Chapter Ten

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Caroline watched as the video ended, and she welcomed the emotions that rolled through her. Not fear. Definitely not that. What she felt was an intense, raw anger that shot through every part of her.

She darn sure wouldn”t be crying this time. Wouldn’t be going through that sickening dread as she’d done when she had learned that Bodie had escaped and was coming after her. Feeling that was over and done.

And now she was ready to fight.

“Text that sick SOB back and tell him to bring it on,” she snarled.

Nash closed his eyes for a second, and while he didn’t come out and sigh, that’s what he looked as if he wanted to do. Sigh and figure out a way to convince her not to throw down this kind of gauntlet.

“Leland was right to try to use me to draw him out,” she went on because clearly she had some convincing to do. “And what’s not right is for Bodie to hide like the chickenshit coward that he is and taunt me like this.”

“No, it’s not right,” Nash agreed. “But you have to see beyond what you want to do to this ass and try to think of why he would have done something like this.”

The answer seemed obvious to her. “He did it because he’s a sick bastard, and he wanted to terrorize me and send me into an emotional tailspin.”

“Maybe that’s what he had in mind,” Nash conceded, “but it seems, well, unnecessary to taunt you. So, what could he gain from doing it?”

“Or what could someone else gain from it?” Slade put in. He paused, and when he had Caroline’s attention, he continued. “It could be a distraction, plain and simple. We start chasing our tails, focusing on things like trying to triangulate the locations of the texter. But that will be a big-assed waste of time since it’ll be a burner phone, and I’m betting the sender is no longer in that area. He hit send and then got the hell out of dodge.”

Yes, that made sense. But Caroline wasn’t going to rule out that Bodie had done all of this as a round of mental torture. Warped bastards liked to do warped things.

“I’ll let Ruby know about the text and video,” Slade commented, taking out his own phone and stepping to the side.

That would no doubt put her mother on even more alert. If that was possible. At the moment it felt as if there were no more precautions to take.

Nothing left but the waiting.

And at the end of that wait, Caroline figured all of this would snowball into a showdown. She was ready for it. Mentally and physically. But Nash and her mother wouldn’t see it that way. Their goal was to keep her out of harm’s way even when the harm’s way felt inevitable.

While Slade fired off that text, she moved to the window to look out at that amazing view. To see if there was a killer lurking around. But she saw no one. Even the horses weren’t out and about this morning.

“How far out are your sensors?” Caroline asked, glancing over her shoulder at Nash.

He was at the monitor, studying the feed from the various security cameras. “They cover the perimeter of all ten acres.”

A lot of space. Maybe too much. Was that a weak spot that Bodie could capitalize on?

“Can they be tampered with?” she pressed.

“Anything can be tampered with,” Nash admitted. “But it won’t be easy.”

Still, it was possible, and she tried to think like a killer with some resources. It was possible Jordana had bought Bodie whatever equipment he needed to bypass those sensors.

But why would Jordana do that?

Why would the woman make it easy for her man to come after his obsession? Especially when that obsession was another woman?

Maybe it was a simple case of Jordana being willing to do anything for her husband. Including having a one off with his friend to elicit some kind of cooperation from Eddie. That made sense in a warped way, and if so, Jordana could have arranged for other help for Bodie, for other supplies.

Caroline was in such deep thought that she gasped when the sound shot through the room. But it was only another alert for a text message. For a couple of heart-racing moments, she thought it might be another taunt from Bodie. It wasn’t.

“Ruby says the interview with Leland is about to start,” Nash relayed. “Eddie is still consulting with his lawyer.”

Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that consult. The lawyer was likely trying to figure out how to put the right spin on the BS his client had been spouting about his innocence.

She turned so she could continue to keep watch and see the screen where Detective Malley and Leland appeared. Leland had three lawyers with him, and she was guessing he wouldn’t be doing any talking because he was sitting back from the table with his arms folded over his chest. He clearly wasn’t happy to be there.

Malley was in the process of reading Leland the Miranda Warning when there were more sounds. Not the dinging from a text either. But a piercing set of beeps that seemed to have an urgency to them.

Both Nash’s and Slade’s heads whipped up.

Both drew their guns.

“Move away from the window,” Nash told her.

The words had barely had time to leave his mouth when the bullet slammed into the glass.

Gasping and choking back a scream, Caroline staggered back, automatically steeling herself up to feel the pain from the shot. But it didn’t come. Then, she remembered Nash saying the glass was bullet-resistant.

Resistant.

Not bulletproof.

Which meant shots could get through.

Nash hurried to her, pulling her even further away. “Slade, do you see the shooter?” he asked.

Slade’s response was drowned out because another round slammed into the glass, rattling it and causing it to crack and spread out like a spider’s web.

Oh, God.

The glass wasn’t going to hold.

