Under the Cowboy's Protection Read online

  When Raleigh answered the call, the first thing he heard was the loud clanging noise. It definitely wasn’t something he wanted to hear because he was pretty sure it was the security alarm.

  “I think someone broke into the house,” Alice immediately said.

  The news hit him hard, but Raleigh reminded himself that it could be a glitch in the system. Or maybe his mom had accidentally set it off. Still, it was hard not to feel the fear and panic.

  “I’ve gone into your mom’s bedroom with her,” Alice added, “and I’ve locked the door.”

  “I’m on the way there right now,” Raleigh assured her. “Text or call me with what’s happening.” Though for now he wanted Alice to focus only on keeping his mother safe.

  He ended the call and reached for his holster and keys. Thea obviously heard what Alice had said because she, too, grabbed her gun and her phone. Raleigh didn’t especially want her coming with him since they’d already been attacked twice while on the road, but he didn’t have time to make other arrangements.

  He went to the window and looked out. Nothing out of the ordinary, and he hoped it stayed that way.

  “Hurry,” he told Thea, and the moment he had his own security system disengaged, he got them out the door and into the cruiser that he’d parked right by his porch.

  He half expected someone to shoot at them, but thankfully no bullets came their way. So he sped off, while keeping watch to make sure they weren’t ambushed. Thea was keeping watch, too, but he handed her his phone. He didn’t have to tell her to answer it right away if Alice called back. Thea would. But Raleigh hoped that when Alice did contact them that it would be to say that it was a false alarm.

  “Text my deputy Miguel,” he instructed. “His number is in my contacts. He’ll be at the office, and tell him I want him out at my mom’s place.”

  It might be overkill, but that was better than being short of backup if this turned out to be an attack.

  “How many ranch hands does Alma have on the grounds?” Thea asked after she’d fired off a text to Miguel.

  “Two right now. She has a lot more who work for her, but they don’t live there.” Though he might end up calling a couple of them, too.

  It was pitch-black, just a sliver of a moon, and there were no lights out on this rural road. No traffic, either, thank goodness, and that’s why Raleigh went much faster than he would normally go.

  His mom’s ranch was only about five miles from his, so it didn’t take long to get there. When he took the turn, the house came into view. All looked well, but Thea and he had to drive past some dark pastures. Since Buck Tanner had used a pasture to hide for his attack, that possibility was still fresh in Raleigh’s mind.

  His phone dinged with a text message. Then almost immediately dinged again. “Miguel’s on the way,” Thea relayed. “The second text is from Alice. She says no one has tried to break into the room, and she doesn’t hear anyone in the house.”

  That was good, but it might be hard for his deputy to hear much of anything with the alarm still blaring. The only way to turn it off would be for her to go to the keypads at the front and back doors, and Raleigh preferred that she stay put.

  Raleigh was about to tell Thea to let Alice know they were nearby, but he caught some movement from the corner of his eye. Thea must have seen it, too, because they both pivoted in that direction and took aim. Raleigh had braced himself for a ski-mask-wearing thug, but it wasn’t.

  It was Warren.

  “Don’t shoot,” Warren said, leaning out from a tree that was right next to the road.

  Raleigh lowered his window and glanced around to see if Warren was alone. He appeared to be.

  “What are you doing here?” Thea asked, taking the question right out of Raleigh’s mouth.

  “I got a call from a criminal informant of mine. He said one of his buddies had been hired to kidnap Alma. That the person who hired the buddy wanted to do that to get back at me.”

  Raleigh huffed. “And you didn’t call me with information like that?”

  “I wasn’t sure it was accurate. The guy isn’t always reliable if he needs money for a fix. He needed money,” Warren added.

  And despite the tip not being reliable, Warren had come anyway. Later, Raleigh would press him as to why he’d done that and where he’d parked his truck, since it was nowhere in sight, but for now he needed to get to the house.

  “My mom’s with one of my deputies, but someone broke in. Thea and I are headed there now.”

  That put some alarm on Warren’s face. “I didn’t see anyone come onto the grounds, and I was keeping watch.”

  Later, Raleigh would want to know about that, too. Because if there was indeed an intruder, it was possible he’d been there for a while, before Warren’s arrival.

  “Let me go with you,” Warren offered. “In case you need backup.”

  Raleigh wasn’t sure he wanted that, but he also didn’t want to sit around here while his mom was in danger. Nor did he want to leave Warren out here by himself. He unlocked the back door of the cruiser and motioned for Warren to get in. The moment he did that, Raleigh sped toward the house.

  He didn’t see anyone else along the way, but there was a truck in front of the house that belonged to one of the ranch hands who was supposed to be keeping watch. He pulled the cruiser to a stop next to it. And cursed. Because the driver’s-side door was open, but the ranch hand wasn’t inside.

  Raleigh hated to think the worst, but with all the other attacks, it was the first possibility that came to mind. If someone had wanted to break into the house, they could have eliminated the ranch hands.

  Since the driveway was on the side of the house and went all the way to the back, Raleigh kept driving. Kept looking. No one. But even from outside, he could hear the blare of the security system.

