Chapter Sixteen

The moment her captor started driving away, Bree tried to figure out how to escape. She hadn’t wanted to fight before now and risk him shooting into the house. Or shooting Luca, Woodrow, Slater or Duncan.

But someone inside the house had fired a shot.

Probably a hired gun, and she prayed that everyone had stayed out of the path of the bullet. Prayed, too, that she could figure a way out of this truck.

Her hands were cuffed, but her legs and feet were free, and she tried to swivel around in the seat and kick the driver in the face. She landed a blow on the steering wheel that caused the truck to jerk to the side, but before she could regroup, the driver landed a blow of his own. He bashed the gun against her head, the barrel cutting through her stitches. Had she been standing, the pain would have brought her to her knees.

She fell back on the seat, gasping for air, trying to tamp down the searing pain. But it was overwhelming, and her chest was so tight, she couldn’t draw in a full breath.

“There are still people I can shoot,” her captor snarled in that fake voice. “If you want them to live, stop fighting.”

She immediately spotted two ranch hands running toward the truck as it reached the end of the driveway. They would indeed be easy shots, so she pulled back. Temporarily. She had to regroup. Had to push away the pain, so Bree waited until the truck was on the road before she geared up to try to land another kick.

“One wrong move, and your baby will pay,” he snapped.

That got her attention all right, and she stopped again. Even though her head was pounding and making it next to impossible for her to think, she recalled the shooter inside the house.

Maybe more than one of them.

Maybe enough to overpower Luca, Duncan, Woodrow and Slater and get upstairs to the babies. Of course, an attacker would have to get through Joelle, but her sister could be gunned down. If so, Gabriel could be taken.

Or hurt.

Oh, God. That couldn’t happen.

She couldn’t lose Luca, her son and her family like this.

Bree cursed the tears that instantly burned in her eyes. Cursed that she didn’t know what to do to save her little boy. Or even who had kidnapped her. She tried to pick through what she could see of him, but every inch of him was covered, and since he wasn’t even using his real voice, she had no idea if this was Nathan or Manny. Or maybe neither. This could be another hired gun taking her to his boss.

“What do you want with me?” she demanded, hoping she’d be able to get answers that would help.

He didn’t answer, but he was looking around for something. There were no other actual roads on this stretch, but he was still firing glances to his left. Maybe hunting for somewhere to stop. She had no idea though why he would want to do that.

The man continued to glance around, and this time he looked over his shoulder and ground out some harsh profanity. She soon saw why. There was a cruiser in pursuit. Somehow, Luca had managed to get away from that shooter in the house. He was coming after her.

That was both good and bad.

Because Bree very much wanted to be away from this killer, but she didn’t want Luca or anyone else dying in the process. The odds were Luca would be able to catch up with them in the cruiser and follow them to wherever they were going. There could be a shoot-out, and she had no doubts that her captor would use her as a shield again so he could fire at Luca.

She turned back to her captor who was volleying glances ahead on the dark road and in the rearview mirror. And she thought of a ploy. Probably not a good one, but she tried it anyway.

“Are you taking me to Nathan?” she asked.

The driver’s shoulders went stiff. Not a huge reaction. But she noticed it.

“Nathan wouldn’t want you to hurt me,” she tacked on to that.

He didn’t respond, verbally or otherwise, but she thought maybe she’d hit a nerve. The man had recognized the name. Did that mean Nathan had hired him?

Maybe.

Or was this Nathan?

“If this is about Brighton’s murder,” she tried again, “then it’s all for nothing. Silencing me won’t stop the investigation.”

He cursed again, maybe the sign of another raw nerve. But then, it could also be because the cruiser was quickly gaining ground. Bree saw in the side mirror as the driver pulled out into the lane next to the truck.

It was Luca, and Slater was with him.

Her captor saw them, too, because he belted out more of that profanity and jerked the steering wheel to the right. There was the sound of metal slicing into metal, and the bottom part of the passenger’s door started to cave in. Bree scrambled away from it so her foot wouldn’t get trapped if the door collapsed.

“Finally,” her captor muttered.

He twisted the steering wheel again, bashing into the cruiser. Bree watched in horror as the impact sent the cruiser into a ditch. She immediately geared up to try to kick her captor, but he must have seen it coming because he hit her with the gun again. Bree fell against the door, the back of her head hitting the window, and then she was immediately slung into the dash when he made a sharp turn onto a ranch trail.

