Chapter Six

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Caroline heard the hissing and crackling sound. Sounds that amplified within seconds, followed by an intense burst of heat. She could feel it even while in the doorway of the workshop.

“Something’s on fire,” she managed to say.

Just as she got a look of the something. Her house. Or rather what was left of it. At the moment, it was a giant fireball with ashes and flames raining down on her driveway.

“Oh, God,” she blurted.

Her first instinct was to run toward the house, to try to save it, even though she knew it was well past that point. It was gone. In flames. Everything inside and the house itself were blazing.

There were shouts and curses as the people in the driveway scattered to get out of the way. She saw Jordana running toward the road. Eddie, too, with Officer Gonzales and the county deputy in pursuit.

She spotted Malley as well, not going after Eddie or Jordana but rather helping one CSI pull another away from the fire. Caroline thought the female CSI that they were dragging was unconscious. Hopefully not dead. But if she’d been inside the house, she certainly would be.

“Bodie,” Caroline muttered.

“Maybe,” Nash said, stepping in front of her again. Using his body as a human shield. He looked back at her. “There could be an incendiary device somewhere around the perimeter of the workshop.”

Sweet heaven. She hadn’t even considered that. But she was considering it now, and it gave her a hard punch of panic and adrenaline.

“We need to get to my SUV,” Nash said after firing glances all around. “It’s bullet resistant, and it’s closer than the two cruisers.”

It was, but there was still a good ten yards of space between the SUV and them. And the route was littered with burning debris. It’d be like running through a fiery obstacle course. Still, there weren’t a lot of options here. Bodie, or whoever had set fire to her house, probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to plan an IED or some device on Nash’s SUV.

She hoped.

“Stay between Ruby and me,” Nash instructed.

That was all he said before he got them moving. Fast. He darted outside into the nightmare, weaving and dodging both the ground obstructions along with the ash and thick black smoke that was already billowing toward them. They were still a few feet away.

When their luck ran out.

Caroline heard the sound. And instantly knew what it was.

Gunfire.

Not a single shot, either. This was a barrage of bullets that slammed into the ground around them.

Her mother made a sharp gasping sound, and Caroline risked glancing behind her. Not hit. But rather shot in the Kevlar vest. It must have hurt, bad, because Ruby’s face was sheathed with pain. That didn’t stop her from moving though. She closed in, covering Caroline from behind.

The moment they reached the front end of the SUV, Nash pushed Caroline to the side of it. That’s when she realized the shots were coming from the woods. A sniper maybe. So, the SUV could offer some protection from bullets.

But not from the fire.

A sudden gust of wind caused the blaze and sparks to fly. Hot little embers sailed out at them, and Caroline had to duck all the way down and cover her head.

“Get in the SUV,” Nash told her. “And lay all the way down on the seat. The glass can resist bullets, but some might get through. Ruby, you get in, too.”

Ruby immediately shook her head. “I’ll be all right,” she insisted, convincing absolutely no one that it was true. She was still grimacing and sucking in some hard breaths.

And she was on fire.

Caroline cursed when she saw one of the embers land in Ruby’s hair. It flamed up, and Caroline did the first thing that came to mind. She grabbed a handful of dirt from the nearby flower bed and used it to extinguish the fire.

“In the SUV,” Nash repeated, and this time it sounded like an order.

Caroline listened, mainly because she didn’t want Nash distracted by her not doing as he’d said. Added to that, the embers were still landing, stinging her exposed skin. They were likely doing the same to Nash as well, but he stayed put, partly behind the cover of the SUV, while he scanned the woods for the shooter.

Ruby tapped her earpiece and requested help from the drone. Good. Maybe the drone could pinpoint who was doing this.

Was it Bodie?

Maybe.

Or maybe someone he’d convinced to create this kind of carnage. In fact, the carnage could be a ruse all so she could be shot.

But she immediately rethought that.

Bodie would want to do the kill himself. He wouldn’t want to hand that “pleasure” to someone else.

The shots continued, slamming into the SUV and one skipped off the roof just as Caroline got the door open. She dived inside and moved to the passenger’s seat to give Ruby and maybe even Nash some room to get in.

They didn’t.

Damn it. They didn’t.

They stayed there, shoulder to shoulder, ducking bullets and looking for their attacker.

During her training, Caroline had learned a lot about firearms, and she was pretty sure the handguns they had didn’t have the range to return fire. Since Nash had had three Kevlar vests in the SUV, it was likely he had other things. Things that could help put an end to this. She climbed over the console that divided the front seats and checked the back.

And she found a stash of guns and equipment.

She pulled out a rifle with a scope and scrambled back to the driver’s side door to stick it out for Nash.

“Thanks,” he muttered. “There’s a second one. Get it for Ruby.”

Caroline did, handing it off to him so he could in turn pass it to Ruby. “By the way, I’m a good shot,” Caroline let him know. “A very good shot,” she emphasized.

“Then, get a third one for yourself but still stay down.”

She did, after she sighed, and Caroline was about to ask if they needed ammo, but she saw Nash lift the rifle and use the scope to take aim.

“Drone feed in,” Ruby said. “One shooter. A male dressed all in black and wearing a balaclava. Armed with a sniper rifle. He’s in the cluster of live oaks. There.” She pointed to the same area where Nash already had the rifle pointed.

It wasn’t close. She’d done plenty of target training, and she hadn’t lied when she’d told Nash that she was a good marksman, but this distance would have been a serious challenge for her. Of course, it was possibly a challenge for the shooter, too, since he hadn’t actually hit them.

Not yet anyway.

And coming in closer toward them probably would have been akin to a suicide mission what with three cops, Nash, and Ruby on the scene.

“Stay down, everyone,” Nash shouted.

And he fired.

Since he was so close to her, the thick blasts from the shotgun thundered in her ears, and the shots just kept on coming. She counted to five before she heard something else.

Ruby cursed, and she pressed her fingers to her earpiece where she was no doubt getting bad news.

“The shooter dropped down out of the tree,” her mother blurted. “The sonofabitch is getting away.”