Last Stand Ranch

by Jenna Night

  “Wait, there’s some glass.” She felt Elijah brush the back of her head and her shoulders. “Close your eyes and look down until I get this.”

  “What happened?” she asked with her eyes closed.

  “Elijah!” It was Jonathan calling out from a few feet away.

  “We’re all right,” Elijah called back. “You?”

  “I’m okay. But Ricky’s hurt.”

  Ricky was hurt? Olivia’s blood turned cold. She started to stand up. “Somebody has to help him.”

  “Wait,” Elijah commanded, putting his hand on her shoulder. “You’ll be no help to anyone with glass and grit in your eyes.”

  He brushed the top of her head a couple more times. She heard sirens.

  “Okay,” Elijah finally said. “I think you’re in good shape.”

  She shook her head a little, and then brushed her fingertips over her face and forehead feeling for glass. When she didn’t feel anything, she carefully opened her eyes.

  The first thing she saw was Elijah squatting beside her, one hand holding her good arm, the other hand holding a pistol. Her injured shoulder felt as if it was on fire, hurting nearly as badly as it had when she was originally shot. She must have fallen on it.

  Gritting her teeth, she put the least amount of pressure on it that she could as she tried to stand up. Elijah helped her.

  Two sheriff’s department patrol cars raced up and slammed to a halt at the corner in front of Ricky’s shop. All other traffic had vanished. The deputies were out of their cars in an instant. One carried a pistol, the other a rifle. She thought the second one might be Deputy Bedford.

  Crouching, the deputies ran around the shop toward the area behind the garage where she now stood. Dazedly, she tried to get her stunned brain to process what was happening.

  A huge hole had been blasted through the back window of her car. The safety glass was all that had kept it from completely disintegrating. Her side windows were shattered and holes had been blasted through the back half of the body of her car.

  Ricky’s tow truck was parked near it, and its front window had been blown out, too. Whatever had hit it had also blown off the side mirror and ripped through the door.

  Where was Ricky? Fear, mixed with nausea, rose up from the pit of Olivia’s stomach. What had happened to him? She wanted to know, but she didn’t want to know. And where was Jonathan?

  She heard more sirens. Deputy Bedford spotted Elijah and spoke into the radio microphone at his collar. Still moving cautiously, he and the other deputy headed toward them.

  “Elijah, what happened?” Bedford called out as he drew closer.

  “Shotgun.”

  That was the source of the explosions? A shotgun? It had sounded like something a lot bigger.

  Elijah still gripped Olivia’s arm. With his other hand he held his pistol, now pointed at the ground. He gestured with his chin toward where the side street running alongside Ricky’s shop intersected with Stagecoach Road. “He shot from that direction. I only saw one shooter. I’m pretty sure it was a man, but I couldn’t see his face.”

  He’d turned and looked in the middle of all those explosions? Olivia thought he’d been crouched down, as she was.

  They walked toward the tow truck where Olivia finally saw Ricky. He was sprawled on the ground and he looked frighteningly pale. He wasn’t groaning anymore. She hoped he was still breathing. Please, Lord, let him be alive. One of the heavy side mirrors from his tow truck lay on the ground. Jonathan was kneeling beside him.

  Bedford radioed for one of the EMS units positioned over on Stagecoach Road to move on in.

  “Did that mirror hit him in the head?” Bedford asked.

  “That’s my guess.”

  “You see the shooter, Jon?” Elijah asked.

  “No.”

  An ambulance rolled cautiously toward them.

  Elijah tucked his pistol in his waistband, squatted down beside Ricky and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Hey, bud, help is here,” he said quietly.

  Olivia didn’t think Ricky was conscious. It was heartbreaking to see a young man who was normally boisterous and energetic lying so unnaturally still.

  “Dear Lord,” Elijah began quietly, as a paramedic hustled toward them, “we pray for Your protection and healing for our brother Ricky.”