Her anger was still there. Mercy, was it. But she also didn’t want Nash or Slade hurt because their idiot brother was trying to kill her.

“The gunman’s in a tree at the back of your property, just inside the fence,” Slade spelled out, and he motioned toward the spot on the monitor to show the position.

Caroline couldn’t actually see anyone. Not at first anyway. Then the morning sun glinted off the barrel of a rifle.

A third shot came, slamming into the spot where the first two had landed.

“He’s using armor-piercing bullets,” Nash said. He looked at her and added, “When the glass stops the outer shell, there’s an internal projectile that continues into the target.”

Slade took up the rest of the explanation. “Yeah, and my guess is when the gunman creates a hole, he’s going to send something else through. Maybe tear gas. Maybe something more lethal.”

That didn’t help her galloping heartbeat or the tight pressure in her chest that was vising her lungs and making it hard to breathe. And it caused another wave of guilt to wash over her. Bodie could kill his brothers to get to her.

“Maybe it’s time for me to be that bait,” she suggested.

“No,” Nash and Slade said in unison.

Nash spared her another glance, one that told her there was nothing she could say or do to convince him to save Slade and himself. The bullets didn’t convince him either. Not the fourth one. Not the fifth either.

And the shots just kept on coming.

“Oz, alert Ruby and 911 of the attack. Continue to monitor the security feed and report any movement of the intruder to me,” Nash instructed while he went into the mudroom and brought back Kevlar vests and some more guns. He tossed one of the vests to her. “I’ll be monitoring the feed on my phone.”

“From where?” she asked while she put on the vest.

“In Slade’s van,” Nash provided, donning his own vest. “There’s more room in it than my SUV, and you’ll be flat down in the back while Slade drives us through the pasture toward this asshole.”

Caroline was sure she blinked because she certainly hadn’t expected him to say that. “We’re going to the shooter?” she had to ask.

“We’re going to the shooter,” Nash confirmed. “I’m not leaving you here where he could send some dangerous shit through that window. Let’s move.”

They did. Just as another shot tore through the glass, leaving a jagged plate-sized hole. Nash didn’t wait around to see what the shooter would be sending through it. They just hurried into the garage.

The moment they were all inside the van and she was on the floor in the back, Nash used a voice command to open the garage door and he took off, practically flying backwards as he reversed out.

There were no windows in the back of the van which meant Caroline couldn’t see squat. She figured though that bullets would have a harder time getting through the metal sides than the glass. So, she was a lot more protected than Nash and Slade were since their only buffer was the windshield. It was probably bullet-resistant, but she’d just seen that wasn’t a surefire way to keep from being shot.

Even though they were no longer in the garage, she could still hear the sound of gunfire behind them, a barrage now that was no doubt tearing its way through the rest of the living room window.

“I’m going faster,” Slade muttered. “Just in case the shooter’s about to fire an explosive into the house.”

Oh, God. She hadn’t considered that. But she should have after what’d happened to her own place. Not an explosive there, of course, but she figured there was a possibly that whatever came flying through the window could do just as much damage.

“What happens when we get closer to the shooter?” Caroline had to ask.

“Slade stops. I get out and use the van door for cover, and I give this asshole a taste of his own medicine,” Nash said.

Her head whipped up enough so she could see he had his attention pinned to his phone, where he was no doubt watching the security feed.

“The vest won’t protect you from a headshot,” she said, using what he’d told her when they’d been under attack back at her place.

Nash glanced back at her. “I’ll take a calculated risk.”

“We both will,” Slade volunteered. “Because I’ll be doing the same on the driver’s side. I doubt the shooter will be firing much if he had two sets of ammo coming right at him.”

Hopefully, that was true. But there was another factor that could play into this. They had no idea if Bodie, or the shooter, was working alone.

Nash used a voice command to open the pasture gates, and she felt Slade slow the van before he sped up again. Obviously, there was no more driveway since they began to bobble around on the uneven ground.

She held her breath, waiting for the sound of an explosion. But it didn’t come. However, more gunfire did. Not aimed at the house this time.

But rather at the van.

The bullets pinged off the metal, and she prayed they didn’t ricochet and hurt one of Nash’s horses. Or anyone else who happened to be in the area since they weren’t that far from a road.

Slade slammed on the brakes just as the shots stopped, and both Nash and he cursed.

“What happened?” she asked.

But they didn’t answer. They both just bolted from the van, and she braced herself for the sound of more gunfire. This time from Nash and Slade.

Everything went quiet though.

Too quiet.

“The sonofabitch is getting away,” Slade spat out.

No, no, no.That was not what she wanted to hear. If he got away, there’d just be another attack. Another hellish wait to put an end to this.

“Stay here with Caroline,” she heard Nash say. That caused her heart to drop. So did what Nash added next. “I’m going after him.”