Finger on the Trigger Read online

  Hearing each word caused Rachel’s muscles to tighten. “I didn’t make a mistake. Marlon isn’t a nice man, and if he ever calls you again or tries to visit you, you’re to let the staff know immediately.”

  Her mother sobbed again. “You’re scaring me, Rachel.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t want to say these things to you, but it’s important that you understand.”

  “I do understand. But please don’t tell my doctor that Marlon’s call upset me. He might take my phone away.”

  That might not be such a bad idea. But Rachel didn’t want to do that just yet since it might make her mother feel even worse not to be able to call her kids whenever she wanted. However, Rachel did need to have a conversation with the staff about at least monitoring the incoming calls. Especially calls from Marlon, Alma or Simon.

  “You didn’t answer my question about you being in love with Griff,” her mother said several moments later.

  No, she hadn’t answered, and Rachel didn’t intend to do that. Not in front of Griff, anyway. Her feelings for him were, well, complicated, and she needed to work them out for herself before she started sharing that with others.

  Besides, Rachel doubted Griff wanted to hear the l word from her since he no doubt was having to deal with his own feelings. Not just about the pregnancy and her but also the threats to their lives. Those threats were much worse and the stakes much higher now that there was a baby involved.

  Rachel told her mother good-night and then looked up at Griff. He was by the door, but maybe he was waiting to see if she was going to bring up any part of the conversation she’d just had. She wasn’t.

  “Why don’t you go ahead and check on Thea,” she settled for saying.

  Griff opened his mouth, then closed it as if he’d changed his mind about what to say. “Come with me and get something to eat.”

  Since she should have at least a snack, Rachel got up to follow him. However, they’d made it only a few steps before there was a slight crackling sound.

  And the room was suddenly plunged into darkness.

  * * *

  GRIFF AUTOMATICALLY PUT his hand over his gun.

  He assured himself that this could be nothing, but after everything else that had been going on for the past two days, he didn’t want to take a chance.

  “The generator should kick in soon,” Rachel said. “It won’t be full power, but at least we’ll have the security system and the lights.”

  The security system was a must. No way did he want someone breaking in without them knowing.

  Griff waited for the generator. And waited. But nothing happened. It was too much to hope that it was simply malfunctioning.

  He went to the window and looked out. There were no signs of an intruder. No signs of ranch hands, either, but the last time he’d checked on them, two were on the front porch. With Thea keeping watch at the back of the house, the three should have been able to see anyone approaching from the sides or the road.

  “Are the lights out in Court’s place, too?” Rachel asked.

  Griff looked in that direction, but didn’t see anything. That could be because Court had turned off the lights when he went to the hospital to be with his mother. And Court’s fiancée, Rayna, wasn’t there because last Griff had heard, Court had her staying with friends in a nearby town, instead of coming back to McCall Canyon after the horse show. With Buddy’s killer still on the loose, Court hadn’t wanted her there alone, and Rayna hadn’t wanted to stay at the main house.

  “You think something’s wrong,” Rachel said. Her voice was a little shaky, probably because she already knew the answer to that question.

  Yeah, he thought something was wrong, but Griff hoped this was all just a bad coincidence.

  “Don’t go near the window just in case,” he warned her, and he went to the door. He didn’t open it yet, but instead put his ear to it and listened for any unusual sounds.

  Nothing.

  And there should have been something. By now, Warren or Thea should have been checking on them to make sure they were all right. But the house was quiet. Too quiet.

  “Call your father or Ruby to make sure they’re okay,” Griff instructed.

  Behind him, he could hear Rachel taking out her phone. A moment later, he also heard the curse word that she mumbled under her breath. “My screen says there’s no service.”

  Griff took out his own phone and saw the same thing.

  Hell.

  There were dead zones for cell reception all over the ranch, but Griff had made at least a dozen calls from this room without any problem. And since the electricity being off wouldn’t have affected the service, then it likely meant someone had managed to jam the signal. To do that, the person would have had to be darn close to the house.

  “Is the security system on battery backup?” Griff asked.

  “I’m not sure.”

  Since the house belonged to a former sheriff, it probably was on backup. If so, that meant the alarm would still go off if they had an intruder.

  “Stay back,” he warned Rachel as he reached for the doorknob.

  He heard her slight gasp and knew she was afraid, but he didn’t want to go to her just yet. Not until he’d made sure that everything was okay.

  Griff opened the door just a fraction and peered out. Nothing. Well, nothing considering that the hall was even darker than the guest room. Just in case someone was hiding in the shadows, he used the flashlight on his phone to look around, but he still didn’t see anything.

  Didn’t hear anything, either.

  “Warren?” he called out.

  “I’m here in the foyer,” the older man answered.

  Relief swept through him. Through Rachel, too, because she released the breath she’d been holding. “Are you okay?” Griff asked.

  “Fine. But my phone’s messed up. The security system, too, because the lights are all flashing on the monitor by the door.”

  That definitely wasn’t a good sign. “Have you seen anyone?” By anyone, Griff meant an intruder.

