Cold fear prickled her spine as Seth and Ridge watched her as if worried that she’d unravel. What if Flint was already here? Her gaze darted around at the dark fields and mountains surrounding them. A car approached along the highway and she caught her breath. The vehicle passed and she let her breath rush out.
“Do you think he’s already here? If we walk into the trailer will it explode? Oh, wait, Caleb walked in there.” She looked at the lit-up trailer. “That was so crazy of him.”
“Not the craziest thing Caleb has done.” Seth’s gaze softened on her and she longed for him to pull her close and comfort her, maybe place a sweet kiss on her forehead. “I think we beat Flint here, but I’m not certain.” He looked to Ridge. “What did your friend say?”
Ridge shrugged. “Just that he was coming. Johnny thought Breeze was pretty and a great cook so he didn’t want Flint to kill her, but he threatened me if I let it slip where he heard it, he’d kill me himself.” He rolled his eyes. “How’s Caleb?”
Seth pointed out toward the main road. “Ask him yourself. He’s parked about a quarter of a mile away in the driveway of a deserted house.”
Ridge let out an excited cheer. Breeze hadn’t seen him that happy since the day his truck fired up for the first time. “Sweet! I’m going to see him.” He darted off down the driveway.
“And here I thought you said I was the kid’s hero.” Seth smiled wryly.
“I think you still intimidate him a little bit. Caleb’s more on his level.”
Seth laughed. “Naw. Ridge is more mature than Caleb by years.”
Breeze smiled, but she couldn’t bring herself to laugh. Seth hadn’t come for her. He’d come because Flint was coming here, or had already come, possibly even watching them from the darkness. Her home might explode and she didn’t know if she even dared to retrieve the money box where she stored her tips, the few pictures she had of Ridge and her growing up, or the necklace her Grandpa James had given her before he died — the only piece of jewelry she’d ever owned.
Seth walked to her and offered his hand. Breeze placed her palm in his. Their fingers linked together, and she wasn’t quite as afraid or alone anymore. He hadn’t come because he wanted to be with her, he’d come to protect her, again. She must’ve lost all her self-respect because all she cared about was that he was here.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go chat with Caleb and see if the crazy plan he’s already concocted has merit.”
She nodded and walked hand in hand with him down the drive. “How come you don’t seem afraid?” she asked quietly, still worried Flint was already lurking out in the darkness.
He glanced sharply down at her. “Were you not there when I destroyed him in our fight?”
She smiled. “I did watch that, and it was impressive, but you know Flint won’t come here unprepared. Especially if he basically taunted you to come.”
“I also have something more impressive than my fighting skills.” He squeezed her hand and she was so grateful he was here. She wished she could believe that it meant they had a chance.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Crazy Caleb. That boy can plan covert ops, or sturdy tricks, as we used to call them, that will make your head spin. Caleb comes up with all the ideas, and I make sure they work. Flint doesn’t really stand a chance.”
Breeze squeezed his hand back, hoping he was right.
Seth was keyed up as he walked along beside Breeze. Being beside her again was like the final jump of a supercross race. The crowd in his head was going wild. He wanted to punch a fist in the air before he swept her off her feet and gave her a victory kiss. The only problem was she was still acting reluctant around him and there was still the matter of Flint Brooks coming to hurt her. He wouldn’t let Flint touch her, though he was grateful the loser had given him the provocation to come find Breeze again. It had been stupid to ever let her drive away.
He smiled down at her and squeezed her hand. Really stupid. Whatever his reasons for coming for her, they were together again, and it felt right. Once they got past this little hurdle of Flint’s threats, he’d make sure they stayed together. He’d rescued her from Flint in Jackson, and he wanted to rescue her not only from Flint but also from the poverty she’d obviously grown up with. He didn’t know how she would take that.
They made it to the truck and saw Ridge sitting up front talking to Caleb. That was fine by him. He pulled open the back door and helped Breeze climb in. She smiled back at him so sweetly that he thought coming here was the smartest thing he’d ever done. Sliding in next to her, his leg brushed hers. He felt like he was back in middle school and getting high as a kite from a simple leg brush.
