Surrendering to the Sheriff (3 page)

Kendall hit him again with the scissors. This time in his neck.

He made some kind of strangled sound, and she saw the blood. Nothing like her gunshot wound. There was lots of it, and the agonizing sound that he made sent his partner running to him.

Kendall knew she had mere seconds at best. The side door was already open, and she barreled through it. She hadn’t realized just how dizzy and weak she was until her feet touched the ground.

Everything started to spin.

And she would no doubt have fallen if someone hadn’t caught her by the arm. She could just barely make out Aiden’s face.

“Come on,” Aiden said.

He turned, fired a shot at the men, and then he and Kendall started running.

CHAPTER THREE

Aiden pulled Kendall behind the nearest tree, shoving her against it so that he could lean out and try to stop these guys from coming after them.

And they were coming all right.

Well, one of them anyway.

The other one had his hand clamped to his neck and was slumped against the SUV. Aiden hoped that whatever the heck his injury was, it would kill him. Harsh, yes, but maybe necessary for Kendall’s and his survival. One armed man was enough to deal with, considering that he had an injured, pregnant woman to rescue.

Pregnant.

That one little word came with a boatload of emotions attached and packed a wallop. Especially since Kendall was the one who was pregnant.

With his baby, no less.

That sounded about as unright as something could sound, but he had indeed slept with her. He’d also used protection. However, something had clearly gone wrong other than them just landing in bed together.

Fate had to be laughing its butt off about that. Whitt Braddock’s son and Jewell’s sister together, making a baby.

The town, and his family, would have a field day with it. That’d be minor, though, compared to the firestorm going on inside Aiden, but he pushed all those feelings aside for now. It was going to take every bit of his concentration to get them out of this alive.

Aiden had already called for backup. Not using normal channels in case these brainless wonders had indeed managed to plant bugs in his office and others. Instead he’d used his personal cell to phone his deputy Leland Hawks.

With any luck Leland would be here within twenty minutes.

That was way too long for Leland to help save Kendall and him, but Aiden had told the deputy to make a loud approach. Lots of sirens. Hopefully, the noise would send the guys on the run so that Aiden could track them down.

If this fight didn’t end with the men’s deaths, that is.

Aiden wanted one of them alive, though, if at all possible. Because when this was all said and done, he wanted answers as to who was really behind this.

Another shot smacked into the tree. Though it was hard to hold back, Aiden didn’t return fire yet. He didn’t have a lot of ammo and didn’t want to waste any bullets in case this went on too long. But he did glance out at the pair to check on their latest position. They were in front of the SUV again. Where they were well protected.

Aiden couldn’t say the same for Kendall and him.

The tree wasn’t that wide, and he figured these two had brought enough firepower with them to tear right through the young oak. Added to that, there weren’t any wider, thicker trees nearby for Kendall and him to move behind. Just plenty of underbrush and wildflowers, and none of that would stop bullets.

Kendall looked up at him, her eyes wide. Her breath gusting. Her body trembling. “Thank you for coming back for me.”

That riled him. Of course he’d come back for her. It was his job, and there was no way he’d let something personal get in the way of the badge. She probably hadn’t meant it as an insult, but it was.

“I found some scissors in the SUV, cut off the plastic cuffs, but then I got so dizzy,” she added.

She was still terrified, just as she had been kneeling on the floor of his house. Aiden didn’t want to know what kind of effect this was having on her unborn child.

It couldn’t be good.

But it was better than the alternative. If those men had gotten Kendall away from his place, they would have killed her. Even if he’d done what they asked, that wouldn’t have saved her life.

Then they would have come after him.

“You’ve lost some blood,” he reminded her. “That’s why you got dizzy.”

No need to mention that it could be shock, but he hoped that wasn’t the cause. He might need Kendall’s help before this was over, and something like shock could incapacitate her.

“When the smaller one came at me, I stabbed him with the scissors,” she said. “Twice.”

