Gunfire On The Ranch. Delores Fossen

this all a setup?” she asked. Neither Gabriel nor Theo jumped to deny that, and that only caused her heart to pound even harder. “You think the hired gun wanted Theo to come here?” she added.

      Again, they didn’t deny it. “If so, it worked,” Gabriel mumbled, and he tacked on some profanity.

      Yes, it had. But what did it mean? It didn’t take Ivy long to come up with something that she didn’t want to consider.

      All the “survivors” of the murders were now under the same roof. Gabriel, Jameson, Jodi, Theo and her. Along with their sister, Lauren, all five of them had been either in the house where her parents were murdered or on the grounds. Which meant they had all been possible witnesses to the crime.

      Possible, but they actually hadn’t been.

      Ivy had been in her upstairs bedroom with her headphones on. And crying. Because of the blowup that Theo had just had with her folks. The music had been so loud that she hadn’t heard her mother and father being murdered in the room just below her. Some people had told her that it was a blessing she hadn’t heard because if she had, she would have gone downstairs and possibly been killed, too. But Ivy wished she had heard. Because she might have been able to save them.

      Jodi hadn’t heard the murders going on, either. She’d been outside, coming back from Gabriel’s house, which was a short distance away. She’d been attacked that night. Not by the killer, though. But rather by her ex-boyfriend who’d been in a rage over their breakup. Since he was now dead, he was no longer a possible witness.

      Jameson and Gabriel had been at their own houses, but they were close enough to the main ranch house that they could have seen something. They hadn’t. But maybe the killer hadn’t known or believed that.

      “What could your father or August possibly hope to gain by eliminating witnesses?” Ivy came out and asked.

      “They wouldn’t,” Theo answered.

      She looked at Gabriel to see if he would argue that. He didn’t. “If they wanted to clear Travis’s name,” Gabriel explained, “they could be desperate enough to arrange a murder. But Theo and Jodi wouldn’t be the targets.”

      Because Travis still seemingly loved his children. Of course, that didn’t exclude Travis’s brother. August wasn’t fond of Jodi or Theo. “This could all be something August put together.”

      “If August had come up with this plan to make my father look innocent,” Theo went on, “he would have hired someone to stab his victim.”

      The way her parents had been killed.

      Ivy was about to say that could be the hired thug’s plan. But then she heard a sound that stopped her cold.

      “Get down!” someone shouted. Aiken.

      But there was no time to do that. Because a bullet came crashing through the window where Ivy was standing.

       Chapter Three

      Hell. Theo hadn’t even seen the shot coming.

      But he sure as heck heard it. Felt it, too, when the glass flew through the room and a piece of it sliced across his cheek. It stung, but he ignored it and scrambled toward Ivy so he could pull her to the floor. She had already started in that direction, but Theo helped her along by hooking his arm around her and dragging her about five feet away from the window.

      Good thing, because another bullet tore through what was left of the glass.

      “Stay down,” Theo warned her, and he put her behind a huge leather chair so he could hurry back to the window. He didn’t get directly in front of it but instead kept to the side.

      This was exactly what Theo had been trying to stop. Ivy and her family had been through enough, but apparently that moron outside didn’t feel the same. He was adding to their misery, and in doing so, he was putting an innocent child in danger. Theo didn’t know how old Nathan was, but it was possible he was a baby.

      “Do you see him?” Gabriel asked. He came to the window next to Theo and peered out through the edge of the blinds.

      Theo looked over the grounds as best he could, but there were too many places their attacker could use for cover. A barn, several vehicles, shrubs and trees. However, it became a little easier to narrow down a hiding place when the next shot blasted through the air. Like the other two, this one slammed into the wall near the door, and it allowed Theo to pinpoint the man’s location.

      “He’s on the right side of the barn,” Theo relayed to Gabriel. “I can’t see him, but I can see a rifle barrel.”

      Gabriel didn’t waste any time. He tossed Ivy his phone. “Text Aiken and tell him to stay back from the barn.” And like Theo, Gabriel took aim in that direction.

      Theo didn’t look back at Ivy, but he could hear the clicks on the phone as she wrote. However, they were soon drowned out by another shot. This time, it went through the window near Gabriel.

      That must have been the final straw for Ivy’s brother because he cursed, took aim at the barn and fired. Theo did the same, all the while watching to see if their attacker would show his face. He didn’t. And he didn’t seem put off by being shot at, because he continued to fire, as well. However, something was off because Theo could no longer see the rifle.

      “I think he’s trying to make a getaway,” Theo mumbled. “I’ll go after him.” He didn’t allow Gabriel or Ivy a say in that. Keeping low, Theo hurried toward the door. “Disarm the security system so I can go out front but reset it as soon as I’m outside.”

      Theo had only been in Gabriel’s house a time or two even though the man had lived there for going on thirteen years. Gabriel hadn’t exactly been a fan of Theo’s when he’d been dating Ivy, but Theo had dropped by a couple of times to pick her up there. That’s why Theo knew the general layout, and he ran up the hall and through the family room to get to the front door.

      Gabriel must have turned off the system because the alarm didn’t go off when Theo eased open the door. However, he did hear a sound he didn’t especially want to hear.

      Footsteps behind him.

      It was Gabriel. “You’ll need help,” Gabriel growled.

      “You should stay with Ivy,” Theo growled right back.

      “She’s the one who insisted I go with you.” Gabriel didn’t seem especially pleased about that.

      This was part of that “old water, old bridge” thing between Theo and the Becketts. Still, Gabriel was a lawman, and he knew it was a stupid time to discuss this or anything else, especially all that old baggage. Gabriel rearmed the security system, this time using the keypad on the wall, and he shut the door. He then tipped his head to the left side of the house.

      “I’ll go that way,” Gabriel said, “and make my way to the back. As soon as I get to the porch, I’ll fire at the barn, but I’ll keep my shots low to try to avoid a kill shot. You do the same from this side of the house. Ivy’s texting the hands to let them know we’re out here so they won’t hit us by mistake.”

      Good. Gabriel had been thorough. Now, if everything played out as planned, they could catch this snake and get him to talk. If August or his father was involved, then there’d be hell to pay. Not just from Theo but from the Becketts.

      Theo made his way to the side of the porch and peered around the edge. He was careful, but the gunman must have been looking for him because he sent a shot right at Theo. It smashed into the wood siding, tearing a hole in it.

      That caused Theo to curse again, and he hoped like the devil that none of those shots made it through the wall where Ivy was or upstairs to the others. If the shots went in the direction of her son, Theo was almost certain that Ivy would go running up there, and in doing so she might get herself killed.

      Theo