  Olivia crouched down beside Ricky and put her hand on his shoulder as well, joining in Elijah’s prayer.

  She heard Jonathan whisper, “Amen,” just as the medic got down on his knees by Ricky’s side and started to assess him. Everyone got out of the way so he could do his work.

  Law enforcement had already converged on the corner where the shooter had been.

  The back door of Ricky’s shop flew open and his mechanics ran out.

  “Is he okay?” one of the mechanics asked, tears in his eyes, trying to get to Ricky’s side.

  Jonathan held him back. “Let’s give them a minute.”

  “What happened?” the mechanic asked. Jonathan led him away, talking quietly to him.

  Deputy Bedford turned to Olivia. “I’m going with the obvious assumption that this guy was after you and not Ricky,” he said grimly. “Kurtz is still out of the country.” He shook his head and looked around. “We aren’t dealing with a professional killer. I’m certain of that now. It explains why everything’s been so messy and ineffective from the beginning. What it doesn’t explain is the sudden escalation. Your attacker has never gone after you when you were in a crowd before. Why now?”

  “News travels fast in Painted Rock,” Elijah said. “It’s no secret the Feds are coming to help. Maybe the shooter heard about that and panicked.”

  “Maybe so.”

  A commotion from the side street caught Olivia’s attention. Sheriff’s department personnel had the intersection blocked off and they were putting up crime-scene tape, but someone was shouting. A few seconds later Vanessa came into view. She shoved her way around a cop trying to keep her back and ran across the asphalt, making a beeline for Olivia.

  “All you all right?” she demanded. “I heard the sirens, and then saw all the cop cars and I was afraid something had happened to you.”

  Pain from her sore shoulder ricocheted throughout Olivia’s body and she grimaced, then tried to smile for her friend. “I’m okay.”

  “No, you’re not.” Vanessa studied her face. “You have cuts on your forehead.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  Still holding on to her, Vanessa turned to Elijah, and then looked toward the working medics. Her eyes grew even wider. She let go of Olivia’s hands. “Is that Jonathan? Is he okay?”

  “Jon’s all right. That’s Ricky—the mechanic.”

  “Who are you?” Bedford asked.

  “Olivia’s attorney,” Vanessa said. “I’ve been in contact with Sheriff Wolfsinger about the attempts on Olivia’s life. I gave him some names to look into.”

  Bedford gave her a long look. Then he turned and pointed to one of the deputies she’d run past. “You go back over there and wait.”

  Vanessa glared at him for a moment and then did as she was told.

  “I’m so sorry I ever came to Painted Rock,” Olivia said to the deputy. “I didn’t mean to put anyone in danger.”

  Bedford gave her a sympathetic look before turning to speak to a fellow deputy.

  The trembling in Olivia’s hands began to take over her body. She faced Elijah.

  He said something to her. She saw his lips move, but she couldn’t hear him. She kept hearing the shotgun blasts all over again inside her head. She brought her hands up to her ears, trying in vain to block the phantom shots.

  The medics loaded the gurney holding Ricky into the waiting ambulance. The driver hit the lights and sirens, and pulled out.

 
Olivia’s knees started to wobble. Overwhelmed by her sense of responsibility for Ricky’s injuries, she dropped to the ground. Oh, Lord, please help Ricky. She folded her hands tightly together, tears escaping her eyes and running down the sides of her nose. And right now it feels so selfish to ask, but please, I need Your help, too.

  The next thing she knew Elijah was crouched down beside her. He wrapped an arm around her and helped her to her feet. She was starting to sob, drawing in noisy gulps of air as sorrow and regret slammed into her so hard, they felt like punches that rattled her bones.

  Elijah gently turned her until she was facing him, then wrapped his arms around her. It felt as if he was holding her up. Not just physically, but emotionally, too. All of this was her fault and she knew it. Ricky was seriously injured. Who knew who else was going to get hurt before all of this was over?