She looked a little sick about that. Understandable. Most people were never in a position where they were forced to do bodily harm, but Aiden was thankful for the scissors and the stabbing.

“You did what you had to do,” he let her know and then cursed himself for sounding so sympathetic.

He didn’t want her to suffer. Not over some injury she’d managed to inflict on this homicidal idiot, but each kind word from him, each thought about this pregnancy nipped at barriers that had to stay in place when it came to Kendall.

“Leland’s on the way,” Aiden whispered when her trembling got worse. “That means we’ll have backup soon, and we’ll be okay.”

Kendall nodded, and he figured she was trying to look a lot stronger than she felt right now.

Another bullet flew at them. Then another. And soon they were coming nonstop. Aiden had hoped it wouldn’t come down to this, but the men were no doubt getting desperate, since they knew he probably had help on the way. That meant they had only two choices.

Escape or try to recover their hostage.

They appeared to be going for the latter, though the two had to know they could kill Kendall in the process. Of course, they could be doing cleanup.

Trying to eliminate
all
witnesses.

If so, these next few minutes were going to be bad, because Aiden had no intention of making an elimination easy for them. Nope. He was fighting back along with being fighting mad. How dare these morons pull a stunt like this in his own yard and house!

Now the problem was trying to figure out how to stop them from getting lucky with their elimination attempts.

Aiden knew every inch of his property, and there was a dry narrow gully about ten yards behind Kendall and him. Not as close as he would have liked, but maybe if he could distract these guys long enough, Kendall would be able to crawl to the gully, where she’d be better protected from the bullets.

“I didn’t have any part in this,” she said. Another look up at him.

Damn. He had enough uncomfortable things running through his mind right now without adding her emotions.

“Yeah. I figured that out.” Too bad he had plenty of other things to figure out.

“And I meant what I said about leaving,” Kendall added. “I had no intention of ever telling you about the baby.”

The woman knew how to rile him. In the middle of a gunfight no less. Aiden didn’t have a clue how he felt about this pregnancy, yet, but he darn sure hadn’t wanted her to hide it from him. And Kendall had rattled that off as if he’d be pleased about her plan to sneak off.

Well, he wasn’t.

Of course, right now he wasn’t pleased about much of anything except that Kendall and he were still breathing.

Aiden glanced out at the two men again. They were still in place where he couldn’t blow off any of their body parts. Then he glanced at Kendall.

But not at her face.

Too much emotion there for him to deal with, but he needed to see how her arm was holding up. The bleeding had stopped. That was something at least. But that gash was deep, and it had to be throbbing like a bad toothache.

“How does your arm feel?” Aiden asked, and he fired a shot at the men just so they wouldn’t try to move closer.

“I’m okay.”

A lie, for sure, but Aiden would take it for now. He’d already asked Leland to bring out an ambulance, but the medics wouldn’t get close to the place with shots being fired. That was yet another reason for Aiden to put an end to this.

“I need you to get to the ground,” Aiden said. “Stay behind me and stay down. Crawl to the gully.” He tipped his head in that direction.

Kendall glanced over at the gully. Then at him. “But what about you?”

“I won’t be far behind.”

Possibly a lie as well, but Kendall had enough fear running through her without his spelling out that there’d be no one to cover him if he tried to move from the tree to the gully. No, it was best for him to make his stand for as long as he could behind the tree.

She finally gave a shaky nod and inched herself lower to the ground. It wasn’t easy. They were plastered against each other—her backside sliding against a part of him that needed no such touching. Especially from her. He got a split-second jolt of the blasted heat that’d always been there between them.

Thankfully, the fresh round of bullets slugged that heat aside.

He pushed Kendall all the way down until she was practically on her belly and then crouched by his side. “Move slowly if you have to.” Because of her injured arm and the pregnancy. But Aiden was really hoping that she could do this fast.

