The Horseman's Son (17 page)

Collena aimed her gun to return fire.

Only to realize she couldn’t.

The person coming down the hall toward them was none other than Ina. But Ina wasn’t the one who was shooting. There was someone behind her.

Someone was using Ina as a human shield.

Collena yelled for Dylan to keep down, and they tried to scramble out of the line of fire.

It wasn’t easy. The bullets seemed to be flying everywhere. She wasn’t even sure the shooter was aiming. Just blasting random shots through the air. Still, stray bullets could be as deadly as aimed ones.

Collena dove into the dining room and tried to drag Dylan to safety with her.

Of course, that left Collena with one terrifying question.

Where was Adam?

Oh. God.

Where was her son?

“Ina, are you okay?” Dylan shouted.

He grabbed Collena when she started to get up. He knew that she was in a panic now that she’d realized Adam might not be safe. But she had to get to her son.

Ina didn’t answer right away. “I’m alive.”

“And Adam?” Collena asked. She held her breath and prayed.

“Still sleeping in his crib. I’m sorry, Dylan. I couldn’t get him in the bathroom in time to lock us in there like you said.”

“I wouldn’t hurt Adam for anything,” someone added.

It was Millie.

Dylan cursed under his breath. Collena cursed, too, because she realized they had a very unstable woman on their hands. This situation could easily turn more deadly than it already was.

“You’re sure Adam’s all right?” Collena demanded, and she listened for any hint of a lie in Millie’s response.

“He’ll be okay as long as you cooperate and do as I say.”

Millie’s threat was chilling. And convincing. That meant Adam was okay, for now.

“Put down your gun, Millie,” Dylan insisted. “And let Ina go. We need to talk.”

“Yes, we do,” Millie agreed. “But Ina and my gun stay put. For now anyway. Toss out your guns and step closer so I can see you. If you don’t, Ina dies right here.”

Millie might be bluffing, but it was a huge risk to take, especially if she was off her antipsychotic medication. Still, if Dylan and she surrendered their weapons, they’d be defenseless against Millie’s gun.

“Collena’s not armed,” Dylan said, and he motioned for her to hand him her gun. Because she didn’t have a better plan in mind, Collena cooperated.

Dylan tossed his weapon onto the corridor floor and tucked her gun in the back waist of his jeans. “I’m coming out.”

“Collena, too,” Millie insisted.

“No. This isn’t about her.”

“But it is. It’s about both of you. Come out, or Ina dies.”

“We need to stall her,” Dylan whispered to Collena. “The sheriff will be here soon.”

That might or might not be a good thing. Once Millie heared the sirens, she might just shoot them and then try to escape.

“Come out now!” Millie yelled. Her voice was so loud and shrill that Adam woke up.

From the end of the hall, Collena heard her son begin to cry and only hoped that Adam was safe in his crib. She didn’t want her child getting out of the room and coming anywhere near this.

“Try to stay behind me,” Dylan told Collena. Then, he raised his hands in the air and stepped out.

So did Collena, and when she went into the corridor, she came face-to-face with a woman who obviously wanted her dead. Judging from Ina’s dire expression, she’d already accepted her death and was just waiting to see how all of this would play out.

“I’m in love with you, Dylan,” Millie said. Her voice was trembling. Her whole body was trembling. And that meant her trigger finger was, as well.

“You don’t know what love is,” Dylan fired back at her.

Millie frantically shook her head. “Oh, but I do. I killed for you, Dylan. That woman you asked to marry you wasn’t right for you. I thought you’d figure it out for yourself, but you didn’t. Collena isn’t right for you, either. She only wants you so she can keep Adam. You’re too good for her.”

There it was. Motive and confession. All along, the killer had been under Dylan’s own roof.

“Did you kill my sister, too?” Dylan asked.

Millie nodded. She didn’t seem eager to finish her confession. “She found out what I’d done. I couldn’t let her go to the police. I couldn’t let you know what I did because I knew you wouldn’t understand. You wouldn’t have forgiven me.”

“No. I wouldn’t have.” Dylan took a step toward the two women. “You’re a killer, plain and simple. That has nothing to do with love.”

“Don’t come closer,” Millie warned.

Dylan took another step anyway and, even in the pale, shadowy moonlight, Collena saw Millie’s index finger tighten on the trigger. “You don’t want to hurt Ina.” His voice was calm. Unlike the storm of emotion swirling around them. “You want to let her go. I can arrange help for you.”

“You mean, a psychiatric hospital. I won’t go. Mother’s been trying to make me go to a place like that for years, and I won’t. I’m not crazy. I’m only trying to protect you.” Millie’s eyes turned on Collena. “She’s trash. Can’t you see that?”

