Chapter Four

Bree’s breath stalled in her throat, and the only sound she managed to make was a strangled gasp of raw shock. That shock anchored her feet in place. Her mind, too. She just couldn’t grasp what she was seeing.

Her mother.

With Gabriel.

What the heck was her mother doing here in the barn, and why had she stolen Gabriel?

Her mother didn’t say anything. She just stared at Bree with her own stunned silence. She was pale. No color except for some red scratches on her right cheek. Her hair looked as if it hadn’t been combed in a very long time.

Gabriel made a sound, a soft whimper that yanked Bree right out of her stupor. Her maternal instincts kicked in. Mercy, did they. The boiling anger and urgent need to protect her baby slammed through her, and despite who was holding him—a woman she’d once loved and trusted—everything inside her screamed for her to get to her son.

Bree flung the muck fork aside to hurry to Gabriel. She didn’t even acknowledge the woman holding him. Bree just reached down and took him.

Her mother didn’t resist. Just the opposite. Her grip on Gabriel melted away as Bree’s own grip gathered him into her arms. Cradling Gabriel against her chest, Bree stepped back.

Luca moved in front of Gabriel and her. Protecting them. And giving Bree a jolt of a different kind. Luca and she were a unit. Parents. Together. For this nightmare anyway. Even though she was holding their son, the fear of him being kidnapped was causing adrenaline to fire through her, and the only person who could understand what she was feeling right now was Luca.

Or rather, he could understand what she was feeling about finding their son.

He probably couldn’t grasp what she was going through over seeing her mother. Then again, Bree couldn’t quite grasp it either.

“You’re hurt,” her mother said. “Were you attacked?”

Bree had forgotten about her fresh stitches and the nicks on her face, and it definitely wasn’t a high priority for discussion right now. “You took my son,” Bree managed to say.

Her mother nodded, and tears spilled from her already red eyes. “Yes. To protect him.”

Nothing about this felt like protection. But Bree immediately rethought that. Just an hour or so ago, someone had run her off the road and had possibly tried to kill her. Was that connected to her mother?

“To protect him,” Luca repeated. “Explain that,” he snapped, and it was obvious from his tone that he was still getting some adrenaline jolts of his own. Equally obvious, too, was that he wasn’t just going to dole out a welcome home to the woman who’d stolen their child.

Her mother opened her mouth but didn’t get a chance to answer before there was the sound of running footsteps. “Bree?” Slater called out. “Luca? Where the hell are you?”

“Here,” Luca said.

That brought on more running footsteps, and he wasn’t alone. Coral was with him.

“Did you find...” Slater’s words trailed off when he saw them. He, too, had his weapon drawn, and his gaze swept from Gabriel to Luca and Bree.

And then to his mother.

Slater shook his head, clearly not able to process what he was seeing. Coral was having a similar reaction. The nanny didn’t know Sandra well, but it was obvious she recognized her.

“What are you doing here?” Slater asked Sandra.

“Sandra’s the one who took Gabriel,” Luca supplied.

“I did it to protect him,” her mother insisted. She moved to get to her feet, a gesture that caused Luca and Slater to take aim at her.

“Are you armed?” Luca demanded.

Luca and Slater were clearly treating her mother like a kidnapper, and Bree didn’t object. Too many things weren’t clear right now, and she didn’t want Gabriel in any more danger than he might already be.

Her mother shook her head, and she lifted her hands while she stood. She staggered a little but kept her hands raised.

“I don’t have a gun, and I wasn’t going to hurt Gabriel,” her mother said. Her face was a mix of shock and fear. “I’d never hurt him or any of you.” She added that last part when she shifted her attention to Slater.

Slater swallowed hard. “What are you doing here? Where have you been all this time?”

Those were both very good questions, but Bree had another question of her own. “Why did you feel the need to kidnap my son to protect him?” She didn’t ask it nicely either, not with the terror of nearly losing her son still coursing through her.

