Badlands Beware

by Nicole Helm

  The door squeaked, the narrow opening slowly growing. He saw the barrel of a gun first. It was pointed down at the ground, but he couldn’t take any chances.

  He waited until he actually saw an arm, then pushed the door as hard as he could. The gun didn’t clatter to the ground as he’d hoped, but the intruder had stumbled back onto the stair.

  “Get down, Rach,” he commanded, moving through the door and closing it behind him. A figure in all black was on the stairs. The figure didn’t raise the gun, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous.

  The figure struck out, and Tucker managed to block most of the blow. They grappled, exchanging punches and elbows and kicks. Eventually they both stumbled, crashing down the first flight of stairs and onto the landing that would go down to the second floor.

  Tucker banged up his elbow pretty good, and he’d landed on the side with his phone in his pocket so not only did a shooting pain go through his hip, but he was pretty sure the phone was crushed.

  He swore, and so did the figure. Tuck frowned. It was a woman. He noticed blond hair had escaped the black ski mask she wore. He scrambled to his feet, recognizing her as the woman who’d first approached him on behalf of North Star, then again outside his office.

  “You.” Why was the woman from North Star sneaking through the house? Pointing a gun and fighting with him?

  The woman glared up at him, then landed a kick to his stomach, and he cursed himself for being caught off guard. She made a run for it to go up the stairs, but Tucker got his breath back quickly enough to grab her by the foot. He heard her let out a curse as she crashed into the stairs.

  “Why are Wyatts always ruining my life?” she demanded, kicking back at him.

  “What the hell are you doing? North Star is supposed to be the good guys.”

  She stopped kicking and fighting him off and gave a derisive snort before rolling onto her back. Tucker had the sense she could easily kick him down the stairs and there wouldn’t be much he could do about it.

  “I have my orders, from those good guys.” The woman jerked her chin toward the attic “She knows something. She needs to come with me or our mission is compromised. Granger knew you’d be difficult about it.”

  “How do you know she knows something?” Tucker demanded. How on earth could they know about Rachel’s dreams?

  The woman gave him a withering glare. “We know everything, Wyatt. Haven’t you caught on?”

  It didn’t matter. It couldn’t. “Screw your mission. She’s got nothing to do with it and you know it. You’re going to drag an innocent into the midst of this? Via kidnapping?”

  The woman’s expression went grim, but Tucker thought he saw a flash of conscience. “I have my orders,” she repeated.

  Which told Tucker she didn’t particularly want to follow those orders.

  “Excuse me?” Both he and the woman he’d fought looked up at the top of the stairs. Rachel stood with her arms over her chest, expression furious. “Maybe one of you could tell me what’s going on and I, the woman in question, can decide for myself?”

  Chapter Ten

  Rachel was shaking, but she’d wrapped her arms around herself to keep it from showing. She was at the top of the stairs and from what she could tell, Tucker and...some woman he knew were on the landing in the middle of the stairs having an argument about her.

  “Rach.”

  “No, I don’t think I want you to tell me,” she said, holding on to her composure by a very thin thread. Tucker had been lying to her, that much was clear.

  “Listen. My name is Shay. I’m with the North Star Group. Tucker and Cody Wyatt have worked for us. Your father’s past connected to ours, so we’re helping him out. If you come with me—”

  “What a load of bull. You’re not helping him. You’re using him,” Tucker said disgustedly. “If you’re taking her against her will, you’re not in this to protect anyone.”

  “No one said it was against my will, Tucker.”

  She heard him take a few stairs. “She was damn well going to, Rachel. She snuck in here, and she fought me—”

  “You started that,” Shay interrupted.

  “She was going to kidnap you. Because you know things about your father’s past. Not because she wants to protect you or Duke, but because they’ll do anything to bring down the Sons. Including letting innocent people get hurt.”

  There was a heavy, poignant silence.

  “Don’t have anything to say to that?” Tucker said scathingly to the woman.

  Who still didn’t say anything. Rachel didn’t understand any of this, but she understood one thing. “You have my father.”

  “We’re helping your father,” this Shay person said. “It’s what we do.”

  “What does this have to do with the Sons?” she asked. Because of course it did. Tucker had lied to her and her father was in danger because of the Sons of the Badlands.

  What else was new?

  “Rachel, listen to me—”

  “You knew where he was, who he was being protected by and why, but you didn’t think to share that with me?” Her throat closed with every word, until the last one was a squeak.

  “Rach.” He sounded pained, hurt.

  But she couldn’t have any sympathy for him. He’d lied to her. Let her worry and fear and... He’d used her. Even if he was right about this North Star Group using Dad instead of helping him, Tucker had used her. Knowing...everything.

  “If I go with you, what happens?” she said, addressing Shay.

  “I’d take you to your father.”

  “Oh, that’s low,” Tucker said sourly. “She would not. They would interrogate you about your dreams until they got the information they wanted. If you give them what they want, they might let you see Duke, but considering they’re using him as bait, I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon. They need him. They need the information they think you might have. What they don’t need is a father–daughter reunion. And who knows, they might use you as bait, too. You can’t go with her, Rachel.”