“She’s not trash. She’s Adam’s mother. And remember, our marriage is one of convenience. For Adam’s sake. There’s no reason for you to feel threatened by Collena.”

Collena knew he was probably just trying to negotiate, to buy some time until he could distract Millie enough to get that gun away from her. But she also knew it was true. Despite the fact they’d had sex, this was a relationship based on providing the best for their son.

Unfortunately, Millie, with her delusions and sick love for Dylan, could take that all away. And Dylan was taking a huge risk with every step he took toward her.

He didn’t stop, despite Millie shaking her head and backing up. Collena’s cop instincts made her want to shout for Dylan to stop. He was pressing too hard. But she also knew he didn’t have a choice. They wouldn’t let Ina die, and they couldn’t allow Adam to be put at further risk.

Collena moved closer, as well, in case she had to help.

“Put the gun down,” Dylan told her.

“No.” Twin tears spilled down Millie’s cheeks. “I can’t. It can’t end this way.”

The words had hardly left her mouth when she gave Ina a fierce shove. Right at Dylan and Collena. Ina collided with them, and the impact sent the three of them crashing to the floor.

Millie didn’t waste any time. While Ina, Dylan and Collena were untangling themselves from one another, Millie turned and sprinted down the corridor away from them, and headed right for…

“The nursery,” Dylan said. He picked up his gun and tossed Collena hers. “We have to get to Adam before she does. Millie might try to use him to escape.”

Or worse.

Collena and Dylan jumped up from the floor and raced to save their little boy.

D
YLAN’S HEART WAS
pounding against his ribs. He had a dozen horrible thoughts that he didn’t want to have. Still, he didn’t let those thoughts distract him.

Adam was in danger, and he had to get to the nursery.

Because his pulse was pounding in his ears and because of their collective footsteps on the hardwood, Dylan couldn’t tell Millie’s position. But he guessed that she was using the west hall to get the nursery. Collena and he were using the east.

Millie’s route was slightly shorter.

But she didn’t have as much at stake as Collena and he did.

Dylan turned the corner, mere feet away from the nursery door. He could hear Adam’s soft sobs, as if he were trying to go back to sleep, but Millie was nowhere in sight.

However, the nursery door was wide-open.

Collena tried to bolt past him, but Dylan restrained her just in case Millie was inside the doorway, waiting to ambush them.

There was another problem, as well. The door directly across from the nursery was open, too. That was Ruth’s room, and Millie could easily be hiding there. Either way, Dylan couldn’t risk her firing any more shots. One way or another, he had to get that gun away from her.

He heard the sirens from the sheriff’s car and knew there wasn’t much time. Millie would know it, too, and she might already be in the nursery. She could even escape out the window with Adam.

Dylan hated to put Collena’s life at further risk, but he didn’t have a choice. He tipped his head to the nanny’s room.
You go there,
he mouthed.
I’ll go into the nursery.

She swallowed hard and then nodded. Collena looked as if she wanted to say something to him, but both knew there wasn’t time for that. Aiming her gun, she slipped around him and eased into the room.

Dylan went in the other direction.

Adam stopped crying. Dylan preferred the tears. It let him know that his son was okay and that he was nearby. Without the sounds of the little boy’s cries, Dylan had no idea if he was still in the nursery.

He stepped cautiously into the room. Watching his back. And trying to watch Collena’s. He went to the crib. Adam was indeed there.

Thank God.

His son’s eyes were closed, and he was sucking his thumb.

Dylan checked the windows next. They were all shut tight. It was harder to tell if all was well in the room because the moonlight was scarce on this side of the house. The only illumination came from the battery-backed-up night-light near the crib. There were a lot of shadows in the room, and Millie could be lurking, waiting to strike.

A soft sound put him on alert. Not a footstep. More like a swish of movement across the hall.

Where Collena was.

He didn’t dare call out to her. It might give away their positions. Dylan eased his way back to the door and looked out.

What he saw caused his blood to turn to ice.

Millie was there. In the hall. Collena’s back was to her. And Millie already had her weapon raised and aimed.

She was about to kill Collena.

In that flash of a moment, things became crystal clear. He was in love with Collena and desperately wanted her in his life. Not just as Adam’s mother. Dylan wanted
her.
He couldn’t lose her.

“Get down!” he yelled to Collena. And then he launched himself at Millie.

She fired the shot anyway.

The sound and the bullet ripped through Ruth’s room, but Dylan had no idea if it’d hit Collena. The impact of the collision with Millie threw them off balance, and they crashed into the wall.

