Gage Read online

  There was just enough light that Gage saw Ford smile again. He motioned for his men to stay put, and he started toward Gage. Gage didn’t aim his weapon at the man, not exactly, but he kept it ready just in case.

  “Then go ahead.” Ford came closer. Closer. And stopped just a few feet away. He outstretched his arms. “Shoot me. Right here, right now.”

  It wasn’t even tempting. Okay, it was. But just briefly. “Pull first and I will.”

  “Chicken?” Ford taunted.

  “Sane,” Gage taunted back. “Can you say the same? And before you answer that, remember you killed your wife, had your daughter committed to the loony bin, spied on her, had her stalked. And now you want her dead.”

  All traces of Ford’s smile vanished. “I never wanted Lynette dead. I just wanted a daughter who would love and respect me.”

  Gage wondered if Ford really wanted that or if he was just blowing smoke. “Committing multiple felonies is not the way to get love and respect.”

  “I’ll never admit to those things,” Ford snapped. “I don’t care if anyone else is listening or not.”

  Gage shrugged. “That’s not a way to get love and respect, either.”

  Definitely no smile this time. Ford’s eyes narrowed. “You’re just like your grandfather. He was cocky, too.”

  Gage hadn’t intended to go there tonight, but he would now that Ford had opened the door. “Did you even have any proof he was sleeping with your wife?”

  “Oh, yes. I followed her to his place. The place you later used to bed Lynette. The shame of the mother passed down to the daughter.”

  It turned Gage’s stomach to hear this man’s venom, especially when the venom was directed at Lynette. And at his grandfather.

  “Did you kill him, too?” Gage came right out and asked.

  Now, Ford smiled. “Wouldn’t you love to know? Oh, and just so we’re on the same page. If you’re still alive when this conversation is over, you won’t be leaving until my men have searched you for a wire. I like to keep my secrets safe within my own family.”

  Gage didn’t intend to let Ford or one of his goon-guards lay a hand on him.

  “So, I think what we have here is a stalemate,” Ford continued. “You’re not leaving with Lynette, and I’m not stopping until I find out what she learned from snooping in my private files.”

  “Yeah, you’re right, we do have a stalemate.” And that’s all Gage said for several seconds. Ford’s guards were already looking antsy, and a good, long pause would only add to it. “Well, maybe not. After all, I’m a better shot than either of those Neanderthals.”

  “I thought you didn’t want to kill me.”

  “No. I do.” Another pause. “It’s just when your men get nervous enough—and they will—they’ll fire. You’ll pull your weapon, too. It’s a reflex. Anyone armed would, and I know you’re armed with a slide holster. Ankle, too.” Gage took a step closer, lowered his voice to a whisper. “And when you pull is when you’ll die.”

  And the staring match began.

  Gage wasn’t bluffing, so that helped. But he wasn’t sure how much longer it would take to make those two start firing.

  The walkie-talkie made a soft buzzing sound, and without taking his eyes off Ford, Gage used his left hand to click it on.

  “We got trouble,” Mason said. Before Gage could even manage a word, his brother added, “It’s Lynette. She just pulled up in a cruiser and parked in front of the courthouse steps.”

  Gage cursed.

  Ford smiled.

  “Lynette’s not alone,” Mason added. “Nate, Dade and Kade are with her.”

  That was good. Except there was something in Mason’s voice that said otherwise. And there was definitely something up with Ford.

  Why the devil had Lynette risked everything to come here?

  Gage was sure he wouldn’t like the answer.

  “Lynette and the others aren’t our only visitors,” Mason explained. “Dalvetti and his men rammed through the road barriers I put up, and they just arrived, too.”

  There wasn’t enough profanity in Gage’s vocabulary to cover what he felt. Lynette was here. Why, he didn’t know, but he did know she was in grave danger.

  “Cover Lynette,” Gage insisted, already heading for the door while he kept watch on the three vipers inside.

  Gage pointed his gun at the two guards. “On the floor, hands behind your head.”