Bree knew most of the trails in this area and was aware this one had gullies on each side caused by rain and erosion. She lunged across the seat and caught hold of the steering wheel to get them off the trail. The man cursed her and tried to knock her away with the gun, but Bree kept fighting. The truck finally veered off the narrow dirt path, and the front end plunged into the ditch.

The impact was like a collision, and Bree jolted forward. The airbags deployed, slamming into her captor and her and spewing a cloud of powder over the entire cab of the truck. Bree didn’t waste a second. She dove toward the passenger’s side door while the man tried to catch on to her. He had the disadvantage of being trapped behind the steering wheel by the airbag, but she had a huge disadvantage too. Since she was cuffed, she had to turn her back to the door to open it.

And her heart dropped when she realized it was jammed.

Pain shot through her shoulder and back, but she rammed against the door, all the while trying to kick her captor. When the door finally opened, she tumbled out onto the ground. She heard the man curse again, and he must have managed to bat down the airbag because he was there. Right behind her.

She kicked out again, somehow managing to get to her feet, and she started running toward the blue cruiser lights that were slicing through the darkness.

She didn’t get far.

The man tackled her, both of them falling onto the ground, and he landed on top of her. She continued to fight. So did he. And in the struggle, the mask hiked up enough for her to see his chin and mouth. Even in the darkness, she recognized him.

Nathan.

L UCA RAN AS if his life depended on it. Bree’s life certainly did, and he sprinted away from the cruiser and toward the trail where he’d seen the truck turn. He couldn’t let the vehicle get out of sight.

He had to get to Bree in time to stop her from being driven off somewhere.

Slater was out of the cruiser, too, and running behind him, but he was also calling to get the status of the immediate backup they’d already requested. They needed a vehicle here now if he stood a chance of catching the SOB who’d taken Bree.

Still at a full sprint, Luca turned onto the trail and nearly skidded to a stop when he saw the truck.

And Bree.

She was running or rather she was trying to do that, but the thug tackled her, both of them dropping to the ground. Luca started running again, and when the thug pulled back his hand, Luca saw that he was trying to aim the gun at Bree.

The snake was going to shoot her.

“Stop!” Luca yelled, already bringing up his own gun. He didn’t have a clean shot so he fired over the guy’s head to get his attention.

It got it all right.

The man rolled to the side, dragging up Bree in front of him so he could cower behind her.

“Coward,” Luca snarled plenty loud enough for her captor to hear him, and then he had to drop down into the ditch when the guy took aim at him.

He fired, too, and while the shot didn’t come anywhere near Luca, he shouted for Slater to be careful. Luca definitely didn’t want Slater to take a bullet meant for him. Hell, he didn’t want anyone other than this thug dying tonight.

“It’s Nathan,” Bree managed to yell. “He’s the one who took me.”

Luca spat out the name like profanity, “Nathan.” So, he was their attacker.

Nathan did some actual cursing, and he whipped off the mask and the voice alternator he had against his throat. He also latched on to Bree’s hair and pulled her up so that his face was right against hers.

“It’s too late for you to save her, hero ,” Nathan taunted. “Too late for Bree to choose the right man.”

“You’re not the right man,” Bree snapped, and she tried to elbow Nathan in the gut.

Luca admired the fact that she wasn’t giving up, but he didn’t want her to fight right now. He didn’t want Nathan to have any reason to kill her. At this point, though, her knowing his identity was probably the only motive Nathan needed to end her life. That’s why Luca got down as low as he could and continued toward Bree. Maybe he’d get that clean shot he needed to take out this SOB.

“I’ve already told him if this is about Brighton, the investigation isn’t going away,” Bree said, straining against the grip he had on her hair.

“I don’t need it to go away,” Nathan was quick to say. “I just need the cops looking at someone else.”

Luca mentally replayed the words while he glanced over his shoulder at the sound of the movement. Slater was in the ditch, crouched down and making his way toward Luca.

“You’re going to set someone up for Brighton’s murder?” Luca asked. “Another cowardly thing,” he added in a mutter.

“I’m not going to jail for what happened to her,” Nathan practically yelled. “It wasn’t my fault.” If he had any composure left, he seemed to be losing it fast. If he snapped, he just might start shooting before Luca could figure out a way to get Bree out of this alive.

