Even though the shooter was out of range for him, Judson levered himself up enough to send a shot in the gunman’s direction. He probably missed by a mile, but at least it caused a pause in the gunfire. But only a pause. The shots started right back up again.
And that gave Judson an idea.
“Text Rory,” he told Addie. “I want him to get a message to the ranch hand by the fence. The hand needs to stay down, but if he’s able, I want him to start shooting into the barn. Have him aim high.”
That last part was a safety precaution so that someone who just happened to be driving by wouldn’t get hit by friendly fire.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Addie send the text, and Judson fired at the barn again. And again. Since that was giving him the lull he needed, he kept it up until Addie got a response.
“Rory’s texting the ranch hand now,” she relayed. “And he says backup is on the way. Two of them will be heading to the barn.”
Good. But Judson knew that backup couldn’t just come charging in. They’d have to hang back, wait for an opportunity to go after the shooter.
It wasn’t long, only a couple of seconds, before Judson heard a welcome sound: gunfire, but this time it was coming from the ranch hand. And unlike Judson, he was in firing range to put a permanent end to this SOB.
But he immediately rethought that.
If possible, he wanted the shooter alive. Alive and talking so that Addie and he would know why someone was trying to kill them.
Judson reloaded and added his own gunfire to the mix of the ranch hand’s, and as he’d hoped, the shooter stopped firing. Maybe because some of the hand’s bullets were tearing through the old wood of the barn. Judson still didn’t see any movement from the hayloft area, but that didn’t mean the guy had been hit. He could be just lying low, waiting for an opening to start shooting again.
In the distance, he heard the wail of police sirens. Neither Judson nor the ranch hand stopped firing. They both kept pulling the triggers until Judson finally saw something.
A blur of motion at the back edge of the barn.
He caught just a glimpse, but it appeared to be someone dressed in dark clothes. Clothes that blended with the twilight. One thing was for certain, though.
The SOB was running.
Escaping.
And Judson had to do something about that.
“Stay put,” he warned Addie, but Judson didn’t give her a chance to respond. Definitely not a chance to try to talk him out of what he was doing.
He leaped up and took off running.
“Hold your fire,” he shouted to the ranch hand, and the man immediately stopped.
That cleared the way for Judson to pick up the pace to a sprint while he kept his gun gripped in his hand. Kept his attention on that blur of motion, too. If the man, or woman, turned around, Judson wanted to be able to take cover rather than be gunned down.
Running as fast as he could, Judson reached the road just as he saw the cruiser approaching the turn for the ranch. He paused only a second to make sure the driver, Livvy, wasn’t going to plow into him. When she slowed, Judson bolted across the road, vaulting over the pasture fence.
And he kept running.
His heart was thundering now, and his pulse was crashing in his ears, but thankfully he had yet another slam of adrenaline. The mother lode of energy that got him to the barn in no time flat.
He had to slow again, though, as he approached the barn. Slow down and keep watch in case this idiot tried to ambush him.
But he didn’t see any signs of that. No signs of the shooter, either.
Not at first, anyway. Not until Judson picked through the darkness and saw the figure racing past the house. Clearly, the shooter had gotten some adrenaline, too, because within a blink, the person was out of sight, disappearing into a cluster of trees in front of the house.
Judson got moving, racing toward the snake. He was still a good twenty yards away when he heard a different sound. Not gunfire. But an engine.
He kicked up the pace again, trying to get to the shooter, trying to stop him before he escaped.
But he was too late.