  They looked at Ford, and Gage held his breath. He didn’t have time for this, and if they didn’t do as he ordered, he’d have to neutralize them. Maybe a shot or two to the kneecaps. Yeah, he’d have to answer for it later, but it would give him a fighting chance at saving Lynette.

  Ford gave his men a nod. Just that simple gesture. And the two lowered themselves to the floor. It was probably some kind of trap, a move they’d planned, but Gage had to deal with Lynette first.

  Gage had barely taken a step when he heard something else that he hadn’t wanted to hear.

  A blast. Outside.

  Right where the cruiser was parked.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The second that Kade brought the cruiser to a stop in front of the courthouse, Lynette tried to bolt. She had her gun drawn and ready, and she had to get to Gage now.

  But Nate clamped his hand on her arm to stop her.

  Good thing, too.

  Because Lynette hadn’t even gotten the door open when there was an explosion.

  Her heart jumped to her throat.

  Chunks of concrete and asphalt slammed into the cruiser, shaking it like an earthquake. One of those chunks flew into the front end and gashed the metal hood directly into the engine.

  “I think someone just used a rocket launcher on us,” Kade spit out. “Thank God they missed.”

  Yes, thank God. But it’d still done a lot of damage.

  She couldn’t see who’d fired it and didn’t have time to look around. Dade dragged her into the backseat with him. He shoved her onto the floor and covered her body with his.

  She heard Nate and Kade scrambling around in the front seat, and it was only a few seconds before Mason’s voice poured through Kade’s walkie-talkie.

  “It’s Dalvetti and his men. Three of them, all hiding behind the new hotel,” Mason added. Each word was punctuated with a burst of his heavy breath. “I just took out the guy with the launcher, and none of the others has one.”

  Oh, mercy. Lynette was thankful Mason had managed to do that much. But it meant killers were still out there, and while they might not have another rocket launcher, they almost certainly had guns.

  “Any of you hurt?” Mason asked.

  Lynette did a quick inventory. The cruiser was damaged beyond repair, and they’d been darn lucky that the blast hadn’t landed on them. She was certain all of Gage’s brothers were thinking I told you so, but Lynette didn’t regret her decision.

  Not yet anyway.

  “Where’s Gage?” she shouted to Mason.

  “Inside.” Mason paused a heartbeat. “With your father and his two bodyguards.”

  Not bodyguards. Goons. Goons who would try to kill him if her father didn’t do the job first.

  “I’ve lost contact with Gage,” Mason added a moment later.

  He couldn’t have said anything else that would have put that much terror in her. Sweet heaven. Were they holding Gage at gunpoint? Or had they already hurt him? She refused to even consider that it might be worse than that.

  “Gage can handle himself,” Mason reminded her.

  Maybe, but he was outnumbered and therefore outgunned. Now, here they were pinned down, and they had to get to him so they could help.

  “Where are Dalvetti and these gunmen?” Kade asked Mason. But the question had no sooner left his mouth when someone fired again.

  This one slammed right into the driver’s side of the cruiser. Whoever was shooting, the Rylands and she were clearly the target. And worse, the cruiser was disabled. There was no way Kade could drive them out of there
.

  The next bullet had a different sound and angle, and it took her a moment to realize it’d come from the roof of the courthouse.

  “I got another one of them,” Mason let them know. “Not Dalvetti himself though. He’s staying back.”

  More shots, and this time they didn’t come at the cruiser. There was a gunfight going down on Main Street, just yards from sleepy little shops.

  “Is Lynette okay?” she heard someone ask.

  Gage.

  It was his voice now on the walkie-talkie.

  “I’m fine. Are you all right?” Lynette couldn’t ask Gage fast enough.

  “Mad as the devil for you coming here.” But his voice softened. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just trying to take out Dalvetti’s men while playing stalemate with your father.”

  Lynette didn’t like the sound of that. Or the next round of bullets. The shooters were hitting the cruiser again. One of the bullets gouged into the already damaged windshield.

  “To heck with this,” Kade snarled. “We have to get Lynette out of here.”

