Page 23 of Snowbound Threat

Caleb had talked her through this as well but seeing it with her own eyes was a whole lot different than him explaining what she might likely see.

No one else came out of the house.

He shifted his rifle and lined up the sights. The guy holding up Miles had a gun pointed at the preacher’s chest but didn’t have his finger on the trigger. It would take him a second to be able to fire. That gave Caleb a distinct advantage—but not one that would last long.

“Let him go!” Tessa yelled across the clearing.

“We trade,” the man replied.

Before he took a single step toward her, Caleb put pressure on the trigger of his weapon and squeezed. The man crumpled to the ground in front of the cabin.

He shifted his aim and watched for less than a second as the man holding Miles looked around, trying to figure out where the shot had come from. Moving his gun to point at the preacher’s chin.

Caleb squeezed again.

Both the man and Miles crumpled to the ground, but the gun didn’t go off.Thank you, Lord.Caleb left his rifle where it was and ran over, pulling his pistol from the holster on his hip just in case.

Tessa met him there, breathing hard as she crouched next to her father. “Dad.” She rolled him to his back, and he flopped there, unconscious.

“Is he alive?” Caleb didn’t want to ask it quite that definitively, but she needed to check for a pulse.

“He’s breathing, but he’s unconscious.”

Unlike the two guys Caleb had shot before they could kill him—or Tessa and her father. He scanned around the cabin quickly, glancing every way just to make sure there wasn’t a third man in the area around them.

He needed to check the cabin as well and did so as quickly as he could. The smell in there was pretty bad and the living conditions weren’t much better. But he didn’t find any more bad guys.

Back outside he said, “Let’s load your father into your car so you can take him to the hospital. It will be quicker than waiting for an ambulance.”

“What about a medical helicopter? There’s one in the area.”

“I’m not sure this clearing is big enough for them to land.” He crouched next to the first man and picked the guy’s pockets, collecting everything he found. Wallet and phone. Even some cash. He would drop that in the collection plate the next time he went to Sunday service.

The other guy had two phones on him, as well as his wallet.

Caleb shoved it all in his backpack and collected up his rifle. He helped Tessa get her father up, carrying most of the older man’s weight all the way to the car where they laid him on the backseat.

He walked with her around to the driver’s side. “Drive fast but be careful. Keep your eyes open just in case. You don’t want to get in an accident on the way to the hospital.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“Yep.”

Tessa moved closer to him, touching the sides of his face. “No, I mean it. Thank you so much for helping me get him back, Caleb.”

He nodded, swallowing against the lump in his throat. “You’re welcome.” He lifted his chin. “You should get out of here.”

She slid in the car and pulled out, turning in a circle in front of the house.

Caleb slid his backpack from his shoulders and dropped it to the ground. He kept the rifle in front of him, shifting the strap over his shoulder so that it was across his body. If he had to drop it and run he could bring it with him.

A redhead man stepped out from between the trees, over by the ATVs.

“You’ll find those won’t get you anywhere,” Caleb called out to him. “Guess you’re out of luck.”

The man had a pistol in one hand. Probably a knife somewhere on his person. A tattoo snaked out of the collar of his jacket up to his ear on the left side of his neck. Tattoos on the back of both hands, and on his fingers. The guy you messed with in an alley, or on the prison yard.

“So what’s it gonna be?”