“What are the dirt bikes for?” She tilted her head toward the bed of the truck. “Just can’t live without one?”
He smiled and laid his arm along the seat back. “Those were Caleb’s idea.”
“Speaking of,” Caleb spoke up from the front seat. “Let’s get those unloaded and then we can talk about the plan.”
“So, there’s already a foolproof plan?” Seth asked.
Caleb pumped his eyebrows. “You know I always have a plan.”
Seth chuckled.
“Hey, how about Ridge and I unload the bikes? Give you two at least a minute alone.” Caleb winked and pushed open his door. Ridge followed suit and the quad cab was suddenly very quiet.
Seth turned to Breeze. It wasn’t very quiet or romantic as Caleb banged open the tailgate and rolled the ramp out. Seth didn’t want to waste any time with Breeze though.
He glanced down at her, not sure what to say. He’d told her he missed her, and she hadn’t given him much.
She preempted him by saying, “Thank you for coming. I can’t imagine facing Flint without you here.”
“I won’t let him hurt you.” Seth felt those words deeply and he figured this was his moment. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and turned her toward him. She came willingly, pressing her hands against his chest then sliding them up around his neck and sighing sweetly.
“I know you won’t, Seth. Thank you.” She lifted her face to his and Seth didn’t need another invitation as he bent down and pressed his lips to hers.
A rock pinging off the back window yanked them apart.
“Caleb,” Seth growled, glancing out the rear window at his brother who was behind the truck.
“Backpack,” Caleb mouthed.
Seth’s gut tightened. All thoughts of romance fled as he whispered to Breeze, “Flint’s here.”
Her eyes widened in horror. Seth grabbed the backpack at his feet, pushed open his door and jumped out. Breeze hurried down after him. He caught her around the waist and helped her down.
“He’s here?” Seth asked, looking to his twin who was pushing one of the Honda 450 CRFs. They were good bikes for speed and durability and if they went into the mountains, they’d still perform well.
“I heard vehicles approaching without lights, luckily they parked in the field on the other side,” he whispered. “Let’s hunker down and listen.”
He handed the dirt bike off to Seth and took his backpack. Seth held on to the handles and followed his brother’s advice. Ridge came around with the other bike and stopped next to them. The truck and darkness sheltered them from whoever was over at Breeze’s house.
Breeze stayed close by his side, her anxiety rolling off her and her breath short and heavy.
“It’s okay,” Seth whispered to her, hoping to calm her down. “It’ll all be okay.”
“Okay,” she repeated, “It’s okay.” She wrung her hands together and leaned against his shoulder. “What if they destroy my house like they did yours?”
Seth wished he could wrap her up and comfort her, but he could hear vehicle doors opening and shutting and many feet shuffling around. He concentrated and tried to listen but couldn’t distinguish any of the words they were muttering. He also didn’t know how to tell her, but if one cigarette butt was thrown wrong, that trailer would go
up in flames. Her house would most likely be destroyed.
“Phone,” Caleb whispered to Ridge.
Ridge balanced the bike with one hand and dug his phone out of his pocket, typing in the passcode and handing it over to Caleb. Seth watched Caleb dial 911 and then heard him say, “My name is Ridge Cain. My address is …” Ridge whispered it and Caleb repeated the address. “There are intruders outside my house. A lot of them. Please come, please save my sister. I have to hang up so they can’t hear me.” He hung up the phone and made sure the ringer was off. “They’ll try to call back, ignore it,” he said as he handed the phone back.
Seth squinted at the house. He could see them piling stuff around it. Bales of straw? He could also see from the porch light somebody tying the door closed. Were they planning on burning Breeze and Ridge alive? His gut tightened in anger. What if he hadn’t come? Ridge had been warned by his friend, but would he have known what to do? One look at Breeze’s face said she was as terrified as she should be. Flint was an egomaniac jerk, but he wasn’t to be underestimated.