The sigh that left her mother’s mouth was long and weary. “Because someone else was going to take him.”

“Who?” Luca and Bree asked in unison.

Sandra shook her head. “I don’t know.” She repeated that while she shook her head again and continued to cry. She took a step toward them, staggered a little and caught onto the barn wall.

“Are you hurt?” Slater asked. He lowered his gun but didn’t holster it.

“Just my ankle.” Sandra squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “I twisted it when I escaped.”

Bree was trying to grasp each word her mother said. Trying to examine her body language, too. But escaped flashed like a neon sign in her head. Luca picked right up on it, too.

“Escaped from who and from what?” Luca still sounded like a cop interrogating a suspect.

Again, her mother didn’t get a chance to answer because there was a shout from outside the barn. “Bree?” someone called out.

Joelle.

And judging from the sound of more footsteps, her sister wasn’t alone. Bree was betting Duncan was with her. Moments later, she got confirmation of that when Joelle and Duncan hurried in. Since they didn’t have their baby with them, Bree figured they’d left Izzie at home with the nanny.

“We came to help look for Gabriel,” Joelle said.

Bree looked back at her sister. Their gazes connecting, for a couple of seconds anyway, before Joelle saw Gabriel in her arms. Relief flooded her face, but it, too, passed quickly when Joelle’s attention landed on Sandra.

“Mom,” Joelle muttered on a rise of breath. Unlike the rest of them, Joelle didn’t stand back. Just the opposite. She hurried to their mother and pulled her into her arms.

“She could have a gun,” Bree was quick to point out.

Joelle’s shoulders went stiff, and she shifted from worried daughter to cop in a blink. She stepped back, way back, volleying glances at Slater and Bree. “What’s going on?” Joelle asked.

Bree wanted to know the same thing. Clearly, so did Duncan, Luca and Slater, but Slater obviously wanted to make sure they weren’t about to be attacked.

“I’ll check her for weapons,” Slater volunteered, stepping forward.

Joelle’s mouth dropped open, and it seemed as if she was about to object to their mother being frisked. She didn’t though. It must have occurred to her that they needed a whole lot of answers before they could trust the woman who’d given birth to them.

“She’s not armed,” Slater relayed. “She doesn’t have a phone or a wallet. Just some keys.” Slater lifted out the keys and held them in the air. “There’s one here marked with a B.”

Bree was pretty sure that was the key to her house. Her mother had had one like that anyway. But Bree didn’t recognize the rest of the keys. Or the clothes her mother was wearing. Loose jogging pants and a baggy T-shirt. Definitely not her mom’s usual fashion choices, especially since she was barefoot. And she’d clearly lost some weight. All possible signs of, well, Bree couldn’t be certain, but she wanted to know.

“What happened?” Duncan demanded. “Is Sandra the one who kidnapped Gabriel?”

Luca nodded. “She hacked into the baby monitor—”

“No,” her mother interrupted. “I didn’t do that. The kidnapper did.”

That got their attention, and all of them pinned their attention on Sandra. She sighed again. “Eleven and a half months ago, I was kidnapped, and I’ve been held all this time.”

Bree had to admit that fit with her mom’s appearance. Well, maybe it did. But it could also fit with someone who’d been on the run.

“Did you kill Dad?” Bree came out and asked.

Her mother’s eyes widened. “No.” She sounded stunned but adamant. “Of course not.” The tears began to spill again, and a hoarse sob tore from her throat. “I think the person who took me killed him.”

“And who would that be?” Slater demanded.

Sandra shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Bree and Slater both groaned, but Duncan cursed. Maybe because of Sandra’s answer but also because his phone dinged with a text.

“Someone reported seeing a silver truck that matches the description of the one we’re looking for,” Duncan relayed. “It was near here.”

Bree automatically pulled Gabriel even closer to her. Oh, mercy. Had the hit-and-run driver come back for another attack?

“I drove a silver truck here,” her mother volunteered.

