Surrendering to the Sheriff (16 page)

In other words, a trap.

Even though he hated to do this, Aiden figured their best chance of survival was eliminating the threats one by one. And to do that, it meant taking Kendall with him and Sarah into the lion’s den.

“Come on,” he whispered to them.

Aiden headed toward the kitchen, knowing that he was about to face down yet another hired gun.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

With each step that they took toward the kitchen, Kendall’s heart raced even harder.

Her thoughts were racing, too. This could turn deadly fast, and with the vehicles now on fire, it meant they would have to escape on foot. As it was still dark outside, there could be even more hired guns waiting to attack.

First, though, they had to deal with the two thugs who might already be inside the house. That pair would be more than enough to finish what had already been set in motion.

Aiden was ahead of her. Sarah behind. Both were armed, but Kendall wished she had a gun. It was too late for her to try to grab one, so maybe they could get out of this without shots being fired.

Of course, they hadn’t managed to avoid violence with the other attacks, and because of it, four men were now dead. Too bad that body count hadn’t stopped their boss from hiring yet another crew to do the job where the others had failed.

Kendall kept her hands over her stomach. Not that her hands would do much if someone did start shooting at them. But she had to do something to protect the baby, and this was all she had.

Aiden inched them across the living room, past the very spot where days earlier the other two gunmen had held her captive, waiting for Aiden to come home. Kendall had no idea how long she’d been forced to kneel on that floor. It’d felt like hours before Aiden finally arrived.

Despite the gunshot wound, he’d managed to rescue her, and while she hated relying on anyone to do that for her again, if she needed a rescuer, she preferred it to be Aiden. Other than her, no one else would fight harder to keep their baby safe.

Their baby.

Not a good time for the image of that ultrasound to skip through her mind. It only revved up her heartbeat and breathing even more. She didn’t need that. She needed to focus in case there was some way she could help Sarah and Aiden.

They walked past the sofa, and Aiden focused his attention ahead while Sarah kept watch behind them. There was no one in the living room. No sounds to indicate the intruders were still in the house, but she doubted they’d just leave without getting what they had come there to get.

And what they no doubt intended to get was her.

But why?

Why did this keep happening?

Too bad she might finally know the answer when it was too late to do anything about it, but she figured it had something to do with the evidence against Jewell. Or maybe the person behind this wanted to silence her for good.

Aiden stopped just short of the entry into the kitchen and glanced around. There were half walls that divided the living room from the kitchen, but toward the back door was also a pantry and laundry room. Someone could be lurking there.

“Hell,” Aiden cursed.

Kendall’s heart went to her knees. So did she, because Aiden pushed her down and took cover behind the wall. He also aimed his gun at something or somebody toward the back door.

“Come out with your hands up,” Aiden snarled.

Kendall didn’t hear any indication the person was doing that.

Sarah stayed on her feet, hovering over Kendall while she continued to keep watch all around them. Kendall looked, too, and listened.

Did she hear someone breathing?

If the intruder was there, then why hadn’t he just fired at them?

“Behind you, Sarah!” Aiden shouted.

Even though Sarah had been keeping watch in that direction, she obviously hadn’t seen the intruder in the shadows. She snapped toward the living room, already aiming her gun.

“Wouldn’t pull that trigger if I were you,” the man said.

Like all the other attackers, he was wearing a ski mask, and he had a gun pointed right at them.

Or rather right at Kendall.

“We can do this the easy way,” the man continued, “and Miss O’Neal can come with us.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Aiden snapped. “But you can make this easy on yourself by surrendering.”

Kendall couldn’t be certain, but she thought the guy might have chuckled. Probably because surrendering was the last thing on his mind, but he had to have known that Aiden wasn’t just going to let her walk out of there with a kidnapper.

“You don’t have a way out of this,” someone else said.

Yet another man, and this was the one in the kitchen. Kendall couldn’t see him, but she figured he was on the other side of the fridge. Behind cover. So even if Aiden shot the one in the living room, this one would be there to continue the attack.

“You’re not taking Kendall,” Aiden growled.

“Oh, no?” That came from the guy in the living room. “You’ll want to rethink that.”

Before Kendall could even consider what to do or say, Aiden shoved her to the side of a chair and turned, pointing his gun at the guy in the kitchen. Sarah took aim at the one in the living room.

“Don’t shoot!” someone called out.

Not the voice of the thugs. This was a woman, and Kendall immediately recognized who it was.

Carla.

