Too open.
The sidelight windows around the door were especially worrisome because a gunman could fire right through those.
He held his breath, prayed and moved as fast as he could to the keypad panel on the wall between the foyer and the family room. His mind was racing. His heart, pounding. And it took several precious seconds to recall the code. The moment he punched in the numbers, the alarms went silent.
Nate lifted his head. Listened. The rain was battering against the door and windows, but he heard the wind, too. Not from the storm. This wind was whistling through the broken windows. He tried to pick through all those sounds so he could hear what he was listening for.
Footsteps.
They barely had time to register in his mind when a bullet slammed into the wall next to them. Darcy gasped and dived toward the family room. Nate was right behind her, and he fired in the direction of the shooter.
“You missed!” someone yelled out.
Ramirez.
It was true. The killer was inside.
As quietly as he could, Nate positioned Darcy behind the sofa. It wouldn’t be much protection against bullets, but it was better than nothing. He cursed himself for this stupid bait plan and wondered how the devil he could get Darcy out of this alive. And how soon.
Where were Mason and the others?
Maybe someone had managed to nab Dent, Adam or anyone else outside waiting to help Ramirez.
Ramirez fired another shot at them. “You killed my brother,” he shouted. “Did you really think I wouldn’t make you pay for that?”
Nate didn’t answer him. He didn’t want Ramirez to use Nate’s voice to pinpoint their position. However, Nate let his aim follow Ramirez’s voice.
He sent another bullet toward the man.
Nate couldn’t see him, but he was pretty sure he missed. Ramirez’s laughter confirmed it. He’d moved. Maybe to the rear of the foyer?
If so, he was getting closer.
“Before I kill you,” Ramirez shouted, “I think it’s only fair I should tell you who hired me to kidnap your little brats.”
Darcy’s breath rattled, and she tried to come up from behind the sofa, but Nate pushed her right back down. He put his finger to his mouth in a stay-quiet warning. He hoped she realized that this was a trick that could get them killed, but he knew the firestorm Ramirez’s offer had created inside her. She was afraid, yes, but like Nate, she wanted justice.
“Maybe you’d like me to take care of my boss before I punish you?” Ramirez asked.
The only thing Nate wanted was a name because when this was over, he would deal with that SOB, too. For now, though, he waited and listened for Ramirez to come into view. All Nate needed was one clean shot.
“Well?” Ramirez prompted.
There. In the deep shadows of the foyer, Nate saw what he’d been watching for. The silhouette of a man. He took aim. But before he could squeeze the trigger, there was god-awful sound of wood splintering, and the man ducked out of sight.
The door.
Someone had kicked it down.
Nate didn’t fire because it could be one of his brothers, and because of that, he had to break his silence. “Ramirez is in the house!” Nate warned.
“What the hell?” Ramirez snarled.
And a shot tore through the foyer.
E
VERYTHING SEEMED TO FREEZE,
and Darcy felt the sickening dread slice through her.
The bullet wasn’t the same as the others. There had been no sound of the metal ripping through drywall or glass.
No.
This was a deadly thud. Followed by a gasp. And Darcy knew. The bullet had been shot into
someone.
She shoved her hand over her mouth so she couldn’t cry out. This couldn’t be happening. Ramirez couldn’t have shot Mason or Kade. She couldn’t be responsible for Nate losing anyone else in his life.
Darcy tried to get up, again, but once again Nate kept her pinned behind the sofa. “Stay put,” he warned.
Nate, however, didn’t heed his own warning. Neither did the person in the foyer because she heard footsteps. Someone was running, probably trying to escape.
With his gun aimed and his attention pinned to the foyer, Nate started walking. Slow, inch-by-inch steps. Darcy wanted to tell him to stop, but she couldn’t. If one of his brothers was hurt or worse, then Nate would need to go to him. He would have to help. Or at least try.
It might be too late for help of any kind.
And then there was the flip side. Someone had already been shot, but Ramirez was still alive. Still armed. He would shoot Nate or anyone else if he got the chance, and that’s when Darcy knew she couldn’t obey Nate.
She had to help him.
Darcy eased up from behind the sofa and took aim in the same direction as Nate.
Nate mumbled some profanity, and that’s when Darcy spotted the body on the foyer floor. She couldn’t see the man’s face because he was sprawled out on his stomach, but he was dressed all in black.
No. God, no.
Was it Mason?
Nate obviously thought it was his brother because she heard the shift in his breathing. Heard him whisper a prayer.
Darcy followed Nate to the edge of the foyer, but she waited, watching in case someone came through the now-open front door. Ramirez had perhaps gone out that way, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t be back.
Nate inched closer, his gaze firing all around, and when he reached the body, he leaned down and touched his fingers to the man’s neck. No cursing this time, but he groaned, a painful sound that tore right through her heart.
And he flipped the body over.
Nate froze for just a second, and Darcy started to go to him, to try to comfort him. But there wasn’t time. He stood, and in the same motion, Nate whirled back around to face her.
Darcy shook her head, not understanding why he’d done that. She didn’t get a chance to ask because someone karate chopped her arm, causing her weapon to go flying through the air. But she felt another gun, cold and hard, when it was shoved against her back.
“Move and your boyfriend dies,” the person behind her growled in a hoarse whisper.
Her breathing went crazy, started racing. As did her heart. And she looked past Nate’s suddenly startled face and stared at the body on the foyer floor.
Not Mason.
It was Ramirez.
Darcy’s stomach went to her knees. Because if Ramirez was there, lifeless and unmoving, then who had a gun jammed in her back?
“Sorry about this,” the person whispered. It was a man, but she couldn’t tell who. “You have to be my hostage for a little while.”
