Page 55 of Love on the Run

She simply nodded. Bad feelings, she understood.

“Look.” He glanced back out the doorway. He hadn’t turned his back to the door, but kept one side to Callie and one to the door the whole time. “I got shot at when I came through that window. That means Foster knows you’re here. And we’ve got to get out of here and to someplace safe. I take it Jake is working, and that's why you’re alone here.”

“He had to leave this morning. There was a fire at a ranch somewhere. He went to help.”

Ty gave a little grunt, thinking. “You know your way around this area?”

“Not really. I’ve only been here a couple of days. But if you have a car, I know the way to town.”

A gunshot rang through the house. “Get down!” Ty ordered, and Callie found herself obeying without question. Even Bruiser lay flat on the floor in response to Ty’s tone.

“Are they going to come in?” she whispered.

“I put the couch in front of the window that I busted, but it was just to block the sightline. If they want to come in, they will.”

“They might be surprised by what they find,” she muttered.

Ty laughed shortly. “I knew you were Jake’s kind of girl.”

“What does that mean?” Callie almost growled. “You mean I’m like the chick in DC?”

“Natalie?” Ty made a face. “I never liked her. She was not his type. All style, no substance. If she’d been in this situation, she’d have been bawling her eyes out in five minutes.”

“You just saying that to make me feel better?”

“You seem to be doing just fine, Callie.”

“For someone getting shot at, you mean.”

“I didn’t say the situation was fine. But there’s nothing like dodging bullets to find out what people are really made of.”

“You dodged bullets a lot?” she wondered out loud, slowly rising off the floor.

“More than most people.”

“As a cop, or in the army?”

“Both. Jake too. We’ve been friends for years. That’s all I meant when I said you were his kind of girl.”

“I hope so,” Callie said before she could stop herself.

Ty suddenly grinned. “Don’t worry, Callie. I’ve been in tougher spots than this.”

“Okay.” She smiled shakily, trying to summon a sense of courage.

“They’ll be in here soon enough, especially once they realize we’re not watching and picking them off. But these clowns are second-rate. The fact that I got in here proves that. Now, we’re in, they’re out. Our goal is to flip that. We’ll trick them in, slip out, and get to my car. ”

“How do we do that?” Callie asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” he admitted, looking around, his dark eyes scanning for some sort of escape. “Jake built this house. I was here a few years ago, before it was finished. He’ll have planned for a way out.”

“He planned for an escape route from a shootout?”

Ty nodded. “Maybe not a shootout, but something. Just in case. That’s the way he thinks. When you get to know him better, you’ll figure that out.”

Callie fervently hoped she would have the opportunity to get to know Jake better. But if the day got any worse, she had her doubts.

“So where do we look?” Callie was now in a sort of crouch, listening for sounds from the rest of the house. “I guess we start in here.”

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