Mountain Men of Liberty (Complete Box Set)

by K. C. Crowne

  “Piper, can you hear me?”

  I knew I shouldn't move her without knowing if there was any damage to her spine or neck. She muttered something that kind of sounded like my name.

  “Yes, it’s me, baby,” I said. “Talk to me, please.”

  Her eyes fluttered open and shut, and then stayed open. She stared off into the distance for a moment, then turned her big, brown eyes to me. She seemed a little out of it, but as soon as she woke up and looked around, her eyes got large and she started fighting to get out of the car. She ripped at her seat belt.

  “Calm down, Piper,” I said, trying to stop her. “You’re okay. You’re going to be fine.”

  “Caleb,” she wheezed. “I have to get to Caleb.”

  “You know where he is?”

  “Yes, I have to get there. What time is it?”

  “I don’t know, I—”

  She managed to unlock her seat belt and fell from the car, landing on her hands and knees.

  “You need to take it easy in case—”

  “No,” she spat. “I can’t take it easy. I need to find Caleb.”

  She pushed herself up from the ground. I helped her to stand, and she stumbled a bit. She seemed a bit dizzy, but from the looks of it, she came out pretty unscathed except for the blood running down her face. I tried to inspect her head and found her scalp busted open probably from the impact when the car flipped sideways.

  Piper was trying to walk up the hill despite her obvious pain.

  “Piper, you’re going to get nowhere if you pass out.”

  She didn’t slow down. “I have no choice. You need to let me go alone.”

  “I’m not letting you go anywhere alone.”

  “I have to, or they will—” She didn’t finish that thought. She didn’t have to.

  “It’s Russo.”

  “I don’t know who it is.”

  “It is,” I told her with certainty in my voice. “I was headed to his place when I found you. Looks like we’re both headed there.”

  “Well, he told me I had to go alone.”

  She was struggling to get up the hill, and I knew she wasn’t about to give up. I lifted her in my arms, and she whimpered in pain but let me carry her the rest of the way up. She stared at me, and I could tell she would be okay. God, I was so thankful for that. I couldn’t lose both of them.

  As soon as we were on flat ground, she said, “Put me down please.”

  I carried her to my truck, setting her in the passenger side. She climbed right back down. I blocked her path.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “To save Caleb,” she said. “If I remember correctly, it should be close.”

  “Hop in, it’s still a few minutes’ drive.”

  Piper didn’t jump in my truck immediately. She looked off in the distance, seemingly debating what she should do.

  “We’ll talk about the next steps, but there’s no way you’re walking there alone. We should call Teddy and—”

  “No,” she stated firmly. “If we get cops involved, they’ll hurt him.”

  “That’s what they all say. They don’t have to know.”

  “Oh they knew everything, Grant,” Piper stated matter-of-factly. “They either have a mole working for the sheriff’s office or cameras all over that place. He knew where I was in the house, and who I was with. He’s watching that place like a hawk. Hell, he could be watching me now, and I need to do what’s best for Caleb.”

  “Get in the truck, Piper. I’m not going to ask you again.”

  Her mouth dropped open in surprise. I’d never used that tone with her before. She must have known I meant business, because she climbed into the passenger side of my truck and shut the door. I walked over to the driver’s side, trying to formulate a plan on the fly. No cops. If what she said was true and there was a mole, we couldn’t involve them. I scanned the area, trying to determine if anyone was watching us. It was so hard to see, but if I had a hard time seeing anything because of the snow, they likely couldn’t see us very well either. I got into the truck and ran a hand through my hair.

  “I’m going in there alone, Grant. You can’t stop me.”

  I looked at her. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, a defiant look on her face.

  “I can go instead.”

  “No. If they see you, they might kill Caleb.” Her voice cracked and tears slid down her cheeks. Just hearing those words felt like a knife to the gut. She turned her head to stare at me. “He was serious, Grant. You didn’t hear him, I did. He means business. I come alone, or he kills Caleb.”

