“Okay,” she agreed, taking Bella by the hand and inside.
With Bella safely deposited with the person who would call for help at likely the twenty-nine-minute mark, Noah sprinted back toward his house, jumped over the fence, and rushed inside.
He moved toward his gun safe and loaded up. By the time his keys hit the ignition in his truck, he was able to take on a small enemy unit. He had a Glock tucked in his waistband for easy access and a shotgun resting on the passenger seat.
He drove safe, but he hauled ass, skipping every light and sign that told him to slow down or stop. When Noah hit Teagan’s street, he parked two houses away.
Noah passed the front door, stepped into the bushes, and crept against the cedar plank wall. He peeked inside a window and saw nothing then dropped to a crouch before hustling around the side of her home.
Safely out of view of windows and the street, he stood and moved toward the backyard, pausing long enough to see a fresh pile of cigarette butts. But this time, there were white ones mixed with brown-tipped butts too.
Two people he didn’t know were prowling around, likely inside.
He angled for a look into another window, seeing the living room—and two men with Teagan. Her head faced the floor as though she were distraught, but her fists were balled into a tight, angry knot.
One man was twice the width of the other, and the slighter one stood to her side talking. The larger man lifted his arms and smashed into the wall.
What the…
Noah didn’t know if it was a hatchet or a large knife, but they ripped a gaping hole then sliced down. Like her insulated shed.
Teagan’s hallways were made of cedar plank with some accent areas covered in decorative stone. But her upstairs and downstairs living spaces were framed only by the wood.
The man in front of the wall methodically tore apart her drywall. What were they looking for?
The man next to her put an arm on her shoulder, patting her as though to offer comfort, and Noah saw red—until Teagan backed up and swung.
His pulse froze. As much as he wanted to holler hell yeah, there was no telling who they were or how they would react. But neither man flinched.
Noah crept toward the back door and found the white cigarette butts again. But they had been stubbed out a different way. He dropped to his knees and stared. Shit, three people?
Was that her ex-husband? The man who’d tried to touch her? The one who went on expeditions and wouldn’t let her sell the house without telling him, who wanted to stop by a few weeks ago but didn’t care about seeing his own child…
Her ex-husband wasn’t a treasure hunter. He sounded more like a drug runner who was searching for an old stash.
Now this was a different game entirely. Noah wasn’t going in ground floor; he was going in from the top down to see what was going on.
Stealthily, he crept back and surveyed the best way to get to the second floor. Not many options. A gutter and the latticework were the best chance he had, but they wouldn’t be able to hold his weight for long. He had to move fast. If a neighbor saw him and called the cops, this could go wrong in a split second if those were drug runners.
How to do this? As long as he used the stonework and the wood planking, he could reach Teagan’s bedroom with his arm span. Hopefully.
Noah paced back then sprinted toward the house. He rocketed up with one powerful step, hooking his hand on the blue-faded copper drainpipe. He threw his weight toward the edge of the cedar windowsill, and his left hand caught the edge by the tips of his fingers.
Ugh. Noah stretched, breathing hard, and growled as he dropped his right arm, sliding roughly against the exterior wood. His back was against the wall.
“Not my best.” Noah grunted, twisting his body until he faced the house.
He took a breath and pressed up to his elbows. Quickly he looked into the room, ducked down, then lofted up again. No one was visible. Noah tore through the window screen, tossed it behind him, then took another deep breath.
The wood edge strained his forearms as sweat beaded at his neckline. He lifted up again, praying that Teagan had left her windows unlatched. No dice. And he had to wait.
Noah listened. Nothing but silence.
Those men were here for a reason. They had stripped her shed and, from the quick glance inside her bedroom, had done the same thing upstairs. They were working their way downstairs. Sooner or later, they’d start ripping the place up again. All Noah needed was patience and for the wood edge to remain in place.
Another round of banging began. Noah catapulted on one arm, slammed his elbow into the window by the lock, then ducked his hand through before unlatching it.
