Page 29 of Grayson's Angel

Chapter 12

The ranch Graysonwas staring at looked nothing like what Kara had described. The pristine white house was off-white from years of neglect and was missing its front window. Shrubs and weeds had taken over the front porch. Grayson felt angry about what had been done to Kara’s ranch.

An old rusty-brown F150 was parked in front of the once-red barn. Grayson could faintly hear voices coming from the barn. He signaled the other men to cover him. Before he saw Hank’s response, Grayson was heading toward the barn at full speed. He faintly heard Hank cuss behind him.

Grayson looked through the broken barn window and saw his worst nightmare. A woman Grayson recognized as the foreman’s daughter from the images Noah sent to his phone had a gun pressed to Kara’s head. Kara’s face was pale, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

He wanted to rush in and gather her in his arms, but he knew he couldn’t do that. Grayson raised his gun, trying to get a good angle. He couldn’t hear the words being spoken inside the barn, but he had a good idea of what was going on. A man in church robes, holding a Bible, was speaking.

He couldn’t let the farce of a wedding happen. The only man Kara was going to marry was him. He was done playing down his feelings because he hadn’t known her long. He wasn’t going to propose next week, but he knew she would be his someday.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the right angle. Grayson needed to find another way to take out the foreman’s daughter. He left the window in search of another view into the barn. Two steps from the window, he heard a gunshot ring through the barn, and he took off running toward the entrance.

Grayson passed Hank while he was running toward the front of the barn. He dodged Hank’s outstretched arm and heard the curse under Hank’s breath. Noah had sent them a layout of the farm on the way to Montana Gold. There was another entrance on the back side of the barn. Grayson prayed Hank and his men would come in at the back.

His only concern was Kara. He grabbed the door hanging off the hinge and ripped it open. The door broke under his hands. Grayson’s eyes sought out Kara. She was awake and not shot. He let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. The foreman’s daughter swung her gun away from Kara toward him.

Grayson had his Glock pointed back at her. “Let Kara go,” Grayson demanded.

The foreman was pacing back and forth, and the pastor had passed out after being shot. Grayson couldn’t tell if he was still alive. The foreman, whom Grayson remembered was called Josiah, pulled a gun from behind his back and aimed it at Grayson as well.

He heard Kara scream, “No!”

Needing to reassure Kara, he glanced in her direction and gave her a nod, letting her know he had everything under control.

Josiah shouted, “She’s mine! I’ve given this family everything. They owe me.”

The daughter, whose name was Sarah, pointed her gun back at Kara. “Put your gun down, or I’ll kill her!” she yelled at him. She looked close to losing her mind.

“Fine,” Grayson grumbled. He leaned down and set the gun on the ground. But he had come prepared. He still had one more gun and a knife on him. More than likely, Josiah and his daughter didn’t know his background, and he could use that to his advantage.

Grayson also knew that Hank and his men would have his back.

“Kick it away,” Sarah demanded. Grayson kicked the gun to the side, and it landed next to a pile of bodies. A flash of sadness came over him. Regardless of how bad Kara’s dad was, Grayson had hoped he was still alive, for her sake. But from the look of the body Grayson thought was his, he had been dead for a while.

“Is this about the money?” Grayson raised his hands and started inching toward Kara, hoping that, if he talked, it would distract Josiah and his daughter enough that they wouldn’t realize what he was doing. “We can get you guys as much as you want.”

With each word, he took another step closer to Kara. She was no more than five feet from him. He could almost reach out and touch her. The smell of the decomposing bodies was nauseating. He was breathing through his mouth to keep from puking. Grayson didn’t recognize the other corpse lying on the ground next to Kara’s father.

“Stop!” Josiah screamed. “I don’t just want the money. I want the gold.”

Grayson stopped walking. The research Noah had done said the gold mine was depleted. The only “gold” left was in her hefty bank account.

“There is no more gold.”

Josiah reached up and ran his hand through his hair. It looked like he hadn’t showered in days. “I found the gold. It’s here. And when I marry her”—he pointed at Kara—“I will have her money and the gold.”

“We can work this out. Let’s put the guns away. I bet Kara would give you the gold.”

“Yes, anything,” Kara said. “Please, let us go.”

“You don’t understand. I need someone to take the fall for the dead bodies.” He waved his hand in the direction of Kara’s father. “I’ll make it look like Kara and her father were fighting, and she killed him. Then you came along, wanting her fortune, and she killed you too. She couldn’t live with what she did, so she killed herself.”

With every word Josiah spoke, Grayson knew the man was losing his mind. His daughter was scratching at the needle marks running up and down her arms. She needed the money for her next fix.

“That won’t work. I called the sheriff, and he’s on his way. He won’t believe the story.”

Grayson could see Hank in the back of the barn. He was getting into position but raised his gun a second too late. Sarah squeezed the trigger of the revolver she had pointed at Grayson. He had time to decide he was okay with getting shot as long as Kara made it out alive. He knew Hank would do everything in his power to save her.

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