by D. L. Roan
“Claira, baby, Grant saved you. It was Preston Dawes that shot you.”
“Grey, he won’t stop. Lucien found me. He won’t stop until everyone is dead!” The nurse wrestled her arm down to the cuffed restraints and buckled it in. “Please don’t! Please let me go!” she sobbed. Grey watched in confused horror as the nurse pumped something into her IV port. “Grey, please! Please believe me. Lucien doesn’t care about the babies. He’ll kill the babies! Please!”
The room spun. Grey stumbled back as he watched his baby bird sink back into the bed, quiet sobs wracking her tiny frame as the sedative worked its way through her system. He felt someone holding him up and dragging him away but couldn’t seem to stop the room from spinning.
“Grey, what is she talking about?”
Matt. Focus on Matt’s voice. Grey shook his head and everything popped into focus as he found his footing. Pushing against Matt, Grey made for her room and ran to her bedside, but it was too late. Whatever drug they’d given her had taken full effect. Her chest rose and fell in an even rhythm as she slept, trails of tears streaking down her tender cheeks.
“Grey?” Ignoring the single family member rule Matt stepped into the room and pushed his way between Grey and the nurses to get a glimpse of Claira. “Grey, what was that about killing babies and Grant Kendal?”
Seething with a white-hot fury he knew would never die until someone had paid for what they’d done to her, Grey turned for the door. “I don’t know, but I’m damn well going to get some answers.”
Thirty minutes later, seven pairs of eyes turned toward them as Grey, Matt and Mason stormed into their family room. “Where are the twins?” Matt roared as Grey swept past him and his family, not noticing the stranger among them, and plowed into Grant Kendal with a feral growl, grasping his shirt and slamming him against the nearest wall.
“If you’ve so much as touched them I’ll kill you!” Grey spat the promise through his clenched teeth. Panic-laced fear had consumed the brothers as they raced home with the Sheriff to find Grant and get some answers.
“Let him go,” their Uncle Cade ordered, ignoring the Sheriff who had followed them.
Matt twisted away from the Sheriff’s hold and clawed his way toward Grant before another set of arms wrapped around his shoulders like a vice. “It’s not what you think, son.” Jake tightened his grip and held him back.
“Not what we think?” Grey clung to Grant’s shirt, ripping it at the seams as one of his dads pulled him away. “You fucking bastard! You shot her, didn’t you?”
Grant neither confirmed nor denied it. He stood stoically against the wall, straightening his torn shirt. Grey lunged at him again, but was no match for whatever army had him in their grasp. “I’m going to rip you’re goddamn dick off and shove it down your throat!”
“Greyson!” Hazel screamed, tears swelling in her eyes as she ran to her son, braving his wrath and stepping in front of him. “Greyson, please. Calm down. Look at me!” She cupped his flaming cheeks in her hands and forced him to see her. “Look at me. That’s it. Breathe.” He was turning purple before her very eyes.
Grey felt the world fall out from beneath his feet as the red faded from his vision enough to see the tormented look in his mother’s eyes. She was scared, and crying. “Mom?”
“Yeah, honey. It’s me. The boys are fine. They’re at my cousin Hanna’s. I promise. I need you to calm down and listen to us.”
Grey blinked and shook his head. His boys were fine. They were okay. She wouldn’t lie to him. He closed his eyes and opened them again, the fear and anger induced haze subsiding enough to take in his surroundings. He was numb as he looked beyond his mom to see Uncle Cade standing by Grant, their faces a matching blank slate. He felt the grip on his arms loosen a notch.
“Someone had better start explaining.” The Sheriff’s loud voice filled the room. Grey twisted to see him standing next to Matt, a restraining hold on his brother’s shoulder.
Grant cleared his throat and began to speak, but their Uncle Cade stepped up and cut him off. “We need to get these boys a drink, then we’ll tell you everything.”
“Fuck that!” Matt charged up to Grant, poking his finger into his chest. “The love of our life is lying in a goddamn hospital scared out of her mind and convinced you’re the one who shot her! You’d better have a damn good explanation for that and you’d better tell us right-fucking-now!”
“The woman you know as Claira Robbins isn’t who you think she is.”