With quick maneuvers, he pushed the window up and dragged himself through, ducking and rolling. Noah landed in a defensive position on the side of her bed with his weapon drawn and eyes on the swivel.
He saw nobody. He heard no one.
He blew out, sweat dripping down his back, then cleared the master bedroom. Then the next room and the next. The bathroom was empty, and he prayed Will’s room was not destroyed like this. All he wanted to find was a happy, bored little boy in a perfectly intact room.
Noah rounded the corner, but Will’s room was empty. The walls were fine, but the boy was gone.
His heart sank. Footsteps coming up the stairs was the new problem. He pressed against the wall and waited. Two men, different from the ones he saw downstairs, ambled by.
Noah lunged, grabbing the first around his neck and swinging with his ankle to take the stranger to the ground.
The second man attacked, only to meet Noah’s elbow. It was a direct strike to his temple, followed by a smart strike to a pressure point in his neck.
Stunned, both men lay on the ground as the first man attempted to push up. Noah tazed him and pressed his fingers into the second man’s carotid artery. Five, four, three, two, one. Out. That man went limp as the first man twitched.
He searched them for their weapons. Keeping an eye out for other threats, he bound their hands and feet with plastic zip ties. A quick perusal of Teagan’s linen closet revealed cloth napkins, and Noah fashioned gags for both men.
A moment later, the one he had choked out was tied to the bathroom sink and the toilet, and the other man was tied to a four-inch pipe that ran through Teagan’s walk-in closet.
“Will?” he whispered.
No sign of the kid, and Noah headed downstairs, creeping for the living room.
He had seen a lot of hell over the years, but it had never been personal. Teagan was sitting in the middle of her couch with her head buried in her hands, surrounded by the stuffing from her couch. That was a hard thing to take.
She looked up, and Noah’s despair turned to hope. He pressed his finger to his lips, and she gave an almost imperceptible nod.
The two men near her were in an intense argument. Noah’s job got much easier. He crept close, passing Teagan and motioning for her to run out then breathing easier when she did.
Noah’s right fist flew, slamming into the base of the smaller man’s skull. He collapsed with one punch.
The other man lunged for his wall hatchet, but Noah was fast on the draw. The barrel of the Glock rested against the man’s temple before he could reach.
“Your buddy’s knocked out. The two men upstairs, immobilized. And you have the business end of my service weapon pointed against your head, asshole. You shouldn’t have messed with my girl.”
“I’m just the muscle, buddy. You know how this goes. Don’t do anything stupid.” Then his muscles jerked.
Noah didn’t care about protocol or what he should do with his weapon. He didn’t want a dead body hanging over Teagan’s head and scaring Will when he could immobilize the man without taking his life. Instead he drilled the floor plate of his Glock into the man’s temple.
“Another one bites the dust,” Noah mumbled, dropping him. “Teagan, there were four of them?”
“Yes.” She peeked around the corne
r.
“Got ‘em, then.” Noah secured the downed men as he saw the first police car pull up outside the front window. He guessed he had taken more than thirty minutes. “Where’s Will?”
Teagan’s face fell. “What do you mean, where’s Will? Where is Will?”
She spun in a circle then raced upstairs.
That wasn’t what he needed. He had people tied upstairs. Noah raced after Teagan, needing to calm her down and look for her son.
Maybe Will had slipped out to look for help. They needed to check a neighbor’s. At the top of the stairs, he found Teagan close to hyperventilating as she walked room to room with wide eyes, opening closet doors.
Noah wrapped Teagan against him. “He’s fine. Nobody hurt you. They didn’t touch him. He’s a smart kid.”
“Then where is he?” she cried as tears streamed down her face. “Will? Will!”
“He slipped out the door. He called the cops.” Noah eased Teagan down the stairs and opened the front door, then he motioned for a police officer to get out of the car as another squad car pulled up.
