Surrendering to the Sheriff. Delores Fossen

      He didn’t want her to suffer. Not over some injury she’d managed to inflict on this homicidal idiot, but each kind word from him, each thought about this pregnancy nipped at barriers that had to stay in place when it came to Kendall.

      “Leland’s on the way,” Aiden whispered when her trembling got worse. “That means we’ll have backup soon, and we’ll be okay.”

      Kendall nodded, and he figured she was trying to look a lot stronger than she felt right now.

      Another bullet flew at them. Then another. And soon they were coming nonstop. Aiden had hoped it wouldn’t come down to this, but the men were no doubt getting desperate, since they knew he probably had help on the way. That meant they had only two choices.

      Escape or try to recover their hostage.

      They appeared to be going for the latter, though the two had to know they could kill Kendall in the process. Of course, they could be doing cleanup.

      Trying to eliminate all witnesses.

      If so, these next few minutes were going to be bad, because Aiden had no intention of making an elimination easy for them. Nope. He was fighting back along with being fighting mad. How dare these morons pull a stunt like this in his own yard and house!

      Now the problem was trying to figure out how to stop them from getting lucky with their elimination attempts.

      Aiden knew every inch of his property, and there was a dry narrow gully about ten yards behind Kendall and him. Not as close as he would have liked, but maybe if he could distract these guys long enough, Kendall would be able to crawl to the gully, where she’d be better protected from the bullets.

      “I didn’t have any part in this,” she said. Another look up at him.

      Damn. He had enough uncomfortable things running through his mind right now without adding her emotions.

      “Yeah. I figured that out.” Too bad he had plenty of other things to figure out.

      “And I meant what I said about leaving,” Kendall added. “I had no intention of ever telling you about the baby.”

      The woman knew how to rile him. In the middle of a gunfight no less. Aiden didn’t have a clue how he felt about this pregnancy, yet, but he darn sure hadn’t wanted her to hide it from him. And Kendall had rattled that off as if he’d be pleased about her plan to sneak off.

      Well, he wasn’t.

      Of course, right now he wasn’t pleased about much of anything except that Kendall and he were still breathing.

      Aiden glanced out at the two men again. They were still in place where he couldn’t blow off any of their body parts. Then he glanced at Kendall.

      But not at her face.

      Too much emotion there for him to deal with, but he needed to see how her arm was holding up. The bleeding had stopped. That was something at least. But that gash was deep, and it had to be throbbing like a bad toothache.

      “How does your arm feel?” Aiden asked, and he fired a shot at the men just so they wouldn’t try to move closer.

      “I’m okay.”

      A lie, for sure, but Aiden would take it for now. He’d already asked Leland to bring out an ambulance, but the medics wouldn’t get close to the place with shots being fired. That was yet another reason for Aiden to put an end to this.

      “I need you to get to the ground,” Aiden said. “Stay behind me and stay down. Crawl to the gully.” He tipped his head in that direction.

      Kendall glanced over at the gully. Then at him. “But what about you?”

      “I won’t be far behind.”

      Possibly a lie as well, but Kendall had enough fear running through her without his spelling out that there’d be no one to cover him if he tried to move from the tree to the gully. No, it was best for him to make his stand for as long as he could behind the tree.

      She finally gave a shaky nod and inched herself lower to the ground. It wasn’t easy. They were plastered against each other—her backside sliding against a part of him that needed no such touching. Especially from her. He got a split-second jolt of the blasted heat that’d always been there between them.

      Thankfully, the fresh round of bullets slugged that heat aside.

      He pushed Kendall all the way down until she was practically on her belly and then crouched by his side. “Move slowly if you have to.” Because of her injured arm and the pregnancy. But Aiden was really hoping that she could do this fast.

      Aiden leaned out, took aim at the front of the SUV and fired a shot just as Kendall started crawling.

      She stayed down just as he’d ordered, and she moved through the wildflowers and other underbrush. Thankfully, fast. Still, Aiden fired another shot at the gunmen just to keep their attention on him. He breathed a little easier once he saw Kendall slide down and into the gully.

      She was safe.

      Well, maybe.

      He’d parked just on the other side of the gully. Off the road and behind some trees. Aiden hadn’t seen any other hired guns lurking around, but that didn’t mean there couldn’t have been some hiding.

      The big talkative guy lifted his head, fired a couple of shots. Not the nonstop barrage like before. And in between the shots, Aiden heard the men talking. Or rather arguing.

      Clearly, their plan had gone to Hades in a big ol’ handbasket by losing their hostage and what with one of them being on the business end of Kendall and her scissors. Now they were no doubt trying to figure out a way to salvage this, and it was possible the injured one needed some medical attention, too.

      In the distance Aiden heard a welcome sound.

      Sirens.

      That got the men chattering even more, and Aiden braced himself for whatever they were going to try to throw at him next.

      What they threw were bullets.

      And lots of them.

      The men fired into the tree. A volley of gunfire. All of it aimed at Aiden.

      He ducked down, trying to shelter his body as best he could, but he was getting pelted with flying pieces of wood from the tree and other debris that the bullets were kicking up from the ground. There was no way he could lean out and try to get off a shot of his own. It’d be suicide, so he stayed put and prayed that he got a break soon.

      He got it.

      But it wasn’t the break he had in mind. The shots slowed to a trickle, but even over the sound of the blasts, he heard another one.

      The SUV.

      One of them had started up the engine.

      No. It was too soon for this to happen. Judging from the sirens, Leland was still a quarter of a mile out. Maybe more. These guys could get away before Leland even arrived.

      Aiden moved to the other side of the tree, leaned out just a fraction and saw the two men already in the SUV. Only one, the injured one on the passenger’s side, was firing through the open door, and even though his aim seemed wobbly, he still hit the dang tree.

      Aiden had to dive back behind it for cover.

      “Stay down!” Kendall yelled.

      He wanted to curse when he saw her lift her head. “You stay down,” Aiden snarled right back at her.

      Aiden leaned out again. Took aim at the guy who was firing. And he pulled the trigger.

      His bullet smacked right into the man’s chest, and just like that, the guy tumbled out of the SUV and onto the ground. If he wasn’t dead, he soon would be. But that wasn’t Aiden’s concern now.

      It was the driver.

      The