Aiden and Sarah both froze, and because Kendall didn’t want to distract Aiden by leaving cover, she just pulled in her breath and held it. Waiting and praying.

God, no.

Of course, she’d known all along that Carla could be the one behind this, but it was another thing to have it confirmed. Aiden had to be falling apart inside, but he kept his gun and aim steady.

“What are you doing here?” he asked his mother.

Carla made a rough sobbing sound. “Please, just put down your gun. If not, they’ll kill you.”

Now Aiden reacted. His nostrils flared, and his teeth came together. “You’d really have them kill your own son?” he snapped.

Silence. For what seemed an eternity.

Sarah volleyed glances between the living room, Aiden and the kitchen. She was clearly waiting for Aiden to tell her what to do, but Aiden stayed silent as well, glaring at his mother.

But then he flinched.

Aiden’s grimace changed, and a single word of profanity slipped from his mouth. Even Sarah turned to the kitchen to gape and stare.

“I’m sorry,” Carla said, her voice barely audible. “But if you shoot, they’ll kill me, then you.”

Kendall didn’t get up, but she did lift her head slightly so she could take a quick look over the half wall. She wanted to see what had grabbed Aiden’s and Sarah’s attention.

And she soon saw what.

Carla was there all right, partly hidden in the shadows of the dark kitchen. Her face was stark white, and she appeared to be trembling. She wasn’t armed.

But the person standing behind her was.

That person had a gun aimed right at Carla’s head.

*

A
IDEN
HADN
’
T
THOUGHT
this night could get any worse, but obviously he’d been dead wrong about that.

“Hell.” And because Aiden didn’t know what else to say, he repeated it.

When Aiden had first seen his mother in the kitchen, he thought for certain that she was in on this latest kidnapping plan. After all, she had motive, means and opportunity. Well, motive if he counted her wanting to get back at Jewell and her family by making them look guilty as sin of trying to destroy evidence. However, with the missing money and news of her being in a mental hospital, Carla had gone to the top of his suspect list.

She didn’t look so much like a suspect now.

Unless she was faking all this so she could clear her name. Anything was possible, including that.

“Are you in on this?” Aiden asked her.

No sound of outrage or drama from his mother. She just shook her head as tears trickled down her cheeks. It was hard to push those tears aside, but Aiden still wasn’t convinced she was innocent.

“I’m going to fire a shot at that jerk behind you,” Aiden said to Carla. “And since he’s already said he’ll fire back, now would be a good time for you to come clean of any of your own wrongdoing.”

Carla shook her head. “Please don’t shoot. He’ll kill you.”

“Yeah, I will,” the guy verified. “I’ll kill her, too. Saving her isn’t part of the plan. In fact, the only one I’m supposed to save for sure is the pregnant woman.”

If Aiden could have believed this guy, it would have made him feel a little better to know that Kendall could be spared. But the idiot was a hired gun, and even if killing her wasn’t in the plan, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen.

Kendall touched her fingers to her mouth, both her hands and lips trembling. Yes, she was afraid. So was Aiden. But he also saw the fire in her eyes. She wasn’t giving up without a fight.

That was both bad and good.

Good because he might need her help in the next couple of minutes. Help that might include her running for cover somewhere else in the house. But he didn’t want the fire in her eyes spurring her to get in the middle of this fight.

“I want you to think of the baby first,” he whispered to Kendall.

Oh, that didn’t sit well with her, but he could see that it sank in. Good. She’d run if it came down to it, and Aiden was afraid that it would. Now he only hoped Sarah could eliminate the thug in the living room. While he was hoping, Aiden didn’t want there to be any other hired guns waiting outside.

These two along with his mother were plenty enough.

“This is a little bit of déjà vu for me.” Aiden motioned around the living room. “The last time two clowns tried to kidnap Kendall, that didn’t work out so well for them. So, is that your plan, to die tonight like they did?”

“I’ve got your mother,” the one in the kitchen growled. “You’ll cooperate.”

Carla’s mouth tightened. “Clearly, you don’t know the strained relationship between me and my son. He’s not going to put protecting me over his unborn child. And he shouldn’t.”

If she meant that, it was a sentiment that Aiden had never expected to hear coming from her, and later, he’d thank her for it. For now, though, that was still a big
if
.

“I’m a good shot,” Aiden said to the man. “And since you’re a head taller than my mother, it won’t be hard taking you out. Even if you try to scrunch down.” He hiked his thumb to Sarah. “My deputy’s a good shot, too. You want to test that, or do you two just want to put down your guns right now?”

