Holden Read online

  Beatrice was screaming now, perhaps because the impact had sent her to the floor, too, but Nicky couldn’t tell if it was Beatrice or Kara who was hurt. However, Kara was at least able to move because she hurried to Beatrice and dragged her away from some of the barn roof that was creaking and ready to fall.

  Holden pulled Nicky to her feet as well, and he ran to the back of the barn with her. “Watch behind us,” he told her.

  Nicky did that as best she could, and she saw the source of that engine. It was the SUV all right, and it was coming right toward them.

  Holden pushed her behind him and fired. His bullets went right into the windshield. Kara shot at the tires, and the SUV finally came to a stop in the yard. Still, it was close. Too close. And those gunmen could start shooting or launch another grenade at them.

  “We have to move,” Holden said, and he turned, no doubt to get them started out the back door.

  But it was too late.

  The man came rushing in, and he was armed. It happened so fast, and while Holden was trying to get into position to fire, the man latched onto Beatrice. That’s when Nicky got a better look at his face.

  It was Lee Minton.

  And he put a gun to his wife’s head.

  * * *

  HOLDEN DEFINITELY DIDN’T need this. Whatever the hell this was.

  “What are you doing?” Holden demanded.

  “I’m getting her to confess,” Minton said, his voice as shaky as his hand. Not a good combination to have a gun in the hands of a man who was clearly out of control. “She’s the one who had me kidnapped.” He jammed the gun even harder against Beatrice’s head. “Admit it.”

  Beatrice didn’t deny it, and she started sobbing again.

  “Now isn’t the time for this,” Holden assured him. He kept watch on that SUV. On Minton, too.

  But if Minton heard him, he didn’t acknowledge it. The man had clearly worked himself up into a rage.

  “I want to hear her admit it,” Minton growled. “And don’t lie, Beatrice, because I have the proof. The thug you hired confessed. You knew that, and that’s why you had me kidnapped again.”

  “No!” Beatrice practically shouted. She winced when he dug the gun into her skin. “Yes, I did have you taken the first time. But not now. I had no part in this, I swear.” She looked up at Holden and repeated that.

  Maybe she was telling the truth, but Holden didn’t care. She’d just admitted to kidnapping her husband, and it didn’t matter if she’d done that once or twice. It meant she was capable of pretty much anything.

  “There are two men with a grenade launcher in that SUV, and he can take down the rest of this barn with just one more blast,” Holden reminded the senator.

  Again, Minton didn’t seem to hear Holden. “How could you have done that to me?” he shouted to his wife. “I always knew you were a gold digger, but I never expected you to have me kidnapped. And why? So you could get your hands on my money.”

  Holden was ready to throttle them both. “You can stay here and die,” he finally told Minton. “Or you can try to get out of here with us.”

  Though Holden did have a problem with Beatrice tagging along. Since she was still wearing the plastic cuffs, she wasn’t an immediate danger to them, but she could always call out to the thugs.

  Holden looked out at the pasture just as his phone buzzed, and he saw the message from Grayson on the screen.

  We’re coming in. Watch your fire.

  That was a reminder for Holden not to shoot unless he was certain of his target.

  Behind them, the SUV started to move, and Holden knew he had to get moving as well. “Come on,” Holden told Nicky, and he led them out the door.

  He didn’t get far, though.

  Because the moment he stepped outside, someone put a gun in his face. And it wasn’t one of the hired thugs.

  It was Amanda.

  “Move one inch,” she warned him, “and I’ll kill you.”

  Hell. How could he have let this happen? With the noise from the sirens and Minton’s and Beatrice’s chatter, he hadn’t heard the woman approach. That could be the thing that got Nicky and the rest of them killed.

  Amanda backed him into the barn and put the gun to his head. Holden still had his weapon. So did the others. But if he moved or did anything sudden, Amanda could shoot. And not necessarily shoot him, either. She could turn the gun on Nicky or Kara.

