Lawman From Her Past. Delores Fossen
not. I just spotted a black SUV coming up from the back of my folks’ old place.”
Cameron bit back a groan. The trails coiled all around the ranch, and the men had obviously found a way out of the woods. That meant they could be trying to escape so they could regroup and come at Lauren again. As much as Cameron hated the notion of that, at least it would give him a chance to get the babies, nannies and her to a safe place.
“The SUV isn’t moving,” Gabriel went on, “and I can’t tell if anyone is still inside it. They could have already gotten out and slipped onto the ranch grounds.”
Not exactly a comforting thought, but Gabriel was right. Cameron didn’t know how long it’d taken the nanny to get to Lauren and him, but the thugs could have driven off the moment she started running. If so, that would have given them plenty of time to get to the old Beckett house, and then the chance to escape.
Or sneak up on Cameron’s house.
“I’ve stopped on the road and am waiting for Jameson,” Gabriel continued a moment later. “Once he’s here, we can go closer. Why do they want Lauren?” he tacked onto that.
“She’s not sure yet.” But it gnawed away at him to think it could be because of his sister’s scummy dead boyfriend. “Just give me a heads-up if you see these clowns.”
“Will do. Is that Isaac crying?”
“No. It’s...Lauren’s son.” Cameron hadn’t meant to hesitate, but it’d just seemed to stick in his throat.
Gabriel’s silence let Cameron know it hadn’t been easy for him to hear. That was probably because Lauren hadn’t bothered to introduce her son to the rest of her family. Even though things had been strained between Lauren and him since their parents’ murders, it still had to cut Gabriel to the core. For him, it was all about family, and he’d worked damn hard to bring his siblings back to their birthplace.
Cameron ended the call, and he went to the back door to look out the small windows there. The angle was better for giving him a view of the opposite side of the yard that Lauren was watching. The SUV was the other direction, but it didn’t mean the thugs couldn’t have brought some help along.
“I think I see something,” Lauren said.
That sent Cameron running to her, and he followed her pointing finger in the direction of the far side of his barn. Since the barn was closer to the old Beckett house than Cameron’s, it would be a likely place for someone to hide.
But he didn’t see anything.
“I’m obviously on edge,” Lauren admitted. “It could have been my imagination.”
She looked up at him at the exact moment he looked down at her, and it seemed as if there was something else she wanted to say to him. An apology, maybe, but the silence said it all. Because she’d been giving him the silent treatment for the past decade. No reason for this to be any different.
He kept watch, but even though he didn’t see anything, it didn’t mean someone wasn’t out there. Which made him rethink their position. There were way too many windows in this part of the house. Plus, it was hard to hear anything with Patrick crying.
“Stay low,” Cameron instructed the nanny, “but take the baby to the nursery. It’s the first room off the hall.” He tipped his head in that direction. “Go with them,” he added to Lauren.
But she shook her head. “You need me to help you keep watch. I don’t want those men getting in the house.”
Neither did he, but Cameron had figured she’d want to be with her baby. And she probably did. However, like him, Lauren almost certainly knew things could turn on a dime.
“Merilee?” he called out. “A woman and little boy are joining you in the nursery. Once they’re in there, lock the door, and all of you get down on the floor.”
“What’s happening?” Merilee asked. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Lauren is here,” he said after a pause.
Merilee would remember Lauren since she’d been the Beckett housekeeper all the way up until the time of the murders. Lauren’s mom was a former cop who also worked the ranch, and Merilee had been a pseudo-nanny to Lauren and her siblings.
He nearly asked about Isaac, to make sure his nephew was all right, but right now Cameron only wanted to focus on what was going on outside. Besides, if something had been wrong in the nursery, Merilee would have let him know.
“Thank you,” Lauren whispered.
Cameron was about to tell her not to thank him yet, but the movement stopped him cold. This time he saw what Lauren had almost certainly spotted by the barn.
A man.
He only got a glimpse of him, but the guy was wearing camo. Definitely not a ranch hand.
“He’s got a gun,” Lauren relayed to Cameron.
Yeah, he’d seen it, too. Again, just a glimpse, but it appeared to be a rifle. Not good because it gave the intruder a longer range that he could use to shoot into the house.
Without taking his attention off the man, Cameron pressed redial on his phone, and Gabriel answered on the first ring.
“Jameson’s here,” Gabriel explained. “We’re going to the SUV now.”
“Don’t. One of the shooters is here at my place by the side of my barn. I figure he’s not alone.”
Gabriel made a sound of agreement followed by some profanity. “Okay, we’re on the way to your place. I’ll also get some of the hands over there.”
“Tell them to be careful. The guy is armed, and he’s in position to pick off anyone who comes up the road to my house.”
And that was probably the reason he was there. Which made that bad feeling inside him go up a significant notch. If these goons knew the trail, maybe they’d watched the place. Perhaps his house. It wouldn’t have been hard to do. On any given day there were at least two dozen hands working the ranch along with deliveries and the normal traffic that came with a place this size.
There could be gunmen waiting to ambush Gabriel, Jameson and anyone else who came this way.
Because if their ultimate goal was to get the baby, then it wouldn’t matter how many people they killed.
He hated to put something else on Lauren’s shoulders, but he needed an extra pair of eyes at the front of the house. That meant he’d have to stay to keep watch of the thug by the barn. Cameron was about to give her instructions as to what to do, but the blur of motion stopped him.
There was a second gunman at the back of the barn.
Unlike his partner, this one didn’t immediately duck back behind cover. He lifted his rifle and fired. The shot crashed through the window right where Cameron was standing.
Lauren shouted for Cameron to get down, but it was already too late. The gunman had fired the shot, the bullet blasting through the window.
In the blink of an eye, she saw a piece of glass slice across Cameron’s arm. He was wearing a shirt, and she could immediately see the blood start to spread across the sleeve.
She ran to him, but Lauren wasn’t quite able to reach his arm. That was because Cameron took hold of her and dragged her to the floor. But he didn’t stay there. He got right back up and took aim out the now gaping hole in the window.
“You’re hurt,” she said, her breath gusting so hard that Lauren had trouble speaking.
“I’m okay,” he grumbled.
But she had no idea if that was true. She couldn’t tell if the glass