The Deputy's Redemption Read online

  Elise followed his gaze to see what’d captured his attention. Colt was focused on a woodpile only about ten feet from the shed. She didn’t see anything, but Colt obviously had, because even though the shooter was getting closer, he still didn’t move.

  Colt’s phone buzzed again, indicating that someone had texted. Probably Rosalie, but Elise didn’t want to look down to respond. Instead, both Darnell and she kept their guns lifted in case they had to fire.

  “Hell,” Colt said, his attention still on the woodpile.

  Elise finally saw something. Some movement at the end of the pile nearest the shed.

  Mercy, was it another gunman waiting there?

  If so, he would have shot them before they could have made it out into the yard.

  But the person didn’t shoot. However, he did move again, because Elise got a glimpse of the sleeve of his jacket.

  “Maybe it’s Reed,” Darnell said.

  Judging from Colt’s body language, it wasn’t, but Elise couldn’t tell who it was. Not until he moved again, that is.

  The person ducked his head out from the woodpile for just a glimpse at them. But it was more than enough for Elise to get a glimpse of him.

  What the devil was he doing here?

  Chapter Seventeen

  Buddy.

  Colt had figured it was either Buddy, Meredith or Joplin behind these attacks, but he hadn’t expected Elise’s former tenant to actually take part in the shootings.

  Especially since he had so many hired guns to do the job. From Colt’s estimate there were still at least two of them out there somewhere.

  “Don’t shoot me,” Buddy called out to them. “I’m here to help you.”

  Right. No way was Colt going to buy that.

  After all, Buddy was wanted for murder, and he hated Elise for refusing to sell him the place where he’d buried the body. He no doubt blamed Elise for the trip he’d be making to jail, and that gave him plenty of motive for this attack.

  “Somebody wanted me to kill Elise,” Buddy went on. “I got a call. I couldn’t make out who it was, but the caller said if I came here tonight, I could settle the score with Elise. I figured I was supposed to murder her, but that’s not why I’m here. I never meant to kill that woman, and I don’t want to kill Elise, either.”

  Colt glanced back at her to see if she was buying any of this. She wasn’t. Elise had her gun aimed right at the woodpile where Buddy was hiding.

  “You hear me, Colt?” Buddy asked.

  Colt didn’t answer because the sound of his voice would make it too easy to pinpoint their location. But there was some movement in the backyard on the other side of the shed.

  Oh, man.

  One of the shooters was no doubt moving closer. It was the same for the one at the front of the house. And that made it too risky to try to move Elise and Darnell to the shed.

  “Get down as low as you can,” Colt told her.

  He positioned himself in front of her, but he knew he wouldn’t be much protection if the bullets started coming at them from all directions.

  “Colt?” someone called out. Not Buddy this time.

  Reed.

  Judging from the sound of Reed’s voice, he was somewhere near the front of the house, too. Good. Maybe he’d be able to take out the shooter.

  Or maybe he already had.

  Colt realized it’d been a minute or so since anyone had fired a shot. Reed could have sneaked up on him and clubbed the guy. Colt hoped so, anyway, because he wanted to focus his attention on Buddy and on getting Elise to safety.

  Wherever safety was.

  “More help’s on the way,” Reed said. “Plenty of it.”

  Good. Colt wished he could bring in an army to stop these dirtbags.

  “Text me your location,” Reed added.

  Just as another shot was fired.

  That one went in Reed’s direction.

  “Text him,” Colt whispered to Elise. “Tell him our location. The shooters. And Buddy’s, too.”

  She gave a shaky nod and used his phone to fire off the text. Maybe Reed would be able to use the info to get himself in a better position to attack. Maybe, too, Reed would stay out of the line of fire.

  Because it continued.

  More shots came. Not just from the front but from the back side of the house. The shooter over there had obviously moved since they’d last spotted him from the kitchen window.

  “I said don’t shoot!” Buddy yelled, and he added a long string of raw profanity.