  “She’s coming with me. Whether she does it willingly or not, my mission is to bring her back. So I will.”

  But Rachel noted they were standing in the attic staircase having this conversation. Shay wasn’t making a move to fight Tucker anymore. She hadn’t yet attempted to take Rachel against her will like she was saying she would.

  “Can you promise my father will be okay if I go with you willingly?”

  There was a hesitation. “I...can’t promise that. Your father’s in a dangerous situation.”

  “Think, Rachel,” Tuck implored her. “I know you’re mad at me. Maybe you’ll never forgive me. I get it. But think about your father. What would he want you to do?”

  “I don’t care as much about what he’d want me to do as what I can do to protect him.”

  “They’d use whatever you gave them to complete their mission. You and Duke would be collateral damage.” Tucker sounded so...desperate. So intent. It wasn’t his usual self.

  But his usual self had been lying to her. Should she have seen it? There had been hints. Hesitations. A carefulness.

  The woman was suspiciously silent at Tucker’s accusation. “Is that true?” Rachel asked quietly.

  There was a long silence. “It’s not...untrue.”

  “So, you’re both liars who don’t care about anyone?”

  “Your father wanted you safe,” Tucker said, and while he was being contrite, so to speak, there was a thread of steel in his words. “You and Sarah. Why do you think I’m here? He—”

  “You saw him. Before he disappeared. You saw him and you lied to all of us.”

  She couldn’t see his expression, but she knew all those accusations landed like blows. Unless he was a completely different man than she’d always believed. Which maybe he was.

  “He want
ed you and Sarah protected,” Tucker repeated, and his voice was rough. She wanted to believe that was emotion. Guilt.

  She just didn’t know what to believe about him anymore. He’d seen her father. He’d let her worry.

  He’d comforted her after her dreams. Stepped in and made meals, cleaned up. He’d taught her self-defense and...maybe he’d tried to ease some of her fears. She thought of the badge, the key.

  “Were you lying about looking into the name?”

  Tucker was silent for ticking awful seconds where she wanted to curl into herself and cry. Just...disappear from this world where the man she trusted was such a liar.

  “I wasn’t lying. I looked into it. I was told to leave it be.”

  “In fairness, he didn’t leave it be,” Shay said. “Which is why I’m here.”

  “You guys are keeping some kind of tabs on me?” Tucker growled as if he was both surprised and disgusted by the information. “What the hell is this?”

  “It’s business, Wyatt. The business of taking down the Sons.”

  “I’m so tired of people trying to take down the Sons,” Rachel said, her voice growing louder with every word. “I’m so tired of people getting hurt because of the Sons. My father and I have nothing to do with them. Why can’t you leave us alone?”

  “Listen, you can dismiss me and all, but neither of you actually have a say. If I don’t take you, they’ll send someone else. You’re a part of North Star’s mission now. They won’t just take no for an answer. It’d be easier if you just came with me.”

  Rachel didn’t know why that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “And I am really done doing what’s easier for everyone else.”

  * * *

  TUCKER HAD TO ignore the searing pain in his chest. The slick black weight of guilt. He had to focus on getting Rachel out of this mess. Once she was safe... Well, he could self-flagellate and she could hate him forever.

  He rubbed at his chest.

  “If you don’t come with me of your own volition,” Shay said in a careful, emotionless voice, “I’ll take you by force.”

  Tucker had already positioned himself between Shay and Rachel. He was ready to fight. He didn’t think Shay would use the gun against him. At least he hoped not.

  “She is an innocent bystander. Whatever she knows is wrapped up in nightmares she can’t untangle.” He thought about the badge, the key he’d slid into his pocket. He could give that to Shay as a peace offering. It might even help Duke, and it wasn’t that he thought North Star was evil—they just didn’t care about people. They cared about their mission.

  As for him, he cared about too many people involved to let this go so far as to touch Rachel. The key might be some kind of insurance if he kept it. So, he had to.

  Tucker turned to Rachel. She held herself impossibly still, her expression mostly blank. Except her eyes. They were hurt. Betrayed.

  And he’d done the betraying.

  He had to get her out of this. Maybe she’d never forgive him, but if he could get her out of this, maybe he could forgive himself.

  “Your father wanted me to protect you from this. Keep you separate.”

  “But I’m not separate. If they’re here about my dreams, there’s something real in them.” Her eyebrows drew together. “It has to be real.”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to put yourself in danger. It doesn’t mean you have to go with this group who doesn’t care about you.”

  “This group has my father.”

  “You going there doesn’t help him. It helps them.” He wouldn’t let her go. Even if she wanted to. But maybe he could assuage at least some of his guilt if she’d just understand the truth here. A truth he hadn’t fully understood until now.

  Maybe North Star wanted to take down the Sons, but they didn’t care enough about the innocent collateral damage involved.

  “Oh, just someone punch me,” Shay said with no small amount of exasperation.