  More bullets came at them, nonstop now, but she could also hear Mason and the others on the rooftop returning fire. As Dade pinned her down on the floorboard, she was able to catch a glimpse of Gage.

  Alive and unharmed.

  He stepped out from the courthouse doorway and fired in Dalvetti’s direction.

  “Is it safe to get Lynette and the rest of us in there?” Kade asked.

  “No. But from the looks of things out there, we don’t have a choice. Get her in as fast as you can.”

  Kade did move fast. So did Dade. He pushed her to the side of the cruiser that was facing the courthouse doors. She was already wearing a Kevlar vest that Dade had given her before they left the sheriff’s office, but as Gage had pointed out, that wouldn’t help with a head shot.

  “We’re moving now,” Dade told his brothers.

  Lynette didn’t know what Nate and Kade would do with that information, but they knew. While Dade got her out of the cruiser, both Nate and Kade started firing at Dalvetti and what was left of his hit squad.

  Dade and she barreled up the three steps, and she got a closer look at Gage. She felt both the overwhelming relief in one breath, and in the next, she felt the overwhelming fear. With the bullets flying, they might not be alive and unharmed for long.

  Gage didn’t look directly at her. He kept his attention fastened to the shooters by her office. He took aim. And fired.

  Three thick blasts.

  She heard someone groan in pain, and from the corner of her eye, Lynette saw one of Dalvetti’s gunmen fall to the ground.

  When she made it to him, Gage latched on to her and pulled her inside. Dade was right behind them, but he stayed in the doorway and started delivering some shots of his own at Dalvetti.

  “Why did you come?” Gage demanded. “Why?”

  She shook her head and hated the worry and fear in his voice. “I didn’t have a choice. My father called and made a veiled threat that if I didn’t come, he’d kill you.”

  Gage took aim at the men on the floor. But then he glanced around the lobby and cursed. “He got away.”

  Because the thoughts and fear were flying through her head, it took her a moment to realize what Gage meant. She looked around, as well, and didn’t see the one person responsible for all of his.

  Her father was gone.

  * * *

  HELL. THIS WAS NOT the way Gage wanted all of this to play out.

  All he’d wanted was to negotiate some kind of truce with Ford and then leave so he could take Lynette far away from Silver Creek. That way, all of them would have walked out alive.

  But now, things had gotten complicated in a dangerous way.

  Because Lynette was here.

  And her father wasn’t.

  “Get down,” Gage told Lynette, and he pointed to the staircase banister.

  Gage was betting Ford hadn’t used the stairs to escape since the stairs were right by the door where Gage had been standing. And shooting.

  If escape was what Ford had actually done.

  It was possible the man was lurking in that dark hall and was ready to strike. After all, there had to be a reason Ford had told Lynette to come here. Later, Gage would figure out what that reason was, and he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like it.

  “Disarm these two,” Gage told Dade. “And cuff them if you can.”

  The walkie-talkie buzzed again, and Gage hit the button while he inched his way toward the hall.

  “The only one left outside is Dalvetti,” Mason relayed. “I took out his other man. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s in a Hummer, and he’s driving straight toward the courthouse. I think he’s planning to drive up the steps and bash it through the front door.”

  Well, Gage hadn’t thought this could get worse, but he’d obviously been wrong.

  Gage looked out the front glass door where Nate and Kade were shooting at a massive black Hummer that was flying across the parking lot. The windows in the vehicle must have been bulletproof, because no shots seemed to be getting through.

  They had seconds at most to get out of the path of that vehicle.

  “Move!” Gage told Dade, who was still in the process of disarming Ford’s henchmen.

  Gage grabbed Lynette and started running. Yeah, it was a risk to use either the stairs or head to the hall, but at the moment the biggest risk of all was staying put. He started up the stairs with her.

  Dade left the men and hurried to the back of the foyer by the hall. Neither of Ford’s men stayed put, and Gage couldn’t blame them. They scrambled out of the way.

  “Watch out for Ford,” Gage called down to warn his brother.