Aiden leaned out, took aim at the front of the SUV and fired a shot just as Kendall started crawling.

She stayed down just as he’d ordered, and she moved through the wildflowers and other underbrush. Thankfully, fast. Still, Aiden fired another shot at the gunmen just to keep their attention on him. He breathed a little easier once he saw Kendall slide down and into the gully.

She was safe.

Well, maybe.

He’d parked just on the other side of the gully. Off the road and behind some trees. Aiden hadn’t seen any other hired guns lurking around, but that didn’t mean there couldn’t have been some hiding.

The big talkative guy lifted his head, fired a couple of shots. Not the nonstop barrage like before. And in between the shots, Aiden heard the men talking. Or rather arguing.

Clearly, their plan had gone to Hades in a big ol’ handbasket by losing their hostage and what with one of them being on the business end of Kendall and her scissors. Now they were no doubt trying to figure out a way to salvage this, and it was possible the injured one needed some medical attention, too.

In the distance Aiden heard a welcome sound.

Sirens.

That got the men chattering even more, and Aiden braced himself for whatever they were going to try to throw at him next.

What they
threw
were bullets.

And lots of them.

The men fired into the tree. A volley of gunfire. All of it aimed at Aiden.

He ducked down, trying to shelter his body as best he could, but he was getting pelted with flying pieces of wood from the tree and other debris that the bullets were kicking up from the ground. There was no way he could lean out and try to get off a shot of his own. It’d be suicide, so he stayed put and prayed that he got a break soon.

He got it.

But it wasn’t the break he had in mind. The shots slowed to a trickle, but even over the sound of the blasts, he heard another one.

The SUV.

One of them had started up the engine.

No. It was too soon for this to happen. Judging from the sirens, Leland was still a quarter of a mile out. Maybe more. These guys could get away before Leland even arrived.

Aiden moved to the other side of the tree, leaned out just a fraction and saw the two men already in the SUV. Only one, the injured one on the passenger’s side, was firing through the open door, and even though his aim seemed wobbly, he still hit the dang tree.

Aiden had to dive back behind it for cover.

“Stay down!” Kendall yelled.

He wanted to curse when he saw her lift her head. “
You
stay down,” Aiden snarled right back at her.

Aiden leaned out again. Took aim at the guy who was firing. And he pulled the trigger.

His bullet smacked right into the man’s chest, and just like that, the guy tumbled out of the SUV and onto the ground. If he wasn’t dead, he soon would be. But that wasn’t Aiden’s concern now.

It was the driver.

The chatterbox gunman hit the accelerator and flew out onto the gravel road that fronted Aiden’s property. He fishtailed, the tires bobbling over the uneven surface, but that didn’t slow him down nearly enough.

Aiden raced out from cover, bracketing his shooting wrist with his left hand, and he kicked the injured gunman’s weapon aside. In the same motion, Aiden took aim at the SUV.

The bullet Aiden fired slammed into the back window, shattering the glass into a million little pieces.

But the driver kept going.

Aiden ran after him, took another shot. He missed. Then another. That one hit the SUV. At the right angle to have injured the driver, but Aiden couldn’t be certain of that.

Because the SUV sped away.

CHAPTER FOUR

Kendall watched while the medic dabbed the wound on her arm with antiseptic and gave her a shot. The throbbing pain quickly turned to fire, but she clamped her teeth over her bottom lip so that Aiden wouldn’t hear the groan bubbling up in her throat. He already had enough to handle without adding more concerns about her injury.

Not that Kendall expected him to be overly concerned about her, but at this point, anything and everything would feel like more weight on his shoulders.

The gunman who’d gotten away.

The dead one Aiden had been forced to kill in a shoot-out.

And then, of course, the bombshell about the pregnancy.

Aiden wasn’t dealing with that—yet. He was still on the phone with his deputy who had a team out searching for the man who’d shot her. It was his fifth call since they’d arrived at the Clay Ridge Hospital. She suspected there’d be plenty more before the night was over.