  There was so much she wanted to go back and do differently in her life, but she couldn’t. Protected in Elijah’s strong embrace she gave herself over to all the anguish she could no longer keep at bay. She was falling to pieces. For the moment, she let Elijah hold her together.

  FOURTEEN

  Elijah found a medic and had him look at Olivia’s shoulder. The medic reached over to move her arm and Olivia yelped. “That’s not a good sign,” he said.

  “I told you.” Elijah crossed his arms and stared down at possibly the most stubborn woman he’d ever met. “It takes a while for a gunshot wound to heal properly.”

  “You’re the lady who was shot?” the medic asked, his eyes widening slightly.

  Olivia nodded. “Yes. But it’s been a few days. I’m okay, just a little sore.”

  From what Elijah could see the wound wasn’t bleeding, but that didn’t mean Olivia was okay. He could tell that she’d been pushed beyond what she could stand. Running out of tears, pulling away from his embrace and pasting a forced, quivering smile on her lips didn’t convince him that she was fine.

  “Here, let me check out a couple of things,” the medic said as he led her to an ambulance staged on a corner of Ricky’s property.

  He held her good arm as he led her over. Elijah followed closely. He watched the medic take her vital signs. Her eyes were red rimmed and her nose was swollen. Her cheeks and forehead were smudged with dirt and a little blood from where she’d scraped her chin. Despite all that he couldn’t remember ever seeing a more attractive woman. Attractive in the real sense. His heart was drawn to her. More than he wanted it to be. Despite what he’d told himself about getting his emotions under control, he still wanted to be with her every moment he could. It was getting harder to imagine his life without her in it.

  He’d almost lost her. Right here. In a split second when he’d let his attention be diverted from looking out for her.

  Angry with himself for letting this happen, he could almost see Mrs. Somerset again, burned with acid back in Afghanistan. He’d failed miserably in his duty to protect that kind, good-hearted lady. He couldn’t possibly let himself fail with Olivia.

  While the medic continued to chat with Olivia, Elijah pulled out his phone and did a quick lookup for a number. He turned and walked away to make a call.

  After he disconnected, he walked back in time to hear the medic telling Olivia her vitals were good.

  “Dr. Beamer can see you again at four-thirty,” Elijah said.

  “But I was just there.” She shook her head. “I don’t need to go back. I’m fine. Just a little sore.”

  “You can walk okay?”

  “Sure.”

  He took her arm and helped her off the back of the ambulance. She winced a little bit, even though he was holding her good arm. “Do you feel like walking over there?” He nodded to indicate the corner where he’d seen the shooter. Bedford was already over there, along with some other deputies. “Or you could wait inside the shop here with Jonathan.”

  She turned to him, her green-brown eyes nearly liquid with emotion. “I want to know everything that’s going on. I don’t want to hide from the truth. It’s better for me if I know.” She cleared her throat. “Even if it’s bad.”

  “All right.”

  He held her close beside him as they walked across the street.

  The red brick building at the corner had been a bank a century ago. Now it was a furniture store. Elijah could see uniformed officers inside. Besides the county sheriff, the state highway patrol had a presence and he recognized a couple deputies from the neighboring county.

  Elijah spotted Bedford on the sidewalk and walked up to him. “You have anything?”

  The deputy shook his head. “We’ve got patrol cars out searching all over town, but there aren’t any hot leads yet. Nobody saw a car speeding away. Nobody caught a glimpse of anybody with a gun fleeing the scene.”

  “Does this store have video surveillance?”

  “Yeah, but only a single camera. Sheriff Wolfsinger is looking at the recording.”

  “The shooter could have walked through the store to the parking lot in back,” Elijah said. “If he stayed calm, no one would have noticed him with everything else going on.”

  “We’re talking to everyone in the store about everybody they remember seeing—whether they looked suspicious or not.”

  One of the other deputies called out to Bedford and he went into the store.

