Soft cursing told him Wade had not listened to his directions and was following.
“Damn you, Marcus,” Wade muttered. “I never dreamed you could be bought.”
“Why would Marcus sell Liam to Dawn Hazelwood?” Kenny asked Wade, as he silently tread behind Zane.
“Kenny, shut up,” hissed Zane.
“She wants to blackmail me into giving her the evidence to put Knight Products out of business.”
Zane halted and whirled around, crouching in the poor light. “Both of you. Shut. Up. Now.”
The men shut up.
Zane pushed on. Liam hadn’t fallen in the river. He should feel relieved, but the jacket still stuck in his mind. Along with mental echoes of another boy who didn’t make it.
Liam was lucky. The other boy hadn’t been.
He shook his head, getting the drowned boy out of his thoughts.
“What’s that?” Kenny whispered at the exact moment Zane saw a figure drop from one of the back windows.
The figure was small and faded into the shadows of the cabin.
Liam.
Gunfire started again, and the boy darted away from the house. He ran in a confused zigzag pattern, tripped, and fell down, but he instantly jumped back up and sprinted in another direction. The wrong direction. Away from them.
“Liam!” Wade shouted. He lunged forward, but Zane grabbed him, nearly dropping his gun.
“You’re running into gunfire.”
“My boy is running into gunfire!”
Zane tapped his mic with his weapon still in hand. “Stevie! The boy has slipped out the back, and we need a distraction now!”
There was no answer, but a moment later, new shots sounded from farther away, creating more shouting from the front of the house.
“Zane, Liam’s getting too close to the water,” said Kenny. “The banks will be slick.”
Wade broke out of Zane’s grip and ran full tilt after his son.
Cursing, Zane sprinted after him.
###
Stevie fired. The first idea that popped in her head for a distraction.
She knew the last Dodge brother was between her position and the river. He was still firing at the house, the flashes from his muzzle giving her a target.
A piercing scream from his direction was a welcome sound to her ears.
“Let’s go!” she told Carter.
They carefully followed the sounds of a male cursing. They passed the unmoving body of the first Dodge brother. Stevie stopped for a quick moment and checked his pulse. None.
“There’s still someone with a gun in the house,” Carter reminded her unnecessarily.
“Zane said Liam got out. I wonder if Marcus knows that yet.”
They found the second brother thrashing in the mud, a gunshot wound in his leg. Carter kicked the rifle out of his reach and searched him on the ground, cuffing the suspect as Stevie covered him, keeping one eye on the silent cabin.
Where is Marcus?
“Name?” Stevie ordered.
“Fuck you! Aren’t you going to help me? I’m fucking bleeding here!”
No jetting spurts came from the gunshot wound, and the blood flow looked slow to Stevie’s eyes. “I think you’ll live. Unlike your brother over there.”
The man tipped his head back into the mud and let out an inhuman wail.
He hadn’t realized his brother had died.
Hairs rose on Stevie’s arms at the sound, and even Carter stumbled backward a step.
“Liam? Liam? Where the hell are you?” came shouts from inside the cabin.
Now Marcus knows Liam got out.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Zane saw Liam flinch as he heard his name called from the cabin. He took a sharp turn, running blindly toward the river.
“Liam, no!” Wade shouted at his son as he, Zane, and Carter tore after the boy.
It was a dangerous dash through the dark. As Zane knocked fir limbs out of his way, he prayed he wouldn’t step in a hole. He kept his gaze locked on the tiny running shadow.
The boy put out a burst of speed and seemed to drop out of sight.
The riverbank.
Seconds later, Wade jerked to a halt at the top of the bank. “Noooo!” He plunged down the bank just as Zane reached the same spot.
Zane’s heart stopped. Liam had landed in the water, but he’d managed to grab the branch of a fallen tree leaning twenty feet into the river. Terror filled his tiny face. Wade carefully moved toward his son, the water halfway up his calves. He’d have to swim in the rough water to reach the boy.
Zane froze as the thin tree bent from the boy’s weight and the powerful rush of the river. Not again.