Again, that got their attention. Not that it had strayed too far from her mother. “You’re the one who ran me off the road?” Bree asked.

Her mother flinched. “No.” She used that same adamant tone. “I drove the truck here, that’s all, and I parked it on a ranch trail.” She pressed trembling fingers to her mouth for a moment. “Did someone try to hurt you?”

“Someone did hurt me by running me off the road so I’d crash into a tree,” Bree clarified. “And that someone was driving a silver truck.”

Sandra staggered back and sank down onto the floor. “I didn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that,” she amended. “But my kidnapper would.”

“I’ll want to hear all about the kidnapper,” Duncan stated. “For now, tell me where you parked the silver truck.”

Sandra fluttered her fingers toward the pasture. “It’s on the old ranch trail just on the other side of the fence. I left it there and walked to the house.”

“Because you didn’t want the nanny or Bree to spot you?” Duncan pressed.

“No, because I didn’t want the real kidnapper to see me,” her mother was quick to say. “I wanted to get Gabriel away from the house before she had a chance to show up and take him.” She stopped, her forehead bunching up. “I should have figured out another way. I shouldn’t have scared you like this.”

Bree glared at her. “Yes, you should have figured out another way. If you thought Gabriel was in danger, you should have called me.”

Sandra shook her head. “I didn’t have a phone, and when I didn’t see your car in the driveway, I figured you weren’t home.”

“I wasn’t here, but Coral the nanny was,” Bree was equally quick to point out.

“Coral,” she repeated, and her gaze drifted to the nanny. “The woman in the laundry room. I only saw her back so I didn’t know who she was. I wasn’t sure I could trust her so I decided better safe than sorry. I took Gabriel, sneaked out the back door and waited in the barn, hoping you’d show up and start looking for him.”

Bree mentally went back through that. “You said you’d been held all this time so how did you even know about Gabriel?”

“From her. From the woman who held me,” Sandra clarified. “I overheard her talking to someone about Bree and her baby. I don’t know who she was talking to, but it was clear they were planning on kidnapping Gabriel.”

“Who is this woman?” Duncan pressed.

“I don’t know. I don’t,” Sandra insisted when Duncan groaned. “She always wore a mask whenever she was around. I didn’t even know where I was until I escaped.”

Now it was Bree’s turn to groan when her phone rang, and she yanked it from her pocket and answered it without taking her attention off her mother. She instantly regretted not looking at the screen for the caller’s ID though when she heard the man’s voice.

Nathan.

“Bree,” he said, and there was a frantic edge to that single word. “I just heard about your son being missing. I can come and help look for him.”

“No,” she couldn’t say fast enough. She definitely didn’t want to have to deal with the clingy Nathan right now. “We found him. He’s safe.”

And she hoped that was the truth. Hoped that her little boy wasn’t still in danger. But if what her mother was saying was true, then he possibly could be.

“Oh, thank God,” Nathan said, punctuating that with what sounded like a breath of relief. “Are you all right? You must have been shaken to the core when you realized he was missing.”

“I was. And I’m fine,” Bree added, ready to hang up.

Nathan spoke before she could. “I can come over and give the baby a checkup. You know, just to make sure he’s really okay.”

That gave her another jolt of fear. She hadn’t checked Gabriel after she’d taken him from her mother, but she intended to do that now.

“I have to go,” she told Nathan, and she ended the call so she could put her phone away and open Gabriel’s onesie.

Her movements must have been frantic because Luca holstered his gun and moved closer to help her with the onesie zipper. Gabriel objected to that by frowning and whimpering, but other than that, there appeared to be nothing wrong with him. She wanted to do a more thorough check soon. First though, she needed to deal with her mother.

“I didn’t hurt him,” her mother insisted. “I wouldn’t. I stopped him from being hurt. If the kidnapper had taken him...” She stopped, dragged in a few clipped breaths. “I don’t know what would have happened. And I couldn’t risk it.” Sandra paused. “We should take the baby inside the house and I can tell you how I ended up here. I can tell you what happened to me.”

