He stopped her with a finger to his lips, his playfulness suddenly gone.
“What?” she whispered.
His serious expression told her he’d heard trouble coming.
Fast.
****
Vehicles. Two. Gideon heard them rolling up the road to the barn lot simultaneously. There was no mistaking the urgency.
He grabbed Mackenzie’s hand, and together they ran toward the rear door of the barn, freezing water splashing them up to their knees. He waited, listening as the cars drew close.
Slammed doors, running feet.
A woman shouted. Cordelia. “You won’t go near my barn, do you hear me?”
He took Mackenzie’s hand and gestured. Out the back. No other option. Before they did so, he risked a look through the barn, where he could see a man standing next to a white truck, his beard gleaming silver, a dark-haired man at his flank. An angry woman’s voice, Cordelia’s, echoed indistinctly in the background.
“I’ll go around the back, Al,” the second man said.
“Let me flush ’em out for you.” Al pulled a weapon from his belt and blasted blindly into the interior of the barn. Bullets carved splinters from the weathered wood and more followed as Gideon tugged Mackenzie to the exit. Right or left? Which way would the second guy go to cut them off?
With a muttered prayer, he pulled Mackenzie to the left. Tarp-covered crates holding saddles and bridles were stacked and ready for loading, providing some cover. Heads low, they raced along the perimeter toward the front of the barn and stopped just before they rounded the corner to the parking lot.
Gideon darted a look, hoping Al wasn’t there, poised to blow his head off. In the half-flooded lot sat Al’s whitetruck, engine running, and next to it a smaller black one. Kevin’s vehicle was still there too, farthest away under the trees. He hadn’t made an escape.
Another engine rumbled, and he saw Cordelia at the wheel of a truck attached to the small horse trailer Kevin had returned, the mare they’d just freed loaded safely in the back. She shouted something out her window at Al, who stood there staring up at her, gripping his gun.
“This has got nothing to do with you.” Al pointed to the road. “You clear out and mind your business, girl.”
Cordelia snapped something back, but Gideon couldn’t make it out. Finally, she stomped the gas and drove past the stable, her expression one of absolute fury, a phone clamped to her ear.
Calling for help.
At least she’d gotten away, but it would be too late for him and Mackenzie. And Kevin? Where had he gone?
Al advanced into the barn, gun aimed.
Jerry called out to him. “They’re on the east side. Heading for the front.”
Caught between Al and Jerry closing in from the side.
Options, Gideon.He grabbed a couple rocks from the ground. He’d lay down some cover and Mackenzie could run. Before he could get the plan out, she seized his arm.
“Look. Kevin’s in his car.”
Gideon looked closer. Kevin was indeed crouched low behind the wheel, face white as paste, knuckles gripping, his mouth open in shock. Gideon signaled him.
Kevin saw. He froze for a moment, then leaned toward the passenger door and pushed it open.
“He’s calling us over,” she said, starting to move.
But he held her tighter, thinking. Jerry was close, and he could hear Al retracing his steps through the barn, the fastest route back to the parking lot.
If they tried to get to Kevin, they’d be cut down without question.
“We won’t make it,” he said.
