by Nicole Helm
Sarah followed him. He’d had his boots on, which Sarah realized was purposeful when he walked through the glass. Nina was still in bed, and Cody was standing next to it.
Dev carefully picked up the brick. He pulled a rubber band off of it, shook out the piece of paper wrapped around it, then handed it to Cody.
Cody’s expression got even more grim. “I guess I’ve got my sentencing,” Cody said.
Nina made a noise and Sarah thought about moving to offer some support, but there was window glass all over the floor and her feet were bare.
“Grab us some shoes out of the closet?”
Dev nodded and went to the closet. He pulled out pairs of shoes for Cody and then Nina and handed them over. Cody and Nina slid the shoes on in silence.
“We’ll need to clean this up, but let’s all go downstairs and talk things through first, yeah?”
Nina nodded, and she and Cody slid their arms around each other. Sarah moved out of the doorway again as Cody and Nina exited.
As Dev came out, he rubbed his hand over his beard before looking down at her. “You could go back to bed,” he said, gently enough she didn’t bristle. “It’s the middle of the night. Nothing changes if you go back to bed.”
“He knows what rooms we’re sleeping in, Dev.”
Dev expression went lax. He looked stricken, as though that hadn’t occurred to him yet.
“The brick went through Cody’s window and the paper was for Cody. None of us are safe in our rooms.”
He swallowed and then slid his arm around her shoulders and started leading her to the stairs. “Okay, you’re right.”
It was the first time he’d admitted she was right and she couldn’t take any pleasure in it. When they got downstairs everyone was in the kitchen, and the dogs were settled under the table, making Sarah think no one was still outside. Grandma was already reheating leftovers even though the clock said it was three.
“We didn’t see anything,” Cecilia said. She was sitting at the table, frowning at her hands.
Brady put his hand over hers. “None of the security lights went off. We were awake and paying attention. I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t... There was no warning.”
“He’s probably cut those too,” Cody replied, his voice eerily calm as he encouraged Nina to sit down. “If he got the cameras, why not the motion sensors? I keep trying to rewire, add new passwords, but he cuts through all the tech. I hate to admit it, but I’m out of my league here.”
Nina reached up and put her hand over Cody’s on her shoulder. “We can’t think of everything. It’s impossible in a situation like this.”
Dev nudged Sarah into an empty chair, then stood behind it. Grandma Pauline put a mug of hot tea in front of her. Duke paced the kitchen, and Jamison stood by the kitchen sink, looking out the window, as if he could see anything in the dark.
Liza was still upstairs with the kids, but everyone else was sitting around the table.
“Well, what does it say?” Duke demanded. “Just like Jamison’s?”
Cody looked down at the paper. “Same setup. Slightly different wording.”
Cody Wyatt
Crimes:
The subject has been the perpetrator of a wide variety of crimes since childhood, but the most egregious of these is his involvement with the terrorist North Star Group. Murder, kidnapping, treason, terrorism.
Sentencing:
For these acts, I do hereby sentence Cody Wyatt to death. This will be meted out at the judge’s discretion through the method C. Wyatt deemed acceptable through his own connection to the terrorist group.
—AW
“Terrorist group,” Cody muttered. “What a bunch of bull.”
“It makes sense though,” Sarah offered. “If you look at it from his standpoint. North Star’s mission was to take down the Sons. That’s terrorism. To them.”
“I don’t understand where an affiliation with the Sons would come from if he was never in the Sons,” Dev said, not dismissively but thoughtfully as though he were trying to work it out.
“But he was involved with Ace. Which means there could have been areas of the Sons he was involved in. We just don’t know enough to make that assumption. But if he’s blaming Cody for his work with North Star, and North Star’s work was taking down the Sons, there has to be some connection.”
“We only arrested Ace because of Cody and North Star’s help,” Jamison said. “It connects to Ace, even if it doesn’t connect to the Sons. He’s not going in age order with these letters. Or escape order. He’s going in order of our involvement with Ace as adults. How did Ace going to jail start? With me helping Liza get Gigi out of the Sons. Which led us to the trafficking ring. Cody’s North Star group was taking out their main guys, and the two of us coming together on that is what sent Ace to jail.”
“I could have killed him,” Cody said flatly. “I didn’t.”
“We have to remember we don’t know what Ace told Anth,” Sarah said. “We can only operate on what we know, but Ace could have told Anth anything. Truth or lie or a combination of both.”
“But if he let Dev go all those years ago, helped Dev escape being killed by Ace, why would he... Why?” Liza said.
“Helping me escape doesn’t have to mean he’s good. I think the past twenty-four hours proves he’s not. We know the games Ace liked to play. This is another game. I think it also proves it isn’t sudden. Anth has been planning this out for a while. Maybe since Ace died.”
It was a terrible thought. If he’d had that long to plan, how could they win?
* * *
IT WAS A long night. It took a while for the girls to settle back down, and a while to clean up the mess of the glass. No one was too keen to go back to sleep in their rooms, but Dev convinced Sarah to lie down in his since there was no window. Felicity, Liza and Nina were all in the girls’ room though he doubted with the cramped quarters and worried minds anyone was getting any sleep.
