The Texan (38 page)

“You have to admit,” Clay said, “it would make anybody think twice about illegally crossing the border from Mexico.”

They all froze as they heard someone at the door.

Bay saw the confused look Owen and Clay exchanged. It didn’t make sense for Paul to come to the door. But who else could it be?

They were all on their feet facing the door, rifles and shotgun in hand, when the lock turned and Jackson Blackthorne stepped inside.

Blackjack surveyed the arsenal of weapons aimed at him and demanded, “What the hell is going on?”

“
I THINK THE BETTER QUESTION IS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING
here?” Owen said. “How did you find out we were here?”

“I had no idea you were here,” his father blustered. “I came here to—”

“You’re meeting my mother here!” Luke interrupted angrily.

Owen exchanged a grim look with Bay, who also seemed unsettled at her brother’s pronouncement.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Luke insisted.

“Not right away, I’m not,” Blackjack said. “But I did tell her to meet me here this afternoon. I can see maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. What is going on here?” he asked again.

“We’re waiting for Paul Ridgeway to come looking for us,” Owen explained.

“I need to warn Ren to stay away,” Blackjack said, heading back toward the door.

At that instant a barrage of bullets exploded through a window, shattering glass and thudding into the opposite wall.

“Get down,” Owen shouted, grabbing Bay and covering her body with his own as they fell to the floor.

Everyone else hit the floor at the same time.

“That’s supposed to be bulletproof glass,” Clay pointed out from his prone position on the floor.

“Must have been made to keep out a different kind of bullet,” Luke said. “It sure as hell isn’t working on these!”

“I have a VX mine with me,” Paul Ridgeway shouted. “All of you come out with your hands up, or I’m going to detonate it.”

“Is this a good time to tell you again that I love you?” Bay said quietly, as she stared up at Owen.

“Anytime’s a good time,” Owen replied, as he gently kissed her on the lips. “I love you, too.”

“Now that you two have that settled, how about figuring out how we can all have a long and happy life,” Luke said.

“Right,” Owen replied as he rolled off Bay and wormed his way over to Clay. “Do you think you can talk some sense into Paul?”

“I can give it a try.” Clay worked his way over to the window, stood with his back to the wall, and yelled, “Paul, you’ve got to give yourself up. There’ll be cops all over this place soon.”

“Not soon enough to save you,” Paul shouted back.

“Cindy wouldn’t want this, Paul,” Clay said.

“I’m doing it for her, Clay. She wouldn’t want another young woman to suffer the same fate as she did. Sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. Your deaths will ultimately mean saving a great many innocent lives.”

Clay made eye contact with Owen, shook his head, and whirled his finger in a circle to indicate Paul was crazy.

“Now what?” Luke asked.

“Maybe I can sneak out the back,” Blackjack said, “and warn Ren away.”

“He’ll have someone out back with a gun aimed at the door, Dad,” Owen said. “You’d never make it.”

“We have to do something!” Blackjack said. “Otherwise,
he’ll detonate that mine, and we’ll all be dead anyway.”

“You should have stayed away from my mother in the first place,” Luke snarled.

“Luke, that’s enough,” Bay said.

“Just because you’re in love with one of them doesn’t mean it’s okay for Mom,” Luke railed.

“Why not?” Bay shot back. “You were quick enough to turn to a Blackthorne for help when you were up to your neck in trouble! What’s so wrong with the Blackthornes?”

“Hear! Hear!” Owen said, applauding her speech.

“You shut up!” Bay snapped at him. “I’m talking to my brother.”

Owen smiled at her, loving her every bit as much for her fiery temper as for her defense of his family. He couldn’t wait to make her his wife. Assuming they lived that long—and she agreed to marry him.

Luke wouldn’t let the matter rest. “Dad would—”

“Daddy’s dead,” Bay said, interrupting him in a fierce voice. “We should let him—and his hatred of the Blackthornes—rest in peace.”

“Easy for you to say,” Luke muttered. “What about Sam?”

“What about Sam?” Bay said. “He’s the victim of
an accident
.”

Owen’s brows rose nearly to his hairline. He’d never expected Bay to take his side where Sam was concerned. He was beginning to hope there might be a future for them.

His hopes were dashed in the next moment, when Paul Ridgeway shouted, “I’ve got Mrs. Creed. Come on out, or I’m going to kill her.”