The guy in the kitchen laughed. “He said you had a smart mouth, and he was right.”

Aiden picked right up on that.
“He?”

“He,”
the guy verified without clarifying it. “Now, here’s the way this is really going to work. If the O’Neal woman doesn’t come with us, then we start shooting. First, your mother. Then you and the deputy.”

So the three of them were expendable, making him wonder who they’d nab to destroy evidence. If that was still what they wanted to do, that is. Maybe there were new rules now.

“Your plan sucks,” Aiden insisted. “How soon do you think I’ll leave you alive once you’ve pulled the trigger? You’ll have a bullet in your head before my mother hits the floor.”

Aiden knew it sounded cold and uncaring. He had to be right now. Because if he showed any fear or any indication that he would back down, then it’d start a gunfight. Not only would his mother be killed, maybe Sarah, too, but a stray bullet could hit Kendall.

“Who’s behind this?” Aiden asked his mother. “And if it’s you, I want to know now.”

“It’s not me.” Carla’s voice cracked on the last word.

Aiden hoped he didn’t regret it later, but he believed her, and that meant if she hadn’t hired these men, somebody else had. Somebody with plenty of money and enough hatred for him and his family that he didn’t mind seeing them die.

“I can’t say anything else,” his mother added in a mumble.

The gunman behind her touched his finger to the communicator that was in his ear and then cursed. “Time to put an end to this now!”

He no longer sounded cocky, just nervous that this wasn’t going down as planned. Well, Aiden wasn’t too easy about it, either, but he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. He couldn’t shoot without risking Kendall’s, Sarah’s and his mother’s lives, and he couldn’t let these goons take Kendall.

“No,” Aiden said, and he didn’t mumble it, either. “If you want to try to take Kendall, you have to come through me.”

That didn’t please the masked guy because his profanity went up a notch, and it took Aiden a moment before he realized the hired gun wasn’t the only one talking. He heard another voice. This one coming from his back porch.

“Hell, kill them all,” the man said. “Burn the place to the ground so I can finish this.”

And Aiden recognized the voice of the man who’d just ordered their murders.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Lee Palmer.

Kendall knew she shouldn’t have been surprised to hear Palmer’s voice. After all, he was a suspect. But it was the first time she’d heard him speak with such venom toward her.

Kill them all.

Kendall lifted her head, staring at him, and she knew this wasn’t a bluff. Palmer wanted them all dead, including her precious baby.

That realization got Kendall standing so she could face him down. By God, if he was going to try to kill them, she wanted to know why. She also wanted to know if Carla was in on this. One look at Aiden’s mom, though, and Kendall was thinking no. The woman seemed just as terrified as Kendall.

“Why are you doing this?” Kendall demanded, staring at Palmer.

Some of that venom faded from Palmer’s expression, and he even made a weary sigh. “Killing you wasn’t part of the plan, Kendall. Sorry that you got caught up in this mess.”

The apology didn’t help matters at all, and the anger rippled through her. Apparently through Aiden, too, because he looked ready to tear Palmer limb from limb. Kendall wouldn’t have minded that happening, but she didn’t want Aiden hurt in the process. And he would be hurt, since Palmer and his thugs had their guns aimed at him.

Three guns against Aiden’s and Sarah’s two were not good odds. Heck, there were no good odds when it came to her baby and these killers.

“Why?” Kendall repeated to Palmer.

Aiden inched closer to her, no doubt so he could be in a better position to protect her when the attack finally happened.

“This all got out of hand,” Palmer finally said. “Yost and his partner weren’t supposed to shoot you. They were only supposed to make Aiden destroy those bone fragments so your sister could get out of that jail cell.”

Kendall desperately wanted Jewell free but not like this. “Jewell wouldn’t want that evidence destroyed.”

Palmer lifted his shoulder. “Well, I was helping her out, wasn’t I? She always was a little too goody-goody for me, but hey, any woman who sliced up Whitt Braddock and left his body to rot is a friend of mine. I figured I owed her a favor or two.”

This had to be hard for Aiden to take, but he didn’t respond to Palmer. He only moved closer to her. Maybe that meant Aiden had a plan to try to get them out of this.

“Like I said,” Palmer went on, “I’m sorry you got caught up in this. If Yost hadn’t told you that I’d hired him, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Kendall froze. Shook her head. “He didn’t tell me.”

