Page 55 of The Sheriff's Baby

The two men were wearing ski masks, and they charged right at her.

DUNCAN’SSTOMACHKNOTTEDwhen he saw the McCullough ranch come into view on the horizon. Considering the god-awful things that’d happened here, the place had an eerie feel to it. The approaching storm didn’t help, either. The thick clouds were an angry-looking slate gray and shut out so much of the light that it looked more like twilight than daytime.

He stopped the cruiser at the end of the road and fired glances all around while Slater sent off a text to Woodrow. According to the two messages they’d already received from Woodrow while Slater and he had been en route, Woodrow and Ronnie had arrived at the ranch about seven minutes earlier, and they had done an immediate check with the binoculars.

They’d seen no one.

So they’d driven slightly closer to accommodate the short range of the infrared, and they were about to scan for heat sources. Since the deputies should have had time to at least start that, Duncan needed an update.

“Nothing so far,” Slater relayed when he got a response from Woodrow. “They’re moving closer now that we’re here.”

Ahead of them, he saw the deputies’ cruiser start inching toward the house. Duncan did the same, driving slightly faster than Woodrow since he wanted to be right there with them in case someone opened fire.

It’d been less than ten minutes since he’d left Joelle at his place. Ten minutes of constant worry and doubts. And now Duncan hoped he could do this search as fast as possible so he could get back to her. He had a bad feeling about this whole situation, but he didn’t know if the feeling was because he and his deputies were in immediate danger.

Or if Joelle was.

Possibly all of them were.

So far, their attacker had used guns and the fire at Joelle’s to attempt to kidnap her, but it was possible they had something much bigger in their arsenal now. Then again, they wouldn’t need bigger if they had Joelle’s mom. If Sandra was truly here, she would be a damn good bargaining tool. One no doubt designed to draw out Joelle.

Slater’s phone dinged again. “Woodrow spotted a heat source in the center of the barn,” he told Duncan as he read the text. “If it’s a person, he or she is lying down.”

Hell. Lying down because she could be tied up. Like proverbial bait.

“No other heat sources,” Slater finished.

Of course, that didn’t mean no one was around. If the hired guns or their boss figured infrared would be used, they could be staying just out of range.

“Tell Woodrow that I’m going to pull ahead of them,” Duncan instructed Slater. “I’ll have to knock down a fence, but I’ll drive to the barn.” Maybe even into the barn itself since the person wasn’t near the entrance. That would keep Slater and him protected for a while longer.

While Slater dealt with sending the text, Duncan maneuvered around the other cruiser and drove through the yard. He accelerated when he got to the fence, and the reinforced cruiser bashed right through it. Wood went flying, some of it thumping against the cruiser, but Duncan didn’t think there’d be any real damage to the vehicle. He’d owe the McCulloughs a fence, though.

“Heat source hasn’t moved,” Slater said, giving Duncan the latest update from Woodrow.

That added some weight to the possibility of the person being tied up. Or maybe unconscious. Hell, perhaps even dead, because a body could continue to register as a heat source for minutes after dying.

Duncan was about to rev up to bash the front end of the cruiser into the barn door, but his phone rang. His heart went to his knees when he saw Luca’s name on the screen.

“What’s wrong?” Duncan immediately asked.

But he didn’t get an immediate answer. And no answer at all from Luca. “It’s me,” Carmen said, and her trembling voice confirmed something was wrong.

“What happened?” Duncan snarled.

“Luca was hit with a stun gun,” Carmen muttered. There was both urgency and pain in her voice. “And someone clubbed me on the head. I didn’t see the man in time, Duncan. He just charged right at me.”

Duncan had to fight the fear that was clawing its way through his throat. “Who charged at you? And where’s Joelle?” he couldn’t ask fast enough.

“A man wearing a ski mask.” Carmen moaned. “There’s a hole in the ceiling of your closet, and I think that’s how they got in. Through the roof.”

Hell. The roof wasn’t rigged with the security sensors so an intruder wouldn’t have set off the alarms. No one in the house would have known they were about to be attacked.

Duncan hit the accelerator, not heading into the barn but turning around. The tires kicked up clumps of dirt and grass as he sped away.

“God, Duncan,” Carmen said. “They took her. They took Joelle.”

Chapter Fifteen

---