Blackjack immediately stood. “I’m going out there. Maybe he’ll take me in exchange for Ren.”

Owen saw the astonished look on Luke’s face at Blackjack’s offer and the satisfied look Bay exchanged with her brother that said,
See. He does love her
.

“Stay where you are, Dad,” Owen said, as he rose to his feet.

“I should be the one to go,” Clay said, also getting up. “Paul knows me. I might be able to talk to him.”

“You’ve already tried that,” Blackjack countered. “It didn’t work.”

“I think we should all go,” Owen said.

Bay and Luke were on their feet now, as well.

“You want us all to get killed?” Luke said snidely.

“With any luck at all, Paul’s only got two men with him,” Owen reasoned. “He’s certainly got one of them watching the back door—maybe both of them. There are five of us—too many for him, or even the two of them, to watch if we’re all moving at once.”

“That sounds like the kind of plan that can get somebody killed,” Blackjack said.

“I know what I’m doing, Dad,” Owen said. He pulled the SIG from where he had it tucked in his jeans at his back. “You’re going to provide the diversion. I’m going to shoot Paul.”

“He’s not going to let you get anywhere near him with a gun,” Clay said.

Owen saw the worry—and love—for him in Bay’s eyes as she asked, “Can’t we wait for the cavalry to arrive?”

“Paul isn’t going to give us that much time,” he said as he crossed to her. “I’ll be fine.”

“You can understand my concern,” she said, straightening his collar as an excuse to touch him in front of their male audience. “I don’t want to lose you now.”

“I don’t want to lose you, either,” he said, kissing her in spite of their audience. He let himself enjoy the smell of her, the taste of her, the softness of her. He planned to love her until they were both old and gray. He hoped things worked out that way.

“If you two are done professing your undying love, let’s see what we can do about not dying,” Clay said with a grin.

“Be careful,” Bay said as she smoothed Owen’s shirt across his shoulders.

“You be careful, too,” Owen replied, as he quickly kissed her one last time.

“Let’s hear this plan of yours,” Blackjack said.

“Here’s what I think we should do,” Owen began.

Once he was convinced that everyone knew their roles in the drama that was about to begin, Owen crossed to the front door and opened it wide. “We’re coming out,” he said.

“Come one at a time, your hands over your heads,” Paul ordered.

Owen came out first, the SIG hanging down his back, held by a shoelace that went around his neck. At the right moment, he was going to reach for it and hope his aim was true.

Clay came next, then Luke and Blackjack. Owen’s plan depended on Bay. She was going to provide the distraction. It had been her idea, one he’d protested. She’d convinced him she was the only one Paul was likely to believe might actually faint from nerves—even though anyone who knew Bay would laugh at the suggestion.

“I’m good in a crisis,” she’d argued. “I can do this, Owe. Let me help.”

He was afraid for her. Afraid that Paul or the men with him would fire at the first sign of movement from Bay. He had to be fast. He had to fire first.

Owen hadn’t expected three men to be waiting for them. Was there a fourth man in back? There had to be. Maybe more than that. Damn.

The two thugs facing him held Uzis. Paul held no weapon at all … only what appeared to be a detonator. His other hand tightly gripped Lauren Creed’s arm.

“I’m sorry, Ren,” Blackjack said.

Owen watched her glance skip from Bay to Luke before she looked at Blackjack and said, “I love you, Jackson.”

“That’s enough of that,” Paul said.

“Are you going to shoot all of us?” Owen asked. “That’s going to leave quite a mess to explain, isn’t it?”

“All that rancor between Blackthornes and Creeds is going to come in handy,” Paul said with a smile. “It’ll be easy enough to make it look like you’ve shot each other. Especially with Mother Creed and Father Blackthorne having a clandestine meeting here to provide a motive for all that murderous anger erupting from the rest of you.”

Owen found himself exchanging glances with his father and brother, then with Luke, and finally with Bay. Paul’s plan would work, all right. The authorities would believe it. Over the years, there had been bad blood aplenty between Blackthornes and Creeds.

They had one chance to save themselves. To save all those whose hate had turned to love. To live happily ever after.

Owen dipped his chin as a signal to Bay.
Now
.

She moaned loudly as she fell, to draw attention more quickly. Everyone scattered to the four winds.