  “Or he could kill both of you, and I can’t let that happen.”

  I reached for the steering wheel, holding it tightly. Everything in me hurt. Not physically, but emotionally. I hated feeling like this. I felt helpless.

  “I’m willing to risk that,” Piper said.

  “Well, I’m not.” I stared at her, and my heart ached. God, I loved her. In that moment, I realized that I loved her and there was no way I could lose her.

  “It’s not your choice to make.”

  “Piper, I—”

  “Drive, Grant. Take me to Russo’s house and leave. Let me do this.”

  I nodded my head and drove, but that wasn’t my plan.

  We stopped just short of where the GPS had directed me to go. I couldn’t even see the house from the road. I just had to trust that it was there. Piper unbuckled her seat belt. I grabbed her arm, stopping her from leaving the truck.

  “Grant, I’m going—”

  I leaned into her, stopping her words with a kiss. “I love you, Piper. I’ve always loved you. I was just scared to admit it to myself.”

  “I love you too, Grant, but that isn’t going to stop me from doing this.”

  “I know,” I sighed. “I’ve known you for too damn long. I know nothing I say or do will stop you besides physically restraining you, and unfortunately, I have nothing here to do that with. So we’re going to have to work something else out.”

  “There’s nothing to work out,” she said, opening the door and hopping out. “And if you follow me and you’re seen, just know, they’ll probably kill all of us. So please don’t follow me.”

  She hurried away before I could even get out of the truck. I lost sight of her in the snowfall, her words weighing heavily on me. She was right. If they saw me, they might kill her and Caleb both.

  I just had to make sure they didn’t see me.

  Chapter 20

  Piper

  My head was spinning. I wasn’t sure if it was from the adrenaline or from my head injury. Probably both. I was shaking from head to toe, and not just from the cold. I’d never been so scared in my entire life. I wasn’t afraid for my own life; I was scared of what I might find when I got to the house. I was late, and the caller was adamant about me being there in an hour. What if… no, I couldn’t think like that.

  I had to stay strong for Caleb.

  The snow was deep, and each step took so much energy. I thought I might never get there. I finally saw lights ahead, and I followed those until the outline of the house appeared before me. I kept pushing myself further along, my stomach roiling. I hadn’t eaten anything yet that day, but if I had, it would have all come up.

  Just keep trekking, I told myself. You’re almost there.

  It felt like hours had passed when I made it to huge fence. I felt along the fence until I found the gate. It was locked.

  Dammit. I slammed my fists against it. It rattled, then something clicked and the gate opened before me. A man the size of a professional wrestler stood in front of me. He didn’t say anything, he just motioned me inside. I stepped inside the fence, the gate locking behind me. I flinched at the sound, knowing there was no going back now. Not that I would have, but if anything had happened to Caleb, I was stuck there, inside those gates as well.

  “Follow me.” The man’s deep voice shook something in my body.

  I nodded, unable to speak. We walked t
oward the house and up some stairs. I stumbled, grabbing the bannister to regain my balance. The man in front of me kept walking. I continued up the stairs, trying to hurry so he didn’t leave me behind.

  He opened the front door of the house but stayed outside. He obviously wanted me to enter.

  I stepped inside the house into a giant foyer. The home was pretty damn large for Liberty. And it looked custom built and new. Totally out of place for a town like this. Even Andy’s house, while large, still retained the mountain cabin feeling. This place was gaudy and felt like a mansion out of some Mob movie.

  Hell, I felt like I was in a Mob movie.

  I was greeted by yet another large man, and several others surrounded me.

  “We must search you.”

  I raised my arms, and his hands moved over my body. I felt so dirty, even though the act itself wasn’t meant to be. He didn’t touch me inappropriately, but the fact that he was touching me at all sent chills down my spine.

  “She’s clear,” he said, nodding to another man who stepped up behind me.

  That man grabbed my arms, holding them together as he pulled me along.

  “Take me to Caleb, now. I need to see that he’s okay before I do anything for you.”

