Page 59 of Tracking Down the Lawman's Son

Not until he turned toward her.

“Watch out!” Luca yelled.

Bree heard the sound of running footsteps behind her, and she whirled around to see the figure dressed all in black charging right at her. She dropped the diaper bag and bottle, reaching for her gun.

But it was too late.

She felt someone latch on to her, knocking away her gun and dragging her hands behind her back. The person slapped plastic cuffs on her before pressing a gun to her head.

LUCASHOUTEDBREE’SNAME, but she didn’t get the chance to run. Couldn’t. That’s because the person who’d run up behind her from the nursery hooked his left arm around her throat and put her in a choke hold. He pressed a gun directly to her temple.

Hell.

This had been exactly what they’d tried to avoid. What they’d been avoiding since the attacks had started. And now, the killer or one of his henchmen had Bree.

Her captor was probably a man, one several inches taller than Bree since he was hunching down behind her. He was dressed all in black, including a ski mask that covered everything but his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Duncan shouted, and there were the sounds of movement at the bottom of the stairs.

Luca brought up his gun to take aim even though he wouldn’t have a clean shot, but when the attacker turned his own gun in Luca’s direction, Luca had no choice but to dive into the open door of the guest room. He landed hard on the floor, the fall knocking the breath out of him so he had to struggle just to get to his knees.

“Stay back,” Bree yelled. “Everyone stay back.” Which was no doubt what her captor had told her to say.

The man didn’t come after Luca and follow up with what would have likely been a kill shot. But he did move. Luca heard the footsteps, heard the sounds of Bree struggling to get away.

And then she went quiet.

That got Luca hurrying to the doorway, ready to launch himself at her captor, but Bree was still alive and she shook her head.

“He says if I fight that he’ll shoot into the bathroom,” she muttered. There was terror in her eyes, and it came through in her voice. She reached in her pocket, pulled out her phone and dropped it on the floor. No doubt something else the man had instructed her to do.

“Who is he? Who has you?” Luca whispered.

“I’m not sure. He’s using something to alter his voice. Probably because he was worried we’d recognize who he was.”

Which meant this thug had come prepared. Of course, he had. He’d compromised the security system and then had gotten in and hidden until the time was right to launch this attack.

The masked thug leaned in closer to Bree’s ear and said something, but Luca couldn’t make out what.

“He wants you to stay put,” she said, her voice cracking. “You, too, Duncan,” she added, shifting her attention toward the stair landing. “I’m going with him.”

“To hell you are,” Luca snarled.

There was no telling what this SOB would do to Bree if he got her alone. But then something occurred to him. If he’d wanted Bree dead, he could have just killed her on the spot. So, he wanted her alive, maybe solely as a human shield.

Maybe for something else.

“Trade her for me,” Luca bargained.

The guy laughed, and the sound was like a cartoon through the voice distorter. A sick sound that ate away at Luca like acid. Somehow, he had to stop this from happening. He couldn’t lose Bree, but he also didn’t want this armed snake so close to the bathroom where the babies were. He had to hope that Joelle had already locked the door and was ready to stop anyone who tried to get in.

Bullets could still get through.

And that was probably why Bree didn’t put up any kind of struggle when the man started toward the stairs with her.

“Duncan, move back,” Bree instructed.

The masked man turned, angling Bree so that she was not only in front of him but so he was pressed hard against her with his back against the wall. That would ensure no one would be able to get a clean shot, not with him plastered to her.

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