Page 8 of Protecting the Newborn

But if Marty had come after him like this, then why not just take him when they’d had their initial meeting? They’d been alone for that with no obvious witnesses. Why wait until Ruston was here?

Unless both Gracelyn and he were targets.

Or maybe the target was the baby.

If so, that pointed right back to the baby farm and this mystery person, Green Eagle. And unfortunately, it could point right back to Ruston himself.

“I was careful,” Ruston muttered to Gracelyn. “I didn’t see anyone following me here.”

That didn’t mean, though, that someone hadn’t managed to tail him. That caused him to mentally curse. Because, hell, everything about this could have been a setup.

“The windows aren’t bulletproof,” she whispered, grabbing a blanket from the chair next to the crib.

Gracelyn scooped up the baby, automatically trying to soothe her with gentle rocking motions and murmurs. A necessity, since any sound would alert an intruder to their specific location in the house.

“I have to get her to my SUV,” Gracelyn added.

Gracelyn didn’t invite Ruston to come along, but he did anyway. He had no intention of letting them out of his sight.

“Are the windows of your SUV bullet resistant?” he asked, following her out of the nursery.

“They are,” Gracelyn answered, hurrying into the hall.

She had her hands full, literally, what with holding both the phone and Abigail. Plus, she had a backpack hooked over her shoulder, but she waved off Ruston when he tried to help her.

They’d barely made it another step, though, when they heard the sound. Definitely not something Ruston wanted to hear either.

A gunshot blasted through one the windows.

Ruston muttered some profanity and stepped in front of Gracelyn and the baby. They hunkered down seconds before the next shot. There was the sound of shattering glass falling on the floor, but Ruston didn’t see any bullets coming through the wall near them.

“Give me your phone,” he insisted. “I can see if he’s alone and if he’s using any kind of infrared.” Infrared that would allow the person to track their every movement inside the house.

She passed her phone to him right as the third shot came, and while Ruston listened for any sounds of the person trying to break in, he also studied the various frames from the camera.

And he saw something he definitely didn’t like.

“There are two of them,” he relayed to her. “No infrared device that I can see, but one is shooting at the windows in your living room, and the other is on the front porch. How hard will it be for him to get through the door?”

Gracelyn’s groan was soft but heavy with fear. “Not hard enough,” she answered. “It’s reinforced, but if he shoots the locks...”

She didn’t finish that. No need. It told Ruston everything he needed to know. He debated making a stand since there were only two of them, and if one of them came through the door, Ruston would be able to take the guy out before he managed to get inside. But it was a huge risk. If the intruder managed to get off even a single shot, it could hit Gracelyn or the baby.

And that meant they had to move now.

Ruston took the bag from her shoulder and shifted it to his so Gracelyn wouldn’t have anything to slow her down. He also pictured the location of the interior door that led to the garage. It was just on the other side of the fridge. Not ideal, since there was a window over the kitchen sink and because the second attacker could be at the back door in a matter of seconds.

Still, there weren’t a lot of options here, and having the baby in a bullet-resistant vehicle was better than staying in the house that was currently under attack from two directions.

“Stay low and close to me,” he instructed, though he knew it wasn’t necessary to tell her that.

Gracelyn had been a damn good cop, and she knew how to stay alive. He hoped their combined skills would be enough to keep her infant niece safe.

They moved fast. Well, as fast as they could, considering they were crouching, and they’d just made it to the kitchen when the front doorknob rattled. Of course, it was locked. And as expected, the intruder was having none of that.

The next shot blasted into the lock.

And sent Abigail wailing.

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