  Buddy obviously thought Colt was doing the firing, or he wanted to make them believe he thought that. Colt still wasn’t about to give away their position by answering him.

  “Reed’s going to try to get closer to the woodpile,” Elise relayed when she got the text response from the deputy. “Cooper’s at the end of the road, and he’s going on the opposite side of the house from Reed.”

  Colt was more than thankful for the backup, but it meant Darnell or he wouldn’t be able to fire any more random shots. He couldn’t risk hitting Reed or his brother.

  The shots continued to come, some of them aimed at the woodpile. Either this was another ploy to get them to trust Buddy, or these shooters wanted him dead, too.

  Buddy cursed again, and he leaned out. That’s when Colt saw the rifle, but Buddy didn’t aim it at them. He pointed it in the area just past the shed, an area that was out of Colt’s line of sight.

  And Buddy fired.

  Colt heard a sharp groan of pain, and it sounded as if someone collapsed onto the ground.

  Hell. That could be his brother.

  “Text Cooper now,” Colt told Elise.

  And Colt held his breath, waiting and praying. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds for Cooper to respond.

  “Cooper’s okay,” Elise said, blowing out her own breath of relief. “Buddy shot one of the gunmen.”

  Good. But again it could be a ploy to get them to trust him and come out in the open. That wasn’t going to happen.

  “If Reed can neutralize Buddy, I can get you into the shed,” Colt whispered to her.

  Of course, if Reed took out Buddy, and Cooper got the guy who’d been at the front of the house, there would be no need for Elise to be in the shed. The danger would be over.

  He hoped.

  And that meant they needed to keep Buddy alive so they could get any other details of the attack. One way or another, Colt wanted to end the danger tonight.

  His phone buzzed again, and Colt hoped it was a message with good news from Reed or Cooper. However, judging from the way Elise pulled in her breath, it wasn’t.

  “It’s another message from your sister,” she said, her voice a shaky whisper. “Your father’s missing.”

  “Missing?” A dozen thoughts and emotions slammed through him. None good. Had their attacker managed to get to his dad?

  But Colt didn’t even get a chance to ask for more information. That’s because the shots started again.

  This time all being fired at Buddy.

  Buddy leaned out to return fire. Something that Colt couldn’t let him do since it could very well be Reed doing the shooting.

  Colt took aim at Buddy and would have pulled the trigger.

  If someone hadn’t beaten him to it.

  The bullet slammed into Buddy. His shoulder, from what Colt could tell. That didn’t stop Buddy, though.

  Still cursing, Buddy came out shooting.

  * * *

  ELISE HAD NO idea what was going on, but with the way Buddy was acting, maybe she’d been wrong about his being behind the attacks. Buddy fired some shots and took off running into the wooded area behind the storage shed.

  The moment he disappeared from sight, the shots came at them again.

  But that wasn’t the only gunfire. She heard someone else shooting. Maybe Reed or Cooper. If so, perhaps they could get this situation under control so they could figure out what’d happened to Colt’s father.

  Missing, Rosalie had said.
>
  And Elise doubted the man had just taken a late-night stroll. No. He was likely in as much danger as they were.

  Maybe more.

  She hated to think the worst, but Roy could be dead. Some kind of payback for whatever she’d done to make these monsters launch this attack against her. An attack that had now extended to Colt’s family. And to Reed and Darnell.

  “Hold your fire!” someone shouted.

  Not Buddy this time, but it was a voice that Elise instantly recognized.

  Meredith.

  That caused the skin to crawl on the back of her neck. There was no good reason for her to be out here at Reed’s place. But there was one especially bad reason.

  Because maybe she was the one trying to kill them.

  Of course, Buddy was out there, so maybe he was the one. Heaven forbid if they’d paired up to launch this attack together.

  Despite the injury that Buddy had gotten in the gunfight, it could have all been staged to make everyone think he was innocent. Heck, Buddy could have set all this up as some kind of hoax to rescue them so he could in turn get a lighter sentence for the murder charges that would be filed against him.

