Gunfire On The Ranch

“Sorry, Gabriel,” the caller immediately said. It was Aiken Colley, one of Gabriel’s ranch hands. “But we lost sight of the guy.”

That was not what Ivy wanted to hear, and she made a frantic search of every part of the grounds that she could see. No signs of a gunman. No signs of anyone.

Gabriel cursed. “Where was he when you last saw him?”

“By the south barn.”

That wasn’t that far from the house. Worse, there were other outbuildings and fences between the house and that particular barn, and this man could use those to conceal himself so he could get closer.

“I never had a clean shot of him,” Aiken went on. “The guy was running, and every few seconds, he would duck behind cover. Jake and Teddy are out here with me, and I’ve alerted the other hands.”

Jake and Teddy were two other hands, and while none of the hands were in law enforcement, they all knew how to handle guns. But apparently this hired killer knew how to dodge those guns.

“If possible, I want this guy alive,” Theo said.

Gabriel didn’t disagree with that. Probably because a dead man couldn’t give them answers, but at the moment Ivy cared only about keeping this monster away from Nathan and everyone else in the house.

“Kill him only if necessary. And be careful,” Gabriel warned the ranch hand.

“We will. We’ll keep looking for him until we find him,” Aiken added before he ended the call.

Ivy got back to keeping watch. Not that she hadn’t been doing that, but she adjusted her position just enough so that she could try to take in more of the yard and the pastures. Still no sign of him, but she could almost feel him closing in on them.

Who the heck was putting this monster up to this?

The CI had said it was Travis, and perhaps it was. Maybe he’d somehow gotten the money. But there was also another possibility. One that had been a thorn in her family’s side since Travis had first been arrested.

“Could your uncle August be behind this?” Ivy asked Theo. “Because August has been adamant that Travis is innocent.”

August was Travis’s half brother. A hothead. In the past ten years, he’d never turned to violence to free his brother, but August could be getting desperate since Travis had exhausted all his appeals.

“I haven’t spoken to August since I left Blue River,” Theo answered. “I tried to call him, but he didn’t answer. If he had anything to do with this, I’ll deal with him.”

Judging from Theo’s tone, that would not be pleasant. Not a surprise. There was no love lost between Jodi and their uncle, and it appeared to be the same for Theo. Of course, that was probably because August was not an easy man to like, and he was always saying that Travis’s “ungrateful kids” weren’t doing enough to help their father.

Theo’s phone buzzed. “It’s the agent who recorded the conversation with the CI,” Theo relayed to them, but he didn’t mention the guy by name. However, as Gabriel had done, he put the call on speaker. “The gunman’s here,” Theo told the agent right off. “Not in the house, but it appears this is where he’s headed.”

The agent didn’t jump to answer. It seemed as if he took a moment to process that. “You want me out there?”

“Not yet. This goon could fire shots at you as you drive up. Plus, I don’t want to send him running.”

Part of Ivy wanted him to run. To get as far away from Nathan as possible. But Theo was right. If the guy ran, he could possibly just regroup and come back for a second attempt.

“Did you find any bugs in the sheriff’s office?” Theo asked.

“Not yet, but the deputies are looking. One of them spoke to Gabriel a little while ago. He stepped outside to do that.”

“Cameron,” Gabriel provided. “He called the moment the agent showed up at the office.”

Of course he had. He wouldn’t have kept Gabriel in the dark about something this big. That meant Gabriel had been plenty busy in the short time since all of this mess had started with Theo’s arrival.

“The deputy wants to know if you need backup,” the agent continued.

“Not yet,” Gabriel answered before Theo could say anything. “But keep watch, because there might be more than one hired gun. Whoever’s behind this could have sent someone there.”

Oh, mercy. She hadn’t even considered that. But if someone had indeed wanted to put the Becketts “in the grave,” then the person might have gone looking for Gabriel at work.

“I just got a call,” the agent continued. “The CI is dead.”

Other than hearing she had a son, Theo hadn’t seemed surprised by much of what had happened. But he was clearly surprised now. And riled. “How the hell did that happen?”

“We’re not sure yet. We had a tail on him, just in case he tried to follow the hired gun or something, but the tail stayed a safe distance back. He saw someone dressed all in black gun the guy down.”

Ivy doubted that was a coincidence, and that meant... Oh, God.

“Was this all a setup?” she asked. Neither Gabriel nor Theo jumped to deny that, and that only caused her heart to pound even harder. “You think the hired gun wanted Theo to come here?” she added.

Again, they didn’t deny it. “If so, it worked,” Gabriel mumbled, and he tacked on some profanity.

Yes, it had. But what did it mean? It didn’t take Ivy long to come up with something that she didn’t want to consider.

All the “survivors” of the murders were now under the same roof. Gabriel, Jameson, Jodi, Theo and her. Along with their sister, Lauren, all five of them had been either in the house where her parents were murdered or on the grounds. Which meant they had all been possible witnesses to the crime.

Possible, but they actually hadn’t been.

Ivy had been in her upstairs bedroom with her headphones on. And crying. Because of the blowup that Theo had just had with her folks. The music had been so loud that she hadn’t heard her mother and father being murdered in the room just below her. Some people had told her that it was a blessing she hadn’t heard because if she had, she would have gone downstairs and possibly been killed, too. But Ivy wished she had heard. Because she might have been able to save them.

Jodi hadn’t heard the murders going on, either. She’d been outside, coming back from Gabriel’s house, which was a short distance away. She’d been attacked that night. Not by the killer, though. But rather by her ex-boyfriend who’d been in a rage over their breakup. Since he was now dead, he was no longer a possible witness.

Jameson and Gabriel had been at their own houses, but they were close enough to the main ranch house that they could have seen something. They hadn’t. But maybe the killer hadn’t known or believed that.

“What could your father or August possibly hope to gain by eliminating witnesses?” Ivy came out and asked.

“They wouldn’t,” Theo answered.

She looked at Gabriel to see if he would argue that. He didn’t. “If they wanted to clear Travis’s name,” Gabriel explained, “they could be desperate enough to arrange a murder. But Theo and Jodi wouldn’t be the targets.”

Because Travis still seemingly loved his children. Of course, that didn’t exclude Travis’s brother. August wasn’t fond of Jodi or Theo. “This could all be something August put together.”

“If August had come up with this plan to make my father look innocent,” Theo went on, “he would have hired someone to stab his victim.”

The way her parents had been killed.

Ivy was about to say that could be the hired thug’s plan. But then she heard a sound that stopped her cold.

“Get down!” someone shouted. Aiken.

But there was no time to do that. Because a bullet came crashing through the window where Ivy was standing.