Owen fell forward, his gun in his hand before the first bullets struck the outside of the house. He put a bullet between the eyes of the man who was firing, not taking a chance that he might be wearing a protective vest. The second thug ran for cover.

As planned, Clay had headed back into the house to retrieve the shotgun they’d left by the door. He blasted the second man through the broken window before he could reach safety.

Owen heard shots from the back of the house and yelled, “Luke, keep a watch out for anyone coming from the backyard. There’s another agent back there!”

Blackjack had headed straight for Ren, catching a bullet in his arm before he managed to snatch her from Paul Ridgeway’s grasp and roll away with her into the bushes where they were hidden from view.

Owen slammed into Ridgeway, but Paul held on to the detonator as they fell to the ground. When they landed, Owen lost the SIG.

“It’s not a VX mine,” Paul gasped. “It’s a claymore. And your friend Dr. Creed is lying right on top of it.”

Owen didn’t know whether to believe him or not. “Bay, move away from there,” he shouted.

“She isn’t going anywhere,” Ridgeway said. “She’s been shot.”

“What?” Owen had his hands around Ridgeway’s throat but resisted the urge to squeeze the life out of him. “Bay,” he shouted again.

He got a response from Luke, who’d crawled over to his sister. “She’s been shot. She’s bleeding bad!”

“Get her out of there,” Owen yelled.

“Stay where you are, all of you,” Ridgeway ordered. “Or I’ll push this button, and you’ll all die.”

The claymore was an antipersonnel mine that sprayed tiny pellets that shredded flesh. There wouldn’t be enough left of anyone in its path to bury.

“Do what he says,” Owen shouted. “Don’t—”

Owen hit Paul’s wrist with a chopping motion that deadened the nerves and caused him to drop the detonator. He smashed his fist into Paul’s face, knocking him cold. He found his SIG and stood over Paul Ridgeway, the barrel aimed right between his eyes. “This is for Hank, you sonofabitch!”

“Owen,” Blackjack said as he rose from the bushes. “Don’t do it.”

Owen stared at the man who’d killed his best friend—and maybe the woman he loved.

“Don’t,” Blackjack repeated. “You’ve done your job.”

Owen put pressure on the trigger, but realized he couldn’t do it. He shoved the SIG into his father’s open hand, picked up the detonator very carefully, and called, “Luke, come here.”

Luke came running.

“Can you disarm this thing?”

“Yeah. Sure,” Luke said, taking it from him.

“I have to check for that other man out back,” he said. “See if Clay—”

Owen heard the whine of machinery, and Sam Creed’s wheelchair came rolling into view from around the side of the cabin. He had a rifle across his lap. “I took care of the one out back.”

“Holy shit!” Luke said. “Sam! What are you doing here?”

“I came to make sure Mom said good-bye to Blackjack,” he admitted with a wry grin. “And stayed for the show.”

Owen was already kneeling beside Bay, who was lying in a pool of blood. “Red, can you hear me?”

Blackjack approached him holding his wounded arm, Lauren Creed at his side. Clay came out of the house and joined them. Luke walked beside Sam until they reached the crowd at the porch.

“How bad is she hurt?” Sam asked.

Owen sat Bay upright and held her close to his chest. He could see the crease on her scalp where the bullet had plowed through flesh. “I don’t know,” he said in an anguished voice. “If she dies, you’re all to blame,” he said, turning accusing eyes on his family and hers. “This damned feud has to stop. Here. Now. For good.”

He turned his gaze to Sam and said, “I’m sorry for what happened to you. It was an accident, plain and simple. I love your sister and I am, by God, going to make her my wife.” He turned to the rest of them and said, “And we’re going to be showing up for holidays, and you’d better damned well make us welcome.”

Owen was crying, the tears streaming unashamedly down his face. “I love Bayleigh Creed. Do you hear me? I love her!”

“I think everyone can hear you just fine,” Bay murmured.

“Oh, God, Red,” he said, smiling down at her through the blur of tears. “I thought you were dying.”

She lifted a shaky hand to her head, but he caught it before she could touch the wound. “My head hurts like hell. But I enjoyed the speech, Owe.”

“I hope it worked,” he said, sending his gaze from one to another of the family gathered around him, daring them to deny him his chance at a life with the woman he loved.

“I’ve got no problem with you and Bay getting together,”
Sam said at last. “I draw the line at my mother and your father having some sleazy affair.”