Bree very much wanted to know that, but she didn’t budge. Neither did the rest of them.

Duncan’s phone dinged again, breaking the silence. “The CSIs are going with one of the deputies to locate the silver truck. If it’s where Sandra says it is, then we should know within the hour if there are paint flecks on the truck that match Bree’s and Manny’s vehicles.”

“Do you mean Manny Vickery?” Sandra asked. “The owner of the Hush, Hush bar in Austin?”

Once again, they all turned toward her mother. She had managed to surprise them once again. “You know him?” Luca asked.

Sandra nodded. “I talked to him when I was helping your dad investigate Brighton’s murder.” She stopped, gathered her breath and opened her mouth to continue.

The sound stopped Sandra cold. A loud blast. And Bree instantly knew what it was.

A gunshot.

Gabriel jolted from the sound and began to cry. Bree instinctively pulled him back to her body while she stooped to go to the floor.

Luca helped her with that. He got her down in a blink, positioned himself over them and drew his gun. Joelle, Slater and Duncan did the same, and they took cover behind the hay bales.

“Move away from the wall,” Duncan told Sandra, and the woman scrambled closer to Joelle. Duncan then called for backup. “Carmen and Woodrow were already on their way out here to look for Gabriel,” Duncan relayed to them a moment later. “They’ll be here in less than five minutes.”

Carmen Gonzales and Woodrow Leonard, both veteran deputies. Good. Bree wanted all the help they could get.

There was another blast, but it didn’t seem to hit anything. At least Bree hoped it hadn’t.

“I think both shots came from the direction of the road,” Luca muttered. His gaze met Bree’s for a split second, and she saw the renewed fear that was there. Fear for their son’s safety.

She doubted the shots had come from a hunter who’d strayed too close to her place. Not with everything else that had gone on. Someone was after her, and that someone didn’t care if they put her baby at risk. That both sickened her and terrified her. Bree could deal with someone coming after her. She was a cop’s daughter after all. But she didn’t want her baby involved in this.

Keeping low, Slater made his way to the barn door that was still open, and staying to the side, he peered out. “I don’t see anyone, but if the shots are coming from the road, the shooter could be hiding in the trees.”

There were certainly plenty of those by the country road. So many places for a gunman to hide. But maybe Carmen and Woodrow would be able to see the shooter when they arrived. Maybe they’d even be able to arrest him, and Bree might be able to get those answers she so desperately needed.

The seconds ticked by, and her heartbeat and breathing had just started to level when there was another gunshot. This one blasted through the wall of the barn, creating a hole where light speared through it.

Another shot.

This one tore through the barn as well and smacked into the wall on the opposite side. The shots weren’t low but rather at the height if the target had been standing. That changed though because the next shot came in low. It ripped through yet more wood, sending splinters flying.

Bree ducked her head, putting her face right against Gabriel’s to shelter him. He continued to cry, loud wails now because he was obviously afraid.

In the distance, she heard another sound. A police siren. Obviously, Carmen and Woodrow weren’t going with a silent approach. Part of her was thankful for that because it might cause the shooter to stop. But it might also cause him to run.

Duncan’s phone rang, and he answered it while he ran to the barn door next to Slater. “The deputies don’t see a shooter or a vehicle on the road.”

The vehicle could be on the ranch trail. Perhaps even the one where her mother had left the silver truck. But there were trails that threaded all through this area. What likely hadn’t happened though was the shooter had come on foot. Her place was too far off the beaten path for that.

The wailing of the sirens got closer. But there were no more gunshots.

“Luca and Joelle, wait here with the others,” Duncan instructed. “Slater will come with me. Stay put,” he added to Bree.

She didn’t ask what Duncan and her brother were doing. Because Bree knew. They were going to go in pursuit of the person who’d just tried to kill them.