  “Text Reed again,” Colt told her. “See if he knows why Meredith’s here.”

  Elise did, and she got a quick response from Reed. “He doesn’t know. Reed didn’t even know Meredith was around until she just yelled out.”

  She’d barely relayed that to Colt when his phone buzzed again. Rosalie. And the message that Elise saw on the screen had her heart jumping to her throat.

  Rosalie had found drops of blood on the back porch of the McKinnon home, and there appeared to have been some kind of struggle.

  Mercy. What had happened?

  “What is it?” Colt asked, glancing over his shoulder at her.

  “We need to finish up here so we can find your father,” Elise settled for saying. No need to worry Colt further when they were trapped.

  But, of course, he was already worried. Colt took the phone from her, read the message for himself and mumbled some profanity. “Tell Cooper he needs to get back to the ranch and find out what’s going on.”

  Elise sent the message, praying that Cooper would get there in time to stop whatever was happening with their father.

  “I need help!” Meredith shouted. “Joplin hit me with a Taser, then tied me up and brought me here.”

  Great. If Joplin was indeed out here, then all their suspects were in one place. Now the problem would be to figure out which one was guilty.

  No sign of Joplin, Reed immediately texted. I’m moving closer so cover me.

  Elise relayed that to Colt, and he angled his body to give Reed the cover he’d requested. It didn’t take long for her to see Reed dart out from some trees behind the woodpile. His gaze fired all around, and he must not have seen anyone, because Reed raced toward them and dropped down on the ground next to them.

  “Is Buddy still out there?” Colt asked him.

  Reed shook his head. “Didn’t see him, but I did spot Meredith. She’s on the other side of the house in those trees.”

  The spot where they’d seen a gunman earlier.

  “Anyone with her?” Colt pressed.

  “Not that I could tell.”

  That didn’t meant Leo or Joplin wasn’t out there hiding.

  “What about the dogs?” Elise hoped nothing bad had happened to them.

  “Someone Tasered them. They’ll be fine, but whoever did it will have to answer to me.”

  Elise only hoped Reed got the chance to make that happen. Being Tasered was horrible, but at least the person hadn’t killed the poor animals.

  Reed tipped his head to the shed. “There’s still too much smoke in the house. From a smoke bomb, I think. But we can get Elise in through the back of the shed and wait for Cooper to have more men in place.”

  “Cooper had to go back to the ranch.” Colt paused. “Dad’s missing.”

  “What the hell else could go wrong tonight?” Reed said after he cursed.

  Elise was afraid she didn’t want to know the answer to that.

  “I figure Cooper will send someone else out here,” Colt went on. “But in the meantime, let’s get Elise out of the line of fire.”

  No one argued with that. Except her. “I don’t want to be tucked away someplace safe while you three are taking all the risks.”

  Colt shifted his gaze to her, and he looked ready to give her a huge argument about that. Instead, he dropped a kiss on her mouth. Surprising her. Probably surprising Reed and Darnell, too.

  “Let’s go,” Colt told Reed a split second before they started running.

  Elise braced herself for more shots to come their way.

  But none did.

  In fact, the only sounds were their footsteps, ragged breaths and Meredith yelling for someone to untie her. If she was indeed tied up, she was going to have to stay that way for a while. At least until they were certain all the gunmen had been captured or killed.

  Once they reached the side of the shed, Colt stopped and peered around the corner. There were two doors, one on the side opposite the woodpile—where Meredith and the other gunmen likely were. The other door was at the rear, and that’s obviously the one Colt planned to use. Probably because he thought it would give them the best chance of getting inside before they were gunned down.

  It was much darker here than by the house because of the angle of the moon and the trees. Elise considered taking out Colt’s phone and using it for illumination, but she didn’t want to make themselves a spotlight for the gunman.

  “Don’t go in yet,” Colt warned her when he pulled her behind the shed with him. “Wait here with Reed and Darnell.”

