Maverick Sheriff (13 page)

“We’re running the names of all owners of that particular vehicle model,” Colt went on. “We might get lucky.”

“What about the interview with Donovan?” Cooper asked. “You get anything?”

“Nothing. His lawyer advised him to stay quiet, and that’s what he’s done. I’m about to cut him loose.”

“Not yet,” Cooper argued. “I’ll come in and talk to him.”

Colt hesitated. “You’re sure? Because it seems to me you got other things on your mind right now.”

“I need to help. I need to end this so that Liam’s no longer in danger.”

Jessa wanted that, too. Desperately wanted it. But with the kidnapper caught and behind bars, it would leave Cooper free to pursue custody of Liam.

“All right,” Colt finally said. “I’ll email you all the updates and files so you can read them before you come in.”

Cooper thanked him, ended the call and went back to playing with Liam. When Liam made a neighing sound with the toy horse, Cooper mimicked it, causing Liam to laugh.

“He’s always been fascinated by horses,” Jessa mumbled.

“Once he’s all healed, we’ll have to get him out to the pasture to see some real ones.” Cooper looked up at her, maybe waiting for her to say that wouldn’t happen, that she would be long gone by then.

“Remember that truce,” she mumbled.

“I am. I’m remembering that kiss, too.”

Jessa flinched. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Cooper gave her a flat look. “Everything, and you know it. If it weren’t for this attraction between us, I would have already made a call to start custody proceedings.”

Yes, she did know that. And it terrified her even more. Because what would happen when this attraction ended? She wasn’t sure what troubled her most—that it would end...

Or that it wouldn’t.

Jessa had no idea what she would do then—feeling this heat with the man who could destroy her.

Cooper’s phone buzzed again, but this time she didn’t recognize the name she saw on the screen. Arlene Litton.

“She’s our horse trainer,” Cooper explained, and he answered the call on speaker.

“Coop, we might have some trouble brewing,” Arlene said. “I was out checking on some calves and spotted a car parked just on the other side of the east back fence. It’s nestled in some trees, nearly out of sight. The engine’s still warm and there’s some fresh footprints leading from it and into the pasture. I wrote down the license plate number and called it in to Reed. He said he’d run it.”

Jessa had no idea if this sort of thing happened often, but she was betting it didn’t.

“What kind of car?” Cooper asked the woman.

“A black Jeep Cherokee.”

Oh, mercy. That put her heart right in her throat, and she seriously doubted it was a coincidence that the vehicle matched the description of the one on the security footage from the lab.

Cooper got to his feet. “Look at the front fender,” he instructed Arlene. “See anything?”

“Yeah.” She must have picked up on the concern in Cooper’s voice because it was now in hers. “It’s bashed in real good, like he ran into something. What you want me to do about this, Coop?”

“Lock down the ranch and get some hands out to follow those tracks. I’ll be right out to help. And, Arlene, be careful. This guy could be a killer, and we have to find him before he tries to come after Liam.”

Chapter Eleven

Before Cooper even made it to the hall, Jessa caught up with him. “You’re not really going out there, are you?”

Cooper nodded. “This guy isn’t giving up, and he needs to be stopped.” But he appreciated her concern. Not for himself, but for Liam. “I’ll have Tucker stay here with you. Some of the other ranch hands, too. They’ll surround the house and will have orders to shoot anyone who tries to get in.”

Jessa opened her mouth as if ready to argue with that, but finally shook her head. “Just be careful.”

Her concern took him back a bit, and he cursed that blasted kiss that had changed everything between them.

“You and Liam stay away from the windows,” Cooper added, and he hurried out.

He didn’t waste any time—he called Tucker and filled him in so his brother could start getting the ranch hands in place. Thankfully, Tucker was already inside. And Rayanne. Cooper didn’t like the idea of relying on his surly sister for anything, but she was a deputy sheriff, and if it came down to it, she’d hopefully stop a killer from getting into the house.

Cooper hurried downstairs to his office and armed the security system, using the keypad by the front door. He’d be heading out soon, but before he did that he needed to check the cameras they had positioned throughout the property. He might get lucky and spot this guy.