“Holy shit, Zane!” Kenny arrived and started down the bank after Wade.
Zane couldn’t move. He stared at the tree and Liam, imagining the boy letting go. Or the tree coming loose.
“Zane! Come on!” Kenny looked up the bank at him, confusion on his face.
No. Zane looked downriver at the fishing dock fifty yards away. He turned and sprinted toward the floating wooden structure.
###
Stevie knew something was going on at the river. She’d seen three tall figures run to its banks, and muffled shouts sounded over the crash of the water. But she was focused on the man who’d come to the door of the cabin, a pistol in his hand.
Is that the FBI agent’s missing gun?
“Step out of the cabin, Marcus!” She veered closer, moving from fir tree to fir tree, Carter a few steps behind her. “Liam is with the police!” I hope.
Marcus’s shoulders slumped. Stevie didn’t feel one bit sorry for him.
“Put the gun down and kick it away.”
He didn’t obey.
“You’ve got two officers with weapons on you. Put the gun down.”
“He’s not going to do it,” Carter whispered. “What do we do?”
“Talk to him.” In a louder voice she said, “Nothing’s happened yet, Marcus. Liam is fine. You can stop this now before it gets any worse.”
“No one cares that I shot two FBI agents?” He gave a watery laugh and slowly shook his head. “I got in over my head,” he said, sounding crushed. “At that moment, it seemed like the only route to keep Liam away from Wade. And Dawn Hazelwood said she’d make it worth my while. I wanted to do everything possible to hurt Wade for destroying Shannon’s life.”
Damn him. “It’s not too late to turn yourself in. It’ll look better to a prosecutor if you give yourself up.” Bile churned in Stevie’s stomach as she remembered the blood splatter on the windshield of the vehicle.
Was that only yesterday?
Did he really kill two men just to keep Liam away from Wade? And make some money from Dawn?
“It’s still Wade’s fault,” Marcus intoned. “None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for him.”
“Wade didn’t kill your sister.”
“I know that. Now. But he might as well have pulled the trigger. If he had gone to the police with what he knew, Shannon wouldn’t be dead.” Tears choked his voice. “I never planned to hurt Liam. My God, I fucked up.” He swayed slightly in the doorway, and Stevie prayed he wouldn’t go back inside.
“Maybe you should ask Wade why he didn’t go to the police.” Stevie was grasping at straws to stall. His tone had steadily grown more despairing. “We can set up a time for you to talk to him. Maybe his answer will surprise you.”
“It doesn’t matter now. Shannon’s dead. I’ll never see my baby sister again, and I ended two other lives for no fucking reason at all!”
He spun around and went back in the cabin. Slamming the door behind him.
“Crap!” Stevie gestured for Carter to move closer with her.
A single gunshot had them both ducking and diving for cover. She waited for the next shot.
No. Please, no. “Marcus?” She held her breath. “Marcus?”
“Oh God.” Carter let loose a string of expletives. “Do you think he shot himself?”
“I don’t know.” She looked to the riverbank in the waning light. One figure stood motionless on the bank. She wondered where the others had gone.
She and Carter made their way to the cabin, occasionally calling for Marcus to answer them. Silently, Stevie stood to one side of a window and took a quick glance inside.
Her eyes screwed shut, trying to block out what she’d seen.
“He did it,” she told Carter, exhaustion suddenly hitting her limbs. She leaned against the log wall. “That was the last shooter, right?”
“I think so.”
Screams and shrieks reverberated across the grounds from the river.
Exhaustion forgotten, Stevie and Carter sprinted for the water.
###
It happened.
Exactly as Zane had seen it in his mind’s eye thirty seconds ago.
Liam lost hold of the branch and was rushed away in the water. His father and Kenny out of reach, shouting at the boy, trying to run in several feet of water.
They would never catch him.
From the floating fishing dock, Zane locked his gaze on the boy’s bobbing head. Just stay where I can see you.