His brothers certainly weren’t. They had someone at every entrance point on the lower level. Dev couldn’t help but think the brick had been meant to scare them more than anything—a reminder AW could reach them whenever and however.
“How would he know which rooms we’re sleeping in?” Dev wondered aloud. Dawn was beginning to break outside the large living room window he was guarding. Cody was leaning against the front door, eyes trained out the small sidelight window.
He looked exhausted. They probably all did. Another thing Anth likely wanted.
“No idea.”
“It’s weird though. Not just your average weird. With all of us here, we’re not following any normal plan. Duke and Sarah never spend the night here, so there’s no protocol to follow. Only the kids are in the room they’re usually in, and he didn’t go after them.”
“Thank God,” Cody muttered. “He touches my daughter, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
“So, how? How did he know which room you and Nina were going to be in? How did he know to throw the brick in that window?”
“Could be a coincidence.”
“Doubt it.”
“I do too.” Cody sighed. “There’d be no floor plan on file. The ranch isn’t ever empty enough for a break-in, and like you said, we’re not using our normal rooms anyway. I guess he could have planted a bug? But it’s not like we talked about what rooms we’re going to be in.”
“No, and I don’t think he can hear us. If he could... I feel like there’d be...more. He’s cutting through your tech, but maybe that’s because he’s had time to figure it all out.”
Cody nodded. “I can put up new stuff, but it’ll take time. All the tech we’ve got involves the outdoors. The cameras, the lights—they’re outside. He can’t get in, or hasn’t tried to, but he’s messed with what’s outside. He can’t hear us in here, but what if he can see us?”
“What? Like X-ray vision?”
“No. No.” Cody clapped his hands together. “Like my cameras. Not just taken out but rewired. Repurposed.”
“That’s possible?”
“It’s possible. Especially if he’s had so much time to plan.” Cody stepped away from the door. “It’s getting light out. Watch my back while I—”
“You can’t go out there. You’re a specific target.”
“I’m just going to check the cameras on the porch here.”
“No, you’re going to sit tight.” Dev gave one last scan of the front yard he could see from the window, then strode for the kitchen. Gage was at the back door and Tucker was looking out through the window over the sink. “Cody thinks he might be getting our locations from the cameras and wants to go out and check.”
“I don’t think anyone should go out now that it’s light,” Tucker said.
“But if we can figure out how he knows what rooms we’re in, isn’t it worth the risk?” Gage replied. He stomped on the floor three times, a sign for Jamison to come up from the basement.
After a few seconds, Jamison stuck his out of the doorway into the basement. “See anything?”
“Cody thinks Anth might have tampered with the cameras and that’s how he’s getting an idea of where we are. He wants to go check it out.”
“Not alone,” Jamison said resolutely.
“We’re trying to figure out how.”
Jamison nodded. “All right. We’ll have to assess. Together. Block all the doors except the one Cody wants to go out.”
“What about windows?” Tucker asked.
“Close the curtains for now. If it’s going to take too long we’ll put lookouts back in place.” They all moved to use the kitchen chairs as door barricades, then went to the front, where Cody was still looking out the door’s sidelight, both dogs whining at his feet.
“I don’t need to be out long. I’ll just pull the camera off and bring it inside and see if I can find any evidence of tampering.”
Dev didn’t like it and knew none of his brothers did either. “I should do it.”
“You don’t know anything about cameras. No offense, but none of you do. I installed it. I can uninstall it quicker than any one of you.”
“He could be hoping to draw you out of the house with that letter, Cody,” Jamison replied.
“If he’s sending letters to you then me, he’s going to eventually send them to all of us. We’re all targets. We’re all in danger. I want to end that as soon as possible. I’m going to go out there and pull the camera off. It’ll take me two, three minutes tops.”
“Plenty of time to get shot,” Gage muttered.
“I’ll shield him,” Dev said.
“Damn it, Dev.”
“You can’t be watching your back while you’re uninstalling. You need at least one other person out there to be the eyes while you get it off the porch.”
Cody couldn’t argue with that, though Dev could tell he wanted to. “I could take the dogs.”
Dev looked at Cash and Brownie. They were good ranch dogs, but... “They can’t fight. They could easily be picked off. In fact, I think it’d be best if we get them off the ranch for the time being. Them going in and out for bathroom breaks is a liability.”
“I agree,” Tucker said. “But one thing at a time. Dev will watch north and east, I’ll watch south and west. You guys will watch from in here. If we’ve got five sets of eyes on the situation, we’ll be able to abort or defend ourselves.”
All the brothers paused and looked at Jamison. It didn’t seem to matter how old they all got, or how many times they’d saved people or themselves on their own, Jamison was their leader. He’d gotten them out of the Sons, and even now they’d seek his approval.
He gave a slight nod. So Dev immediately got to work. They switched weapons, giving Dev and Gage shotguns and Jamison and Brady the rifles.
