arms. Of course, it wasn’t the first time she’d held her, but without the coat around her, she could feel just how tiny and fragile she was.
Drury went through the coat pockets, coming up empty each time, and he turned his attention to the bow on the baby’s headband.
“Hell,” he mumbled.
Caitlyn watched as he gently slipped off the headband, and she saw it then.
“It’s a tracking device,” he said. “That’s how the man was able to follow you.”
Caitlyn shook her head. “I should have noticed it. Drury. I’m so sorry.”
“Save it.” He tossed the headband onto the coffee table. “In case I missed something, don’t use the blanket to wrap her.” He pulled a throw off the back of the sofa and handed it to her. “Use this.”
“Where are we going?” she asked, draping it over the baby.
“Away from here. And fast.” He took out his phone and sent a text. Probably to Grayson. “I don’t want any other hired guns coming to the ranch. Every one of my cousins has wives and kids, and they’re all right here on the grounds.”
That didn’t help steady her heartbeat.
Drury led her to the back door, grabbing a remote control from the kitchen counter. He used it to open the detached garage, and he stepped out onto the porch to look around.
The rain was still coming down hard, but the porch was covered so the baby was staying dry. However, she was starting to squirm, maybe because Caitlyn’s dress was damp and it was cool against her. She needed dry clothes. Baby supplies.
And a safe place to take her.
But where?
The sheriff’s office certainly didn’t seem like an ideal location since the man’s partners could go looking for her there.
“Wait here in the doorway, and I’ll pull the car up to the steps,” Drury said. He’d already started to walk away but then stopped and turned back around to face her. “So help me, you’d better not try to run.”
Since she was indeed thinking just that, Caitlyn wondered if he’d read her mind. Or maybe he could just see the desperation on her face.
Because she didn’t know what else to do, Caitlyn did wait. And she prayed. She trusted Drury, but her trust wouldn’t do a darn thing to protect him or the baby.
He hurried to the garage, and it took only a few seconds before she heard the engine turn on. Only a few seconds more before he pulled the car to the steps with the passenger’s side facing her.
The moment Drury threw open the door and frantically motioned for her to get in, she knew something was wrong.
“Someone’s coming,” Drury said.
Caitlyn saw the headlights then. There was a car on the road. And it was speeding right toward them.
Drury cursed himself for not getting Caitlyn away from the house any sooner. But he’d delayed because he hadn’t been sure what was going on.
Still wasn’t sure.
But he couldn’t wait around and find out if whoever was in that car had friendly intentions. Judging from the tracking device he’d found, his guess was no. No friendly intentions here. That vehicle was likely carrying more shooters who’d come after Caitlyn and the baby. And being inside the house wouldn’t necessarily help them if these morons opened fire.
Caitlyn ran down the porch steps, and Drury reached across the seat to pull her inside. The moment she was in, he gunned the engine to get them the heck out of there.
“You’re not going to drive toward that car, are you?” she asked. The fear was right back in her voice. Not that it’d completely gone away, but there was a triple dose of it now.
It was raining, they didn’t have a car seat and bullets might start flying at any second.
“We’re not going toward the car,” he assured her, and he bolted out of the side of his yard and headed not for the highway, but toward the main house.
It was a risk, but there were no completely safe options here.
Drury tossed her his phone. “Text Grayson and tell him what’s going on. And climb in the back with the baby. Get all the way down on the seat and stay there.”
She gave a shaky nod, and with the baby cradled in her arms, Caitlyn scrambled into the back. Drury heard her typing the text, but he kept his attention on the other car. Even though he hadn’t turned on his headlights, the driver of the vehicle must have seen him because he came after them.
Hell.
He had hoped the guy would just back off when he saw where Drury was headed. No such luck.
Drury drove toward the main house, but he certainly had no intentions of stopping. There was a security gate just ahead, and like everybody else on the ranch, he had the remote to open and close it. He started pushing the remote button the moment it came into view, and the metal gates dragged open.
It seemed to take an eternity.
And that car behind him just kept getting closer and closer.
“He’s got a gun,” Caitlyn said, and that’s when Drury realized she’d lifted her head and was looking out the back window.
“Get back down,” he warned her.
Yeah, the guy had a gun all right. Drury had no trouble spotting it because the passenger lowered his window and stuck out his hand, trying to take aim.
The moment the gates were open, Drury gunned the engine and flew through them, hitting the remote to close them.
It worked.
The gates closed before the shooter could get through. The driver hit his brakes, slamming into the gate, but the gates held.
Thank God.
Drury kept going, and he sped past the houses that dotted the ranch. He didn’t dare stop because the gunman might have a long-range rifle in the car, and Drury didn’t want to give the guy any reason to keep firing.
“Grayson says his brothers and the ranch hands have been alerted,” Caitlyn relayed after getting a response to the text she’d sent.
Good. Though he doubted that gunman would get out of the car and go in pursuit on foot, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Especially since Drury was already sorry enough for this fiasco.
He stayed on the road that coiled around the pastures, and once he was past the exterior security lights, it was too dark for him to see. Drury had no choice but to turn on his headlights.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Some place she wouldn’t like. “The sheriff’s office. And before you remind me that these goons can follow us there, they can follow us anywhere. At least if we’re at the sheriff’s office, the deputies and I can protect you, and it’ll get these idiots away from my family.
“Don’t say you’re sorry,” he added, his voice a little harsher than he’d intended.
Drury had caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror and could tell from the tears that she was about to apologize again. Well, it wouldn’t help. Nothing would right now except getting her and that baby to safety.
His phone rang, the sound cutting through the other sounds of his heartbeat drumming in his ears and the wipers slashing at the rain.
“It’s Grayson,” Caitlyn said. She passed him the phone, but since Drury still had hold of his gun, he pushed the speaker button and dropped the phone on the seat