Stork Alert by Delores Fossen Page A

And why? To protect them, of course. He was risking his life for them. Kelly didn’t want to thank him for that. She wanted to throttle him. Why hadn’t he just stayed inside the panic room with them until the sheriff arrived? She switched between the images of Nick and the gunmen until she finally figured out a way to put the images on a split screen.
    “Greta,” someone said from over the intercom. It was Esther. “I can’t find Cooper.”
    “Keep looking,” Kelly interrupted.
    Though she had to wonder—where was Nick’s security guru when they needed him most?
    “Mr. Lattimer knows how to take care of himself,” Greta said softly.
    They were words meant to comfort her, no doubt. But Kelly wouldn’t be comforted until Nick was back inside and safe.
    “He shouldn’t have gone out there alone,” Kelly mumbled.
    And then she saw something on the screen that caused her fears to shoot through the roof. The two men stopped, said something to each other and one motioned in the direction of the barn where Nick was.
    Then the men split up.
    “Mercy,” Kelly said under her breath. “They know where Nick is.”
    “What?” Greta asked, hurrying to the monitor.
    Kelly tapped the image of the man on the lower portion of the screen. “The dark-haired one is trying to sneak around so he can ambush Nick.”
    She didn’t have to wait long to have her theory confirmed. The taller gunman stood and fired a shot at the barn.
    Nick took cover behind the barn and aimed his weapon. He probably didn’t know the fired shot had been a ploy to distract him so that the other man could sneak up behind him.
    “I can’t sit here and watch him die.” Kelly got to her feet. “Is there anyway we can call Nick?”
    “His cell phone.”
    “It’s on his desk.” She remembered him pushing it aside when he used the monitor. He hadn’t taken it with him.
    And that left Kelly with a huge decision.
    Except it wasn’t really a decision. Nick had already saved her from the kidnappers once. Now, she had to do something to save him.
    “Is there an extra gun in the house?” Kelly asked—though she already knew the answer. With Nick’s concern about safety, there were probably plenty of firearms around.
    Greta’s blue eyes widened, but she didn’t seem shocked by the question or by what Kelly intended to do.
    The nanny went to a cherub painting on the wall and lifted it. Beneath it was a safe. She hurriedly opened it and extracted a Glock.
    “You know how to use this?” Greta asked, handing her the gun and the magazine of ammunition.
    Kelly nodded. “My late husband was a cop. He taught me how to shoot.”
    But Kelly had never thought she would have to use that particular skill.
    “When the sheriff arrives, let him know what’s going on,” Kelly instructed. She went to the babies, leaned down and kissed both of them.
    She didn’t linger. Didn’t waste any time. Because Nick’s life hung in the balance.
    “Be careful,” she heard Greta say.
    Joseph babbled bye-bye and William echoed it, the sounds nearly breaking Kelly’s heart. She wanted to stay with the babies, to make sure they were safe, but right now the only one in real danger was Nick.
    Kelly left the panic room, went into the kitchen and found the cook and the head ranch hand, a lanky cowboy with weathered skin and a battered Stetson. He was seventy if he was a day. He introduced himself as Zeke and immediately tried to talk her out of leaving the house.
    She didn’t listen.
    However, Kelly did inform him of her plan. She’d get as close to the barn as possible so she could alert Nick and keep an eye out for the dark-haired gunman who was trying to sneak up behind him.
    She opened the back door cautiously, and looked out to see if she could spot the men. Neither was in her line of sight, but that didn’t stop her. Kelly eased down the porch steps, into the backyard and raced toward a hedge. She hid behind it, probably using the same route that Nick had and made