Page 33 of Lone Star Protector

Hopefully, that was true. But there was another factor that could play into this. They had no idea if Bodie, or the shooter, was working alone.

Nash used a voice command to open the pasture gates, and she felt Slade slow the van before he sped up again. Obviously, there was no more driveway since they began to bobble around on the uneven ground.

She held her breath, waiting for the sound of an explosion. But it didn’t come. However, more gunfire did. Not aimed at the house this time.

But rather at the van.

The bullets pinged off the metal, and she prayed they didn’t ricochet and hurt one of Nash’s horses. Or anyone else who happened to be in the area since they weren’t that far from a road.

Slade slammed on the brakes just as the shots stopped, and both Nash and he cursed.

“What happened?” she asked.

But they didn’t answer. They both just bolted from the van, and she braced herself for the sound of more gunfire. This time from Nash and Slade.

Everything went quiet though.

Too quiet.

“The sonofabitch is getting away,” Slade spat out.

No, no, no. That was not what she wanted to hear. If he got away, there’d just be another attack. Another hellish wait to put an end to this.

“Stay here with Caroline,” she heard Nash say. That caused her heart to drop. So did what Nash added next. “I’m going after him.”

Chapter Eleven

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While silently cursing, Nash did a zigzag sprint toward the tree where he’d last seen the shooter. Cursing because he sure as hell wasn’t seeing him now. And since the SOB wasn’t firing any shots, that likely meant he was well on his way to being long gone.

Nash made it to the fence and scrambled over it, dropping down to the other side and immediately bringing up his gun.

Ready to fire.

But there was no blasted target.

He stopped, went still, and just listened. For a spring morning, it was plenty quiet. No birds. No rustle of wind. No running footsteps. Hell. Did that mean Bodie or whoever had fired those shots had dropped down and was lying in wait?

Maybe.

But Nash didn’t get a sense of that. In fact, his instincts were telling him he was alone here. So, where the hell had he gone?

And was it even a he?

No way to know if it was Bodie. Or Eddie. But it could be Jordana, too, especially since she’d had all that firearms training. Shit, for that matter, it could be some minion they’d hired to do their bidding. Someone willing to put a bullet in Caroline.

Someone willing to kill her.

Nash got moving again, taking slow, cautious steps. Still listening. And still hearing nothing.

Not at first anyway.

But then he caught a sound and did more cursing. Because it was a motorcycle engine, and it was coming from a good thirty yards away.

Nash took off running, watching for any IEDs or traps that the shooter might have left behind. This wasn’t his property, so there were no sensors or cameras to detect someone doing that sort of thing, and if the shooter knew that, he or she might have decided to capitalize on the security flaw.

He bolted through the woods, following the sound of the engine. But the motorcycle was moving, too, getting further and further away from him. Nash didn’t catch sight of it until he made it all the way to the road. Even then, he got just a glimpse, a blur of motion, before the rider sped around a curve and out of sight.

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