Nothing was on the first camera in the part of the pasture where Arlene had spotted the Jeep. The camera angle was wrong for him to see the vehicle itself, but he had no doubt that it was there.

How far had the driver managed to get, and where the hell was he?

He saw some ranch hands on the second camera. They were hurrying toward the house. Good. As soon as they were in place, he’d be free to leave.

His father was on the third camera. Roy was also heading for the house, and he was armed with a rifle. Arlene, too. Even Seth was outside the guest cottage, and he was talking to one of the ranch hands, no doubt to find out what was going on.

But there was no sign of the man who’d driven that Jeep.

Cooper remembered the other attack at Donovan’s. The guy had fired shots from the top floor and the roof there. He quickly panned the camera around as much as he could, and saw something that caused his stomach to clench.

There, on the roof of one of the barns, was a guy dressed in clothes that would have blended in with the other ranch hands—jeans, boots and a cowboy hat. The guy had a scope rifle next to him, but he didn’t aim it at the house. Instead, the man aimed some kind of handheld device.

Cooper couldn’t be positive, but judging from the way he was moving and adjusting it, the device was some kind of thermal-imaging equipment. If he was right, the idiot could use it to pinpoint not just how many people were inside the house but their exact locations. If he was looking for Jessa and Liam, he would have no trouble spotting them.

That got Cooper moving. He barreled up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

“Jessa?” he called out before he even reached the landing. He also fired off a text to Tucker so his brother would know the shooter’s location. “Get Liam out of the room now!”

He figured that would scare her to death. It did. Jessa had no color in her face and was shaking from head to toe. But she had Liam sheltered in her arms when she came running out of the room toward him.

“Where’s the gunman?” Jessa asked, her words running together.

“Too close. Come with me.”

“My mother...”

“We’ll let her know to hide, too.”

Thankfully, Liam didn’t seem to be aware of the immediate danger. He still had the toy horse and was wearing a cowboy hat that was many sizes too big for him. Later, Cooper would kick himself for allowing another attack like this to happen, but for now he just focused on getting them to safety.

The door to Rayanne’s room flew open, and she came out, her gun aimed and ready. “What’s going on?”

“There’s a gunman on the roof of the barn nearest the house.” He tipped his head in that direction. “Can you keep watch up here and make sure he doesn’t come through the windows?”

She glanced at Liam. “He’s after the boy?”

Cooper nodded and wanted to curse that he had to explain anything. If this were one of his brothers, there would have been no questions asked. “Yeah, he’s after Liam,” Cooper said.

Rayanne nodded. “If he comes through a window, how you want me to handle it?”

“Shoot to kill.”

That she didn’t question, but she did take out her phone. “I’m calling Rosalie to tell her to take cover.”

“My mom, too,” Jessa added. “They’re in the kitchen together.”

Rayanne just gave him a get-going gesture with her hand, made her phone call, and Cooper got Jessa moving again. When they reached the stairs, he spotted Tucker in the foyer, already standing guard by the front door.

“We’re getting the hands out of the line of fire,” Tucker relayed. “Away from the barn. If anyone tries to get in, the alarm will sound.”

That was good, but the kidnapper didn’t have to get inside to do some damage. He could start shooting through the walls.

“I’m taking Liam and Jessa to my office,” Cooper said as they headed that way. It was on the opposite side of the house from the barn and the shooter. “Wait with them.”

He’d been right about his brother not questioning anything. Well, not with words, anyway. He saw the hesitation in Tucker’s eyes. Maybe because Tucker knew Cooper would hate to leave Liam. But he had no choice. It wasn’t just his job to stop this shooter—it was what he needed to do to protect Liam.

With Tucker right behind them, Cooper led Jessa to his office. Liam immediately spotted the framed photos and some books. “Wanna see,” he said, and he wriggled to get down.

Jessa held on to him and went to the computer monitor, where Cooper still had the feed from the camera on the screen.

And Cooper’s heart dropped again.

Jessa pointed to the screen. “Is that the barn roof where you saw the gunman?”

Yeah, and he was no longer there.

Cooper bit back the profanity that he was thinking and called Arlene. “This guy’s on the move. He’s wearing jeans, a dark blue shirt and a tan hat.”