If the boy followed his current path, he’d shoot past Zane within a few feet of the dock. The dock moved up and down with the water, tipping and swaying, making it nearly impossible for Zane to stay on his feet. He dropped to his knees, his hand stretched out, the other hand gripping the piling.
Any second now.
Liam’s terror-filled gaze met his.
I’m not going to miss you.
“Zane!”
He ignored Stevie’s shout. He couldn’t break eye contact with Liam. Steps pounded on the far end of the dock, still too far away to help.
Liam rushed closer, but his watery path changed, and he angled out toward the center of the river.
I’m not going to reach him.
I’ll have to go in the water.
Zane stretched as far as he could, knowing he would miss the boy’s hand by inches.
He sucked in a deep breath for the cold shock of the river, let go of the piling, and lunged forward.
His hand closed around Liam’s as a jolting yank at his waist kept his feet on the dock and dragged him backward. His head hit the water, plunged under, and he grasped the little hand in a death grip. Wrenching pulls on Zane’s belt and coat hauled his head out of the water as he clung to Liam. The force of the river tried to wash the boy out of his grip, and Zane couldn’t haul him in. But he wouldn’t let go.
Not while I’m still breathing.
“Liam!” Wade dropped onto his stomach beside Zane and reached for his son. His hand clasped Liam’s wrist, just beyond Zane’s grip, and he pulled. Wade seemed to have superhuman strength and lifted his son out of the water by one arm, Zane’s hand still clenching Liam’s.
Zane lay motionless on the dock, forcing his frozen hand to let go as Wade hugged his son.
Behind him, Stevie and Carter sat on the dock, both shaking from exertion, their hands still on his belt and coat.
Zane brushed water out of his eyes as Stevie crawled into his arms, and simply lay on top of him, her entire body quivering. His arms each weighed a ton as he wrapped them around her. And breathed.
“Stevie grabbed your coat just as you dived in,” Carter choked out. “I thought you both were going in the river.”
“I was.”
“Not on my watch,” Stevie muttered into his neck. “I couldn’t let you go in. You both would have died. I can’t lose you.”
Zane knew better than to argue with her.
CHAPTER NINE
Thanksgiving, two days later
Dining with the entire Taylor clan was an experience. Zane remembered his first time about a year and a half ago, and now he enjoyed Dean Mercer’s awe during his first immersion into the rambunctious family. Zane suspected the psychiatrist would attend many more celebrations. Patsy Taylor had a gleam in her eye that had been missing since her husband’s death. And Dean couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Dean had no idea who Dawn Hazelwood was when Zane and Stevie had shown him the group picture from the fundraiser. He’d been shocked to hear the woman had tried to kidnap Liam and hold him for ransom.
Zane, Seth, and Bruce had privately conferred about the psychiatrist and had agreed the man deserved a chance with Patsy. But if Dean ever stepped out of line, he would have three angry men to answer to. And two enraged Taylor daughters.
Setting a basket of rolls on the table, Zane looked up as the doorbell rang and Bruce let in a young woman. A very pretty young woman. Bruce immediately put on a big smile, and Zane could see happiness radiating from him. “Who’s that?” Zane whispered to Carly.
“That’s Julie Sanchez. She was a nurse on duty the night we took Liam to the hospital.” Glee filled her tone. “I thought she’d caught Bruce’s attention that day.”
“What do you know about her?” Zane scowled at Julie.
Carly lightly punched his arm. “Settle down. Bruce can look out for himself.”
She was right. The lazy young musician Zane had first met had matured into a responsible man. Life had kicked him in the teeth, and he’d emerged stronger instead of crumbling.
“Big” Bill Taylor would be proud of his youngest son.
Scanning the room, Zane felt a sharp stab of sorrow that Bill was missing the warm family gathering. Zane had believed Bill was the rock of the clan, but now he suspected that Bill and Patsy had formed the solid base together. Patsy had pushed on after his death, keeping her focus and love on her children and their families.
Zane hadn’t missed the stash of fireworks in the back of Stevie’s vehicle. He knew she and Carly had plans to visit their father’s grave after the big meal to continue their father’s tradition of lighting illegal fireworks on holidays.