“I’ll just do a couple of stitches,” the medic said to her while he numbed the area around the wound with another shot. “Then I’ll get you to the tech for an ultrasound.”

A few stiches didn’t sound serious at all, but the second thing he said captured both Aiden’s and her attention. Until his gaze snapped to hers, Kendall hadn’t even been sure Aiden was listening to what the medic was saying, but he issued a quick “I’ll call you right back” to his deputy and stared at the medic.

“An ultrasound?” Aiden questioned. “Is something wrong?”

The medic shook his head and got busy doing the stitches. “It’s just a precaution, something Dr. Kreppner ordered because of the trauma Miss O’Neal’s been through.”

Kendall’s breath rushed out. The emotions, too, and she was no longer able to choke back that groan. Sweet heaven, there had indeed been trauma—both physically and mentally—and the baby could have been hurt.

Aiden shifted his attention from the medic to her, and even though she couldn’t fight back the tears, Kendall had no trouble seeing the conflict going on inside him. There was concern in his eyes, and the muscles in his jaw had turned to iron. Maybe because of the possible danger to the baby. Maybe because of her tears.

Or perhaps both.

“Don’t borrow trouble,” Aiden said to her, his voice a low growl. “You heard what he told you, that it’s just a precaution.”

Kendall nodded, but she wouldn’t breathe easier until she knew that all was well. She was only twelve weeks pregnant, and she wasn’t even sure what an ultrasound could tell them exactly. Hopefully, it would be plenty enough to rid her of this overwhelming fear.

Her tears continued, clearly something that didn’t please Aiden, because he huffed and handed her some tissues that he grabbed from the examining table.

“Thanks.” She blotted her eyes and cheeks, looked up at him. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

That apology covered a multitude of things, including his learning about the baby and this attack that could have gotten them all killed.

Her
I’m sorry
didn’t cause his jaw to relax, though. “We’ll talk about the baby later. For now, I want to know anything you haven’t told me about what those men said to you. And no, I’m not accusing you of being a part of it. I just need to know anything that’ll help us find that dirtbag who drove away in the SUV.”

Kendall didn’t especially want to relive the images of the attack or her kidnapping, but she also didn’t want to focus on the pain that the stitches were causing in her arm.

“I don’t know either of them,” she started. “At least I don’t think I do.”

Aiden latched right on to that. “You don’t
think
you do? Does that mean maybe there’s something you recognized?”

“Maybe,” she had to concede. “There was possibly something familiar about the one who did most of the talking, but I just don’t know what. The other, however...the dead one...he had an accent. Jamaican, perhaps, and he was black, because I saw his hands.” She paused. “I’m guessing he didn’t have an ID on him?”

“Nothing, but we’re running his prints now. Once we know who he is, we might be able to figure out who hired him.” Aiden stared at her, apparently waiting for her to suggest who that might have been.

“I don’t have a clue who hired them, but it wasn’t me or any of Jewell’s kids.”

“You’re sure?” he pressed.

She nodded. Prayed she was right about that. “Rosalie, Rayanne and Seth all love Jewell and want her cleared of the murder charges, but they wouldn’t put me at risk to do that.”

“They know about the baby?” he snapped.

Kendall shook her head. “Only your sister Laine knows. Like I said, she saw me coming out of the OB clinic. Since she’d also somehow heard rumors about us being together that night at the bar, she put one and one together.”

“And she didn’t tell me,” Aiden grumbled under his breath.

“Don’t blame Laine. I begged her not to tell you or anyone else.” Much to her surprise, it appeared that Laine had kept her secret.

That comment earned her a glare from Aiden. “She’s my sister, and she should have told me.”

Kendall was about to ask if he had actually even wanted to know, but the medic eased a bandage on her arm and stood.

“What you heard in this room stays in this room,” Aiden warned the medic. “Got that?”

