woman when it came to a situation like this.
A situation that had turned deadly.
Kayla refused to think of the possibility this could end with her death. And that wouldn’t even be a worst-case scenario. Worst case would be for Robbie to get hurt.
Dade pointed to the living room where he’d just shot out the light. “Can you see the SOB shooting at your boss?” he asked Kenneth.
Her bodyguard shook his head, and both men glanced up at her as she started to crawl toward the nursery.
Dade cursed. “Cover me,” he said to Kenneth. The order barely made it out of his mouth when he came barreling up the stairs, his cowboy boots hitting against the hardwood steps.
But that wasn’t the only sound.
More shots came. One right behind the other. Each of them ripped through the expensive carved-wood railing and sent splinters flying in every direction. That didn’t stop Dade. He made it to her, crawling over her to shove her as low as she could get.
“Robbie,” she managed to say.
Dade’s gaze slashed to hers. “If you go to him, the bullets will follow you.”
That was the only possible thing he could have said to make her stop.
Kayla froze, and the full impact of that warning slammed into her as hard as the bullets battering the foyer. Oh, no. She’d put her son in danger. This was the very thing she’d tried to avoid, the very reason she’d come out of hiding, and she had only made it worse.
Again.
The anger collided with the fear, and she wanted to hit her fists against the stairs. She wanted to scream out for the shooter to stop. But more than those things, she just wanted to protect her baby.
“Is your son with a nanny?” Dade asked.
Kayla managed a nod. She’d asked Connie to wait in the nursery when she heard Dade ring the doorbell. “In there,” she said, pointing to the first door off the left hall.
“Are they near a bathroom with a tub?” he also wanted to know.
Another nod. “There’s one adjoining the nursery.” And Kayla hated that she hadn’t thought of that herself. “Connie?” she shouted.
“What’s going on, Kayla?” the woman shouted back.
“I’m not sure,” Kayla lied. “Just take Robbie into the bathroom and get in the tub.” The porcelain tub would be their shield against the bullets.
Robbie was still crying, and the sound of her son’s wails let her know 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,
