Page 68 of Savage Secrets

Opal couldn’t bear to see that look, no matter what she’d promised Zach. She surged forward.

Ledger caught her by the upper arm, and she squelched a cry.

All of a sudden, a gunshot rang out, cracking into the wall at their backs.

No way was Opal standing still while shots were fired. She ducked under Ledger’s arm and made a break for it.

“Rainie!”

“Momma!” Her daughter’s little legs churned. Opal dashed forward with no recognition of her feet pounding the floor or more bullets zinging around her.

She had to get her child.

Rainie threw herself into her arms. With a gasp, she snatched her child off her feet and whirled to run out. She wrapped her arms tight around Rainie as she carried her to safety.

“Get outside!” Ledger’s order propelled her faster, along with his heavy bootsteps behind her.

She threw a look back at Zach to see both him and Colton circling the investor. The man was on his knees, arms in the air. The metal glint of the weapon in his hand made her blood run cold.

Ledger forced her out the door.

“Zach! Colton! You have to help them!” She clutched Rainie against her.

The popping sounds of shots being fired sent her into a panic.

“Get in the truck and lock the doors. Do it now, Opal!”

She didn’t pause. She took off running for the vehicle parked just a few steps from the front of the house.

Rainie jostled against her. “A gun?”

“No, no, no. A pretend gun. He has all the toys. It’s okay, sweetie.” She prayed it was.

She grasped the cold metal of the truck handle and whipped the door open. She launched herself and Rainie into the passenger seat and with a shaking hand, pressed the lock button.

Her heart thundered with terror. She had her precious daughter back, but it could cost her someone else she loved.

Please no. Please keep him safe!

Rainie pasted her sticky little hands on Opal’s cheeks, directing her attention to her. “Mommy, I missed you.”

Tears spilled over the rims of her eyes and flooded down her cheeks. “I’ll always come get you, Rainie.”

She stared at the open door of the house. As she looked on, Ledger shoved a man dressed all in black out ahead of him. He forced the guy onto his knees.

Then another set of wide shoulders filled the doorframe. In front of the wide shoulders, a man stumbled and fell flat on his face.

Her blood turned to ice.

Neither of those men dressed in all black were Feldman. How many more men were lurking in the shadows, ready to take the only man she wanted from her?

* * * * *

The sharp report of gunfire echoed through the big house, ricocheting off the high ceilings and rattling the windows. Zach had never been in battle, but he’d fought to stay alive a number of times.

He’d be lying if he said his guts weren’t roiling with anxiety. In the past, he only had himself to worry about. Now he had Opal and Rainie…and all the men from the Gracey Ranch too. Not all of them might call him a friend, but he considered each and every man who fought beside him one.

From the corner of his eye, Zach saw Colton reach into his coat pocket. With his stare pinned to Feldman on the floor in front of him, and his weapon trained on his chest to ensure he didn’t go anywhere, he twitched his head at Colton.

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