Chapter Seventeen
Cameron couldn’t get to his phone fast enough, and he prayed that Julia’s threat was all just a bluff. But he also knew Evelyn. Knew that she was desperate to get her hands on Patrick, so she might indeed have fallen for something like this.
“Hurry,” Lauren said. She was firing glances all around, no doubt looking for a way to get to the ranch ASAP.
“I’m calling Gabriel,” he told her, and he pressed the number. It rang and then went to voice mail.
Hell.
That was not what Cameron wanted to hear. Apparently, neither did Lauren, because she hurried to Julia’s car. “The keys are in the ignition.”
If they took it they could leave immediately, especially since the cruiser had been disabled. “Jace...” Cameron mumbled.
“Go,” Jameson insisted. “I’ll stay with him and see if I can get the ambulance out here. If not, I can take the gunmen’s SUV.”
Cameron figured there were some concerns about the plan, but his bigger concern was getting to the boys. He ran to the car, motioning for Lauren to get in, but she had by the time he got behind the wheel.
There was no place to turn around, so he threw the car into Reverse. “Look for any kind of tracking devices,” he added to Lauren.
He figured Julia wouldn’t have put anything like that on the vehicle, but it was possible the loan shark had. That was just one possible obstacle. The next one was the hired guns that Julia said were at the end of the trail—the very place they needed to go to get back on the road to the ranch.
“I don’t see anything,” Lauren said. She shook her head, the panic in both her expression and her voice. “But if it’s small enough, it could be hidden underneath something.”
Yeah, and it probably wouldn’t be that small. Still, it wasn’t something he could worry about right now, especially since there was the biggest worry of all—possible gunmen at the ranch. And Gabriel was short some hands and deputies because they’d been at the sites where they were supposed to trap the gunmen.
They’d failed at that.
But Cameron couldn’t fail at getting to Isaac and Patrick.
“Try calling Gabriel again,” Cameron told her.
She did, all the while she was mumbling something. A prayer from the sound of it. Cameron said a few himself.
“Voice mail,” Lauren relayed to him, and she groaned. Not an ordinary one but the kind that sounded as if she was about to cry.
“Keep trying,” he pressed. “And get down on the seat.”
He knew that was only going to cause her more alarm, but there was nothing he could do about it. They were approaching the end of the trail, and while he didn’t hear any gunfire, that didn’t mean the shooters weren’t there. Added to that, the car probably wasn’t bullet resistant like the cruiser.
While she kept redialing Gabriel’s number, Lauren did sink lower in the seat, but she kept her head high enough to keep watch. Cameron was watching, too, and that was why he had no trouble spotting the three vehicles at the intersection of the trail and the road. One was a black SUV, identical to what the other hired guns had driven. There was also a cruiser and a truck that he knew belonged to one of the ranch hands.
“I don’t see any gunmen,” Lauren said on a rise of breath.
Other than Allen, the ranch hand, neither did he. He had the butt of a rifle resting against his hip. There was a Texas Ranger next to him and a reserve deputy on the other side of the trail. Cameron slowed down and lowered his window.
“The gunmen are dead,” Allen said to Cameron. He tipped his head to the trail. “How about up there?”
“Dead. There could be trouble at the ranch. Lauren and I are headed there now, but you should go check on Jameson and Jace. Jace will need an ambulance. Is the road clear?” he asked without pausing.
“As far as I know. I’ll follow you,” Allen volunteered.
Cameron thanked him but didn’t wait for the man. He backed out onto the road, and now that there was room to turn around, that was exactly what he did. Fast. And he sped toward the ranch.
The rain had slowed some, but there was still plenty of water on the road. It was a risk, but Cameron didn’t slow down. Everything inside him was yelling for him to get to the boys as fast as he could.
“Gabriel,” Lauren said.
Finally. But Cameron didn’t breathe easier just yet. “Put the call on speaker. Are the boys okay?” Cameron asked the moment Lauren did that. “Julia said there could be gunmen at the ranch.”
“Yeah to both. The boys are fine, but we’ve definitely got some armed thugs.”
The panic slammed through Cameron. Through Lauren, too, because he heard her make a hoarse sob.
“That’s why I couldn’t answer your call,” Gabriel continued. “I’m out by the barn where I just took out two of them.”
Two. But Cameron was betting there were more than that. Heck, Julia could have sent a dozen of them.
“Julia sent them,” Cameron explained. “And Evelyn will be with them.”
“We have Evelyn in handcuffs, facedown on the porch, but we haven’t managed to round up a final gunman yet. He’s somewhere near the front of the ranch. Maybe by the road. If I thought it would do any good, I’d tell you two to wait until—”
“We’ll be there in about a minute,” Cameron interrupted.
“I figured you’d say that. Just be careful because this guy has a rifle with a scope.” Gabriel ended the call, probably because he had his hands full making sure the house was safe. Which was exactly what Cameron wanted him to do.