  The man who’d checked me for weapons sneered. “You don’t give the orders around here, Ms. Davis.”

  “Obviously you want something from me. I don’t know what it is, but I will not work with you until I know Caleb is still alive.”

  A deep voice came from down the hallway a bit.

  “He’s in here. Bring her to me.”

  I knew that voice. Grant had been right. Russo was behind this all along, but why?

  The man who had my arms dragged me to the room. He held onto me until Russo said, “You checked her for weapons, right?”

  Lars Russo sat behind a large wooden desk. This appeared to be his office, with his diplomas and other awards hung on the walls. Shelves full of books and family photos surrounded us. It almost looked normal except for the despicable man sitting there, smirking at me. I took note of the gun sitting on the desk, within arm’s reach.

  Russo nodded. “Let her go. She’s defenseless.”

  The man let my hands go. The feeling of freedom was such a relief. I scanned the room but didn’t see Caleb anywhere.

  “You said he was in here,” I said.

  Lars motioned to the man who’d brought me into the room. “Bruno, get the boy.”

  Bruno walked around me, and on the left side of the room, I noticed a door. It looked to be a closet door, nothing more. He reached for a key in his pocket and unlocked it. As soon as he did, Caleb ran out. Bruno grabbed him, but Lars said, “Let him go.”

  Caleb’s cheeks were stained with tears, and as soon as he was free, he rushed to me. I ran to him too, kneeling on the ground to scoop him up. Once he was in my arms, I felt like I could breathe again. He was alive. Thank God, he was alive.

  I looked him over for any sign of injury. If they’d hurt him, I might have lost my fucking mind. “Are you hurt?”

  “No,” Caleb said, sniffling.

  “We didn’t lay a hand on the boy. We’re not monsters, Ms. Davis,” Lars said.

  I stood up, lifting Caleb with me. I would never let him go again, if I could help it. I glared at the vicious man behind the desk. “Could have fooled me. You took a boy from his bed in the night. Now what do you want from me?”

  He slipped something across the desk, urging me to move closer.

  I didn’t really want to, but Bruno stepped closer to me, cornering me and pushing me toward the desk. I relented and stepped closer to Lars’ desk.

  “What is this?”

  “You’re going to sign over that property to me,” he said.

  “Which property? I don’t own any—”

  “Ms. Davis, let me be straight with you. We invited you out here expecting your shitty little car wouldn’t be able to make it, and this would be an open and shut case. But since you complicated things by living, we only have two options. One of which is to find a way to kill you, like we did Andy, but that would be pretty tricky right now. We’d have to kill both you and the boy and somehow make it look like an accident. Do you know how hard it is to make murder look like an accident?”

  “You don’t have to do that,” I said sternly. “I’ll do whatever I can, but you’re mistaken about one thing. I don’t own any property. The property belongs to Caleb, and until they give me custody, I can’t do a damn thing with it.”

  Lars sighed and looked past me at Bruno. “What should we do about this, Bruno?”

  Bruno shrugged.

  I had to figure out something. “If you let us go, I can still get custody of the boy and—”

  “Like hell you will,” a familiar voice spoke up from the doorway. “No one in their right mind would give you custody of that boy now. You guys fucked this all up.”

  I turned and saw my Thomas standing in the doorway. My heart felt like it might fall out. My family was behind the kidnapping and my possible death. Maybe Caleb’s too.

  “Why?” I asked.

  His eyes turned to me, and there was nothing in that look. No emotions. No regret. Nothing.

  “You already have millions of dollars, Thomas. Why do this?”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, sweet pea,” he growled, stepping into the room. “Because Andy was handling a case for us, defending us against some bullshit lawsuit, stating that we knew one of our hotels wasn’t up to code, causing the death of several families when there was a fire yada yada. Anyway, long story short, Andy caused us to lose everything, and now Andy is going to help us get it back, dead or alive.”

