Bucking Bronc Lodge 04(43)

“Think this through.” She motioned toward the boys who had quieted but watched her and Dugan. “You want your freedom. There’s no way you can escape with these children underfoot. Take me and I’ll help you.”

Tension thrummed through the air as she waited on his response. He turned and paced across the space, waving the gun at her and the kids, his movements jerky.

Finally he whirled around and aimed the gun at her. “All right, but we’re taking the boy.”

Jordan shook her head. “No, please leave him. He’s innocent—”

“He’s McGregor’s son.” Dugan walked over and snatched Timmy up by the shirt. Timmy released a sob as Dugan dragged him toward her. Jordan caught Timmy against her legs and cradled him against her.

“Shh, honey, it’s okay, I’ll take care of you.”

Dugan pointed the gun at the other boys, then at Jordan’s head. “Stay here. If you move, I’ll shoot her.”

“No!” Wayling and Rory cried.

Justin shielded them with his body while Carlos caught a charging Malcolm by the arm.

“Don’t hurt her,” Carlos muttered.

Dugan glared at them. “I mean it. If you move, she’s dead.”

Carlos nodded, then Dugan shoved her and Timmy out the side barn door.

“Where are we going?” Jordan asked.

“Do you ever shut up?” Dugan shouted.

Timmy stumbled, and she grabbed his hand to keep him from falling. Suddenly leaves rustled to the side. Jordan slanted her gaze toward the noise.

Then a figure stepped from the woods, his look lethal. “Dugan, it’s over. Let them go.”

Miles...thank God he’d found them.

Dugan cursed, shoved her and Timmy back toward the barn, then fired his gun at Miles.

Terror filled Jordan as she and Timmy fell inside the barn, and another gunshot echoed through the air.

Jordan said a silent prayer that he hadn’t hit Miles. Poor Timmy needed his father now more than ever.

* * *

MILES DUCKED TO THE SIDE just in time to dodge the bullet. Another pinged off a tree near him, and he tried to focus on Dugan. If he just shot the man, he could rescue Timmy and Jordan and the others.

He raised his gun. Dugan was using Jordan and Timmy like a shield, and he couldn’t take a chance on hitting one of them. Then Jordan and his son disappeared back inside the barn. For a fraction of a second, he had a view of Dugan.

His hand shook, and he narrowed his eyes, determined to make the shot count. One bullet to the chest, that’s all he needed.

Revenge flared hot in his blood, the taste of it so delicious he savored the moment of victory. The sound of the bullet cracking the man’s ribs.

He envisioned Dugan falling to the ground, eating dust, his blood running from his body like a stream, gurgling and bubbling as the life drained from the sick man...

Dugan gone...

The violence ending.

His son safe.

But Dugan vaulted inside the barn before he could fire a round.

Dammit.

Cold sweat exploded on his head and body. Had he messed up by showing himself? Would Dugan take it out on Jordan and Timmy and the other kids?

He inhaled a sharp breath, strained to hear what was going on inside, braced himself for another gunshot, for a scream...

Nausea rose to his throat. Surely the man wasn’t so sadistic he’d hurt all those innocent boys?

But images of the bodies of the women he’d murdered, of Marie’s bloody corpse, flickered across his mind and he knew Dugan was capable of anything. The man had no conscience.

Worse, he was desperate. He’d completely deviated from his pattern and was out of control, acting on instinct and panic with no rational thought as to the fact that his behavior made him look guilty of the crimes he’d been released for.

Still, the accomplice—Ables, he now believed the man to be—was out there.

Mason would alert the authorities and hopefully they would apprehend him. But what kind of damage would he do first?

Was he stalking another victim now? Did he have another woman in his clutches, had he tied her down, raped her, slashed her throat?

A seed of terror seized him, for the first time in months doubts hammering at him.

What if he had been wrong all along?

What if Dugan hadn’t murdered all four women? What if Ables had? Or perhaps they’d taken turns? Maybe it had been a game and they’d been keeping score?

Had he screwed up and set the wheels in motion to cause Marie’s death because he’d missed something? Or what if Belsa had killed her?

Dugan had insisted on his innocence all through the trial. He’d claimed he had been set up.

Was Dugan here to exact revenge because he was innocent—because Miles had been so sure Dugan was guilty that he’d convicted him when the real killer was still hunting?