Palmer studied her as if trying to decide if she was telling the truth, then he cursed. “Well, he said he did, and I believed him. I couldn’t take that chance, could I? Especially since Yost was stupid enough to drive out to my place and get it all captured on that traffic camera. Coming to my place wasn’t part of the plan.”

“But he panicked,” Aiden filled in, “when I killed his partner.”

“Like I said, he was stupid,” Palmer added. “Couldn’t risk him being out there. It was the same for that moron of a prison guard. He botched that big-time.”

And now both Yost and the guard were dead. She hoped that caused the two hired guns in the house to have second thoughts about doing this, because if Palmer would kill the guard and Yost, then anyone connected to this plan would likely be eliminated.

“You set up Joplin and my mother?” Aiden asked, though she wasn’t sure how he could speak with his jaw that stiff.

Palmer scowled. “
Set up
is such an ugly phrase. All I did was fix it so Joplin would show up at that meeting with Yost. It took some of the spotlight off me and put it on him.”

“You set him up,” Aiden confirmed. “So, Joplin didn’t fire those shots at Yost. One of your hired guns no doubt did that. And I’m also betting you did that disappearing act with the money from Carla’s bogus account.”

No denial there, either. Heaven knew how long Palmer had been planning this, but Kendall still wasn’t convinced of his reasons for doing it.

“Helping my sister seems a little extreme,” Kendall said to Palmer. “Especially since we didn’t ask for your help.”

“He didn’t do this for Jewell. He did it because Palmer hates me,” Carla volunteered. “Yes, I had an affair with him. If you can call what a teenager does an affair. I was stupid, and I paid dearly for that stupidity.” She paused. “In addition to the settlement money he got for my car rage
incident
, he extorted money from my family. That’s how Palmer got so rich.”

Kendall glanced at Aiden to see if he knew that. He apparently didn’t. “Palmer was the one who was engaged at the time, not you,” Aiden reminded her. “So, how could he have extorted more money?”

Palmer smiled. “Tell him, Carla. I’m sure your son will want to hear all about this.”

And Kendall was equally certain that he wouldn’t. Still, it sounded as if this was all at the heart of what was going on now.

Carla took a deep breath. “Palmer made sex tapes of us. I didn’t know,” she added. “But when he broke things off with me, he told my father he’d mail copies of the tapes to all our friends and family if we didn’t pay up. So we paid him a hundred thousand dollars.”

Definitely not petty cash, especially forty years ago.

“Palmer gave us the tapes,” Carla continued. “We destroyed them, and I thought that was the last of it. Then, when I married Whitt, Palmer came around demanding more money. He had copies of the tapes.”

Palmer didn’t deny any of that, but the smile did vanish from his face. “What Carla left out was that Whitt hired some muscle to break into my house. They beat me within an inch of my life until I told them where I’d hidden the tapes, and then they stole them.”

It took Kendall a moment to process all that. Aiden was obviously a few seconds ahead of her, because he cursed.

“This is why you have a vendetta against my family?” Aiden snapped.

Again, Palmer didn’t deny it, but it was clear that was the reason. “Hey, I’m not the only one with a vendetta. Remember, your daddy was always trying to butt heads with me over any little thing. I kept besting him, and it riled him. That, and his getting my
leftovers
.”

With that, Palmer aimed a smug glance at Carla. A glance that nobody, including Carla, missed.

A sound of raw anger came from Aiden’s throat, and Kendall was afraid he would just launch himself at Palmer. Kendall had never cared much for Palmer, but she could see now the true monster that he was.

Carla had almost certainly already seen the monster a time or two, and the sound that Aiden made was nothing compared to her shriek of outrage.

“Yeah, leftovers,” Palmer repeated.

Kendall could have bet it was a bad idea to throw that in Carla’s face. And it was. Maybe a bad idea for all of them.

Because Carla turned and launched herself at Palmer.

*

“S
TOP
!” A
IDEN
YELLED
to his mother.

But he was already too late to try to diffuse this. Carla rammed right into Palmer, and despite the fact that the man outweighed her by a good fifty pounds, it was enough to off-balance him.

Both his mother and Palmer fell to the floor, where they started a wrestling match.

That was only the beginning of the chaos.

The hired gun in the kitchen ducked out of the way so he wouldn’t get knocked down on the floor, too, but as soon as he recovered, he whipped around and aimed his weapon at Aiden.