  “I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever come out of there,” Amanda complained. “I didn’t want my men to have to fire off another grenade. Boys, you can come out now,” she added, and it took Holden a moment to realize she was speaking into a small communicator clipped to her collar.

  The boys were two armed thugs who got out of the SUV. And they weren’t wearing ski masks. Definitely not good. Because it meant Amanda and the two guys intended to kill all of them.

  “You want me to move the SUV to the back?” one of the thugs asked Amanda.

  “No. I can’t be sure the lawmen haven’t made it back there.”

  That was a possibility, too, since Grayson would know the layout of the grounds. Plus, Grayson could have sent some deputies to one of the ranch trails that threaded all around the property.

  “Guns on the ground now,” the thug snarled, glancing at Holden, Nicky and Kara. He stayed near the front, and the other hurried to Amanda’s side.

  Without so much as a warning, the guy at the front took aim at Kara and fired, the shot slamming into her arm.

  Damn. It took everything inside Holden to stop himself from charging the guy. But if he did, it would just get Kara killed. Kara groaned in pain and dropped to her knees.

  “Weapons down now,” the thug repeated. “Or the next shot goes right into her head.”

  They had no choice but to drop their weapons. Minton, however, kept his gun hidden on the side of his leg. Maybe Amanda and her goons hadn’t seen it.

  “This is how this will work,” Amanda said, her voice so cold that he felt the chill all the way to his bones. “Beatrice and the senator will come with me. If they don’t cooperate, I’ll start putting bullets into them until they do.”

  “Because you need to set them up to take the blame for all of this,” Holden said. It was just a theory, but he could tell from Amanda’s slight smile that he was right.

  Amanda was going to take Minton and Beatrice to a secondary location, where she could either force them to make a false confession or else plant something incriminating on them. The perfect way to end that would be to have their deaths look like a murder-suicide.

  “How do you intend to get out of here?” Nicky snapped. “Backup has arrived.”

  “Yes.” Amanda didn’t show any emotion about that. “That’s where you and Holden come in. I have some more men in place now, and they should be able to take care of any extra Silver Creek lawmen. But I need hostages, human shields, whatever you want to call it. Either way, we’re leaving.”

  “But you’ll have to take Nicky with you, too,” Holden said. It was yet another theory. “Because you’ll have to make sure she doesn’t have copies of those files from Conceptions.”

  “I’m sure Nicky will tell me all about those to save you from dying a really painful death. Those files have other encrypted data in them,” she added. “I will get them back.”

  Hell, that meant there could be other babies. Or at least plans to continue this sick surrogacy operation.

  “You murdered a man,” Nicky snapped. “You killed Paul.”

  Amanda didn’t confirm that. Didn’t have to. She’d ordered Paul’s death when he wouldn’t give her the files, and she would do the same to Nicky. Or at least she’d try. Holden only hoped Amanda didn’t have one of her goons shoot him before he could put a stop to this.

  Amanda motioned toward one of th
e thugs, and he went closer to Minton, taking aim at the senator. “What part of ‘put down your gun’ didn’t you understand?”

  Holden’s stomach dropped. So, they’d seen Minton’s gun after all.

  The thug didn’t add more to that order to Minton, probably because Amanda’s threat had been enough. If Minton didn’t cooperate, Amanda or one of the gunmen would shoot him.

  Minton dropped the gun, and the moment it hit the ground, the thug came toward them. He latched onto Beatrice by her hair, yanking her to her feet. Beatrice yelled in pain, but he only whacked her upside the head with his weapon. When she collapsed, the guy threw her over his shoulder and started toward the SUV.

  The sound of gunfire cracked through the air.

  It was close, somewhere near the front of the house, and Holden prayed that none of the lawmen had been hurt. More shots came though. A flurry of gunfire.

  “Wait just a few seconds,” Amanda told the guy, and she added a profanity under her breath.