  Colt went closer, no doubt ready to open the door and check inside to make sure no one was hiding and about to attack. However, he only made it a few steps before he stumbled on something. Elise couldn’t see what, but she knew from Colt’s profanity that it wasn’t good.

  “What is it?” she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

  Colt cursed again and reached down to touch something. “It’s a dead body.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Elise tried to look over Colt’s shoulder, but thankfully it was too dark for her to see anything. He hoped. He darn sure didn’t want her seeing this.

  “It’s Buddy,” he told her.

  Her breath stalled in her throat. “He’s really dead?”

  Colt nodded.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered.

  Colt repeated it under his breath. He’d known that Buddy had been shot, but he hadn’t thought it was that serious, especially since Buddy had run from the scene. However, when Reed used his phone for illumination, that’s when Colt saw the gunshot wound to the head.

  Unfortunately, Elise saw it, too.

  “That didn’t happen when he was by the woodpile,” she said, touching her fingers to her lips.

  No, it hadn’t. Of course, with all the bullets that’d been flying around, Buddy could have been shot at any time afterward. Still, Colt hadn’t heard gunfire coming from this particular direction.

  “He was shot at point-blank range,” Reed said to him.

  Yeah, Colt had noticed that, too. That meant the killer had either sneaked up on Buddy or else Elise’s former tenant had trusted the person who’d pulled the trigger.

  Colt took hold of her again to lead her away from Buddy’s body and into the shed, but the movement stopped him. It was the sound of footsteps. Not someone trying to sneak up on them, either. These footsteps belonged to someone who was running.

  “You’ve got to help me!” Meredith shouted.

  Judging from the sound of her voice, she was headed directly toward them.

  “Don’t shoot me,” Meredith begged. “Please don’t shoot.”

  Despite Colt’s moving in front of her, he figured that Elise got a glimpse of the woman making her way across the backyard. She was indeed coming toward the shed.

  And Meredith had a gu
n in her hand.

  That got Colt, Reed and Darnell all aiming at her.

  But something wasn’t right.

  Meredith’s arms were stiff by her sides, the gun dangling from her hand on the outside of her thigh, and she was staggering, barely able to stay on her feet. Colt, Reed and Darnell obviously realized something was wrong, too, because they didn’t fire.

  “Joplin wants you to shoot me,” she called out to them. “He wants me dead because I know the truth.”

  “Stop right there,” Colt ordered.

  Meredith did, but he gave an uneasy glance over his shoulder. “He’ll kill me. He’ll kill us all.”

  “You mean Joplin?” Colt challenged.

  “Of course,” she said, and she came even closer. “He put the duct tape around me and shoved me out from the trees so you’d kill me.”

  Meredith dropped onto the ground by the side of the shed. That’s when Colt could see that there was indeed tape wrapped around her body.

  “Why would Joplin want me to kill you?” Colt demanded.

  “Because he’s crazy, that’s why. I overheard him talking on his phone after he left the sheriff’s office. He was plotting to kill Elise so she can’t testify and clear your father’s name. Before I could tell you about what I heard, he had one of his hired thugs Taser me and he brought me here.”

  That didn’t make sense. Unless Joplin had planned on setting up Meredith for all of this. Or maybe Joplin just wanted them to get rid of Meredith since she’d overheard him scheme to commit murder. That was definitely enough motive for Joplin to want Meredith dead—if it’d happened the way she said, that is.

  “Help me get out of this tape,” Meredith insisted.

  No one moved to do that. In fact, Colt stayed in front of Elise, his gun aimed at Meredith while Darnell and Reed kept watch around them.

  “Go ahead and check out the shed,” Colt said to Reed. “Then get Elise inside it.”

  Reed opened the door and used his phone to light up the interior. It was a small space crammed with tack and other supplies, so he had to step in, no doubt to make sure no one was lurking in the shadows.

  As soon as Reed was inside, the shot rang out.

  Heck, not again. Colt was sick and tired of having bullets come their way.