  He pulled to a stop directly next to the back porch. “Wait here,” Raleigh told Warren. “And let us know if anyone tries to come up behind us. Thea and I will go in and check on things.” Maybe, just maybe, there’d be nothing wrong.

  Raleigh glanced at Thea to make sure she was ready. She was. She had a firm grip on her gun as she opened the cruiser door. Raleigh did the same, but before he could even step out, he heard a hissing sound.

  That was the only warning he got before the flames shot up in front of him.

  * * *

  THEA AUTOMATICALLY JUMPED back from the flames and put her hand in front of her face to shield it. But she was on full alert, too, because she knew that this could be some kind of diversion so that gunmen could kill them.

  However, it also confirmed that this wasn’t just a false alarm.

  The threat was real, and that meant not only were they in danger but so were Alma and Alice.

  Raleigh ran to her and pulled her back even farther. Like her, he shot glances all around them. So did Warren when he got out of the cruiser.

  “The fire isn’t touching the house,” Raleigh let them know.

  At least it wasn’t yet. It appeared that someone had poured a line of accelerant and had lit it with perhaps a remote control. But if the breeze blew the flames into the house, it could catch the place on fire.

  The fire was creating another problem, too. The smoke. It was thick and dark, and it seemed to come right at them, causing them all to cough. Worse, it was burning her eyes and making it hard to see. Definitely what she didn’t want since someone could be out there.

  Someone with plans to kill them.

  Thea had figured there’d be another attack, but she’d thought it would come down to Raleigh and her against the person responsible for so much chaos. But now Warren was here, and that meant he was in danger, too. Maybe that had been part of the plan all along though.

  “Cover me,” Raleigh told Thea.

  He headed to the far back right corner of the house, where there was some kind of
control box. For the automatic sprinkler system, she soon realized. Raleigh hit the button to turn on all the nozzles, and they immediately began to pop up and start spraying water. It meant the three of them were getting wet, but it might keep the flames under control.

  “I’ll call the fire department,” Warren offered, taking out his phone.

  Good. And Dalton was on the way, too, but Thea didn’t intend to wait. Especially not wait out in the open. With Raleigh ahead of her and Warren right behind, they started up the porch steps.

  And they immediately stopped.

  “Those are the two ranch hands who were supposed to be keeping watch,” Raleigh whispered.

  Oh, God. This wasn’t good. Because she soon spotted the two men sprawled out on the porch.

  “Are they dead?” she asked, afraid to hear the answer.

  While Thea and Warren kept watch, Raleigh touched his fingers to one of the men’s necks and then the other. “They’re alive. It looks as if someone used a stun gun on them. Maybe drugged them, too.”

  The relief came, but it didn’t last because someone had obviously gotten close enough to the hands to incapacitate them. And that someone could now be inside, doing the same, or worse, to Raleigh’s mother and his deputy.

  “I’ll call for an ambulance,” Warren volunteered.

  Maybe the men wouldn’t need medical attention right away, because an ambulance wouldn’t be able to get onto the ranch until they were sure there wasn’t a shooter nearby.

  Raleigh went to the door. “Locked,” he said, and he fished through his pocket for the keys.

  Maybe the person who’d attacked the hands hadn’t gone in through the back, but if he had, he’d clearly locked it behind him. Maybe to slow them down.

  Or ambush them when they went in.

  Once he had the door unlocked, Raleigh used the barrel of his gun to ease it open a couple of inches. Thea steeled herself up for some kind of attack.

  But nothing happened.

  Raleigh reached inside to the keypad, hit some buttons and the alarm stopped. Thea immediately tried to listen for any sounds coming from inside, but she heard nothing.

  “According to the light on the security panel, the alarm was tripped with this door,” Raleigh explained, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

  So whoever had broken in had locked the door behind him. There were no obvious signs of forced entry, but someone skilled at picking a lock would be able to get in without leaving any obvious damage. Certainly though, an intruder would have guessed there’d be a security system. But maybe he didn’t care, especially since the alarm would have masked his movements in the house.

  But there was another possibility.

  One that Thea hoped was what had actually happened. That the alarm had scared the guy off, and that he’d gone running. She wanted to confront this monster and stop him—or her—but she didn’t want that to happen with Raleigh’s mother or Warren around.

  “Text Alice and tell her we’re here and about to come in,” Raleigh told her. “Ask her if they’re okay.”

  Since Thea still had his phone, she did that and got a quick response back from Alice that Thea relayed to Raleigh. “They’re fine. No one’s tried to get into the room where they are.”

  Maybe it would stay that way.

  Raleigh stepped into the kitchen. He didn’t turn on the lights and looked around before he motioned for Warren and her to join him. No smoke inside, thank goodness, but if the sprinkler didn’t put out the flames, there soon would be. That meant they’d need to evacuate Alma and Alice. They didn’t have a choice about that, but it came with huge risks since it meant they’d be outside, where they could be gunned down.

  Raleigh’s phone dinged with a message. At first, Thea thought it was Alice again, but it was Dalton this time.

