t give up, do you?”
“Never,” he grumbled.
“You broke into the lab?” Bennie howled, still struggling. “You tried to set me up, tried to make me look guilty.”
“You are guilty,” Diane concluded. “Just not of that particular fake robbery.” She turned her attention back to Sawyer. “I heard the conversations you and your cousins had at the sheriff’s office because I planted a listening device on the front desk the day I visited.”
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