LITMIR.BIZ

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that Connie was on the move. Robbie’s voice became more and more faint until Kayla couldn’t hear him at all.

      That didn’t help her nerves.

      Hearing him had at least allowed her to know that he was all right. Still, she didn’t want him out in the open in the nursery in case this attack continued.

      As if to prove to her that it would, more bullets ripped through the foyer.

      “How long before backup arrives?” Kenneth shouted.

      “Too long,” Dade answered. “At least fifteen minutes. This place isn’t exactly in city limits.”

      Kenneth cursed and took cover behind a table. Kayla silently cursed as well. In fifteen minutes they could all be dead.

      “I have to move you,” Dade informed her. Other than a glance that had an I-told-you-this-could-happen snarl to it, his attention volleyed between the living room and the front door.

      Kayla shook her head. “But you said I can’t go near Robbie.”

      “You can’t. But it’s only a matter of time before the shooter changes positions.” He tipped his head toward the front. “There are a lot of windows, and he’ll have a clean shot once he moves.”

      Not if he moves but once.

      “I’ll roll to the side, just a little,” Dade instructed. “And without standing up, I want you to get to the top of the stairs. Duck behind the first thing you see that can provide some cover.”

      Kayla managed to nod, and the moment that Dade lifted his weight off her, she did as he’d ordered. She covered her head with her hands and scrambled up the stairs as fast as she could.

      The shots didn’t stop, and one plowed into the wall above her just as Kayla dived to the side of a table. She’d barely managed that when Dade came barreling toward her. He hooked his arm around her waist and dragged her away from the table, away from the wall.

      But also away from the nursery.

      He hauled her toward the right, the opposite side from where Robbie and the nanny were, and Kayla was thankful that Dade had given her son that extra cushion of security. However, there was no cushion for Dade and her. They were off the stairs, yes, but the bullets continued to come at them. Dade flattened her on the floor and crawled back over her.

      Kayla was well aware of his body pressed hard against hers. His breathing, too, because it was gusting in her ear. But she also felt his corded muscles and the determination to keep her alive.

      That didn’t mean, however, he’d succeed.

      And that both frightened and infuriated her.

      Just like that, the shots stopped. Kayla held her breath, waiting and praying that this was over, but it was Dade’s profanity that let her know it wasn’t.

      She glanced back at him, and her gaze collided with those steel grays. He barely looked at her, but in that glimpse he managed to convey his concern and his disgust.

      He hated her.

      All the Rylands hated her. And Kayla couldn’t blame them. Guilt by association. Her father-in-law had probably caused Ellie Ryland’s death. And so far, he’d gotten off scot-free, thanks to a team of good lawyers and a technicality in some of the paperwork that had been used in his original arrest.

      “What?” Dade snarled.

      It took her a moment to realize he was talking to her, and she knew why. She was staring at him.

      “Nothing,” Kayla mumbled. And she forced her attention away from the one man who should disgust her as much as the shooter outside. But much to her dismay, what she felt wasn’t total disgust.

      Yet more proof that she was stupid.

      She had noticed Dade Ryland’s storm-black hair. It was a little too long, and his five o’clock stubble was a little too dark for her to think of him as handsome. No. It was worse than that. He wasn’t handsome.

      He was hot in that bad-boy, outlaw sort of way.

      Well, she’d already been burned by one bad boy, and she wasn’t looking for another. Not now. Not ever again.

      Dade gave her another glance, and she could have sworn he smirked, as if he could read her mind.

      “You see the shooter yet?” Dade called down to the bodyguard.

      “No.”

      “The shooter’s probably moving,” Dade growled. He levered himself up just slightly and re-aimed his gun toward the front of the house.

      Kayla could do nothing other than hope this would end with her baby unharmed. She’d been a fool to come back, a fool to respond to Charles’s latest threat.

      But what else could she have done?

      She had to get out from beneath the hold Charles had on her. She had to try to make a safe, normal life for her son. But instead, she’d gotten this.

      “Someone told Charles I was here,” she mumbled. “Probably the D.A. or a Ryland.” She hadn’t meant to say Dade’s family name so loudly, but by God it was hard to tamp down the anger while bracing for another attack.

      “No one in my family is responsible for this,” Dade informed her. “Lady, you got into this mess all by yourself.”

      She wanted to argue, but the sound stopped her. In the distance she heard sirens. No doubt the backup that Dade had called. Even though she didn’t like the idea of the place crawling with any more Rylands, it was better than the alternative.

      She hoped.

      Beneath them in the foyer, Kayla heard her bodyguard moving around. Maybe so he could try to spot the shooter. Dade moved, too. He used his forearm to push her face back to the carpet, and he maneuvered himself off her. This time not just an inch or two. He reared up and took aim at the front windows.

      He fired.

      The blast roared through her ears, and she had no time to recover before there was another shot. Not from Dade. This one came tearing through the foyer but from a different angle than before. This bullet took out one of the front windows and sent glass flying through the air.

      Dade had been right. The shooter had moved. And now Dade and she were in his direct line of fire.

      For a few moments at the beginning of the attack, Kayla had hoped the shots were meant as a warning. A way to get her to grab Robbie and go back into hiding. But this was no warning.

      This was an assassination attempt.

      Dade sent another shot the gunman’s way, and she put her hands over her ears to shut out the painful noise. However, she could still hear them. And the siren. It grew closer and closer as the gunman’s shots came faster and faster. He wasn’t panicking, and he definitely wasn’t running. He was trying to kill her before the sheriff arrived.

      “Stay down,” Dade warned her. He shifted his gun toward one of the other front windows and fired.

      This time, Kayla heard another sound. A groan of some kind, following by a heavy thud. Had Dade managed to shoot the gunman? Maybe.

      Kayla looked up and followed the direction of Dade’s aim. There. Through the jagged shards of glass jutting from the window frame, she saw something.

      A man.

      He was dressed head to toe in black, and it was only because of the porch light that she could see his silhouette. She could also see his gun, and he took aim at Dade and her.

      Kayla yelled for Dade to get down, and she latched onto him to pull him back to the floor. But he threw off her grip and fired at the shadowy figure.

      The man fired a shot as well and then clutched his shoulder. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought this time maybe Dade had managed to shoot him.

      Dade must have

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