For all he knew this was the entire Eagle’s Ridge force, and they would have no idea what to do with this crime scene or with the mother whose son was missing.
The next two minutes were filled with questions that erased the possibility that Will had called them and was at a neighbor’s. Noah couldn’t imagine how Teagan felt. Her tears never stopped.
Four men were arrested, led out of the house, and Teagan refused to look at her ex-husband as he offered a halfhearted apology on the way out the door.
Time seemed at a standstill. Noah didn’t know what to do—
“No! I’m not leaving. Are you out of your mind?” Teagan snarled at the newest detective to enter her house.
He’d been advised to give them space since he was part of their investigation, but now his woman was attacked. He came closer and put his arm around her. He kissed the top of her head, giving her as much comfort as he could with a squeeze. Not that it would do a lot of good.
“They want me to go to the police station. I’m not leaving.”
“If she’s not ready, she’s not ready,” Noah said.
The detective and Teagan argued, and Teagan didn’t need Noah to stick up for her. Noah paced the length of the foyer.
Where would he have gone? He pinched the bridge of his nose—and froze.
A cold shiver of hope slid over his shoulders, and Noah crouched down, running his fingers along the baseboard.
Click.
The hiding place under the staircase, the coolest place Bella had ever seen, clicked as a secret panel opened. Noah got on his hands and knees and crawled into the small, dark space under the staircase. He scooted over darkened flashlights and dolls, blocks and books, until he reached the farthest corner where the stairs met the first floor. Ducked and wrapped into a little ball was a very scared five-year-old who hid in his secret spot where he believed no one could ever find him.
“Noah?” Will asked quietly.
The only light in the crawlspace was that flooding the room from the now-open secret door. Will had locked himself in and hadn’t turned on the flashlight.
Noah put a hand on his back, and Will shook. “It’s me, and everything is fine.”
“Are you sure?” he finally whispered.
“Yeah, buddy, I’m sure. Your mom’s in the hall. The police are here, and everything is fine.”
Quick as a flash of lightning, Will launched into Noah’s arms and curled himself around his chest, pressing his wet cheeks and T-shirt close, shivering despite the heat. “Mom said stay where it’s safe and don’t come out.”
Noah rubbed Will’s back. “It’s safe now. Everything’s okay. I’ve got you now.”
“Thank you.” Will sniffed. “For saving me.”
Oh, kid. He eased to where there was more room and pulled Will into his lap to hug him. “I think you have it backward, little man. If you hadn’t told Bella what was going on, I couldn’t have come help. I need to thank you.”
“I couldn’t wait any longer.” Teagan crawled into the space under the stairs. “I’m coming in.”
“The more the merrier.” Will wasn’t ready to move yet, and this was where he needed to be.
Will clung tight. “I love you, Noah.”
Definitely where he needed to be. “I love you too, kid.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The table was decorated with Bella and Will’s handmade Thanksgiving Day crafts. Multicolored marshmallows topped the sweet potato casserole, and the broccolini served as the focal point of conversation with the kids. Skinny broccoli. Tree broccoli. Pencil broccoli. They’d renamed broccolini. This was the first Thanksgiving where Noah had found himself at the head of the table and staring at his future.
Almost.
“It’s perfect!” Teagan lifted the golden turkey off his counter and groaned as she shuffled to the table. “And heavy!”
He jumped up, pushed the chair back, and stepped to her. Swiftly he lessened her load and transferred the platter to the table. “You outdid yourself.” He took her hand and hugged her toward his chest. “Thank you.”
He gave her a quick squeeze and a kiss on the back of her head that made Will and Bella giggle, then Teagan sat at the far end of the table.
Now, this was his future.
They settled at the table, and Teagan smiled. “Before we dig in, should we tell them?”
Noah leaned back as though considering. “I don’t know. I think we should torture them until dessert.”
“No! No! No!” Bella and Will cried.