“Get down,” Aiden told Kendall, not waiting for her to do that. He pushed her to the floor and tried to move in front of her as best he could.

Right before the blast echoed through the room.

The idiot in the living room had fired at him, and if Aiden had been just a split second slower, he wouldn’t have gotten Kendall out of the way in time. That riled him to the core, but he was more than just riled.

He was scared that he wouldn’t be able to get them out of this alive.

Sarah fired at the shooter in the living room, all of them scrambling to take cover. Kendall and he landed next to the chair. Sarah behind the sofa. Aiden lost sight of the guy in the kitchen, but the one who’d fired darted out into the entry.

Just out of range for Aiden to blast him to smithereens. How dare this moron try to kill Kendall and the baby?

Another bullet came barreling past him.

Not from the guy in the entry this time. It’d come from the kitchen, and the bullet landed just a fraction away from Sarah. Thankfully, his deputy hurried to the other end of the sofa, and she came up ready to fire.

So did Aiden.

There was no way his mother could hold off Palmer for long, and like his hired guns, Palmer was armed. Considering that he’d called Carla his “leftovers,” Aiden doubted that the man would spare her life.

Or anyone else’s for that matter.

No, Palmer probably had plans to kill all of them, including these two that he’d hired.

“Stay down,” Aiden whispered to Kendall.

Even though the seconds were ticking away, Aiden took a moment to glance at her and make sure she was okay. She wasn’t. Kendall wasn’t hurt, thank God, but she was shaking and clearly terrified.

“Do you have a backup weapon I can use?” she asked.

Okay, maybe not as terrified as he thought. Aiden didn’t like the idea of putting a gun in her hands, because it might make the hired pair zoom in on her as a target. But like him and the others, Kendall was already a target, and it was best if she had a way to protect herself.

“I still want you to stay down,” he insisted, but he removed the small gun from his boot holster and handed it to her. Aiden added a firm glance, hoping that Kendall would listen.

The gunman in the kitchen fired another shot at Sarah, and since he was focusing on the deputy, that meant he probably figured his boss could take care of a middle-aged woman like Carla. But his mother was holding her own. She rammed her knee into Palmer’s groin and had the man howling in pain.

That distraction wouldn’t last, either.

After all, Palmer still had hold of his gun, and he was trying to aim it at Carla so he could shoot her.

Aiden had to do something, fast, and that something started with getting rid of the shooter in the kitchen. The guy had Sarah pinned down. Plus, the one in the entry could get in on this at any second.

“Watch behind me,” he said to Kendall because he had no other choice. He needed to get in a better position, and he couldn’t risk doing that if the guy was going to shoot him in the back. If that happened, Kendall’s chance of survival would go down significantly.

Kendall shifted her position, still staying down, but she aimed in the direction of the entry. Aiden aimed at the kitchen. He leaned out but immediately had to duck back when the shooter sent another bullet his way.

From the corner of Aiden’s eye, he saw Sarah maneuvering herself for a better shot as well, but Aiden waved her off and instead motioned toward the entry. He wanted Kendall and Sarah to focus on that, since there were two guns in the kitchen.

His mother screamed, a bloodcurdling sound that knifed right through Aiden. No, Carla hadn’t exactly been mother of the year, but it sounded as if Palmer was killing her.

Aiden moved out of cover again, taking aim at the hired gun.

The hired gun did the same to him.

But Aiden pulled the trigger first.

The bullet smacked into the guy’s chest, and because the shooter was still lifting his gun toward the living room, Aiden was forced to fire a second shot at him. That one sent the guy to the floor.

“Stay back,” Aiden warned Kendall one last time.

He raced into the kitchen, and the first thing he saw was the blood on his mother’s face. Palmer had obviously hit her, but she was still fighting, and she had a tight grip on his right wrist.

But not tight enough.

Before Aiden could even get to her, Palmer turned the gun and pulled the trigger. The shot didn’t go into his mother, but it came right at Aiden. He had to dive to the floor.

And it wasn’t the only shot.

Behind him, Sarah shouted, “Watch out!”

Aiden scrambled to the side of the kitchen, only to realize that Sarah wasn’t yelling at him.

But rather at Kendall.

Aiden’s heart slammed so hard in his chest that it felt as if his ribs had cracked. The shooter had his gun aimed right at Kendall, and even though she was hunched down, he had a direct shot to kill her.

“No!” Aiden called out, hoping to get the guy’s attention off Kendall.

It didn’t work.

The shot tore through the room.