“I’ll find him,” Arlene promised, but he knew that was a promise she couldn’t keep. He could be anywhere.

Cooper searched through all the cameras again. “I think he’s got an infrared or thermal-imaging device. He’d aimed something at the house.”

Jessa’s eyes widened when she looked at Liam. “He’ll know it’s Liam because of his size.”

“Yeah,” Cooper settled for saying. He snared Tucker’s gaze. “Go to the closet where Dad keeps his hunting equipment. There should be one of those silver Mylar blankets.” It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it would stop the majority of the body’s heat loss, making it harder for the shooter to spot Jessa and Liam.

Tucker hurried off to get the blanket, and while Cooper kept watch on the computer screens, he maneuvered Jessa and Liam to the floor and beneath his desk.

“It’s a game,” Cooper said to Liam, hoping that he didn’t sound as worried as he felt.

There were no toys in his office, but Cooper took off his badge and handed it to Liam. “Tank you,” Liam babbled, and he smiled from ear to ear.

Jessa certainly wasn’t smiling, probably because she knew the desk wouldn’t stop bullets.

Cooper took the laptop to the floor with him so he could position himself in front of Jessa and Liam and watch the screen at the same time.

There was a lot of activity. Ranch hands were running around and getting into position, but there were still a lot of areas not covered. His dad was trying to do something about that. Seth, too. But it was a big ranch with plenty of barns, stables and outbuildings that a gunman could use—especially if the guy had been able to pinpoint their position.

“Here,” Tucker said, hurrying back into the room.

He shook open the foil blanket and they put it around Jessa and Liam. Of course, that wouldn’t stop the shooter from using infrared to key in on Tucker and him, so Cooper took the laptop with him and they headed for the door.

“Make sure no one gets to them,” he said to Tucker.

However, Cooper hadn’t made it even a step when he heard a sound he darn sure didn’t want to hear.

The security system.

It was just a pulsing beat. A warning that something or someone had triggered the alarm.

The gunman was in the house.

That sent Cooper right back to the security screen, and even though there weren’t interior cameras, he could see a blinking light to indicate the point of entry. A window in the family room just off the kitchen.

Much too close.

Especially too close to Rosalie and Jessa’s mom.

It didn’t matter that the guy wasn’t after them. This idiot might shoot them on sight to get to Liam. Hopefully, the women would both stay hidden, as Rayanne had told them to do.

He disarmed the security system to stop it before it went from a beep to a full blare. A noise like that would no doubt scare Liam and prevent Cooper from hearing the gunman’s movement in the house.

“Rayanne,” Cooper called out. “We’ve got an intruder.”

She didn’t answer. Maybe because she couldn’t hear him or had chosen not to hear. Or maybe she just didn’t want to give her position away to a killer. Either way, Cooper couldn’t count on her for help.

“Wait in here with Liam and Jessa,” he said to Tucker, and Cooper ignored Jessa’s whispered demands for him to stay put.

He peered out into the hall and didn’t see anyone so he stepped out. Cooper motioned for Tucker to shut the door and lock it. His brother did, and Cooper went looking for the intruder.

There was no direct access to the family room from the left hall, so Cooper went to the right. Toward the front of the house and the stairs. If the Mylar blanket could fool the infrared device, then the guy might go to the guest rooms to look for Liam. At least that was where Cooper hoped he would go so he wouldn’t be anywhere near Liam.

Cooper kept his gun ready, and he made a quick look around the corner and into the foyer.

No one.

However, he heard the footsteps. Slow and cautious on the stairs. Cooper pivoted in that direction, taking aim.

But it was only Rayanne.

She, too, had her gun ready. She didn’t say a word, just lifted her eyebrow, but Cooper understood what she was asking.

Where was the intruder?

He tipped his head toward the other side of the stairs and in the direction where the security light had indicated the break-in.

Rayanne didn’t make a sound, but some of the color drained from her face. Probably because she knew her sister was in that general area. It was too risky to call Rosalie and try to warn her—the gunman might be able to hear a phone ringing. Same with a text. If it made any kind of sound, it could be fatal for not just Rosalie but Linda, too, and whoever the heck else was in the kitchen.