He laughed. “Well, as happy as I am to have Teagan and Will staying with us while their house is fixed, we decided to ask the both of you to help us find a house that is ours.”
Teagan beamed. “One that we’re going to pick out together.”
“The four of us?” Bella squealed.
“Yes,” Noah answered. “We’re not in a rush—”
Bella clapped. “Let’s pick one out tonight!”
So much for thinking Bella held on to nostalgic notions of where she grew up with her mother. But as Teagan had pointed out, Bella had Lainey firmly in her heart, and the kid wasn’t much attached to the house. Unless they took the fairy gardens into consideration, and those could come with. Still, Noah was worried. “And, ladybug.”
“Yes?” She beamed.
“I want to make sure you’re comfortable with this.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
He tilted his head. “Because this is where you lived with your mom.”
Bella tilted her head, thinking over his sentiments. “She’s not in the house. She’s at the graveyard.”
The kid tugged at his heartstrings, every day.
“And she’s an angel. So even if she was here, she’d just move.”
Will nodded. “Bella was her angel. That’s what she called her.”
Noah glanced at Teagan, and her eyes were watery. “That’s true, baby.”
“You were her angel,” Will told Bella. “And now she’s yours.”
Bella nodded as though Will had just brought both adults’ hearts to a standstill. Noah’s heart was full. “Happy Thanksgiving, family. I love you.”
###
The pillows were stacked underneath the dining room table, and Bella leaned against Will as they piled another blanket in front of them.
“We did it, ya know?” Bella moved two of her dolls closer, knocking over one of his ninja warriors.
Will grabbed the ninja warrior and rearranged the dolls to hold it up. “Like this. So they all sit up.”
She elbowed him. “Did you even hear what I said?”
“I heard you. That we did it.” He elbowed back. “What did we do?”
Bella rolled her eyes and groaned, taking one of her dolls back and moving her to the other side. The other doll and the ninja warrior both toppled.
“That wasn’t very nice.” Will took both and shoved them under
a pillow.
“Neither was that.” She snapped her doll into her arms. “Your mom and Uncle Noah. We did that.”
Will stopped and turned. “Oh, I know. We said we would. And we did.”
She clapped around the doll in her arms. “Now we get to be best friends like Uncle Noah and my mom were.”
Will banged his ninja warrior against the doll in his hand. “I know.”
“Do you think that we should tell them?” She asked, suddenly worried that they might get in trouble. Though her uncle Noah seemed very happy and Teagan too.
“I don’t know.” He let the toys rest in his lap.
“Let’s go see them.”
“They’re in here.” Will crawled underneath the table, and Bella followed.
They stayed on their hands and knees, crawling through the dining room then the kitchen until they came into the living room. The TV blasted football. No one talked.
“Shhh,” Will hushed for no reason.
“I know!”
“Shhh!”
They crept to the side of the couch where four grown-up feet dangled over the edge.
Will pivoted on the back of his heels into a crouch. “Shhh.”
“I know!” Then Bella sealed her lips and used her fingers to zip them.
Convinced she wouldn’t make any noise, he commenced the creeping, and they worked their way around the front of the couch, where Teagan lay next to her uncle Noah. Neither looked at the TV.
Snore.
They jumped. Then laughed. Both slapped their hands over their mouths to stop the giggles as, wide-eyed, they stared at Uncle Noah snoring again.
“Hurry,” Will whispered, and they scurried on hands and knees to the other side of the room.
With their backs flat against the wall, waving each other enough secret hand signals to decide they were far enough away, they gave thumbs-ups, giving the okay to talk.
“Noah snores very loud,” Will said. “Like a jackhammer.”
“Maybe we wished on too many dandelions.”
He nodded. “Or that shooting star.”
Bella shook her head. “That wasn’t a shooting star. It was an airplane. I know things.”
They crept around the corner, staring at her uncle Noah, snoring like a jackhammer, and Teagan, who maybe had lost some of her hearing. Otherwise, she would have awakened.
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