They stepped out of the barn, and Cullen tipped his head to the woods. “There are probably trails out there where the kidnapper could have left his vehicle.” He stopped and shook his head. “But it’s a long way to take an injured woman. Especially since none of her neighbors are close enough to see if he’d taken her out through the front.”
True, and that left Leigh with an unsettling theory. “If Kali tried to kill herself, she could have maybe staggered out of the house and collapsed somewhere.” In this bitter cold, she wouldn’t last long.
“The shed.” Cullen motioned toward it, and that’s when Leigh noticed the door was slightly ajar.
Mercy. Was Kali in there? Hurt and maybe hiding?
“Kali?” Leigh called out. “It’s Sheriff Mercer. Cullen’s with me. Do you need help?”
When Leigh got no answer, Cullen and she started in that direction. But they didn’t get far. Only a couple of steps. Before they heard the scream. Not coming from the shed but rather from the woods.
“Kali,” Leigh said on a rise of breath, and they began running toward the scream.
The shot rang out before they even made it past the shed.
Leigh was already moving to take cover, but Cullen hurried that along. He took hold of her, dragging her back behind the shed. Just as another shot blasted through the air.
Her adrenaline kicked in. So did the memories of the shooting just the day before. A shooting where Cullen and she had come close to dying. Hard to not let that play into this now, but Leigh battled the fear and forced herself to focus.
“The shot came from the woods,” she said.
“Yeah, and it sounded like a rifle,” Cullen agreed. “I’m pretty sure it came from the same area as the scream.”
Leigh believed that, too, and it could mean that Kali had just been shot. Or worse. Killed. Her instincts were to go after Kali, to try to save her. But that would be suicide, and it could get Cullen killed, too, because there was no way he’d let her go out there alone.
“Kali?” Leigh called out again.
Her voice would give away their position, but the shooter probably already knew their exact location. She got confirmation of that when more shots came, and all of them smacked into the storage shed.
Cullen cursed and dragged Leigh to the ground, until they were practically on their bellies. Leigh only hoped that Karen and Austin were also taking cover.
“Kali?” Leigh tried again, not expecting the woman to answer.
And that’s why it surprised Leigh when she did.
“I’m here!” Kali shouted. She was definitely in the woods. “Someone’s trying to kill me.”
Welcome to the club.Since the shots all seemed to be coming right at the shed, maybe that meant the gunman wasn’t actually firing at Kali. Then again, if the shooter had injured her and taken her into the woods, it was possible Kali was the target and the guy was just missing.
But Leigh didn’t believe that.
No. The bullets were coming too close for them not to be in the crosshairs of this snake.
“Help me!” Kali shouted.
“Get down!” Leigh yelled back. “Take cover.”
“I’ll create a diversion,” Cullen said. “I’ll get the shooter to focus on me.”
Leigh didn’t even get the chance to say no to that because Cullen got up and hurried to the back end of the shed. He kept low, but Leigh knew it wouldn’t be nearly low enough for the bullets that were still coming their way.
“Don’t do this,” Leigh snapped.
He didn’t listen. Cullen peeled off his jacket, and he thrust it out from cover. It drew immediate gunfire and sent Leigh’s heart into a tailspin. Mercy. He was making himself a target, and if the shots went just a little to the left, they’d hit Cullen.
Hurrying, she crawled to him, took hold of his leg and jerked him back down. Cullen didn’t go easily. He was obviously still hell-bent on saving Kali because he tossed out his jacket, probably with the idea of drawing gunfire while Kali managed to take cover.
But the shots stopped.