Unfortunately, she kept control of her gun. Dylan didn’t. Millie kicked his hand, sending Dylan’s gun flying across the hall.

Millie fought like a wild woman. She clawed at him, bashing his head and face with her gun.

“I loved you!” Millie yelled. “You had no right to do this to me.”

He managed to catch her right hand and pin it against the wall. She continued to fight, her finger still on the trigger. They weren’t out of danger yet.

Collena went to him. He couldn’t tell if she was hurt or not, but she grabbed Millie’s left arm while Dylan wrenched the gun from her right hand.

So that Millie wouldn’t hurt herself or him, Dylan dragged her back to the floor and held her down so that she couldn’t move.

“Anybody here?” someone called out. It was Sheriff Hathaway. Just in time to arrest a killer.

“Back here,” Dylan shouted. And then he looked over his shoulder to see if Collena had checked on Adam.

But Collena was still in the corridor leaning against the wall.

And there was blood streaming down her forehead and onto her face.

Collena winced when the doctor flashed the light in her eyes.

“Got a headache?” Dr. Finn McGrath asked her.

She nodded. The movement made her head hurt. So did her knees, hands and her right arm. She’d injured it somehow in that scuffle with Millie. Heck, she hurt all over, so she quit trying to identify each source of annoying pain.

Dylan sat in the corner of the examining room. He looked worried, but he was okay. So were Adam and Ina. She’d made the medics check them out at the ranch before she would get in the ambulance and come to the hospital. And Collena would gladly go through a million headaches or more if that meant everyone was safe.

“You have a mild concussion.” The doctor turned off the light and stared down at her. “A cracked rib, multiple cuts and contusions, a sprained wrist and you’re going to need stitches in your forehead where that bullet grazed you.”

“All minor stuff,” she concluded, and she sent Dylan a reassuring glance to let him know just that. It didn’t appear to reassure him though. His jaw was clenched like iron, as it had been during the entire ambulance ride to the hospital and the examination.

Dr. McGrath turned and looked at Dylan. “I don’t suppose it’d do any good to suggest an examination for you?”

Dylan shook his head. “I’m fine. Take care of Collena.”

“Already done that. The prodding and poking is over, and all that’s left is for the nurse to come in here in a minute to do some stitching and bandaging. While she’s taking care of that, I’ll write Collena a prescription for some nice painkillers, and leave written instructions about how to deal with that concussion. But I have to figure, if she has injuries like these, then you’re probably hurting some, too.”

“Just some bruises,” Dylan assured him.

The doctor grunted. He paused as if waiting for Dylan to change his mind. A couple of seconds later, Dr. McGrath huffed again and headed out.

“You should be examined,” Collena insisted. “Just in case.”

Dylan pushed himself away from the wall and walked to her. Slowly. Almost cautiously. He eased down on the examining table beside her. “I’m so sorry.”

Collena blinked and tried to brace herself for more bad news. “For what?”

“For Millie.”

“Oh.”
That.
She shrugged and realized she should have anticipated that he would react this way. “What Millie did wasn’t your fault.”

“But it was. I should have figured it out before she attacked us.”

Even though it was painful, Collena managed a smirk. “You don’t have ESP.” She pressed her fingertips over his mouth when he started to say something else.

“Millie’s in jail?” Collena asked, sliding her fingers from his mouth to his chin. She held the touch a moment longer before she dropped her hand back into her lap.

“Yes. Hank called me on the way over. The sheriff’s going to transfer Millie to a psychiatric hospital in San Antonio as soon as the paperwork is done.” He paused. “Millie confessed everything.”

That included the murders of Dylan’s sister and fiancée. Dylan would probably still blame himself for that, as well. It would take time for him to heal. Far more time than it would for her superficial wounds.

Would he allow her to help him heal?

Perhaps not.

Collena hated to think of the future. Even though it certainly looked rosier than it had just two days ago. Curtis Reese was no longer around to try to claim custody of Adam. Rodney Harmon was dead. And Millie, the person who’d made Dylan’s life hell for years, was in custody and would be locked away for the rest of her life.

Still, there were so many things left unsettled between them.

What the heck were they going to do now?

Collena made eye contact with Dylan, but he looked away. He scraped his thumbnail over her plastic hospital bracelet. “Hank told me that Millie admitted to the threatening phone call and to putting the newspaper outside your door.”

“So it was her and not Rodney,” Collena said under her breath. “I thought he might have been the one to make the call.”

The silence returned. It was filled with tension, on her part anyway. Dylan seemed to be in a dark mood. Since the danger was over, she had to wonder if she was the reason for his state of mind.