“Okay,” Caleb motioned them closer, speaking in hushed tones. “Ridge, I’ve seen you ride so I know you’re a stellar dirt bike driver but are you comfortable with me on the back?”
Ridge nodded. Seth felt an uncomfortable lurch in his gut, realizing part of Caleb’s plan. The problem was Caleb was much heavier than the underdeveloped teenager and Caleb would not be holding still on the back of that bike. He hoped they didn’t go down.
“Ridge is going to drive one bike with me on back. Breeze, you’re on back of Seth’s. We’ll go left around the back of the house, you go right.”
The siblings both nodded. Ridge looked confident, but Breeze looked as uncertain as Seth felt. What was Caleb planning?
“It’s pretty obvious they’re going to start a fire. That’s our signal. We’re going to ride through them and try to draw them after us to give the police time to get here. Then when we see flashing lights, we’ll lead them back to their prison sentence.” He spread his hands. “Simple. Load up.”
They all fastened on some helmets that Caleb had brought. Seth straddled a bike and Ridge another. He noticed his brother pulling a stick of dynamite and a match out of his backpack. Oh, boy. Caleb had so far in life managed to avoid arrest. Hopefully that luck continued tonight.
Seth said a quiet prayer and then offered Breeze his hand. She swung a leg over and slid on behind him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she cuddled in as close as she could with the helmet on. Seth’s racing pulse couldn’t be blamed completely on going into one of Seth’s plans with the woman he cared about being in danger.
“Why don’t we leave Breeze in the truck?” he asked.
Caleb shook his head. “Flint needs to see her, or he might not follow you.”
Seth thought he was probably right, and he loved having her hold on to him while he rode, but it seemed a lot safer option to lock her in the truck with the keys in case she needed to drive away. “Give me the keys,” he ordered his brother. “Once they see her and you cause your distraction,” He didn’t think Breeze had noticed the dynamite, “I’ll bring her back here and she’ll be safer in the truck.”
“Okay.” Caleb pulled out the keys and tossed them to him.
Seth handed them to Breeze. She pocketed them and then gripped his waist tightly again. Seth loved her toned arms wrapped around him.
Flames shot into the night and many men were suddenly silhouetted by the bright light against the night sky. They must’ve put an accelerant on the straw bales. Seth wondered why Flint had brought so many witnesses to his arson and attempted murder, but maybe he’d expected Seth and Caleb were here and was prepping for a fight.
“Go,” Caleb urged.
Seth kicked his bike and Ridge followed suit. He toed it into gear and took off, revving the engine and rushing through the gears as he quickly picked up speed. Breeze clung to him, but she didn’t cry out or act afraid of the speed.
It was almost comical to see the men whip around to stare at the oncoming bikes. Then several of them started rushing toward them. Seth grinned as they bumped over the rutted field and flew toward the men. The straw burned brightly around the house, the flames moving toward the walls and the small porch of the trailer, soon the entire thing would be on fire. He wondered how far out the police were.
“Too late, Brooks!” Caleb yelled from the back of the other dirt bike. “You missed somebody!” He pointed at Seth and Breeze.
They sped closer and the men scattered as they realized that the two bikes weren’t slowing down.
Flint stepped forward, shaking a fist and cursing at them. “Jewel!” he hollered.
Seth glanced over and one glimpse at his brother told him the dynamite was already lit. From his numerous experiences they had about thirty seconds. He gave the bike more juice and shot through the men and toward the open field behind the house.
Ridge and Caleb went around the back of the trailer and were lost from view. Seconds later there was a loud boom and a blast of light and heat. Several men were thrown away from the trailer and hurled into the air. Seth felt the heat and the pressure of the detonation, but they were far enough away that it didn’t threaten them. He spun off through the field as the screams and shouts of men followed them. Caleb had been behind the trailer out of sight when he threw the dynamite so the men would probably think the flames had just hit the propane tank.
“No!” Breeze screamed from behind him.