  “No. But I was about to go to the kitchen to check on Thea. Ruby’s in her room, so I’d better make sure she’s okay.”

  Ruby’s room was at the end of the hall, and the door was closed. It was possible that the woman had already gone to bed and was asleep. That would explain why she hadn’t come out into the hall when the power went off. Still, Griff needed to make sure all was well.

  “Let me know if Thea’s all right,” Griff told Warren, and he glanced back at Rachel. “Wait right here.”

  Even with just the light from his cell phone, he could see that she looked shaken up. He hated leaving her alone, so Griff took out his backup weapon and handed it to her. That didn’t do much to ease the fear in her eyes, but she took the gun, holding it in a death grip.

  “Hurry,” she said. “And be careful.”

  He would do both, and because he thought they both needed it, Griff went back and gave her a quick kiss before he stepped out into the hall.

  Ruby’s room was only four doors down, probably about twenty yards, but it suddenly felt as if it were miles away. Griff made his way along the hall, keeping watch over his shoulder. He thought he might be able to hear someone walking up the stairs, but he didn’t want to take any chances, since an intruder coming up that way would get to Rachel before him.

  There was a large floor-to-ceiling window at the end of the hall right next to Ruby’s room, and Griff had a quick glance outside. And he saw something he darn sure didn’t want to see.

  Thea.

  She was in the backyard and had her gun drawn. Her gaze was darting all around her, the kind of looks a lawman would make who’d heard or spotted something. Definitely not good, because he didn’t want his sister or anyone else out there without backup.

  There was also another problem.

/>   Thea wouldn’t have deliberately disarmed the security system when she went outside, so that confirmed that it wasn’t working. Not a good time for that. Now, he only hoped the would-be killer didn’t sneak into the back of the house while Thea was outside.

  Griff considered opening the window and calling out to his sister, but decided he should go to her instead. So that she’d have backup. That meant first checking on Ruby and then having Warren stay with Rachel.

  “Ruby?” Griff knocked on her door, and when she didn’t immediately answer, he tried the knob.

  Unlocked. But when he opened the door, he saw no signs of the woman. She could be in the bathroom, but going in there meant he wouldn’t have line of sight of the guest room, and he didn’t want to risk someone getting to Rachel. Or her taking it upon herself to come out into the hall to try to help him.

  Griff heard a sound. Not coming from the guest room. This seemed to have come from the foyer. It wasn’t footsteps but more like a heavy thud. As if someone had run into something or fallen.

  Rachel must have heard it, too, because she hurried to the doorway of the guest room. That sent Griff hurrying to her. Because if there was an intruder in the house, whoever it was might rush up the stairs and try to shoot her.

  “You need to stay back,” Griff insisted when he reached her, positioning himself at the door.

  She shook her head. “But I think something happened to my father.”

  So did Griff, but he didn’t want that something to happen to her, as well.

  “Warren?” he called out again.

  Griff didn’t shout because he didn’t want his voice to mask the sound of footsteps. But he didn’t hear anything. He especially didn’t hear Warren’s assurance that he was okay.

  He didn’t get that.

  But he did hear something else.

  It hadn’t come from the foyer, but rather from outside in the backyard.

  “Watch out!” someone shouted.

  Thea.

  And it was followed by another sound that Griff definitely didn’t want to hear. His sister screamed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Rachel’s breath froze. Oh, God. What was happening?

  Despite Griff’s warning for her to stay away from the guest room window, she ran there, hoping to get a glimpse of Thea. It would give her partial views of the back and side yards. But his sister wasn’t visible. No one was.

  Griff looked, too, though he volleyed glances between the window and the guest room doorway. Rachel knew the last thing Griff wanted was to take her down those stairs. But that scream changed everything.

  “We have to check on her,” Rachel insisted.

  Griff seemed to have a debate with himself. One that didn’t last but a few seconds and ended with him cursing. “I might be able to see Thea from the window at the end of the hall. Stay right next to me.”

  The moment she nodded, Griff got them moving. He didn’t run, exactly, but it was close to that pace as he hurried out of the guest room. He also kept firing glances over his shoulder. And she knew why. If someone had attacked Thea, then he or she could be coming after Griff and her.

  But there was another problem.

  The scream hadn’t been the only thing Rachel had heard. Just moments before that there’d been another sound near the front door. She prayed that no one had managed to break in, because if so that meant the intruder had gotten past the two hands who were on the front porch. She hadn’t heard the sound of gunshots, but that didn’t mean the men hadn’t been harmed in some way.

  When they made it to the large hall window, Griff moved her so that her back was against the wall and their sides were to the stairs. He glanced out. So did Rachel. But there was still no sign of Thea.

  “My sister was there just a few minutes ago,” he mumbled. He tipped his head toward the center of the backyard.

  There were no hiding places in that spot, but there was a detached garage about twenty feet away. It was possible Thea had seen something that spooked her and had run there.

  “She’s a cop,” Rachel reminded Griff. “She knows how to take care of herself.” And she prayed that Thea had done whatever was necessary to be safe.

