Colorado Abduction by Cassie Miles Read Free Book Online

maybe you’ve got a point.”
    His focus on the list was interrupted by a loud crash, followed by the sound of gunfire. The shots came from the front of the house.

Chapter Five
    Burke’s risk assessment had been dead wrong. They were under attack. He caught hold of Carolyn’s upper arm and turned her toward him. “Go upstairs. Don’t turn on any lights and—”
    “The hell I will.” She wrenched free. “Those were gunshots. Somebody’s firing at my house—the house that’s been in my family for three generations, the house my grandpa built. Don’t ask me to hide behind the lace curtains in my bedroom.”
    Stubborn woman . “I go first. Stay behind me.”
    “Of course. I’m not going to put myself or anyone else in danger.”
    He grabbed his handgun from the shoulder holster slung across the back of a chair, aware of seconds ticking away. Whoever fired that shot would be making his escape. Moving quickly through the house, Burke turned off lights as he went. Carolyn followed in his footsteps.
    Her brother staggered into the moonlit hallway, rubbing his eyes. “Carolyn? What’s going on?”
    “Stay with him,” Burke ordered as he flipped the latch on the front door. “I’ll be right back.”
    Leaving Carolyn behind—thank God—he slipped outsideonto the veranda. Aware that he might be the next target for a man with a rifle and a nightscope, Burke stayed low. He dodged around the rocking chair and porch swing. At the end of the veranda, he jumped over the railing and ducked into the shadows.
    Wind rustled the bare branches of a cottonwood. Nothing else appeared to be moving.
    “Over here, Burke.”
    Burke followed the sound of the voice and saw a security guard crouched behind a truck that was parked on the wide gravel space beyond a hitching rail. Burke hustled toward him. “Where’s the shooter?”
    “Didn’t see him. I was behind the house when I heard the shots.”
    His heavy jaw was thrust forward. His name, Burke remembered, was Neville. He’d been in the Secret Service for five years before joining Longbridge Security. “What about a vehicle?”
    Neville shook his head. “I didn’t hear a car.”
    Cautiously, they peered around the truck. The driveway leading to the house was a long gravel lane. The yard was about an acre of winter-brown grass, separated from the road by a whitewashed fence. On the other side of the road, the land turned rugged with lots of trees and rocks—plenty of hiding places for a sniper.
    “He could be dug in behind those rocks,” Burke said.
    He nodded. “A decent rifle would be accurate from four, maybe even five hundred yards away.”
    After that first burst of gunfire, no other shots had been fired. Likely, the shooter had already hightailed it out of there. “Do you think he’s gone?”
    “I don’t want to test that theory by taking a bullet,” Neville said.
    “Let’s find him,” Burke said. “You go right. I’ll go left. We’ll meet at the fence by the road.”
    As Burke moved across the yard, he scanned the cold, moonlit landscape. There was virtually no cover. Burke longed for the city streets, crowded with parked cars and doorways to duck into. This sniper was probably an expert hunter. Not like the city punks who held their guns sideways, more concerned with looking cool than taking careful aim.
    When he reached the fence and no other shots had been fired, he was fairly sure that their sniper was gone. He heard the door to the house open. A mob spilled onto the veranda. Carolyn and her brother were both carrying rifles. The other three FBI agents accompanied them.
    Lucas and two other cowboys—also armed—charged toward the veranda from the two-story bunkhouse.
    “There are way too many guns on this ranch,” Burke said. This was the land of the Second Amendment where the right to bear arms would not be infringed upon. He turned and looked across the road. From where he stood, he spotted four good positions for a sniper to hide, if he’d