Page 43 of Protecting the Newborn

She cursed the call that’d just come from Zimmer. He’d phoned the landline, maybe to make sure they were there so he could send in these goons. If so, it’d been beyond gutsy to have hired guns come into a police station.

Gutsy and maybe extremely effective.

Ruston and she had a small amount of cover since there was a desk in front of them, but if the blond shooter came closer, he’d basically have them pinned down. That was probably why Ruston maneuvered himself in front of her. Shielding her. And in doing so, he was putting himself in the direct line of fire.

Gracelyn didn’t want Ruston sacrificing himself for her, but this wasn’t the time for her to question what he was doing. And what he was doing was getting himself into a better position to fire if he got a clean shot. At the moment, he didn’t have one since both gunmen were using Carmen as their shield.

“Stop them,” Allie yelled. “They’re going to kill all of us.”

Her sister might be right. If these fake cops had come here to eliminate Ruston, Allie and her, then they weren’t likely to leave Duncan, Carmen or Woodrow alive either.

“They’ve locked the front door,” Ruston whispered to her.

That didn’t help her tamp down the wild surge of adrenaline. It meant no responders would be coming in that way. But there were other doors to the sheriff’s office, and she doubted they’d managed to lock them all.

Around the squad room, phones began to ring, the sounds blending with the loud, pulsing alarm. Responders were probably trying to find out what was going on, but no one answered any of the phones. Well, maybe Duncan did. Gracelyn couldn’t see Allie or him.

“If you want to save some lives, step out and let’s finish this,” the bulky gunman growled.

Gracelyn didn’t have any doubts about what he meant. He wanted Ruston, Allie and her to sacrifice themselves. And she might have considered it. Might. But she went back to her original idea. These gunmen had no intentions of letting any of them live.

“Keep watch behind us,” Ruston muttered.

That slammed her with more adrenaline, but she turned so she was essentially back-to-back with him. And got the mother lode of flashbacks. To survive the attack at the baby farm, they’d had to do this. They’d had to sit there with the threat of being gunned down and dying.

Gracelyn shook her head, forcing back those images. Forcing back the gut-wrenching emotions that went along with them. She couldn’t let those flashbacks play into what was happening now. She just couldn’t. Because it could get a whole lot of people killed.

“Five seconds,” the gunman warned them. “That’s how long you’ve got before we start shooting the hell out of this place. We won’t kill Deputy Gonzales right off, but we’ll make her wish she was dead.”

Gracelyn couldn’t see Carmen’s face, but she knew the woman had to be terrified as the gunman started the countdown.

“Five...”

Ruston inched closer to the side of the desk. From Duncan’s office, Allie quit screaming, making Gracelyn wonder if she had been hit after all. Or maybe Duncan had just figured out a way to silence her.

“Four...”

Gracelyn kept watch of the hall and the sides of the room, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Woodrow move as well. Like Ruston, he was adjusting his position, preparing for an attack.

“Three... Time’s running out,” the gunman added as a threat.

Woodrow looked in their direction, and even though Gracelyn couldn’t see Ruston’s face, he nodded. Woodrow and he had made some kind of silent pact. Maybe to leave cover and try to get that clean shot.

Gracelyn decided to help with that.

“Two,” the gunman barked out.

She took off one of her shoes, holding it for a split second in Ruston’s line of sight so he’d know what she was doing. Then she hurled it over the desk and in the direction of Carmen and the gunmen.

All hell broke loose.

There were scuffling sounds, and shots rang out. So many shots. With the alarms and the blasts, she couldn’t tell what direction the gunfire was coming from, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

And maybe it was.

She caught a glimpse of Duncan crouched down in the doorway. Ruston and Woodrow had left cover and were both firing. Gracelyn continued to keep watch behind them, but she scrambled around to the side of the desk and saw Carmen on the floor. The deputy didn’t appear to have been shot, but she was crawling toward Gracelyn.

The blond gunman pivoted to shoot Carmen, but he didn’t get the chance. Gracelyn fired, but she was pretty sure that Woodrow and Ruston did as well. Maybe even Duncan. Multiple shots hit the gunman in the chest, and he dropped like a stone, his weapon clattering to the floor.

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