Christmas Rescue at Mustang Ridge

Her cursing got significantly worse. “Do you have a backup weapon?”

But she didn’t wait for him to answer. Maggie must have remembered that he wore a boot holster because she scrambled lower so she could jerk up his jeans’ leg and retrieve the small Beretta.

“It’s me, Maggie Gallagher,” she shouted. “And you can tell your worthless spit wad of a boss that if I die, the evidence against his son will automatically go to a dozen different law enforcement agencies. David Tanner will rot in jail.”

She fired a shot into the trees to punctuate that, but it didn’t stop the bullets from coming at them.

Hell.

Maybe he’d been wrong about this being Tanner’s man. Or maybe Tanner wasn’t going to give in to Maggie’s threat. Of course, the gunman could just be stupid, and if so, he might end up killing them both.

Enough of this.

“Stay down,” Jake warned Maggie, and he lifted himself up a little so he could actually see into the trees. It took him a few seconds to locate the silhouette of the shooter who was dressed in camouflage.

It took Jake another second to aim.

Jake double tapped the trigger and sent the two bullets into the man. There was no groan of pain, just the sickening thuds of the shots slamming into the body.

He saw the man drop to the ground, but Jake didn’t waste any time. He took Maggie’s arm again, dragging her from the ground, and he started running toward the truck. She kept the Beretta aimed in the direction of the fallen man, but Jake figured the guy was incapable of returning fire.

Of course, he could have a partner.

Or two.

And that’s why Jake ran as fast as he could. Sunny didn’t have time for Maggie and him to fight off any other hired guns.

Since the passenger’s side door was still wide-open, Jake dove in, scrambling across the seat, and he pulled Maggie in with him. The engine was running, just as he’d left it, and he didn’t wait for her to close the door. He threw the truck into gear, and he hit the accelerator.

Maggie slammed the door and turned in the seat so she could watch behind them. She was the cop now, and even though that brought back bad memories of her investigation that had gotten Anna killed, he wouldn’t refuse having her as backup.

Temporary backup, that is.

The plan was still to get her to Sweetwater, but first he had to call Royce and warn him. Nothing would stop Jake from getting into the prison and tearing Tanner limb from limb if the man had already sent his hired guns to the ranch.

Jake took out his phone while he volleyed his attention between the side mirror and the road ahead. There was no sign of the sheriff’s cruiser. No sign of a gunman, either, so maybe that meant they could actually make it out of there without having to dodge any more bullets.

He pressed in Royce’s number, and his brother answered on the first ring. “Where the hell are you?” Royce demanded.

Jake ignored that question. “You need to secure the ranch. Tanner could have men on the way out there.”

His brother said something that Jake didn’t catch. “I’ll call you right back.” And Royce hung up.

Jake prayed his brother could put enough security measures in place to keep Sunny safe, and he cursed Maggie and himself for the deal that she’d made with Tanner. The deal might have kept them safe for the past two and a half years, but now it could get them killed. He should have anticipated something like this. Nothing was ever easy when it came to dealing with Tanner.

Or Maggie.

“Wade must have spilled his guts to Tanner or David right away,” Maggie mumbled. She was still keeping watch behind them.

Yeah, that was possible, because Tanner and his son still had a boatload of money, and even with Tanner behind bars, that didn’t mean the father and son criminal duo couldn’t hire all the guns and muscle they needed.

Guns and muscle that could be aimed at Sunny.

“Tanner doesn’t want to hurt Sunny,” Maggie said, as if reading his mind. But it sure sounded as if she was trying to convince herself. “You’re the one he’ll go after.”

“Sunny is your niece,” he reminded her. Hell, he wished he could transport himself back to the ranch so he could protect his baby.

“There’s something else that might be playing into this,” she said. “Tanner knows about that kiss in the barn.”

Jake’s left hand tightened on the steering wheel. “How the hell would he have known about that?”

“I’m not sure. I think your father said something, and it got around town. All I know is that Tanner brought it up when I went to talk to him about that deal.” Maggie paused. “He thinks you have feelings for me and vice versa.”

Well, Tanner was wrong about that. “Surely, he knows the truth by now?”

“Maybe not. Maybe he thinks your talk of hating me is to cover up the feelings that went behind that kiss.”

“It’s not a cover,” Jake snapped. And the kiss hadn’t been about feelings. It’d been about his stupid clouded judgment because he’d lost his wife just a couple of months earlier.

Months that Maggie hadn’t volunteered that she had been the reason Anna was killed. There was a chance she hadn’t known that exact information at the time, but she sure as heck could have told Jake about the investigation she’d started against Tanner. Two months was a long time to conceal that information.

The moment his phone buzzed, he glanced at the screen, saw his brother’s number, and he pressed the answer button.

“I alerted all the ranch hands. Nell and Dad, too,” Royce said. “Everyone is armed, but how soon can you get back?”

Jake glanced at Maggie and at the Colt that he still had gripped in his hand. He needed to get her to a doctor or a hospital for that test, but he couldn’t do that with his little girl at risk.

“I’ll hurry,” Jake answered, “but I’m still about three hours out.”

“Get back as fast as you can. Nell said Sunny was upset when she saw her granddaddy running to get his gun.”

Hell. The image of that was too vivid in his head, and Jake automatically sped up.

“Take the back road to get to the ranch,” Royce added. “And keep a low profile once you’re—”

“Maggie’s with me,” Jake interrupted. He glanced at her again, and she was clearly waiting to hear what was going on back in Mustang Ridge.

Royce didn’t answer right away. “I’ll let Dad know she’s coming, too.”

Jake could hear the dread in Royce’s tone. That same dread went through Jake. This would not be a pleasant homecoming for any of them, especially Maggie.

“I’ll remind Dad that Maggie came to help,” Royce said. “She did come to help, right?”

Jake settled for a “Yeah.”

“One more thing,” Jake added. “A gunman fired shots at Maggie and me in the woods east of Coopersville. I had to leave a dead body behind, but you need to figure out a way to get someone out there to investigate.”

Royce cursed again. “I’ll turn it in as an anonymous tip, but if it was Tanner’s doing, he’ll probably have already arranged for his own cleanup.”