Page 132 of Proof of Guilt

“Jodi, I’m going to hang up and text Jameson,” Gabriel told her. “I’ve got a visual on the house and the ditch, but I can’t see the gunman.” Gabriel did text his brother, and it only took a few seconds for Jameson to reply.

The guy is near the mailbox, Jameson responded, and Gabriel read the text to them.

“Get down on the seat,” Theo instructed Ivy, and he lowered his window just a fraction. “If you drive up closer, I’ll see if I can get this idiot to surrender,” he added to Gabriel.

Gabriel did begin to inch the cruiser closer just as his phone buzzed with a call. “It’s not Jameson,” he said. “It’s the hospital, but I’ll call them back.” Instead, he kept his attention on the ditch.

“Stand so we can see you,” Theo called out to the man. “And put your hands in the air.”

Theo figured there was no way that would work, and it didn’t. Almost immediately, the man got to his feet. But he definitely did not put his hands in the air. Nor did he surrender. Instead he turned, aiming his gun at the cruiser, and he fired. The shot slammed into the front windshield. Just like the other attack, the glass held, but Theo couldn’t risk this idiot firing shots that stood any chance whatsoever of hitting any of them.

“Stay down,” Theo reminded Ivy, and he lowered the window even more. When the goon lifted himself to shoot at them again, Theo fired first.

His bullet hit the man squarely in the chest.

The goon fell backward, his weapon thudding to the ground next to him. Gabriel didn’t waste any time driving the cruiser closer to him. Jameson came out the front of the house as well, but he stayed back on the porch. Probably because there could be other gunmen in the area.

Gabriel stopped the cruiser right next to the wounded man, and Theo opened his door wide enough to snatch up the thug’s weapon. Of course, he could be carrying a backup, but at the moment he wasn’t reaching for anything. He was clutching his chest.

And he was bleeding out.

Gabriel called for an ambulance, but Theo doubted it would get there in time. That meant anything they could get from the guy, he had to try to get it now.

“Who are you?” Theo demanded.

The guy shook his head. “My name won’t mean anything to you.”

“Try.” Theo kept his gun pointed right at him.

“Morris Carlyn.” He groaned in pain, pressing his hands even harder over his wound.

The name didn’t mean anything to Theo, but it soon would. Gabriel fired off a text, no doubt to get a background on this guy. Once they had that, they might be able to link him to one of their suspects.

“Who sent you, Morris?” Theo asked.

Another headshake. “There’s no threat you can make that’ll be worse than what’ll happen if I talk.”

“Wanna bet?” Theo took aim at the guy’s leg. “I can start putting bullets in you. It won’t kill you any faster, but it’ll make your last minutes on this earth very, very painful.”

It was a bluff, of course. He couldn’t shoot an unarmed, dying man, but mercy, that’s what he wanted to do if it would help them put a stop to the danger.

The guy looked at him, their gazes connecting. “My family could be hurt. That’s why I can’t tell you. That’s why I agreed to do this.”

All right. So someone had maybe blackmailed or coerced him. Theo glanced at Gabriel to see if he was already on that. He was. Gabriel sent another text that probably included cops going to this guy’s house to check on anyone who might be there.

“How did you find this place?” Theo continued.

“I was just told to come here and kidnap the woman, Ivy Beckett. I was supposed to take her alive.”

Hell. That was hard to hear. Obviously hard for Ivy to hear, too, because she gasped.

If the guy was telling the truth, and that was still a big if, it didn’t rule out any of their suspects. Wesley or Lacey would want Ivy alive so they could use her as a bargaining chip to get whatever it was they wanted. In Lacey’s case so she could get the money. For Wesley, it could have been so he could maybe force Theo into a rescue situation so he could kill him. Because there was no way Theo wouldn’t go after Ivy if this idiot had indeed managed to kidnap her.

It was ironic, though, that Wesley would be doing that because he thought Theo knew something about that botched militia raid. Other than a gut feeling, Theo had nothing, and you couldn’t use gut feelings to make an arrest.

“Protect my family,” the guy said, and his eyelids fluttered down. Dead, probably. But Theo wasn’t about to get out and check on him.

Apparently, Gabriel wasn’t, either, because he sped toward the house, and he pulled the cruiser to a stop directly in front of the porch. Ivy immediately bolted out, running past Jameson and going inside.

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