“Are you saying it was an accident?” Luca asked.

Nathan jumped right on that. “Yes, an accident.”

That didn’t convince Luca one bit. Then again, there wasn’t anything Nathan could say that would make Luca believe he was innocent. After all, he was holding Bree at gunpoint.

“Things just got out of hand,” Nathan said, and then he made a hoarse sob as if he was about to break down and cry.

“Did things get out of hand with my mother, too?” Bree demanded. “Is that why you kidnapped her?”

“She was insurance, that’s all,” Nathan readily admitted. “Leverage. If the investigation had turned bad, then she would have been of use to lure out Bree. Or you.”

“Me?” Luca questioned. “Why the hell would you want Bree or me?”

“Because Sandra had an alibi for the night of Brighton’s murder. We didn’t know that at first, but then we found a photo of her on Facebook that would have proved she couldn’t have killed her. We couldn’t set her up to take the blame.”

Luca was surprised Nathan had admitted that since it also implicated him not only in Sandra’s kidnapping but also Brighton’s and Shannon’s murders. So, why would he spill it? And why wasn’t he just trying to get away with Bree?

Was Nathan waiting for a hired gun to show up?

Maybe the one at the ranch who’d fired those shots at Woodrow, Duncan and Slater?

When Luca and Slater had run out of the house to go in pursuit of Nathan, they’d left Woodrow and Duncan to deal with that. And Luca had to hope they had. It’d been two against one. Well, unless there had been others lurking around, but there’d been no choice about coming after Bree and trusting that Duncan and Woodrow would eliminate any threat at the ranch.

But maybe Nathan thought that person would escape and come to help him.

It wouldn’t happen because Slater and he would hear an approaching vehicle and would prevent the person from getting to Nathan. Nathan should have realized that by now. He should be panicking and trying to run. Unless...

A thought flashed into Luca’s head. A bad one. Nathan had turned onto this trail, and that might be because he knew help would be nearby.

Luca tried to pick through the darkness and look ahead on the trail. He couldn’t see another vehicle, but that didn’t mean one wasn’t there. In fact, there almost certainly was since this particular trail fed out to a road.

“What? No questions for me?” Nathan shouted. “You don’t want to know if I killed Bree’s father? I didn’t,” he was quick to add.

Luca tuned him out because he was certain that Nathan was talking to try to distract him. It didn’t work. Luca heard the sound of something or someone moving in the ditch on the other side of the trail. He pivoted in that direction and got just a glimpse of the man. Someone he instantly recognized.

Because it was Manny.

And Manny fired a shot at him.

B REE HEARD THE blast of a gun being fired, and for a heart-stopping moment, she thought Nathan had shot her. Or Luca.

But he hadn’t.

The sound had come from her right, and she tried to turn in that direction. Nathan didn’t let her. He tightened the chokehold, much harder this time, so she quit struggling so she could breath.

And pray.

That gunshot couldn’t have hit Luca or her brother. And soon she got confirmation they were alive.

“Manny,” Luca yelled, and she saw both Luca and Slater drop back down into the ditch.

“Manny?” she muttered.

What was he doing here? Had he come to help? Maybe he’d followed Nathan so he could try to clear his name.

But that wasn’t it. If it had been, Nathan would have dropped flat on the ground with her, or he would have moved her so she’d be facing the direction of the shot. He didn’t do either of those things.

“About time you got here,” Nathan snarled.

“I was waiting up the trail where I was supposed to be,” Manny snarled right back. “You’re the one who messed up by wrecking the truck.”

Bree heard every word they said, but it took her a couple of seconds to process it. Manny and Nathan were in this together. There hadn’t been one killer but two.

“You tried to pin the blame on each other,” Bree muttered.

“To muddy the waters of the investigation,” Nathan readily admitted. “And now we’ve got to get out of here. Sorry, Bree, but you can’t die here,” he added in a mutter. “We haven’t finished setting you up yet.”

So, that’s why they wanted her. Manny and Nathan were going to try to pin all of this on her. Unlike her mother, Bree didn’t have an alibi, but that didn’t mean anyone would believe she would kill the woman and then launch into these attacks to cover it up.

“I had no motive to murder Brighton,” Bree managed.