  Maybe she’d expected that her lackeys could have finished off Grayson and the others by now. Or at least kept them at bay so they could start the process of getting the heck out of there.

  The moments crawled by, and Holden glanced at Kara to see how she was holding up. She was bleeding and needed medical attention fast. That wasn’t going to happen, though, until the danger had been neutralized. Since the gunfire was continuing, that might not be for a while.

  “Just hang in there,” Holden said to Kara.

  Nicky looked at him. She didn’t say anything, but he could tell she was silently asking him what to do. Holden wasn’t sure, not yet anyway. However, he knew if they got in that SUV, they’d be dead as soon as Amanda no longer needed them.

  The shots outside finally stopped, and Amanda motioned for her man to get moving. The guy did, taking Minton and Beatrice toward the front of the barn and the SUV.

  “Your turn,” Amanda said to Nicky. “Go with Beatrice and the senator.”

  Nicky didn’t jump to do that, but Holden nodded. She still hesitated but finally took several steps toward the thug who was in the process of tossing Beatrice into the vehicle.

  Amanda put her mouth against Holden’s ear. “Of course, you won’t be going with them,” she whispered. “Can’t risk that since you and the deputy here would only try to kill us the first chance you get.”

  Holden had figured that out. Nicky was the only hostage Amanda needed, and the only reason the woman hadn’t already tried to kill him was because she was using him to get Nicky to cooperate.

  Nicky probably couldn’t hear what the woman was saying, but she stopped, and stared at him.

  “Keep moving!” the thug snarled, and after he stuffed the senator in the SUV, he started for Nicky.

  Nothing about this was ideal, especially not with the armed goon right next to Amanda, but Holden figured it was now or never. He had to do something. He turned, slamming his body into Amanda’s, hoping to knock the gun from her hand.

  He didn’t.

  Amanda pulled the trigger.

  * * *

  EVERYTHING SEEMED TO FREEZE.

  Nicky yelled for Holden to get down, but the shot drowned out her voice. The sound was deafening, and it roared through the barn. Roared through her, too, and for some heart-stopping moments, Nicky thought Amanda had managed to shoot Holden.

  And maybe she had.

  It was hard to tell because Holden rammed into Amanda and her hired gun and sent all three of them crashing to the ground. Amanda screamed. Maybe because she was in pain. After all, she’d had a C-section just the week before. But judging from the profanity that followed, Amanda was also enraged at what Holden had done.

  Kara scrambled across the floor toward the gun, causing the thug to take aim at her. Nicky couldn’t just stand there and let him shoot the deputy again so she charged toward him. As Holden had done to Amanda, she plowed into him. She didn’t hit him with her injured arm, but the jolt from the impact was painful enough. It was like ramming into a brick wall.

  Unlike Amanda and the hired gun who’d been next to her, the brute didn’t fall. However, he did stagger back just a little, and Nicky ducked out of the way to stop him from shooting or punching her. It was only a handful of seconds. But it was enough time for Kara to get the gun. She fired two shots at him.

  That brought him down.

  He dropped, clutching his chest, and that’s when Nicky realized that Kara’s shots had gone into the guy’s Kevlar vest. He wasn’t dead. He’d just had the breath knocked out of him. That meant she only had a couple of minutes to help Holden while the guy was out of commission.

  Outside, there was the sound of more gunfire, closer than it had been before, and maybe that meant Grayson and the deputies were coming to help.

  “Watch him,” Nicky told Kara, and she hoped the wounded deputy could shoot again if it came down to it. Kara was shaking, but she still managed to keep her gun aimed at the guy.

  Nicky scooped up her gun and ran to Holden, but she still couldn’t tell if he was injured. There was blood, but in the darkness it was impossible to see who was bleeding.

  Impossible for Nicky to have a clean shot, either.

  The thug was punching Holden, hard, and while Holden was fighting back, Amanda had latched onto his arm to prevent him from delivering a blow that would have stopped the gunman.