Since Aiden could win an intimidation contest hands down, the guy was smart to nod. “Follow me to the ultrasound room.”

As she probably didn’t look too steady, Aiden took hold of her arm and helped her stand. Good thing, too, because the dizziness returned with a vengeance, and she had no choice but to lean against him. Judging from the way the muscles in his body stiffened, he wasn’t pleased about that. Still, he hooked his arm around her and led her up the hall.

“You were just going to leave town,” Aiden said, clearly not pleased about that, either. Of course, she hadn’t said anything yet that’d pleased him.

Kendall nodded. “I thought it was for the best.”

“Well, it wasn’t.” He probably said that a lot louder than he’d intended, because the medic glanced back at them. “I had a right to know that I made a baby with you that night,” Aiden added in a much lower voice.

He said
that night
as if it were profanity. Which to him it probably had been. Kendall had felt the same way, too, immediately afterward. Yes, Aiden and she had skirted around this attraction for years, but with their families at serious odds, a one-night stand had been a stupid thing to do.

“I won’t think of this baby as a mistake,” she clarified.

She figured he would disagree with that, but he didn’t. Kendall also figured he wouldn’t go into the ultrasound room, but once they reached it, Aiden waltzed right in.

“I’m staying,” he insisted before she could give him an out.

Again, the medic looked at them, his volleyed glances finally landing on Kendall. “The tech won’t be long, but I can wait here if you want.” There was concern in both his tone and expression. However, Kendall shook her head to assure him that it was all right for him to go.

“It’ll be okay.” Well, she’d be safe with Aiden at least, but Kendall could feel a mighty storm coming her way.

About the baby.

About her decision to leave him out of this.

“Okay, then.” The medic tipped his head to her arm. “If you need something for the pain, just let the ultrasound tech know, and I’ll have the doc write a script.”

Kendall thanked him, knowing that she wouldn’t be taking any painkillers even if she needed them. They’d be too risky for the baby.

The medic stepped out, finally, and Aiden didn’t wait long to get that storm started. “How long have you known you were pregnant?” he asked.

“For about two months.” She probably would have figured it out sooner if she hadn’t been in complete denial. Denial about a possible pregnancy anyway. The memories of that night had stayed with her.

Big-time.

She’d lusted after Aiden for so many years. Too many. They were both thirty-six now, and the heated looks had started about twenty-three years earlier. The heat clearly had some staying power, because even drunken sex had fulfilled more than a fantasy or two. Sadly, Aiden had lived up to those fantasies in spades. If any part of it had been lacking, she maybe could have finally pushed Aiden out of her head.

So much for that happening now.

Especially since he was right in front of her. And his scowl and bunched-up forehead weren’t the lust killers that they should have been. Probably because even with a scowl, Aiden managed to make most men look just plain ordinary.

“Jewell doesn’t know?” he asked.

Kendall shook her head. “I figured I’d tell her after the trial.”

That deepened his scowl. “A trial that might not happen if the goon in the ski mask gets his way.”

She hadn’t even thought of that. If whoever was behind this couldn’t get Aiden to destroy the evidence, then he or she might just hire someone else to do the job.

“I’ve had the evidence moved,” Aiden said. “It’s being couriered to the Ranger Lab in Austin. So Jewell’s out of luck when it comes to that.”

Maybe out of luck, period. The bone fragments had been identified as belonging to Aiden’s father, and that meant Jewell had means, motive and opportunity to have killed the man who was supposedly her lover. It certainly didn’t help that Jewell wasn’t denying the deed.

And now this.

If this was linked back to Jewell, the DA could tack on some obstruction of justice charges along with other assorted felonies like kidnapping and attempted murder of a county sheriff.

“Even you have to admit that it would be stupid for anyone connected to Jewell to try to destroy evidence,” she said.

Aiden made a sound of agreement. “Stupid, yes, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I’ll be looking at Jewell’s daughters and stepson. Joplin, too.”