All three McLendon brothers turned to face the icy voice that echoed behind them. A tall, middle-aged man with a salt and pepper flattop stepped from behind the long sectional sofa that filled the far end of the family room.
“Deputy U.S. Marshal Daniel Gregory. Well, I’m retired now, officially. It’s just Daniel now.”
“What?” Matt and Grey asked in unison. Grey looked to their dads for an explanation. “What’s he doing here and what the hell is he talking about?”
“Grant wasn’t trying to kill Claira,” Uncle Cade offered. “He’s here to catch the man who is.”
“What the hell?” Mason looked from the Marshal to Grant Kendal, then took in their Uncle Cade’s stance next to the man Claira thought had tried to kill her. “You know about this.” It wasn’t a question. He knew!
Cade’s head fell forward. Clapping his hand to the back of his neck, he nodded. Releasing a long, slow breath, he looked to his sister, Hazel, with pleading eyes. “They may need that drink now. I know I do.”
Chapter Thirty
After knocking back his third glass of whisky, Grey paced the floor in their family room. “Let me get this straight.” He turned to their Uncle Cade, barely containing the rage that clawed at his insides. “You brought a known killer’s daughter into our lives as—as some kind of...what? Some sick matchmaking game? And then had Grant use her as bait to catch another killer?”
He couldn’t believe what he was saying, what he was hearing. He turned to his dads in disbelief. “And you helped him? Do you have any idea what you’ve done to us, to our boys? What kind of danger you’ve put them in? They were shot at for Christ sake! Are you insane?”
“Dawes didn’t have anything to do with this,” Grant spoke up, trying to give some form of clarity to the screwed up mess they’d created.
“You shut the fuck up!” Matt sneered at Grant. “You lied to all of us. You don’t get to talk.”
“Don’t forget that he’s the one who took out Dawes.” Daniel Gregory’s monotone, emotionless statement cut through the air like a razor sharp knife. “If it wasn’t for him you’d have lost her and your sons.”
A chill ran down Mason’s spine as he remembered the sounds of the bullets whizzing by and the scared look on Con’s face. “Thank you,” Mason said begrudgingly. No matter what kind of cluster this whole thing with Claira had become, they owed Grant at least that much.
Grant shrugged and pushed off from the wall he’d been leaning against. “Dawes is a lunatic, but he’s a piss-ant compared to Lucien Moretti.” Grant blushed as he glanced over to Hazel. “Sorry, ma’am.”
Hazel frowned but nodded.
“We didn’t know the specifics when Cade asked us to keep an eye on her,” their dad Jake said with a grimace as he glanced over to his brother-in-law. “We only thought we were helping his friend, Daniel. Then we saw how you boys took to her, and well...believe me, we’d have never agreed to this had we known.”
Mason sat perched on the edge of the overstuffed loveseat in the corner, his elbows braced on his knees, his head in his hands. “I don’t understand,” he huffed. “Why does this bastard want Claira dead? She’s as innocent as they come. Did she witness something? Is that what this is? Some kind of witness protection thing?”
Cade glanced over to Daniel for permission and he nodded for him to continue.
“There are some things we can’t share with you. Only Gabriella—the woman you know as Claira—can tell you about certain things, but, in general, yes,�
� Cade nodded, brushing his hands over his face. “Daniel has spent his career putting her father in prison. She was instrumental in convicting him on multiple federal counts. In exchange for her testimony, the Feds agreed to give her a new start. When Daniel needed to put her somewhere safe, I offered to keep an eye on her here.”
“Multiple counts of what? What is she involved in?” Matt asked.
“She wasn’t involved in her father’s business,” Daniel said with a snarl. “She was nothing but victimized by that monster!”
Grey darted a glance at Daniel. It was the first sign of true emotion he’d seen from the icy statue that had claimed a position holding up the doorframe.
“Monster?” Matt’s blood ran cold. “What...what kind of monster?” As if it mattered. He knew whatever had been done to Claira was bad. He’d seen the fear in her eyes.
“The worst kind, Mr. McLendon.” Daniel remained motionless as he stared at Matt. “I won’t betray her trust and give you all the gory details, but her father, Hector, was the head of a national human trafficking ring; modern slave trade.”
