Sprocket barked at her from the base of theladder.
“You’re right.” She climbed the last few rungs. “They aren’t thatsmart.”
Stepping onto the loft’s plywood platform, she moved directly to the closest of four large windows. Most of them had been replaced when they refurbished the barn and they’d opted for wooden doors instead ofglass.
Pulling her Glock from the low-profile holster, she lifted the window latch up, careful not to let the door swing open. Opening it enough to scan the area around the barn, she couldn’t see anyone near the end of thebarn.
Would they expect her to try the middle of the barn, away from thefires?
She closed the window and latched it, moving to the second window. Easing it open, she crouched to the side to get a better view. Dark smoke filled the air and she could feel the heat at her back as the flames climbedhigher.
She was running out oftime.
Glancing at the other side of the building, she almost missed the guy in black with a rifle move from behind a tree at the edge of thefield.
She dropped to a knee and her supporting foot kept the door from swinging open. He ran across the field, making no effort to hide his movements. Either he wasn’t worried about getting caught or he was getting the hell out ofdodge.
Adjusting for elevation to hit center mass, she inhaled and paused, fighting the cough that threatened. She paused again at the bottom of her exhale and squeezed the trigger. A coughing fit overtook her, but she kept her gun aimed at the man she’d justshot.
She counted ten very long seconds to see if he would move before dashing to the ladder. Holstering her weapon, she slid most of the way down, wincing as the splinters dug into herpalm.
Sprocket sat at the bottom of the ladder,howling.
Denise ran to the tack room and grabbed a set of bolt cutters plus several leashes from hooks on a wall. Racing back to the center stall on the same side she’d fired from, she tried to herd as many dogs as possible into thestall.
She threw open the dog door and several attempted to squeeze through at once. Palming her gun again, she shoved two out of the way and took her chances as she crawled through the opening, pulling the cutters and leashes with her. Staying on a knee, she raised her Glock and scanned thearea.
Nothing, and no one, moved. She holstered her gun, draped the leashes around her neck, and picked up the cutters. Duck walking to the back fence, she cut the horizontal retaining wires in the chain link. Dropping the cutters, she clipped two leashes to the bottom of the fence, threw the ends over the top bar and used it as a pulley to lift the bottom of the fence, creating an opening for thedogs.
Once one dog realized there was a way out, they all spilled through, almost knocking her to her ass in the process. She tied off the leashes to make sure the fence remainedopen.
She glanced toward where the body was and back at the barn. Damn it. She needed to make sure all the dogs were out. Taking a bracing breath, she crawled back into the barn. Three dogs had to be picked up and carried to the escape route stall and shoved through the door and she earned a few bites for herefforts.
Crawling through after the last dog, she stayed on all fours, panting for breath. Sprocket licked her face and head-butted her shoulder, urging her to move. The faint wail of sirens reached her and she pushed to her feet. There was one more thing she needed to do before the cavalryarrived.
She low crawled under the fence and pushed back to her feet, stumbling toward the body in thefield.
If he was still alive, he was going to wish he’d died from thegunshot.
Because she still had to find herkids.
Chapter 24
The last ofthe police and the ambulance finally left with an admonishment that Denise shouldn’t refuse treatment. She’d sucked on the oxygen mask enough to help with the residual cough from the fire, but she needed to finish checking on the dogs and the guy she had trussed up in the storage room next to heroffice.
Hopefully, he hadn’t bled out. She’d stuffed some cloth in the wound, but hadn’t had time for more extensive first aid before the fire trucks and police had shownup.
Chris sat down next to her on the steps up to her old apartment. “I think you should go to thehospital.”
And she needed to get rid ofChris.
“I’m fine,” shesaid.
“You’renot.”
She turned her head. “You’re right, I’m not. But unless you’re going to tell me Kaden and Kimber are there waiting for me, going to the hospital isn’t going to make mebetter.”
“Denise—”