  Even though they were a good distance from the stairs now, Rachel heard something that she thought was coming from the foyer. It sounded as if someone was moaning in pain. Griff must have thought so, too, because they started moving again—this time with him in front of her.

  “Keep watch on the bedrooms in case someone comes out of one,” he whispered.

  That definitely caused her heartbeat to rev up even more. She hadn’t considered that they could be ambushed, but she did now.

  If someone was indeed on the second floor of the house, it meant the person had maybe broken in without anyone seeing him or her. Possibly while Griff and she had been making love. No way would she have heard something, and that was the very reason she should have never gone to his bed. In hindsight, that could have been a fatal mistake.

  Griff slowed the pace considerably as they started down the stairs. The staircase was curved, and that wasn’t an advantage right now because it meant they couldn’t see into the foyer until they were halfway down. That’s probably why Griff kept pausing and lifting his head. He was listening for any indication that an attacker was nearby.

  Each step seemed to take hours, and with each one, her pulse drummed in her ears. The fear came, too, washing over her and making her unsteady. Rachel forced herself to take several long breaths. It didn’t help much, but the only thing that would help right now was for her to discover everyone was safe and that this had been a false alarm.

  Griff didn’t call out to her father or Thea as he crept down the steps. Rachel followed, dismayed when she learned the foyer was pitch-dark. Not good; they couldn’t tell if anyone was there or not.

  There was another of those moaning sounds, and this time she was able to pinpoint it. It was coming from the family room just off the foyer.

  “Make sure no one comes at us from behind.” Griff whispered that reminder, and they continued down the steps.

  Again her heart started to race, but Rachel kept up, staying close to Griff but also keeping watch. Not just behind but all around them.

  When they reached the foyer, Griff went to the front door and tested the knob. It was still locked. But he mumbled some profanity when he looked out the side window to the porch.

  “The ranch hands aren’t there,” he said.

  It felt as if her stomach went to her knees. There was no way the men would voluntarily leave their posts. Not when they knew that a killer was after Griff and her. And that meant someone had either lured them away...

  Or killed them.

  She didn’t want to ask if there was any blood on the porch, but prayed there wasn’t. Enough people had already been hurt or killed because of her, and she didn’t want to add the ranch hands to the growing list.

  The sound of another moan grabbed her attention, and Rachel frantically looked around until she finally spotted someone on the floor.

  “Don’t,” Griff said, when she started to run in that direction.

  She knew he was right, that this could be some kind of trap, but everything inside her was screaming for her to get to the person to make sure he or she was all right. “It could be Thea,” she reminded him.

  Of course, she hadn’t needed to tell him that, and thankfully, Griff didn’t act out of emotion. He took slow, cautious steps toward the prone figure while he continued to keep watch. Rachel did the same, and she was holding herself together until she saw who it was.

  Her father.

  He lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. Just like that all the anger she had for him vanished, and Rachel knew she would do anything to save him.

  “Check and see if he’s hurt,” Griff instructed.

  While
Rachel went to Warren, Griff’s gaze slashed from one area of the house to another. Rachel stooped down, putting her fingers to her father’s neck. “He’s got a pulse.”

  Thank God. But she didn’t have time to savor the relief, because he moaned again, and his eyes fluttered open for a few seconds. He was barely conscious and obviously in pain, or something, but she couldn’t see any blood or any sign of an injury. At least she didn’t until she held the light from her phone to his neck, and saw the puncture wound there.

  “I think someone drugged him,” she managed to say. At least she hoped it was just a drug like the one he’d been given the night before last, and not something lethal.

  Griff pivoted toward the other side of the family room, taking aim. Rachel hadn’t heard anything in that direction, but soon saw someone.

  Ruby.

  The woman was cowering in the corner next to an armchair. “Warren told me to run and hide,” she said. Her voice was shaking so much it was hard to understand her.

  With Griff still standing guard, Rachel hurried to her, and as she’d done with her father, she checked Ruby to make sure she hadn’t been hurt. There were no signs of injury, and unlike Warren, it didn’t seem as if she’d been drugged.

  “A man’s in the house,” Ruby said, her words rushing out with her breath.

  Rachel’s breath did some rushing, too. Oh, God. Someone had broken in.

  She looked around. So did Griff. But Rachel didn’t see anyone. Whoever it was, though, had probably drugged her father. He was also likely responsible for the missing ranch hands.

  And for Thea’s scream.

  But what Rachel still didn’t know—was the intruder one of their suspects? Was it Marlon, Simon or Brad? Or maybe it was just a hired gun who’d been sent there to kill them.

  “Did you recognize the man?” Rachel asked in a low voice.

  Ruby shook her head. “He was wearing a mask so I didn’t get a look at his face. Warren told me to hide,” the woman repeated.

  That was a good thing or else Ruby would have ended up on that floor. Or she could have ended up dead if she’d fought back.

  Griff glanced around again, and Rachel could tell he was trying to figure out what to do. He didn’t want to leave them there while he went to find Thea, but he couldn’t exactly take them with him, either.