Bile burned its way up Mason’s throat. He thought back to the first time they’d taken her. She was as close to being a virgin as one could be without actually being one, of that he was sure, but he had to ask. “Sex slaves?” The question squeaked through his tightening esophagus. Thinking about the possibility of her being sold, or traded, or whatever this bastard did, stole his breath.
Daniel nodded and several agonized groans filled the room. Hazel sunk to the edge of the sofa, her hand covering her mouth as tears filled her eyes.
“Hector Morganti was convicted on thirty eight counts of human trafficking and kidnapping, among other things.” Daniel broke away from the family and strolled to the picture window that overlooked their south pasture.
He braced his forearm above his head on the double paned glass, staring out at nothing for a while longer before he continued. “We never found his ledger of clients, but we know there were thousands more. His second in command, Lucien Moretti, stepped up to the plate after Hector’s conviction and took over the trafficking ring. After a lifetime of working this case, of searching, it’s as if we’ve accomplished nothing. Gabriella is in more danger now than she ever was.”
“So, this Lucien guy. He’s still working for her father?” Grey stumbled over saying her name. Gabriella somehow didn’t fit his baby bird.
Cade blew out a sardonic sigh and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his faded and torn jeans. “No.” He stepped toward Daniel but stopped, seeming to think better of it. “Hector considers him a traitor. He wants Lucien taken out as bad as we do. But Lucien?” Their Uncle leaned his shoulder against the window frame beside Daniel. “Lucien is much smarter than Hector. Kept himself as clean as a whistle while he worked for her father. He’s playing with the same players now, but by a whole different set of rules.”
“So why don’t you just kill him?” Matt scoffed. “That’s why he’s here isn’t it?” He nodded in Grant’s direction. “Why not have Grant take him out where he lives instead of bringin’ him here?”
“We can’t. It’s not that simple.” Daniel didn’t turn away from the window or offer any further explanation. Which wasn’t going to cut it with Matt.
“Why the hell not? It’s not bad enough our six-year-old sons were shot at four days ago. Claira or Gabriella or—whoever she is—is laid up in that hospital, defenseless, with a madman after her and all you can offer is ‘we can’t’!”
Josiah gripped his shoulders when he jumped from the sofa toward Daniel. “If that’s all you’ve got to offer I’ll be damned if I’m gonna just sit around here and wait for more of this shit to come crashin’ down on us. We’ll pack her and the boys up and take her somewhere you can’t even dream of, much less find.”
“And you’ll all be dead before you get there.” Matt froze at his uncle’s words. Cade didn’t soften his statement with any tone of doubt. “She’s protected, for now. We have a man at the hospital.”
Grey rolled his eyes. “I feel so—much—better.”
“What are you saying?” Mason stood, ready to bolt out the door to get to Claira the moment his fears were confirmed. “This Lucien guy, he’s already here, isn’t he?”
Daniel turned from the window and studied the family members standing around the room. He was tired. Tired of all the games and secrecy, the chaos of it all. Tired of fighting forces they couldn’t see and losing. Always losing.
He had to keep going. Retirement didn’t mean he could give up. Normally he could internalize a family’s grief and anger; process and either ignore it or discard it, but not with these people.
The pain of betrayal shone clear in all their eyes when they looked at their Uncle. Cade was important to him. They’d shed more than blood together. He knew these people would never forgive Cade if he didn’t make them understand. He’d lose nothing of importance by giving them what he could of the truth. Cade would lose his family if he didn’t.
Ignoring Mason’s correct assumption, Daniel started as close to the beginning as he could. “Gabriella’s father kept meticulous records, a file of all the victims he bought, sold and moved around the country. When we raided his compound in D.C. it wasn’t there. It wasn’t anywhere. His second in command, Lucien, has it and now he’s using it to blackmail Hector’s list of very powerful customers.”
“But what does this have to do with our Claira?” Hazel’s voice trembled, as did the rest of her. Josiah and Nate snuggled in closer to her on the loveseat.
Daniel glanced briefly at Cade before he continued, almost smirking at the grateful look on his friend’s face. Yeah, I’m getting there.
