The Deputy's Redemption Page 15

  “Reed won’t be able to get closer with all this gunfire,” Darnell added.

  Elise prayed that he didn’t try, either. As much as she wanted help, she didn’t want anyone else’s life put at stake because of her, and Reed would definitely be in grave danger if he tried to get to them now.

  More bullets came. Nonstop. And Colt and Darnell had no choice but to drop down on the floor next to her. They were literally pinned down and with no way to fight back. If they stood up to return fire, one of those cop-killer bullets could take them out.

  “We have to move,” Colt said, glancing all around him. “If we go out the back, they’ll probably just gun us down.”

  That definitely was not an option that Elise wanted. But he was right, they had to move. At the rate those bullets were coming, soon there wouldn’t be enough of the walls left to give them any cover.

  Colt’s attention landed on the small utility room that divided the kitchen from the porch where the dogs were closed off. Except he wasn’t looking at the door that led to the porch. He was looking at the ceiling.

  “Come on.” Colt took hold of her hand. “There’s an attic. If we can get up there, Darnell and I will have a better chance at picking these guys off.”

  An attic definitely sounded better to her than staying put, but bullets could go through the utility room as well as they could any other part of the house.

  Colt didn’t waste any time getting them moving. They stayed on the floor, crawling, and he didn’t stand up until he’d made it all the way to the laundry room. He pulled down the wooden attic stairs and climbed up to have a look around.

  Elise got a new slam of concern. What if someone was up there waiting? The security alarm hadn’t gone off, but maybe one of the gunmen had managed to get on the roof and climb into the attic. She doubted the security system was armed for that part of the house.

  “It’s clear,” Colt said.

  Thank God. And he motioned for Darnell and her to follow him.

  The steps were narrow and wobbly, but with Colt’s help, Elise made it to the top and into the attic. However, once Darnell was there, Colt went back down, causing her adrenaline to spike again.

  To release the dogs, she soon realized.

  The moment he opened the door of the porch, the barking Dobermans charged through the house.

  “Stay,” Colt ordered, and Elise was surprised when they sat on the laundry room floor and obeyed. Maybe since they were now sitting down low enough, that would keep them out of the line of fire.

  Colt came back up and then pulled up the stairs behind him. No doubt so if the shooters got into the house, they wouldn’t be able to find them right away. Still, she wasn’t sure it would fool a determined killer for long.

  Darnell hurried to the small wooden ventilation window that was at the front of the attic, and he looked out. “I see one of them,” he relayed to Colt a moment later. “And I think we’re close enough to take the shot.”

  Good. Elise hated the thought of anyone being killed, but she didn’t want the gunmen to have a chance to kill them. And that’s exactly what would happen if they got the chance. The other attacks had proved that.

  Darnell stepped to the side once Colt made it to the window, and Elise stayed back as Colt did a quick assessment of the situation. He bashed through the wooden slats with the butt of his gun, and without wasting even a second, he took aim.

  And he fired.

  The problem was that the shooter fired, too, and the shots blasted through the air at seemingly the same time. Colt ducked down, waited a few seconds and then had another look.

  “Got him,” Colt said. “One down, at least two to go.” He moved to the other side of the window, no doubt looking for the shooter who’d been near the kitchen.

  But the sound stopped him.

  An alarm.

  And Elise immediately knew what that meant. Someone had triggered the security system and was in the house.

  Oh, mercy.

  If the gunman came up the stairs, they could be in the middle of another shoot-out.

  She heard something else. Maybe a door opening. And a moment later, the dogs bolted outside into the front yard. Still barking, they raced toward the SUV that was parked just up the road. Several moments later, both Dobermans disappeared into the trees.

  Then, Elise heard something else she didn’t want to hear. Something that caused her heart to skip a beat or two.

  The dogs stopped barking.

  There’d been no gunshots, so maybe the intruder had used some kind of Taser on them. She hoped that’s all that had happened, anyway, especially since the dogs had saved their lives by alerting them of the first intruder. Without their warning, the gunman could have gotten close enough to do some serious damage while Colt and she were still in the guest bedroom.

  “Stay back,” Colt whispered to her.

  He moved in front of her and lifted his head, obviously trying to pick through the clamor of the security alarm so he could try to pinpoint the location of their intruder.

  But it didn’t take long to hear something.

  Footsteps.

  And they were headed straight for the stairs below them.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Hell. Colt had hoped that by going up into the attic it would keep those bullets away from Elise.

  Now the shooter could be coming for them.

  It wouldn’t take the intruder long to search the place, and once he realized they weren’t in any of the rooms of the one-story house, then the attic would be the most obvious hiding place. Especially since they hadn’t gone outside. Plus, these goons likely figured out that the shot Colt had fired had come from the attic.

  If the shooter came up the stairs, they’d be trapped.

  Colt couldn’t move Elise to the sides or front of the attic because there might be gunmen in place ready to start firing at them. All he could do was stand in front of her and keep his gun ready. The moment the guy surfaced on the stairs, Colt would have to fire.