“What else can I do to help?” he asked Patsy, who was holding court in the warm kitchen, giving orders right and left as she checked on her turkey, beat the mashed potatoes, and pulled the stuffing out of the oven all at once.
“Open the wine,” she stated as she grabbed a fragile glass bowl of salted nuts from the hands of James and Debra’s youngest son. “Let me do that, honey.” She gave the child a handful of nuts and sent him out of her workspace.
Zane winked at his nephew. The boy’s dark eyes reminded him of Liam’s. Wade and Liam had left town yesterday as soon as one of the roads had opened. Wade had told Zane he’d originally taken the $10 million to force Terry’s hand into telling the military about the faulty equipment. Instead, Terry had immediately struck back by killing Wade’s wife and kidnapping his son. Wade grabbed the body armor evidence and ran, staying under the radar and hunting for his child. Wade had heard on the news that he’d been accused of abusing his wife before her death and emphatically told Zane it wasn’t true, speculating that it was a rumor started by Terry. Yes, he battled anger issues and PTSD, but he’d never raised a hand against his wife.
Wade had turned over the Knight Products’ faulty-armor evidence to the Seattle FBI agents who had arrived to take charge of their two murdered coworkers. They’d promised to inform the military immediately and confirm that the appropriate actions were taken to replace all the armor.
“Will Wade be charged for taking the ten million from Knight?” Zane had asked one of the Seattle agents.
“No. We took a closer look at the path of the stolen money. Everything points to Terry Reece having stolen the ten million, not Wade.”
“What?” Zane had been shocked. But then he’d thought about the CFO who’d been in hiding for three months. Would a financial wizard leave tracks that led to himself?
Zane didn’t think so. Wade’s revenge for his wife’s murder had included turning over the company-destroying evidence and setting up the CEO to look like a thief.
Zane was impressed.
Marcus was dead, a pawn whose grief and anger over his sister’s murder had turned him into a kidnapper and a murderer bent
on vengeance.
Terry Reece and Dawn Hazelwood were both in jail.
Wade and Liam were home free.
Without a wife and mother.
The pain of losing his wife still hovered around Wade. It’d weighed on Zane to simply be in his presence. The relief of having his son back helped, but the sadness still shone in Wade’s eyes.
What if something had happened to Stevie?
Zane grabbed four bottles of wine from a corner of the kitchen and took them to the table. He maneuvered the corkscrew into the first and discreetly spied on his wife. She and Carly were setting the table. Plates, plates, and more plates. Zane didn’t understand why the dinner plates were set on top of another unused plate. Then there was the salad plate, bread plate, and appetizer plate. He didn’t know what the others were for.
But the Taylor women liked to do holidays right. The room was already decorated with Christmas decor. A huge noble fir tree, fresh garland, lit candles, and red bows. Everywhere. Patsy liked the house decorated by Thanksgiving so she could enjoy a long holiday season.
He levered out a cork and inhaled the scents of the room. Turkey, freshly baked bread, fir boughs, and cinnamon. He watched Stevie pop half a buttered roll in her mouth and glance to see if her mother had noticed. Zane grinned, and Stevie’s gaze stopped at his.
My hot wife.
Her long, curly hair was twisted into a messy knot at the back of her head, making Zane want to loosen it and watch the hair fall down over her shoulders. Knowing he couldn’t touch her that way for a few hours made him slightly cranky. Her eyes lit up, and she batted her lashes at him with an accompanying grin; she’d known exactly what he’d been thinking.
How can I miss my wife when she’s fifteen feet away?
Music started. No Taylor get-together was complete without music. Bruce sat at the piano and pounded out Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” Julie sat beside him, and he encouraged her to sing.
Zane’s brows shot up at the woman’s pitch-perfect voice, and he met Stevie’s gaze again, a silent message between them. Julie passed the first test in fitting with the Taylor clan.
He sighed. Life didn’t get any better than this.
Truth Be Told (Rogue Justice Novella Book 2) Page 8