Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📗

“Stay put like I said,” he ordered.

“You guys can’t go out there. We are being shot at. You have to stay inside and...”

“And what? We have a ranch to run. You have a doctor’s appointment today. We can’t stay shut up inside hoping he goes away.”

Sarah felt like crying. Of course the cattle couldn’t be ignored. It wasn’t smart to skip the doctor’s appointment when she was this close to her due date. But didn’t the people she loved outweigh all that?

He sighed and sat on the very edge of the bed. After a minute of clear internal debate, he took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “No one’s been hurt. There are threats, and obviously this is scary, especially with you pregnant and the girls here, but we’re handling it as best we can.”

“We are sitting ducks.”

He held her hand between his much bigger ones. There was some comfort in that, but not enough to soothe any of the fears. Twice they’d been shot at, and maybe the fact no one had been hurt meant something, but bullets flying around weren’t ever a good thing.

“He’ll make a mistake. He can’t keep lurking around and not get caught.”

“Why not? We live in the middle of nowhere. He’s taken out almost all of Cody’s security measures. He could lurk all day and all night and we’ll never be able to do anything about it.”

“I think at some point the five law enforcement officers living under the same roof means something.”

She wished that comforted her any. It should. The Wyatt brothers were smart. Tucker was a detective so he was used to putting together clues and cases like this.

But so far, Anth was winning. He had the upper hand.

“What if you go out there to take care of the cattle and he ambushes you? What if all these scare tactics are to keep us inside so he has us all in one spot to—”

Jamison knocked on the door frame, peeking his head in. “Cops are finished. Found the gun. Why don’t you all come out to the kitchen so we can talk about our next steps?”

“We’ll be out in just a second,” Dev said.

Jamison disappeared and Dev let go of her hand. Next steps. What could they possibly do next except hunker down?

“Sarah. You want to panic, that’s just fine.”

“I don’t want to panic. I’m not panicking!”

She caught the way he pressed his lips together, as though he was trying not to laugh or point out she sounded a heck of a lot like someone panicking.

“Oh, shut up,” she muttered. She let him help her out of the bed and they walked into the kitchen where, once again, everyone was huddled around the table. Except Grandma Pauline and Liza, who Sarah assumed were upstairs with the girls.

“I called the officer who was out in the car at the entrance. He did a quick search and found the gun that shot at us,” Jamison said. “It was lying in the snow. There are footprints. He’s called in some backup and they’ll take the gun to see if they can lift a print. They’re following the footprints too, best they can, though I suspect the wind will erase the trail before they get anything out of it. With all of us out of commission while we’re under threat, they’re stretched thin as it is.” Four of the six Wyatt brothers worked for Valiant County, and though it was a big county with a big department, losing four officers from active duty probably was pretty stressful.

“I should help.”

Sarah opened her mouth to argue, to demand everyone stay put, but Dev gave a dismissive wave her way.

“I’ll be back in time to go with you to your appointment.”

The smart aleck response died before she could say it as she realized there were questioning looks around the room. Confusion. Except from Duke.

In all the craziness, Sarah hadn’t fully thought about the fact Dev wanting to be a father to the baby would mean telling everyone. No one knew yet and it would be a whole...thing, in the midst of this other thing.

“I think you should go see your doctor too,” Cody said to Nina, dragging people’s attention away from Sarah and Dev. “It’s just a little bit earlier than your normal appointment time. I don’t see the harm in getting checked out. You can take Brianna and—”

“Separating us isn’t going to do any good. If he wants me to get to you, then I’m a target too.”

Sarah shook her head. There was a pattern, and maybe Anth could deviate from it, but why would he have a pattern if he wasn’t using it for some reason? “Gage would be next,” she said. “Anth sent a note to Jamison, then shot at Liza. Or had someone shoot at Liza. Then there was a note to Cody, and he shot at you guys. That’s a pattern, and it means the next thing to happen would be for Gage to get a note, since he was the next one to have a run-in with Ace.”

“Lucky me,” Gage muttered as Felicity wrapped her arm around his.

“This is a North Star gun,” Cody said, placing his phone in the middle of the table. On the screen was a picture of a gun in the snow. “The gun he used—it’s from North Star. Or at least it’s the kind we were issued. He could get his hands on it easy enough without going through North Star, but doesn’t that feel...”

“Pointed?” Sarah supplied. “It connects to your note. Just like shooting at Liza connected to all the uses of kin in Jamison’s note.”

“But neither attempt succeeded at killing their target,” Dev said thoughtfully, staring down at the picture of the gun.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to succeed. Maybe this is the game.”

“The paper says we’re sentenced to death. Why would he sentence us to death, then play a game?”

“I don’t know, but why take a shot