“There’ll be the motive,” Nathan said. “There will be texts to prove how much you loved me and how jealous you were of Brighton. They’ll be an eyewitness who saw you go into Brighton’s place that night. By the time we’re done, even your darling Luca will have thought you did it.”

Luca. Bree tried not to think of what he might be doing right now. He was no doubt trying to get into a position to save her. Slater, too. But what they wouldn’t be doing was believing she’d had anything to do with Brighton’s murder.

And that’s why Nathan would try to kill them, too.

“Why are you helping him, Manny?” Bree asked. “Why are you doing this?”

Nathan chuckled. “Oh, Manny has just as much to lose as I do. Don’t you, Manny?” He put his mouth to her ear as if telling a secret. “Because you see, Manny was there when Brighton died. In fact, he was the one who set all of this in motion.”

Manny didn’t address that other than to huff. “Nathan, we need to get out of here. More cops will be coming soon.”

“You don’t think I know that!” Nathan snapped. “I’m not an idiot. I know they called for backup, and they’ll be here soon. Two minutes. If we haven’t gotten the text by then, we both start shooting.”

“What text?” Bree asked.

“More leverage. The best kind,” he added with that despicable taunting in his voice.

Bree had to fight the panic. Had to fight the groan that was trying to claw its way past her throat. She couldn’t handle worst-case scenario right now. She had to focus on getting Luca, Slater and her out of this alive.

“I thought you wanted me back,” Bree said to Nathan. “I thought you cared about me.”

“I despise you,” he admitted through what had to be clenched teeth. “You took my love for you and threw it back in my face. It sickened me to act all moony-eyed around you, but I endured because I knew one day I’d make you pay.”

In the distance, she heard the wail of sirens. A welcome sound for her, but it caused Nathan to curse and tense even more. He laughed though when his phone dinged with a text.

“Well, the payment you owe me is about to start,” Nathan boasted.

Bree pushed aside any thoughts of what the text might be. Pushed aside everything but what she had to do. She gathered her strength and waited for Nathan to take out his phone so he could read the message.

Nathan kept his arm around her neck, kept the pressure so tight that she could barely breathe. But he finally lowered his hand, and therefore the gun, to his pocket. That’s when she moved.

“Now!” she shouted to warn Luca and Slater, and she rammed her elbow into Nathan’s stomach.

She didn’t stop there. Bree scrambled away from him, landing on her back so she could kick him. She landed a hard blow to his face, and she heard the satisfying crunch of his nose breaking. Her satisfaction didn’t last long though.

Cursing her, Nathan turned the gun toward her. Ready to kill her.

And the shot came.

The sound of it blasted through the air, and Bree waited for the pain. Waited for her own death.

But it didn’t come.

Nathan stopped, his head or torso freezing while his arms dropped limply to his sides. The rest of him dropped, too, and that’s when she saw the gunshot wound to the center of his head.

Bree snapped toward the ditch and spotted Luca. He still had his gun aimed at Nathan and had obviously been the one to shoot him.

“Stay down, Bree,” Slater yelled.

“Manny,” she muttered on a rise of breath. He was there, and he could finish the job that Nathan had started.

Before she could even look in Manny’s direction, she heard the shots. Two back-to-backs that caused the fear to slam through her. Oh, God. Had Manny managed to shoot Luca and Slater?

Bree was terrified of what she might see, but she forced herself to look at Luca. He was still standing. So was Slater, and her brother had his gun on Manny. Or rather what was left of Manny anyway. Like Nathan, he was on the ground, and his lifeless eyes were staring up at the night sky.

The relief rushed through her so fast that Bree lost her breath again, but she still tried to get to her feet so she could go to Luca. He made it to her first though and pulled her into his arms.

“Are you all right?” he asked, fishing through his pocket to come up with a small knife. He used it to cut the plastic cuffs and then pulled her right back to him for another hug.

“I’m okay,” she said. It was a lie. She was shaking and maybe in shock.

Because this wasn’t over.

“The text,” Bree managed to say. “We need to see what was in that text.”

Luca was already steps ahead of her on that, too, and he snatched out Nathan’s phone. The screen was still lit with the message.

“Hell,” Luca cursed. “Let’s go.” He took hold of Bree’s hand and started running toward the road.

“What’s wrong?” Slater asked, hurrying after them. “Who was that text from?”

“Tara,” Luca blurted while he ran, the world of emotion in his voice. “She said she has Gabriel.”