  The seconds crawled by with each step the gunman took. Thanks to the creaky floors, Colt had no trouble hearing the guy even over the security alarm. However, he also heard something else.

  His phone buzzed.

  Not exactly a good time for a call, but it might be Reed or Cooper phoning to warn them of something.

  “See who it is,” Colt whispered to Elise, and he angled his body so that she could take his cell from his jeans pocket.

  “It’s Rosalie,” Elise answered in a whisper as soon as she checked the phone screen.

  His sister was the last person that Colt expected to be calling him, but since he didn’t want Elise or himself distracted by the call, he let it go to voice mail. Maybe soon he’d get a chance to call Rosalie back—after he had Elise and Darnell safely out of this mess.

  Downstairs, the sound of the footsteps stopped, and Colt braced himself for the attack that he was certain would follow. His heartbeat was already hammering in his ears. His muscles tightened and knotted. He was ready to finish this.

  But the shooter didn’t pull down the stairs so he could come into the attic.

  In fact, it sounded as if this idiot was just standing still.

  What the heck was he doing down there?

  “Don’t move,” Colt warned both Elise and Darnell, keeping his voice as soundless as possible. “The guy might be listening for us so he can shoot through the ceiling.”

  If so, they had to be prepared to move and move fast.

  The problem was, there weren’t many places for them to go in the attic, especially since there was at least one other gunman outside the house. In hindsight, it’d been a mistake to bring Elise up here, but they hadn’t exactly had a lot of options about that, either. If they’d stayed on the bottom floor of the house, one of them could have been shot.

  Without warning, the security alarm stopped, plunging the house into an eerie quiet. Since Colt doubted it operated on a battery, that probably meant someone had managed
to disable it either by cutting the connections or the phone line.

  That was both good and bad.

  Colt could better hear the shooter, but the shooter could better hear them, too. Also, without the alarm, Colt got a confirmation of something he’d already suspected.

  The dogs were quiet.

  It meant these goons could have neutralized them in some way. Or maybe, though, they’d made it safely to Reed. His fellow deputy had to be somewhere nearby, and the dogs would have picked up his scent. If so, Reed would have made sure they were safe.

  Reed could also do something else.

  He’d know the ins and outs of the grounds. Maybe he’d even be able to sneak up on the gunman outside.

  But that still left Colt to deal with the one inside.

  Why wasn’t he moving?

  Colt wasn’t a patient man under normal circumstances, but this was wearing his nerves even thinner than they already were.

  He mumbled some profanity when his phone buzzed again. This time, indicating that he had a text. Colt only hoped the shooter hadn’t heard the buzzing sound so he could use it to zoom in on them.

  “It’s Rosalie again,” Elise whispered. “She says it’s urgent and that she needs to talk to you.”

  Well, his urgency trumped Rosalie’s, but with everything else that’d been going on, Colt had no trouble filling in some blanks with worst-case scenarios. Maybe his sister was calling to say there’d been some kind of attack at the ranch.

  If so, his family could be in serious danger.

  “Text her back,” Colt mouthed to Elise. “Ask her what’s wrong.”

  Elise started to do that, but her hand froze when they heard the noise on the floor below them. It was hard to tell what it was exactly, but it sounded as if someone had dropped something metal.

  Colt waited, listening for more, but that was it. Just that brief metallic sound. It took several moments for the footsteps to start again, but this time they weren’t coming toward the attic stairs.

  But rather toward the front of the house.

  He motioned for Darnell to head back to the window, and the man cursed as soon as he looked out. Colt cursed, too, because he heard the front door open.

  “The guy ran out,” Darnell said, and he took aim and fired, the shot blasting through the attic.

  Colt could tell from Darnell’s body language that he’d missed, and the ranch hand fired again.

  “I smell smoke,” Elise said, lifting her head.

  Colt didn’t. Not at first, anyway. But then he caught a whiff of it making its way through the seam around the stairs.

  Oh, man.

  That metallic sound was likely some kind of incendiary device, and the reason the guy had run was because he’d just set the place on fire.

  “We need to get out of here,” Colt said, taking hold of Elise’s arm. “Now.”

  * * *

  ELISE SHOVED COLT’S phone into her jeans pocket so that it’d free up her hands in case she had to help shoot their way out of the house.

  And that’s almost certainly what would happen.

  Unless their attackers meant to burn them alive.

  Then this was probably a way to force them outside where the two remaining shooters would have an easier time picking them off. Of course, if they stayed put, the fire and smoke would kill them, too, so either way they were in grave danger.

  Colt hurried across the attic and threw down the attic stairs. However, he didn’t bolt down them. Instead, he looked around. Hard to see, though, with the thick white smoke already billowing through the house.

  “Wait here a second,” Colt told both of them.

  Even though she hated that Colt was the one to go down the stairs first, Elise knew he wouldn’t have it any other way. He was the lawman now. Fully in charge. And he would take any risk to try to protect her.

  With his gun ready, Colt eased down several of the narrow steps, his gaze shifting all around. Almost immediately, he started to cough, and he had to cover his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt while he continued to make sure their attackers weren’t still inside the house.