  Amanda was also moaning in pain, and her moans turned to a shriek when her own man accidentally elbowed her. She rolled to the side, clutching her stomach, but she didn’t move far enough away from Holden so that Nicky could shoot her. Worse, Amanda still had her gun.

  A gun she pointed at Nicky.

  Nicky jumped to the side just as Amanda pulled the trigger, and the bullet slammed into the SUV. Amanda howled out a feral sound, a mix of rage and pain, and she scrambled away from the fight. Before Nicky could take aim at her, Amanda limped out the back of the barn.

  “No!” Nicky yelled. She couldn’t get away.

  But Nicky couldn’t risk Holden being killed, either. She didn’t run after the woman, and she still didn’t have a clean shot so she kicked the thug in the head as hard as she could. The thug reached for her, trying to grab onto her leg.

  Holden didn’t let that happen, though.

  “Move back,” Holden shouted to her, and he snatched the guy’s gun.

  The thug didn’t give up his weapon, though. He rammed his elbow into Holden’s jaw. Holden’s head flopped back, and Nicky saw something she didn’t want to see. More blood.

  And the man put his meaty grip around Holden’s hand and gun.

  The fight was on again. But it didn’t last long. Because there was the sickening sound of a shot being fired. Nicky could have sworn her heart skipped some beats, and it took her several terrifying moments to realize who’d been shot.

  Not Holden, thank God.

  It was the hired gun.

  Holden didn’t waste any time pushing the guy off him. In the same motion, he got to his feet and started out the back of the barn.

  Going after Amanda, no doubt.

  However, Nicky didn’t know if Amanda was out there alone or if there were other gunmen. There was still some shooting going on toward the front of the house, but it was possible one or more hired thugs had come near the barn to make sure their boss got out of this alive.

  Even though Nicky knew Holden wouldn’t approve, she followed him, watching to make sure he wasn’t about to be ambushed. She didn’t see any hired guns, nor did she see Amanda at first. That’s because the woman was on the side of the barn, probably trying to get to the SUV.

  Amanda hadn’t made it far, mainly because she was staggering and practically doubled over. Nicky had no idea how long it took for a C-section incision to heal, but she suspected a week hadn’t been nearly enough time. T
he pain didn’t stop Amanda from turning and aiming her gun at Holden.

  She fired.

  Holden ducked behind the back of the barn, stepping in front of Nicky. “Watch behind us,” he said.

  Nicky did while Holden took aim at Amanda. There was no place for the woman to run for cover, and the SUV was still several yards away from her.

  “Put down your gun,” Holden ordered Amanda.

  She laughed, but there was definitely no humor in it. “If you kill me, you’ll never know if there are other babies from the Genesis Project.”

  Nicky’s stomach twisted and turned at hearing that. Mercy, if there were more, they needed to find them.

  “Put down your gun,” Holden repeated.

  Amanda didn’t answer. Not with words anyway. She fired another shot, this one slamming into the barn. Holden cursed, leaned out and fired.

  Even though Nicky couldn’t actually see the woman, she knew Amanda had been hit. No mistaking the sound of the bullet hitting human flesh.

  Holden tossed Nicky his phone, and he hurried toward Amanda. “Call Grayson and tell him to get an ambulance out here fast.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Holden paced across the break room of the sheriff’s office because he didn’t know how else to burn off some of this restless energy inside him. He felt ready to explode, but he had to keep it together. Not only for Nicky’s sake, but also because they’d be seeing the twins soon, and he didn’t want them picking up on the stress.

  Nicky seemed past the point of having any restless energy. Or any energy at all for that matter. She was lying on the small sofa, staring up at the ceiling. Added to that, he could count on one hand how many sentences she’d said to him in the hour since they’d left Kayla’s place.

  She might be in shock, was almost certainly dealing with the adrenaline crash, but she’d still been vocal enough to insist on not going to the hospital to be checked.