“Lucien was—is—obsessed with Gabriella. He has been since she was a child. When she was twelve, Hector owed Lucien a debt. Gabriella doesn’t know what it was, but Lucien demanded her as payment.”
Hazel gasped and a cacophony of growls spirited around the room, but Daniel continued. “In a rare show of decency, Hector agreed to Lucien’s demand, but mandated that Lucien wait until her twenty first birthday. I suspect the delay was to give Hector even greater control over Lucien. He could hold her as future leverage should he need it.”
Mason’s head swam with sick images of child exploitations and tidbits of conversations they’d had with Claira. Something about her birthday sounded familiar. “Her brother!”
Daniel nodded. “Hector killed Stephan when he tried to stop Lucien from taking her. A fight ensued and Gabriella was beaten unconscious. Afterward, when Gabriella recovered and refused to go along with Lucien peacefully, the cops in his payroll arrested her for Stephan’s murder. None of which she can remember or prove, but it doesn’t matter. Gabriella—Claira, she accepted the Fed’s offer the moment Lucien posted her bail and threatened to take her from the jail.”
“Again,” Matt choked back another wave of rage and nodded over at Grant. “Why didn’t you just kill this bastard there instead of luring him here?”
Daniel glanced at Grant. He had to tread lightly here. Grant—one of his more likable aliases—was an enigma, a far cry from the ‘wet behind the ears’ kid he’d taken under his wing over a dozen years ago. He hadn’t lasted long with the Marshals before the CIA grabbed him up.
Now, although he was thought of as a rogue asshole by his superiors, he was still a Triple-D class agent—dangerous, dedicated and deadly—and he didn’t want to cause him any more grief than necessary to get this bastard. Daniel knew he was already on thin ice asking Grant for this favor. He was more than a little shocked that he’d stuck around this long. Grant didn’t usually do messy clean-ups.
“Just spit it out already,” Grant barked from the open doorway. “I’m done after this is over. It doesn’t matter.”
Daniel huffed and shook his head, unable to picture his friend retired, stuffed into a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops sipping a hot pink mai-tai on some exotic beach. Regardless, when it came to Grant, it was best to hold his cards close.
“When we learned that Lucien was still searching for Gabriella, dead or alive, we used Hector to recommend Grant for the job. The only stupid move Lucien has made is still trusting Hector.” No matter how hard he tried, Daniel still couldn’t figure that one out.
“We’d planned on using the down payment as evidence and busting him then, but after the drop, the op got snared in bureaucratic red tape. Lucien was either tipped off or got impatient. He disappeared before the new warrants cleared and we could take him into custody.
“Knowing that he was still looking for Gabriella, I was desperate. The Feds wouldn’t authorize a protection detail, so I asked Grant to come here to watch over her, knowing that it was only a matter of time. When Lucien started pinging flight reservations to Montana using one of his lesser known aliases, we knew he was close. Grant needed to be able to keep a closer eye on her and, with her involvement with the three of you, having her here at the ranch made it easier to keep an eye on everyone.”
“So you pushed her toward us with hang up calls and flat tires!” Matt scowled as the scenario played out in his memories. The fucker had tormented her for days!
“The fire.” Grey sighed, not believing what he was hearing.
“I told you it wasn’t the water heater we installed!”
Grey didn’t respond to Mason’s defensive outburst. The bullshit and torture he’d put himself through...They’d all been manipulated into this. Had any of it been real? Would she have told them any of this? She said she was ready to tell us something. This wasn’t just something. This was deal-breaking huge. Nothing about her is real. How could she keep something like this from them after knowing what Sarah had done to them? She’s not Sarah. This isn’t the same. Their entire lives had been upended over this woman. None of this is her fault.
“I had nothing to do with the dead cow, the pictures and the phone calls,” Grant said. “Dawes had cornered the market on those.” He looked at Grey. “The tires and the fire were an unfortunate necessity to get her here.” He ignored the menacing sneer on Grey’s face. None of that mattered now. “Lucien is here and he will not stop until he rapes Gabriella and-or kills her,” Grant said. “And trust me. I don’t think it matters to him in which order that happens.”