  All the waiting and hiding since Olivia was shot had been eating at Elijah. Protecting her had become personal. He couldn’t deny it anymore. He was certain he could track the guy who was after her, whoever he was. It was getting hard to stay out of it and let law enforcement do the job.

  “Let’s go.” He wrapped his arm around Olivia’s shoulder.

  Bedford stepped out of the store and called out to them. “Don’t go far. We need to get your statements.”

  “Don’t take too long,” Elijah answered back.

  The shooter was no longer patiently waiting for a chance to get Olivia alone.

  Things had just gotten a whole lot more dangerous.

  * * *

  “I know you’d rather go back to Aunt Claudia’s house right now, but this makes things easier.” Elijah drove his truck down the last couple of yards to the front of his family’s house. “At least for the next few hours until things settle down.”

  Olivia nodded, even though she was fairly sure he wasn’t looking at her. She certainly wasn’t looking at him. He’d started badgering her to go to the Morales ranch rather than back to Claudia’s house from the moment they left the doctor’s office.

  As she expected, the doctor told her today’s shooting incident hadn’t done any serious damage to her preexisting wound. Olivia had suggested she get a customer loyalty punch card for future use. Maybe the fifth treatment for getting shot at could be free.

  It was either laugh or cry. But right now she wasn’t laughing or crying. She was angry. She clenched her fists on the seat beside her until they went numb, and then let go, hoping the release would drain away some of the rage building within her. It didn’t. She wasn’t angry with Elijah. She was just angry with...everything.

  “I told you if it made things safer for Aunt Claudia I’d come back to your house,” Olivia finally responded.

  “It makes things safer for you, too.”

  “You don’t know that.” She pressed her lips together and turned to him. His calm certainty was getting on her nerves. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen next.” She heard the shakiness in her voice and it fueled her anger. She turned back to glare through the front windshield at the Morales house. Its windows glowed with light in the early evening darkness.

  How long was this going to go on? She was sick of being afraid. Tired of seeing other people get hurt. Angry enough to fight back. But she didn’t know how or where to strike.

  “The shooter might have killed Ricky,” she said. Ricky w
asn’t out of the woods. He’d rallied on the way to the hospital, only to suddenly lapse back into unconsciousness. Last she heard, he’d been rushed into surgery.

  A cold, sinking feeling crept through her, clinging to her head and the pit of her stomach. A sweet, kind, innocent man had been gravely injured simply because he was standing close to her at the wrong time.

  “Ricky has a wife he adores and two little girls.” Elijah spoke sharply, as though he thought Olivia was suggesting the young mechanic might die on purpose. “He’s not giving up without a fight.”

  “A fight he wouldn’t have to face if I weren’t here.”

  “But you are here. We want you here.”

  She scoffed. The words came out so quickly it had to be one of the routine lines he gave everybody he helped. She reminded herself that all he’d done for her was routine—the same care he’d give to anyone. It wasn’t personal.

  Up ahead, the porch light was on. After the shotgun blasts, the day had taken such a frantic, terrifying turn that she wasn’t sure what time it was. Six or seven o’clock, maybe.

  True to his word, Deputy Bedford had gotten their statements fairly quickly. Bobby, Mark and Linda had met them outside the sheriff’s substation and were following along behind them now, just to make sure they made it to the house okay. Jonathan and Vanessa had gone straight to the Morales place after Jonathan gave his statement.

  Someone was trying to kill Olivia, yet at the same time complete strangers had appeared in her life to look out for her. She’d had someone by her side from the moment she’d first reached the outskirts of Painted Rock. She couldn’t make sense of the greater plan, but all the help that had come her way couldn’t be sheer coincidence. That thought helped to soften the edge of her anger. A little.

  They pulled up to the house and Jonathan stepped through the front door onto the porch. Elijah parked the truck. Bobby, Mark and Linda drove their motorcycles around to a pole barn near the kitchen area of the house where there was a side entrance.