“It’ll be okay,” she assured him.

Now, his eyes came to hers. Oh, they were intense. Something was obviously on his mind, and Collena thought she knew what it was. Instead of putting him through the agony of how to say what he wanted to say, she decided to get everything out there so they could hopefully deal with it.

“We can start fresh,” Collena began. “Without the threat from Curtis, we can get—” She stopped when she heard a wonderful sound coming from outside the room.

It was Adam, and he was chattering.

“I had Ina drive Adam here for a short visit,” Dylan explained, standing. “I thought he’d cheer you up. Are you up to seeing him?”

“I’m always up to seeing him. But I’m not the one who needs cheering up.”

If he heard that last part, he didn’t react to it. Dylan opened the door and motioned for Ina to come inside. She was holding Adam in her arms. But not for long. Adam immediately reached for Dylan, and he took the little boy and brought him to the examining table.

“Hi,” Adam greeted. And he almost got the
“h”
sound in there.

Despite the twinge of pain it caused her, Collena grinned from ear to ear. She’d never grow tired of this precious little boy. Just seeing him made all the pain worth it.

Dylan sat next to her again so that Collena could kiss Adam’s cheek. Unfortunately, Adam wasn’t interested in the kiss. He was interested in the now-cleaned bullet slice on Collena’s forehead. Adam frowned and tried to touch it, but Collena took her son’s hand instead and kissed his fingers one by one.

Adam laughed.

“Ruth called on the way over here,” Ina said, walking closer. “Hank and she are leaving town. Once they’re settled, she’ll give you a call, but she wanted you both to know she’s real sorry for what happened. She didn’t know what Millie was up to, and Ruth hopes one day you’ll be able to get past all this hurt. She’s gonna try to get past it, too, and start seeing a doctor again.”

Collena was about to suggest that Dylan call them, especially since neither Ruth, nor Hank appeared to have been involved in Millie’s criminal activities. But maybe it was best if they had some time apart.

“We’d better not stay much longer,” Ina said, eyeing the wound on Collena’s head. “Besides, I need to get this little one back. He’s probably wanting some breakfast by now.”

Collena grabbed one last kiss from Adam, and Dylan did, as well, before Ina whisked the baby away.

“Breakfast,” Collena repeated. “Maybe if this wound gets stitched up in time, we’ll be able to make it back to the ranch before Adam’s morning nap. It’d be nice to spend some quiet time with him.”

He nodded. That was it. His only reaction. Which brought her back to what they’d been discussing before Ina and Adam arrived. However, Dylan spoke before she could continue.

“A fresh start, you said before Ina got here.” He paused a moment. “I think that’s a good idea.”

She was afraid of that, but Collena had no intention of holding him to the vows they’d made in desperation. “I can start the paperwork.”

His eyebrows lifted, and he studied her. “What do you mean?”

She had to clear away the lump in her throat first. Mercy, this wasn’t easy. “There’s no need for you to stay married to me. We’ll work out a custody arrangement with Adam.”

Dylan just stared at her.

“And I was thinking about moving to Greer,” Collena continued. “That way, I’ll be closer to Adam.”

His stare turned to a scowl. “You call that a fresh start?”

“Why, what did you have in mind?”

He looked on the verge of answering her. But he didn’t say a word. Instead, Dylan leaned in, cupped her chin gently and kissed her. Even with all her aches and pains, it was potent.

“I like your plan better than mine,” she let him know.

“That wasn’t a plan. That was foreplay.” He shrugged. “But we’ll have to wait for you to mend before we carry that any further.”

Collena disagreed with another kiss, one that left her breathless.

“Will you marry me?” Dylan asked with his mouth still against hers.

That left her breathless, too.

“We’re already married,” she pointed out.

“We entered into an arrangement for Adam’s sake. I don’t want that now. I want more. A lot more.”

Collena felt her heart swell. “How much more?” she whispered.

“I want everything. You. Adam. A marriage. A real family. Maybe even more kids.”

Now, she was breathless and speechless, and all those aches and pains seemed to melt away.

“Well?” Dylan prompted. “What’s your answer?”

As if trying to convince her, he kissed her again.

But Collena didn’t need convincing. “I was ready to say yes the minute you kissed me.”

“Why?” he asked.

Ah, this was easy. Collena didn’t even have to think about it. “Because I’m in love with you. Because you’re Adam’s dad. And because you’re great in bed.” Despite the light comment, she had to blink back tears. Happy tears, though. “What about you? Why did you ask me to marry you?”

“Because I love you.”

That was it. Nothing more. And Collena realized that was the only thing she needed to hear.