  Elise and Darnell coughed, too, the smoke coming right at them. What she didn’t feel was any kind of heat, though, so maybe that meant the place wasn’t actually on fire. That metallic plinging sound she’d heard earlier could have perhaps been some kind of smoke bomb. If so, it would serve the same purpose as a full-fledged fire in getting them out of the house.

  “Move fast,” Colt said, motioning for them to come down the stairs.

  Elise tried to do just that, but the stairs were wobbly, and her grip was shaking on the flimsy rope handrail. The coughing certainly didn’t help, either. Still, she made it to the bottom with Darnell right behind her.

  “This way,” Colt added.

  The moment they hit the floor, Colt got them running, not toward the back porch, which was closer. But toward the front of the house. Maybe because he figured that’s the exit their attackers were least likely to use. It was also the place where Reed would be approaching.

  They were all coughing now, and it got worse with each step. Elise’s eyes and throat were burning, and she felt as if her lungs were on fire. It also didn’t help that her heart was bashing against her ribs. Still, she kept moving.

  Colt paused again when they reached the front door, and he eased it open. Elise held her breath, praying that someone didn’t open fire on them.

  No shots.

  In fact, no sounds at all.

  So, Colt opened the door a little farther.

  Just the small crack of space brought in some fresh air. It helped with her breathing, but some of the smoke was also on the porch. It wasn’t thick, just white wisps coiling around, but since someone had also knocked out the porch light, it was next to impossible to see beyond the steps that led into the front yard.

  No doubt the way their attackers had planned it.

  “We need a distraction,” Colt said, glancing back at Darnell. “Fire a shot toward the back porch. It might get them focused there so we can make a run for it. Just as soon as you’ve pulled the trigger, we’ll all run to the side of the porch and drop down into those shrubs.”

  Colt tipped his head to their right. To the side of the house where he’d already taken out the shooter. Of course, that didn’t mean that the person who’d orchestrated this hadn’t already put someone else in place, but it was still their best bet.

  “Fire now,” Colt told Darnell.

  Because Darnell was so close to her, Elise covered her ears for the brief second that it took him to get off the shot.

  Then they moved.

  Fast.

  Colt took hold of her arm, and with Darnell right behind them, they bolted toward the side of the porch.

  Just as the shot came their way.

  The bullet slammed into the front of the house, but Colt didn’t stop to return fire. He pulled her off the porch and into some Texas sage bush. The branches tore at her clothes and skin, but they all managed to get off the porch and into the meager cover before there were more shots.

  Colt moved in front of her, of course.

  He shoved her against the concrete slab and exterior wall. It was hard for her to see much of anything, what with the smoke and the darkness, but Elise thought the gunfire was coming from the front of the house. Maybe from the person who’d gotten out of that SUV parked just up the road?

  However, that thought had no sooner crossed her mind when the angle of the shot changed.

  The shooter was moving.

  Coming for them.

  Even over the thick blasts, she heard Colt’s phone buzz again, and she fished it from her pocket so she could see the screen.

  Rosalie again.

  Something had to be seriously wrong for Colt’s sister to keep calling and texting. Of course, Rosalie had no way of knowing that they were fighting for their lives right now.

  Since Elise hadn’t gotten to send the text when they were in the attic, she se
nt it now, asking Rosalie what she wanted. The moment she pressed the send button, Colt nudged her again.

  “Start crawling toward the back,” he told her, “but stay as close to the house as possible.”

  Thankfully, the line of Texas sage bush went all the way to the back porch, but Elise knew there wouldn’t be any protection whatsoever against bullets. Still, the thick shrubs might keep the shooter from seeing them.

  With Colt ahead of her and Darnell behind her, they started crawling. The ground was frozen and littered with small rocks and dried twigs that dug into her hands and knees. Still, Elise kept moving.

  It seemed to take an eternity to go the ten yards or so, but once they reached the back porch, Colt stopped and looked around again. Just ahead was a storage shed, and he motioned toward it. At least she thought he was motioning, but then she realized he threw a handful of rocks at it.

  Nothing.

  No one came out with guns blazing, and even though the shooter was continuing to fire, those shots were going toward the front part of the house.

  For now, anyway.

  She figured that would soon change when he realized they’d moved. Or maybe when she realized they’d moved. After all, it was possible that Meredith was the one orchestrating this. If so, Elise hoped she got the chance to give the woman—or anyone else behind this—some payback.

  First, though, Colt, Darnell and she had to survive.

  Just as she’d known would happen, the angle of the shots changed again. The shooter was coming their way.

  “We’ll move to the left side of the shed,” Colt said. “Don’t fire unless you have to, because we don’t have a lot of ammo.”

  Mercy, she hadn’t even considered that. These monsters had likely brought an arsenal with them, but Colt, Darnell and she only had the weapons in their hands. Not exactly an equal gunfight, especially since Elise wasn’t even sure she could fire straight enough to help. Still, that wouldn’t stop her from trying.

  “Stay low and start moving to the shed,” Colt instructed.

  But almost immediately, he stopped and lifted his hand, a signal for them to stay put.