  I held tighter to Caleb as Thomas moved closer to us. He walked past us, however, and stopped at Lars’ desk, leaning over it. “I told you we could just make her look incompetent by stealing the boy. We’d get custody and then work with you directly once we had the property. Why did you have to involve her?”

  “Because I didn’t trust you, Thomas. You said Grace would have custody by now, and you missed the deadline. I had to take things into my own hands.”

  “Well, now you leave us no choice but to kill her and the kid,” Thomas said, throwing his hands in the air. “Then who the fuck knows who’ll get the property. It’ll be held up in litigation, and—”

  An explosion caused Caleb to scream, and he buried his face in my shoulder. Thomas was standing beside us one moment, the next, he was crumpled to the floor with a gunshot to the face. I tried not to look down at him, but I’d already seen too much. My uncle was gone.

  Lars put the gun back down on the desk.

  Caleb was sobbing, but I could hardly hear anything. My ears were ringing; everything sounded hollow. I felt him shaking against me, but I couldn’t hear him.

  Bruno grabbed my uncle’s body and dragged him from the room. He shut the door behind him, leaving just Lars, Caleb, and me in the room. Lars stood up from the desk and walked over to us. I stepped back as far as I could go, until I was backed into the wall.

  “Please, I will do anything you want. Just don’t hurt Caleb. He’s just a little boy.”

  “He’s old enough to talk, isn’t he?” Lars asked.

  He reached for Caleb, his hand brushing against the back of his head. Instinct took over and I swatted the hand away. “Don’t fucking touch him.”

  “Or what?” Lars wondered dangerously. “Not like you can fight back. A slight little thing like you.”

  My blood was boiling. He was lucky I had Caleb. Had it just been me, I’d have fought with everything in me. But I had to protect Caleb. If something happened to me because I acted rashly, Caleb would be defenseless. I had to hold it together, and hopefully we’d both come out of this alive.

  Lars pushed forward, my back firmly against the wall. He was close enough to me that I could feel the warmth of his breath on my cheek.

  “What are we going to do about you, Ms. Davis, hmm? You know too much now. I really didn’t th
ink you’d make it, and it looks like you almost didn’t.” He reached out and ran his hand down my face, coming back with some dried blood on his fingertips. “Were you in a little accident? You’re a determined one, aren’t you? Trekking all this way in the snow with a head injury. You love this little boy, don’t you?”

  I nodded my head, not trusting my voice to speak. Even on an empty stomach, I felt like I might get sick from his touch and the proximity to him.

  “You’d do anything for him?”

  Again, I nodded and managed a weak, “Anything, yes.”

  “Even take the fall for your uncle’s demise so your aunt Grace will get custody and sign over the property to me?”

  I felt like I had no choice but to agree in the moment, even if it made me sick. Hopefully, I’d think of a way out of this predicament. I pretended to ponder his offer, then lifted my head to stare into his face. “Yes. I said I’d do anything, didn’t I? You tell me what I have to do to get us both out of here alive and—”

  Before I finished my sentence, glass shattered behind us. Lars swung around, and I saw Grant coming through the window. Glass littered the floor around his feet, and his fist was a bloody, mangled mess. But God, I was relieved to see him.

  My eyes fell on the desk just as Lars rushed toward it.

  “Grant! Get the gun!”

  Grant was closer and managed to snap it up.

  Lars rushed him just as the door opened and Bruno stepped inside, guns blazing. Shots rang out, and I dropped to the floor with Caleb, shoving him against the wall and shielding him with my body and whispering, “It’s okay, Grant’s here. It’s going to be okay.”

  His body shook in my arms, and he screamed in my ear. The sound of his fear killed me and intensified mine, and all I wanted to do was protect him from everything. I wished I could take him away from all this, just make it go away like a stupid nightmare.

  Grant called out to me, but I couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears. Just my name. I turned and looked over my shoulder. Bruno was dead, but Lars was still alive. He had Lars at gunpoint, but there were footsteps coming down the hall.