“You move quick and quiet. The second you’ve got that camera off, you’re back inside with Dev and Gage right behind. Jamison, hold the dogs.”
They all nodded in affirmation. Dev went out first, watching the north and east side of the property they could see, immediately followed by Gage. Cody brought up the rear, keeping his eyes and focus on the camera.
Dev hadn’t been a police officer for over a decade now, and it wasn’t often that he missed it. He’d only gone into law enforcement to be like Jamison, and maybe to prove there was some goodness in him. Rancher was a better fit, though. He could understand and admit that now.
Today there was something bittersweet about being the protector, working side by side with his brothers to defend.
Dev didn’t see anything, and based on the silence around him, Gage didn’t either.
“Got it,” Cody said after a while, and they all moved back inside as one unit.
Jamison pulled the door closed behind them and they huddled around Cody and the black box that housed the camera. He examined the wires, popped the back wall off and looked inside. He shook his head.
“It hasn’t been tampered with,” Cody said in disgust. “There weren’t even any lines cut. Whatever blocking he did... I can’t figure it out.”
“Maybe it’s not this camera,” Dev said. “You have how many? And where are they?”
“There was the one on the front. I’ve got one on the stable that scans the entranceway. Then I’ve got three on the fence line. One at the gate, one on the west side of the house, and one on the south side of the property.”
“West side of the house. Which way is that one facing?” Tucker asked.
“Toward the Knight property.” Cody swiped his hand over his mouth. “But if it were moved, it could look into the west windows of the house.”
“The only window on the west side is...” Jamison trailed off and they all rushed for the stairs. The only window was a long, narrow one at the end of the hall. Daylight was growing brighter, though everything was still dim. Still, Dev could see the small black box that would denote it was one of Cody’s cameras.
“That where it’s supposed to be?” Dev asked.
Cody’s expression was barely banked fury. “Yes, but it isn’t facing the Knight Ranch. It’s facing us.”
Dev caught a glimpse of something glinting in the rising sun. Even before he fully realized what it was, he was dropping to the floor and pulling as many brothers as he could with him. “Down!” Dev shouted.
They all hit the floor as the glass shattered above them.
Chapter Eleven
Sarah woke once again to the sound of a bang and shattering glass. At first she thought it had been a nightmare, just a replay of what had happened hours earlier. After all, they’d covered the bedroom windows where people were sleeping. She was in Dev’s room, so there was no window here.
Surely it had been a nightmare.
But the dogs were barking like crazy and there were footsteps rushing above. Then her door opened and Dev moved inside. Before he even spoke she knew it wasn’t a nightmare.
“Stay where you are.”
“What? What’s happened?”
“Another shot fired at the house. The six of us were together when it happened. Then we split up to tell everyone to stay put.”
“More shooting at the house?” Her brain was sluggish and she tried to remember everything that had happened in the middle of the night. Too much, and this wasn’t good. “Is everyone okay?”
“We’re all fine. Jamison called the guy who was on patrol and he’s on his way, but I don’t think he’s going to find anything.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I just need you to stay put for the time being. Once Jamison gets the all clear, we’re going to go out ourselves and see if we can find a clue.”
“You shouldn’t go out.” She flung the covers off her with the thou
ght to jump out of bed and grab him, but he stalked over to the bed and pulled the covers right back over her.
“Stay put like I said,” he ordered.
“You guys can’t go out there. We are being shot at. You have to stay inside and...”
“And what? We have a ranch to run. You have a doctor’s appointment today. We can’t stay shut up inside hoping he goes away.”
Sarah felt like crying. Of course the cattle couldn’t be ignored. It wasn’t smart to skip the doctor’s appointment when she was this close to her due date. But didn’t the people she loved outweigh all that?
He sighed and sat on the very edge of the bed. After a minute of clear internal debate, he took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “No one’s been hurt. There are threats, and obviously this is scary, especially with you pregnant and the girls here, but we’re handling it as best we can.”
“We are sitting ducks.”
He held her hand between his much bigger ones. There was some comfort in that, but not enough to soothe any of the fears. Twice they’d been shot at, and maybe the fact no one had been hurt meant something, but bullets flying around weren’t ever a good thing.
“He’ll make a mistake. He can’t keep lurking around and not get caught.”
“Why not? We live in the middle of nowhere. He’s taken out almost all of Cody’s security measures. He could lurk all day and all night and we’ll never be able to do anything about it.”
“I think at some point the five law enforcement officers living under the same roof means something.”
She wished that comforted her any. It should. The Wyatt brothers were smart. Tucker was a detective so he was used to putting together clues and cases like this.
But so far, Anth was winning. He had the upper hand.
“What if you go out there to take care of the cattle and he ambushes you? What if all these scare tactics are to keep us inside so he has us all in one spot to—”
Jamison knocked on the door frame, peeking his head in. “Cops are finished. Found the gun. Why don’t you all come out to the kitchen so we can talk about our next steps?”