  But he wasn’t sure Dade heard him because at the exact moment Gage shouted that warning, Dalvetti’s Hummer tore up the steps and came crashing through the doors.

  Glass and wood flew everywhere, like missiles shooting in every direction. Even though Lynette and he were only halfway up the stairs, Gage stopped, shoved her behind him so that she wouldn’t get hit with the flying debris, and he got ready to fire. So did Dade.

  But not for long.

  One of Ford’s gunmen must have figured out this was a good time to make a bad situation worse because he drew a gun from the waist of his pants and took aim at Dade. His brother dived into the hall just in the nick of time, and he came up ready to return fire.

  The gunman’s shot slammed into the wall, and he scrambled for cover, as well, on the side of a table stacked with pamphlets.

  Behind him, Gage felt Lynette move and realized she, too, was taking aim at the second henchman who’d drawn his weapon. She fired, the blast roaring through Gage’s head.

  She missed.

  And Gage volleyed his attention between Ford’s men and Dalvetti’s car. The windows were heavily tinted so he couldn’t see the drug lord inside, but Gage had no doubt he was there. Ditto for his brothers outside. Nate, Kade and Mason would soon be coming in to help. The trick would be to make sure that none of them got killed in the process.

  Especially Lynette.

  When she took another shot at her father’s men, Gage pushed her back down. He appreciated the help, but he didn’t want her to be an easy target, not when shots could come from so many different directions.

  “Stay down and watch behind us,” he told her. Just in case he’d been wrong about Ford not using the stairs. He didn’t want her father or anybody else sneaking up on them for an easy ambush.

  There was another shot in Dade’s direction, but Gage couldn’t look to see what’d happened. That’s because the door to the Hummer eased open just a fraction, a rifle barrel jutted out, and a bullet came zinging their way. It slammed into the wall behind them.

  Gage sent a shot directly at the rifle.

  He’d been right about the bulletproof part. His shot collided into the glass, but it didn’t penetrate. That meant he had to draw Dalvetti out of the vehicle.

  Dalvetti fi
red again, and Gage had no choice but to get down as well. He tried to use his body to shield Lynette, but there was always a possibility that a bullet could go through him and hit her.

  And the baby.

  That sickened and riled him. This was the last thing he’d wanted for Lynette and the child.

  Behind the Hummer, Gage could see Nate and Kade making their way up the steps. Both had their weapons drawn, and that meant Dalvetti was trapped.

  Or maybe not.

  The man fired off two more shots with his rifle, and Gage heard him hit the accelerator. Dalvetti was about to attempt an escape, and he just might get away with it. That couldn’t happen. It would only give him a chance to regroup and come back again for another attack.

  “Get out of the way!” Gage shouted to Nate and Kade.

  They did. His brothers dived to the side just as the Hummer jolted backward.

  Gage kept his gun aimed and was ready to race down the stairs after him, but the edge of the Hummer’s door caught on to what was left of the courthouse entrance. The door flew open.

  And Gage saw Dalvetti behind the wheel.

  The look that passed between them only lasted a split second, but it was enough for Gage to see the awareness of his situation register in the man’s murderous eyes.

  Awareness and something else he didn’t have the time to figure out.

  Gage pulled the trigger.

  Not once. But twice. And he sent two shots directly into Dalvetti’s head.

  It was never easy to kill a man, never, but Gage couldn’t regret this one. Dalvetti would have murdered them all if Gage hadn’t ended this now.

  Except it hadn’t ended.

  Dalvetti hadn’t been the only killer in the building. Gage swung in Dade’s direction just as one of Ford’s henchmen took aim again at his brother. Gage aimed, too, but the shots came from the front of the building.

  From Kade and Nate.

  Each of them took out Ford’s men.

  “We have to get out of here,” Gage immediately told Lynette. Because while three men were dead, the most dangerous one of the lot was still missing. Plus, there was the possibility that Ford wasn’t alone. Either Nicole or Patrick could be inside or nearby waiting to help Ford out.