“I’m not staying down on the seat this time,” Lauren said. “I want to stop this guy.”
Like Gabriel, Cameron knew he didn’t stand a chance of winning that argument with her. Besides, he might need her. Lauren had proven herself to be a good shot, and he wanted all the backup he could get. No way did he want this guy firing anywhere near Gabriel’s house.
Cameron slowed when they approached the turn for the ranch, and he drew his gun, keeping it in his hand, but he didn’t see anyone. Well, no one that he didn’t recognize anyway. There were two ranch hands, both armed, and they were in a truck parked on the side of the road. He pulled to a stop next to them and lowered his window again.
“We lost sight of the guy,” the hand said. “But he came this way, and he’s wearing all black.”
That wasn’t an especially good camouflage color, but he could be hiding in the trees that were nearby. Of course, that would be the first place someone would look for him. And maybe this man knew that.
“Check the ditch on your side,” Cameron told Lauren.
He kept his window down and moved the car up so the hands’ truck wouldn’t be obstructing his view. He angled his head to get a better look. Like the ditches on the trail, these were filled with water. Water that was almost black under the iron-gray sky and rain.
Cameron crept along at a snail’s pace, searching, while Lauren did the same on the other side. He was a good twenty yards from the ranch hands before he spotted something.
The gunman.
The guy was squatting chest-deep in the water. And yes, he had a rifle. One that he immediately started turning toward Cameron.
Cameron didn’t even bother telling Lauren to watch out. There wasn’t time. He just took aim and fired. Not one shot but three. The bullets slammed into the guy’s chest, and they must have killed him instantly because the thug didn’t even get the chance to pull the trigger.
Lauren sat there, frozen for a moment. She’d seen way too much death in the past couple of days, but she didn’t leave her attention on the dead gunman for long. She looked at Gabriel’s house. She didn’t need to tell Cameron to hurry there now. He did. Because they both had to see for themselves that the boys were truly okay.
“Cameron shot the gunman,” she said to Gabriel when she called him. “Yes, he’s dead. Was anyone hurt at the ranch?”
Since she hadn’t put this call on speaker and because his heartbeat was drumming in his ears, Cameron didn’t hear what Gabriel said. However, the news must have been good because Lauren released the breath she’d been holding.
“No one’s hurt,” she relayed to Cameron when she ended the call.
Cameron was glad for that, but he wasn’t feeling any relief yet and wouldn’t until they were inside.
He went too fast again, the tires shimmying over the slick surface, but he managed to get them to Gabriel’s. Before he’d even brought the car to a full stop, Lauren was out and running to the porch. Cameron was right behind her. There was no sign of Evelyn, thank goodness.
When Cameron went through the front door, he expected Lauren to already be on her way to the bathroom or wherever they’d moved the boys. But she wasn’t. She was in the foyer with Jodi.
“Where’s Evelyn?” Cameron asked, hoping the woman wasn’t in the house.
“One of the Rangers took her into town to lock her up,” Jodi answered. “I’m thinking this will pretty much put an end to any challenge she might have for custody.”
Yes, it would. That was the silver lining in this. The other silver lining was Lauren.
Lauren whirled around to Cameron when he shut the door, and before he even saw it coming, she was in his arms. She kissed him. Not one of those passion-laced kisses that’d led to sex. This one seemed to be from pure relief.
“You saved my life,” she said, her voice cracking.
There were tears in her eyes. And bruises and small cuts on her face from where Julia had punched her. It made him want to go back and throttle the woman. But Cameron didn’t want to give Julia another moment of his time.
“And you saved mine,” he answered.
Lauren nodded, managed a half smile and brushed another kiss on his mouth. “Good. Because I’m in love with you. Now, wipe the blood off your chin so we can see Isaac and Patrick.”
He automatically reached to take care of the blood, but then her words sank in. It was too late, though, for him to respond because Lauren took off running toward the hall bathroom.
Jodi just shrugged. “I think the only person surprised by that I-love-you is you.”
What? Cameron shook his head. That certainly wasn’t common knowledge.
Was it?
Again, there was no time to dwell on it because he hurried after Lauren. And he found her, all right. She was on the bathroom floor and had both boys in her arms. She was showering them with kisses. Isaac liked it because he was giggling, but Patrick was fussing and trying to get away from her so he could get to his toy horse.
Cameron scooped up both the boy and the horse in his arms, and Patrick rewarded him with a sloppy kiss on the cheek. That kiss went a long way to soothing the adrenaline that was still surging through him.
“Is it okay for us to leave the bathroom?” Merilee asked. “Because it seems as if Lauren and you should have some family time with the boys.” Dara added a sound of agreement.
Family time. That made it sound as if their marriage—a real marriage—was a done deal.