  When Thea read the text, her stomach clenched. “Someone put a spike strip on the road after we drove through. Dalton hit it and all the tires on his cruiser are flat. He’ll have to wait for Miguel to come and give him a ride out here.”

  Raleigh mumbled some profanity. Whoever was behind this had wanted to make sure Dalton didn’t arrive to help them. And it had worked. But what did this monster have planned for them?

  “Tell Dalton not to come on foot,” Raleigh instructed. “I don’t want someone gunning him down.”

  Neither did she. Enough people had been hurt or killed.

  “After Miguel picks him up,” Raleigh went on, “Dalton and he can secure the perimeter of the house and get the two hands into the cruiser.”

  Thea sent the response to the deputy and then lifted her head to try to detect any trace of accelerant in the house. She didn’t want a new fire trapping them inside, but there were no unusual smells. No unusual sounds, either.

  Since this was the first time she’d been in Alma’s house, she had no idea where the bedroom was, but Raleigh started out of the kitchen. But first he motioned for Warren to keep watch behind them. Thea made sure no one was on the sides of them. Hard to do though because the house was dark.

  Raleigh led them through a family room and then a foyer. He tested the knob on the front door. “It’s still locked,” he whispered to them.

  That was good because hopefully it meant no one could get in that way while they were walking up to the second floor. Raleigh went up the first three steps of the curved staircase and looked up, no doubt hoping to get a glimpse of whoever had broken in.

  Thea certainly didn’t see anything, but she heard something. Not a sound from the second floor or stairs, either. This had come from the living room on the other side of the foyer. Warren and Raleigh must have heard it, too, because they pivoted in that direction.

  Just as someone fired a shot right at them.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Get down!” Raleigh shouted.

  And he prayed Thea and Warren could do that before they got shot.

  Warren didn’t get down though. He fired in the direction of the shooter.

  Even though Raleigh couldn’t see the gunman and Warren probably couldn’t, either, the shot paid off because their attacker didn’t pull the trigger again. Raleigh did hear him scrambling for cover in the living room though. That was good because it gave the three of them a chance to get off the stairs and out of the foyer and into the living room.

  It wasn’t ideal, but at least there was a partial wall they could use that might prevent them from being gunned down.

  From the moment that Thea and he arrived at the ranch, Raleigh had been steeling himself up for an attack. An attack that he had hoped to prevent, but obviously it was too late for that.

  But who was behind this?

  Raleigh silently cursed that it was something he still didn’t know. And he might not find it out anytime soon. Because the person who’d shot at them could be just another hired gun, someone doing the dirty work for Simon, Nick or Yvette.

  Another shot came, and it slammed into the half wall. Since a bullet could easily go through it, Raleigh motioned for Thea and Warren to get to the side of the sofa. That would serve two purposes. Not only would it put some distance between the shooter and them, it would give them a better vantage point to make sure someone didn’t sneak up on them by coming through the kitchen. The ranch hands were on the back porch, but even if they had regained consciousness, they still might not be able to stop someone else from getting inside.

  His phone dinged just as there was another shot, and this bullet did rip through the drywall and went God knew where in the living room. Raleigh glanced back to make sure Thea and Warren were okay. They were. For now. But he motioned for them to get down.

  “Alice texted,” Thea whispered. “She heard the shots.”

  Of course she had. They were deafening, so that meant his mother had heard them, too, and she was probably terrified. Raleigh was feeling some fear of his own becau
se he had to consider that this thug downstairs was just a distraction so his partner could get to Alma.

  But if Alma was the target, why hadn’t the person just bashed down the bedroom door after he’d broken in?

  Why wait?

  He couldn’t think of a good reason for doing that. So that meant Thea, he or Warren was the target. Or maybe all three. But hopefully his mom would be out of harm’s way while he figured out how to safely get to her.

  Raleigh scrambled closer to Thea so the gunman wouldn’t hear what he wanted her to text Alice. “Tell her that I want Mom and her in the bathtub.”

  That way, if this clown started shooting at the ceiling, Alice and his mother wouldn’t get hit with stray shots.

  While Thea sent off the message, Raleigh moved again so he could maybe catch of glimpse of the shooter. He hurried to the other side of the sofa, where he still had some cover, but he was also in a better position to take this guy out.

  When the gunman leaned out to fire, Raleigh sent two bullets right at him. He couldn’t tell though if he hit him, but at least it stopped the gunfire. Raleigh doubted that would last though.

  And it didn’t.

  It only took a few seconds before the man leaned out again. This time, Raleigh didn’t miss. His shot slammed into the guy, and he made a loud groan of pain before he collapsed onto the floor.

  While he watched to make sure no one was at the top of the stairs, ready to shoot him, Raleigh went to the thug. The guy had on a ski mask, but Raleigh pulled it off him and checked for a pulse. Nothing.

  “He’s dead,” Raleigh told the others. He made a quick study of the dead man’s face, but didn’t recognize him.

  “You smell that?” Thea asked.

  Raleigh was so focused on the shooter that it took him a moment to realize what she meant.

  Smoke.

  And it didn’t seem to be coming from outside.