Jewell’s lawyer, Robert Joplin. Of all the suspects that Aiden had just listed, he was the one at the top of Kendall’s list. Because Joplin was hopelessly in love with Jewell. Had been for years and would do anything to save her. However, that didn’t mean Joplin was the only one with motive for this attempted fiasco.

“I hope you’ll look at your own family, too,” Kendall tossed out there. “Your mother and sister Shelby aren’t exactly fans of Jewell, and they might have done something like this to make her look even more guilty.”

And while that wasn’t as strong of a motive as her family’s, Jewell knew that Aiden’s family had secrets.

Secrets that even Aiden might not know.

She braced herself for him to jump to their defense. Didn’t happen. “I’ll be talking to them and anyone else who hated Jewell and my father.”

Good. But then, she’d figured all along that Aiden would be thorough. He was loyal to his family. Well, mostly. He didn’t exactly have a friendly relationship with his mother, but Aiden would never forget that he was a Braddock.

Never.

Ditto for remembering that she was an O’Neal.

The door eased open, and Aiden automatically reached for his gun. After what’d happened with the gunmen, Kendall didn’t blame him, but she was thankful it was a false alarm.

“I’m Becky Lovelle,” the young blonde said. “I’ll be doing your ultrasound.”

Kendall certainly hadn’t forgotten about the ultrasound, but her strained discussion with Aiden had pushed the reminder of a possible problem to the fringes of her thoughts. No fringes now, though. Her heart went into overdrive.

“This won’t hurt,” the woman said.

But Kendall was already tuning her out, her attention nailed to the screen. It was blank now, but soon she’d see her precious baby. Hopefully, unharmed.

Aiden didn’t move closer. In fact, he leaned against the wall and watched from there. Even when the tech pushed up Kendall’s top and shoved down her skirt to expose her belly and coat it with some goopy gel, he kept watching.

Kendall suddenly felt way too bare with Aiden in the room, but there was no way she’d convince him to leave. There was no way to convince Aiden of a lot of things, and once she had the all-clear with the ultrasound, she’d need to figure out a way to handle him and this situation.

Aiden wasn’t going to like it when she insisted she leave.

But she would insist on it.

And maybe Aiden would soon see that it was the right thing for all of them.

The tech put the wand on Kendall’s stomach, and when she moved it around, Kendall could see the baby’s beating heart. Her breath rushed out.

“The baby’s okay?” Kendall immediately asked.

“Appears to be. That’s a strong, steady heartbeat.” The woman continued to move the wand, and even though it was hard to make out some of the images, Kendall definitely spotted two arms and two legs. All moving.

“Amazing,” Kendall said. “So much movement, and I haven’t even felt it yet.”

“Is that normal?” Aiden snapped.

The tech nodded. “Some women don’t experience quickening or movement until week twenty.”

That meshed with the maternity books that Kendall had been reading, but obviously this was all new to Aiden. He moved closer to the screen, his focus on the tiny baby.

Their
baby.

Kendall saw and heard the moment that it finally sank in for him. Aiden made a hoarse sound that came from deep within his throat, and he mumbled something while his eyes tipped toward the ceiling. Maybe asking for divine help. She’d done that a few times early on, as well.

He dragged in a long breath. “Yeah, you should have told me.”

That didn’t sound like a man on the verge of rejecting fatherhood. Or even putting this in perspective. The bottom line was his family wasn’t going to embrace this child, and hers likely wouldn’t, either.

“Is that what I think it is?” Aiden asked.

Because he was looking gobsmacked again, Kendall’s gaze rifled back to the monitor, and she tried to brace herself for whatever had put that bleached-out expression on Aiden’s face.

“I’m sorry,” the tech said, sending Kendall’s heart into a tailspin again. “It’s usually not that clear this early on, and I should have asked first if you wanted to know the sex of the baby. This is a new machine, and it gives much clearer images than we used to get with the old one.”