Darcy had no intentions of being anyone’s hostage.
She moved purely on instinct. She jerked away from her captor and dived to the side. But so did he, and he hooked his arm around her and held her in place. Still, she didn’t give up. She didn’t stop struggling.
Until the blast from a gun roared through her head.
Everything inside her went numb, and it took her a moment to realize she hadn’t been shot. That it was the deafening noise from the bullet that had caused the pain to shoot through her. In fact, the gun hadn’t even been aimed at her. The shot had been fired over her head.
“Darcy?” Nate called out.
She tried to answer him but couldn’t get her throat unclamped. Darcy cursed her reaction and forced herself to move. She didn’t intend to die without a fight so she rammed her elbow into her captor’s stomach. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for her to break the hold he had on her and scramble away.
She got just a glimpse of her attacker’s face.
But a glimpse was all she needed to recognize him.
It was Adam.
He fired another shot, again over her head, and it slammed into the wall just a fraction of a second before he hooked his arm around her throat and put her in a choke hold.
Oh, mercy. She couldn’t breathe. That caused panic to crawl through her. And worse, Nate was coming closer. Putting himself out in the open so that Adam could kill him, instead.
“Stop fighting me,” Adam warned her. “Or Nate dies. Your choice.”
That was no choice at all. She stopped fighting and prayed it would save Nate.
“Good girl,” Adam whispered in a mock-sweet tone. But he did loosen the grip on her throat. Darcy frantically pulled in some much-needed air and hoped it was enough to stop her from passing out.
“Adam, give this up,” Nate ordered. “You can’t get out of here alive.”
“No?” Adam answered. He kept his arm around her neck but aimed his gun at Nate. “So far, so good. Ramirez is dead.”
“Yeah.” With his own gun aimed at Adam, Nate inched closer, but he stayed in the foyer, out of Adam’s direct line of fire. “You killed him before he could tell us that you were the one who hired him to set up the kidnapping.”
Adam didn’t deny it, and Darcy realized it was true. Adam was the one who’d put the children in danger. Her fear was replaced by a jolt of anger.
How dare this moron do that!
“All this for money,” Nate continued. He moved again. Just a fraction. And Darcy realized he was trying to get into a position so he could take Adam out.
Good. She wanted Adam to pay for what he’d done.
“Hey, it’s always about money,” Adam joked. He started inching toward the foyer. “If you’d just arrested Dent and tossed his sorry butt in jail, then my mother’s estate would have been mine, and we wouldn’t be here right now.”
“But Dent isn’t guilty,” Nate concluded.
“No. But Dent is dead,” Adam confessed. “I killed him about ten minutes ago.”
Dead?
Darcy tried hard to hang on to her composure. She was already losing that battle before Adam fired a shot into the foyer. She heard herself scream for Nate to get down, and somehow he managed to duck out of the way.
Adam cursed. “Move again, Lieutenant, and I’ll shoot Darcy in the shoulder. It won’t kill her, but it won’t be fun, either.” He shoved her forward, keeping his choke hold and his gun in place.
“Don’t you have enough blood on your hands?” Nate asked. “First your mother with a lethal dose of insulin. Then, you kill Dent. Now, Ramirez. All of this to cover up what you’ve done. My theory? You knew what your mother had written in her diary so you tore out the page that would have incriminated you. But something happened, something that prevented you from destroying it.”
“Yeah,” Adam readily agreed, “and that was my mother’s fault. She saw me rip out the page, and she grabbed the diary and ran. She hid it before I found her and then wouldn’t tell me where she’d put it. That’s when I killed her.”
Darcy could almost see it playing out. Sandra, terrified of her own son as he shoved a needle into her arm. She understood that terror because she was feeling it now.
“Unless you do something to ruin my plan,” Adam went on, “the diary is what will keep you both alive.”
“What do you mean?” Darcy asked.
But Adam didn’t answer her. He nailed his attention to Nate. “I want you to give me the diary so I can destroy it.”
“Impossible,” Nate fired back.
“No. It’s doable for a man in your position. I’ll take Darcy someplace safe while you go to the crime lab. When you bring me the diary, then I’ll let Darcy go. Well, after I’ve cashed in my mother’s estate and escaped, of course.”
The adrenaline and the anger were making it hard for her to think, but Darcy could still see the faulty logic. Adam wouldn’t let them go. If he got his hands on the diary and Sandra’s money, he would kill them so he could cover up his crimes.
Or rather, he’d try to kill them.
“There’s no need to take Darcy,” Nate bargained. “I can call and have the diary brought to us.”
She latched on to that, hoping Adam would agree. If they could somehow prevent him from leaving the ranch with her, then she would have a better chance of escape.
But Adam shook his head.
“Not a chance. As long as I have Darcy, you’ll do whatever it takes to cooperate.” Adam tightened his grip on her and muscled her into the foyer and toward the front door. “Lieutenant, tell your brothers and anybody else out there to back off.” He shoved Darcy forward again, toward the door.
Nate’s gaze slashed from Adam’s gun to her own eyes, and she saw the raw, painful emotions there. Nate was blaming himself for this. She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t his fault. But there was no time to tell him anything. Because Adam dragged her out onto the porch, down the steps and toward his car, which was parked behind Nate’s SUV. Adam had obviously pretended to drive away from the ranch.
The storm came right at her, assaulting her. The rain stung her eyes, but that didn’t stop her from seeing the shadowy figure on the side of the house.
Mason.
He had his gun drawn, like Nate, who was now in the doorway, but neither could fire. The way Adam was holding her would make it next to impossible for either of them to get a clean shot.
“Lieutenant, tell your brother to back off,” Adam warned, forcing Darcy into the yard.