Cameron nodded. “Just stay inside and don’t go near any windows,” Cameron instructed. He needed to go out and check on Gabriel, to make sure the danger had passed before things could start getting back to normal.
Well, his new normal anyway. Whatever that would be.
He sank down on the floor next to Lauren, and Patrick and Isaac must have taken that as playtime because both boys went to the stash of toys that was all over the bathroom floor and started bringing them to Lauren and him.
Lauren turned to Cameron, and she eked out another smile. “Everything considered, you don’t look shell-shocked.”
Then he was covering it well, because he was. Shell-shocked about the attack, about how close they’d come to dying and Julia’s obsessive greed. But what Lauren had told him was at the top of that list of surprising things.
I’m in love with you.
Cameron was about to ask her if it was true, but she leaned in, and with that smile still in place she kissed him. It wasn’t a relief kiss this time. No, this one had some heat to it. When she finally broke away, his breath was a little thin, but he was ready to launch into the conversation they needed to have.
But the footsteps stopped him.
Since the boys were right there, Cameron drew his gun and pivoted in the direction of the doorway. However, it wasn’t a gunman. It was Gabriel. He glanced at all of them before his attention settled on his sister.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Lauren nodded. She touched a bruise on her cheek that had obviously gotten Gabriel’s attention. “Trust me, Julia looks worse. I got in some punches, too.”
Gabriel winced a little, probably because he hated having to hear about his kid sister being in a fistfight with a would-be killer. It would certainly give Cameron some nightmares for years to come. They’d gotten damn lucky that Julia’s shot had missed.
“Jameson has Julia on the way to jail,” Gabriel continued. “And I think we got all the hired guns, not just here at the ranch but also the ones on the trails,” Gabriel added to Cameron. “But everyone should stay in for a while until we’ve searched the grounds.”
Good. Cameron didn’t want to take any more risks with Lauren or the babies. “Has Julia said anything else?”
Gabriel shook his head. “She just yammered about wanting her lawyer. She’ll want a plea deal but won’t get one. I’ll make sure of that. And we have enough from what Julia said to arrest the loan shark.”
“That would hopefully keep the guy off the streets for the rest of his life. After all, he’d supplied the hired guns who’d killed Maria.”
Lauren shook her head. “I still don’t know why Julia sent those men to my house. She knew about the swap so why didn’t she just try to take Isaac?”
“Because I think she wanted concrete proof of the swap,” Gabriel answered. “If she’d managed to get you out of the picture, she would want to be able to prove that she had Alden’s son in her custody.”
True, but Cameron seriously doubted Julia would have kept Isaac around any longer than necessary. Only until she’d gotten her hands on the money.
Gabriel hitched his thumb to the front of the house. “I need to go out and check on the hands.”
“I can help,” Cameron volunteered.
“No,” Gabriel said without hesitation. “You should stay here and work things out with Lauren.” He paused and lifted an eyebrow when Cameron just stared at him. “Jodi mentioned what she’d heard in the foyer.”
Great. Now Gabriel might want to punch him. Except he didn’t make any move to do that. However, Gabriel did glare at him some.
“Just make Lauren happy,” Gabriel growled. “Because if you don’t, you’ll have to answer to me.”
Lauren huffed. “Let Cameron get his footing first before you go all alpha on him.” Then she added a wink to her brother.
It seemed, well, such a light moment, considering they were only minutes out of an attack. But then it was hard to stay gloom and doom with the boys crawling all over them. Even Gabriel was smiling when he strolled away.
“My footing?” Cameron asked.
“Yes. I figured you’d need some time to come to terms with me telling you I love you.”
He opened his mouth, closed it and tried to come up with a good answer to that. “You meant it?”
Her eyebrow came up. “Of course I did. You thought it was some heat of the moment thing?”
“I didn’t know,” he admitted. “I thought maybe you said that because of the boys.”
She didn’t say, “What?” but that expression was all over her face.
“You know, because you want us to have a life together with the boys,” he clarified. And he was obviously not gaining any ground here. She was frowning now.
Lauren huffed again, slipped her hand around the back of his neck and kissed him. Really kissed him. This one had much too high of a heat level considering they weren’t alone.
“Do you know now?” She kept her mouth right next to his as if ready to convince him again.
Cameron didn’t need convincing, but he kissed her anyway. There it was. More than the heat. More than this insane attraction that had been brewing for years. It was deeper than that, and now Cameron could finally tell her.
“I love you,” he said, taking Lauren into his arms. “Not because of the boys, either—though they’re a sweet bonus. I love you because of us. Because of you and me.”
That was the right thing to say because Lauren smiled and pulled him to her for another kiss.
* * * * *
Look for the next book in
USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen’s BLUE RIVER RANCH miniseries,
,
available next month.
And don’t miss the previous titles in the
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