  “What?” Tucker demanded, turning from Rachel to face her.

  “In the face.” She pointed to her nose. “Make it good, too.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I can’t go back to Granger unscathed and with you having gotten away. You need to make it look like you beat me. Literally and figuratively.”

  Finally, what Shay was saying got through. She was...letting them go. “I... I can’t punch a woman.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I can punch you first if it gets you going.”

  “That’s not—”

  “I’ll do it,” Rachel said, walking down the stairs. She stopped on the stair right above Shay.

  “No offense, but—”

  Rachel squared like he’d taught her, curled her fist and landed a blow right to Shay’s face.

  Swearing in time with Rachel, Shay gingerly placed her palm on her jaw, working it back and forth. Rachel shook out her hand, then cradled it.

  “Well, that’ll work,” Shay said. “Hell.”

  “You really think one punch is going to convince them?”

  “I can handle the rest, but I couldn’t punch my own self in the face.” She gave Rachel a once-over. “Not half bad. Keep working on that and you might be one hell of a fighter.” She moved as if to leave, but Tucker stepped in front of her on the stairs.

  “I should take your gun.”

  She grimaced, clearly loathing the idea of losing her weapon.

  “They can’t think you got back in one piece still armed, can they?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” She handed over the weapon.

  Still, Tucker couldn’t move out of her way. “Will they kick you out?”

  She shrugged. “Not if I quit first.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Because you’re right, Wyatt. I’m not in the business of hurting innocent people for the sake of a mission. North Star didn’t start out that way, but lately... Doesn’t matter. It’s getting old and maybe this is my last straw. You’re going to need to run, though. Whether I get kicked out or quit—they’ll keep coming for her. She knows stuff.” Shay let out a sigh. “That phone Granger gave you?”

  Tucker pulled it out of his pocket. It was in a couple pieces after his fall down the stairs.

  Shay nodded. “That’s good. Leave it here.”

  It dawned on Tucker that meant Granger had been tracking him, maybe listening to him. He’d know about everything up to the fight on the stairs. He nodded grimly at Shay, tossing the phone onto the ground. He smashed it once more under his heel for good measure.

  Shay looked back at Rachel, then leaned close to whisper to Tucker. “Get her out of here ASAP. Whatever she knows, they’ll use it. Not to help or protect Knight, but to get the Sons. I want the Sons destroyed as much as anybody, and I imagine you do, too, but good people shouldn’t be used as bait to take them down.”

  “If you don’t quit, if you don’t get kicked out, you could help keep Duke safe. From the inside.”

  She smiled wryly. “That’s a lot of ifs.”

  “Like you said, we both want to bring down the Sons. We just don’t want innocent people hurt in the process. We could work together on this.”

  She shook her head. “You and your brother. Two peas in a dumb, naive pod.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  She blew out a breath. “Look, I’ll do what I can. That does not mean we’re working together. Be clear on that.”

  He wasn’t sure he believed her, and when he held out a hand for a shake, she shook her head. “We are not partners. Be best for you both if you get out of here before I do.”

  Tucker nodded and looked up at Rachel. Her expression was grim. But Shay was right, they had to get out of here. He didn’t know where yet, but he’d figure it out.

  What he wasn’t so sure he was going to figure out was how to live wi
th what he’d done.

  Chapter Eleven

  Tucker stole a horse.

  Maybe it was harsh for Rachel to consider it stealing, considering it was her horse, and she was one of the people riding it, but it felt like stealing. It felt like lying and scaring the people she loved by disappearing.

  Like Dad did?

  She didn’t even have time to wallow in the betrayal of it all because Shay was absolutely telling the truth, no doubt about it. Someone else would come for her, because her dreams were true.

  True.

  They rode Buttercup away from the ranch—in the opposite direction of the pasture Dev and Sarah were working in this afternoon. It felt really stupid to be riding a horse named Buttercup when trying to escape a group that was trying to bring down the Sons—which was what she wanted.

  How could two groups of people want the same thing and disagree so fundamentally on how to get there?

  She didn’t speak as Tucker explained everything from the beginning. His helping out North Star. Being ready to quit before he walked into a diner with the North Star guy and her father.

  Her father. Who’d brought down dirty cops as a young man and was somehow paying for it over thirty years later.

  Her father wasn’t who she’d thought. Tucker wasn’t who she’d thought.

  Oh, that probably wasn’t fair. In fact, it was really quite Wyatt of Tucker to want to save the day without telling her. Still, no matter how justified, the fact he’d lied to her and she’d bought it hook, line and sinker... It hurt.

  Maybe his deception was necessary, but how easily he’d fooled her made her feel stupid. And weak. Now she was riding a horse, with Tucker’s hard body directly behind her, through the rolling hills of southeastern South Dakota like she was some kidnapped bride on the prairie.

  Rachel didn’t say anything as they rode, and after he’d told the whole story, neither did Tucker. She didn’t know how many hours they rode in silence, how many miles they covered. She didn’t know where they were going and she didn’t ask.