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“And they weren’t intelligent enough to stay the hell away from here,” Raeg stated.
“No, they sure as hell weren’t,” Summer’s father agreed. “Now get ready, they’ll move soon. When they go, they’ll try to be wily. Let’s see how fast we can outsmart them.”
Moving quick and silent, Cal led the way to a spot along the line of trees where they could see the back door.
And the old son of a bitch was right. No more than seconds later the back door opened. Two black-garbed figures and one unconscious Summer bouncing on a shoulder, were quickly out the back door.
Just as quickly, as they cleared the porch and began running, four shots were fired. The two runners went down immediately. Not even a heartbeat later, movement within the marsh and just within the shadowed depths of the swamp revealed the two snipers falling out of shelters, lifeless.
“Summer.” Raeg whispered her name, darted from cover and, using the various yard ornaments placed in a sheltered line to the back porch, made his way quickly to where she laid silently beneath the heat of the late morning sun.
Reaching the back porch he sprinted for the silent form of the woman he feared was going to be the death of him. He was already on the verge of a stroke. The fact that she wasn’t moving terrified him.
“Cover, cover!” Cal yelled behind him just as a volley of gunfire began spatting around them.
Raeg threw himself over Summer, aware of Falcon sliding in front of them and Cal right beside him, firing into the swamp.
From the second floor of the main house, a rifle fired in half a dozen slower bursts before the sound of an airboat could be heard racing from the area.
At the sound of the airboat Raeg picked her up in his arms and ran for the house as Falcon and Cal covered him.
She felt boneless, almost lifeless. Breathing though, he’d made certain of that first thing. But Summer had not just passed out. She wasn’t the passing-out type, and he knew it.
“Momma and Aunjenue are coming through the front!” Caleb yelled. “Lay her on the couch. Bowe’s calling Doc.”
Falcon had the back door open, allowing Raeg to rush inside with her. Crossing the kitchen and breakfast area into the large living room, he laid her on the couch gently, aware of the others rushing in behind him.
She was paper white.
Pulse was strong.
No obvious head trauma or bullet wounds.
“Move, Raeg, let me in there.” Summer’s mother pushed at his shoulder firmly. “Let me see her.”
Raeg moved away from her slowly and allowed her mother to begin checking her, feeling as though he’d been holding his breath far too long.
Behind the couch, Falcon, Summer’s father, and her brothers stood silently. Raeg looked his brother over quickly, making certain he was unharmed. Falcon’s pale blue gaze was icy, his expression savage, as he watched Summer’s mother check her for wounds.
“They used an electrical charge,” Leasa snapped as she lifted one shoulder and revealed the raw burn mark hidden by the strap of her dress.
Raeg eased Summer to her side, revealing the second wound the electrical prongs had made. Easing her back, Raeg watched as her mother brushed Summer’s long, tangled hair away from her face, her lips trembling for the barest moment.
“We were almost too late,” she whispered tearfully, looking up at her husband as he stood next to Falcon. “Almost too late, Cal.”
“Almost doesn’t count,” he answered, his own voice hoarse, his eyes damp. “Remember that. It doesn’t count.”
They’d all nearly failed her, Raeg acknowledged. He intended to make certain that never happened again.
* * *
More than an hour later Raeg stood in the dining area of the kitchen, looking into the swamp where the body of one of the snipers had dropped, not far from where Cal said the airboat had been hidden.
The shooters had a direct line to the back of the house, and no one could figure out how they’d gotten past the safeguards in place to alert the family of any intruders.
“Someone’s helpin’ them,” Cal breathed out roughly from where he sat at the table, nursing another cup of coffee. “They couldn’t have gotten past the alerts we have in place without someone here on the farm helping them.”
“Bowe and I will slip out this evening and change the alerts locations,” Brody told his father. “Caleb can shift the hands out of sight of the house for some reason and give us time to do it with no one the wiser. We leave the ones that’re out there currently in place and spread word around the farm that we believe water damage caused them to malfunction. No one will know any better.”