Seth felt the tremor of horror race through her body. He felt bad that Caleb had accelerated the destruction, but that trailer was going to be a burned-out hulk before help could get there anyway. The flames were already engulfing the walls and licking toward the roof. The dynamite was definitely going to add to the mess, but the end result would be the same.
“Yes!” Caleb hollered from the other dirt bike as they came together again. “Ride like the wind, bro,” Caleb yelled at Seth.
His idea to take Breeze back to the truck wouldn’t work now, but Seth didn’t feel like they were in too much danger. As far as Caleb’s crazy plans went, this one was solid. Hopefully, the men who weren’t injured by the blast would follow them until the police showed up. Ridge and Seth could lead them right back to the police’s arms.
Sure enough, the men jumped in their trucks and SUVs and spun out after them.
“Hold on,” Seth instructed Breeze. She’d loosened her hold and was trembling behind him. Even though that broken-down trailer was a mess, it was still her home. He could only imagine how upset she was to lose her home. He wanted to reassure her that he could take care of her, but now definitely wasn’t the time.
Her arms tightened around him as he bounced over the furrows in the field and toward the mountains west of her property. Ridge and Caleb were right behind them, Caleb screaming taunts at Flint and the other men in the trucks. Seth smiled to himself. The men couldn’t hear him, but Caleb would be Caleb.
Sweat trickled down Seth’s neck as the trucks gained on them. They needed to hit the narrower mountain trails … now. He gripped the handlebars and pulled back on the throttle, but it was already at max. They flew off a big rut and Breeze let out a little scream. Seth prayed in his head, and they landed. She was still clinging tight to him.
Dodging into the trees, the trail blessedly narrowed with pines and aspen trees blocking the trucks from entering. Seth led the way and Ridge and Caleb were right behind him.
“Stop!” Caleb yelled when they were sheltered by the trees and the trail. The trucks had halted their pursuit about a hundred feet back.
Seth released the throttle and pulled back on the hand brakes. The bike skidded to a stop. He spun around and looked. The trucks were stopped at the edge of the woods. Several of the men had jumped out and were yelling obscenities at them. When they noticed they were stopped they started running their direction.
Seth rolled his eyes, knowing at any time he could take off. Breeze clung to him and asked, “What is his pl
an?”
“Look.” Seth pointed back toward the fireball that was her former home. Sirens and police lights approached from the south.
“Yes!” Caleb punched his fist in the air. “Look!” He pointed.
The men coming up the trail and the men hanging out of the trucks turned. There was a pause before comprehension sunk in and then obscenities littered the air as the truck doors slammed and the vehicles quickly spun around to try to make it past the two police cars. The men who’d been running up the trail turned around and sprinted back for the trucks, some of them leaping into the beds while others got left behind.
There was a lot of hollering and confusion and Caleb’s laughter rang through it all. “Run, baby, run!” he taunted the men.
“Let’s work our way through the trees and back to the truck,” he told Ridge and Seth. “We’ll load up the bikes and then go see who the police managed to arrest. You two can explain that you escaped the house before they started the fire and make sure to press charges for destroying your home and trying to kill you.”
Seth followed his brother’s instructions. As far as spur of the moment plans went it had gone pretty well, none of them had gotten hurt and hopefully the police would be able to arrest a decent number of the perpetrators. The only flaws he saw were Breeze and Ridge’s home was decimated and Breeze hadn’t uttered a word since Caleb had thrown the dynamite and exploded her home.
Chapter Eleven
Breeze felt like she was having an out of body experience as she sat at the police station in the nearby town of Preston. Caleb’s “plan” had destroyed her home and the over eight-hundred dollars she had stashed from her tips. Where would they sleep tonight? What would she wear to work tomorrow? She and Ridge might both lose their jobs. She’d already taken a leave of absence when they went to Jackson Hole and Ridge had only been on his job a few weeks.
Caleb, Seth, and even Ridge acted like everything was hunky-dory. They’d rode through the woods for a while and circled back to the truck, loading the bikes before walking over and talking to the police.
Do Rely on Your Protector (Jewel Family Romance Book 4) Page 10