His brilliant eyes blazed in the sun as they jumped to meet mine. “Okay.” Gabe laughed at my rant. “Where’s my jellybeans?”
I just stared at his mouth.
“Let’s get outta here then.” He angled his face into mine and inhaled. “You smell nice, Av’ry Ross.”
“Baby shampoo. I really should go shopping for some essentials. I’d like to not smell like my sister.”
Gabe watched me crawl through his side of the truck. I planted myself in the center of the bench seat. I had never done this when it was just the two of us, but I didn’t want to sit so far away. Plus, there were books all over the floor. Gabe grinned his approval.
“Where are we going?”
“Around the corner. You’ll see,” he told me as he curled a palm over my knee. Goosebumps covered the entire surface of my leg. I lifted his hand to be funny and replaced it on the shifter. He grinned and set it back on my leg.
We literally drove around the corner and pulled into a driveway. The garage door was up. The two-car bay was clean, except for a shelf overflowing with boating equipment and life preservers. Lane’s Expedition was parked on the right. I recognized his home.
Gabe drove all the way into the garage.
“What are we doing?” The garage was cool and dim.
He spilled out of the front seat and stuck his head back in to address me. “Stay here.”
I peered curiously through the cab’s rear window as he slid the garage door down and turned the lock. I slithered over to my side. Then he climbed back in and shut his door.
“Lane’s sleeping. He did an all-nighter down in McKenzie.”
I settled myself back against the door, feeling slightly apprehensive. “And we’re locked in his garage for what?”
Gabe lifted his brows. I stopped thinking. “Just covering my back. Nobody will find us here. That’s for damn sure.” He slid across the seat and butted his leg against mine. Then he set his ear on my shoulder like a child.
I made a nervous giggle and tried to calm my racing heart. I wasn’t sure what he thought I was willing to do in his brother’s garage, but we would both soon find out.
Light seeped in through the sides of the garage door and slowly my eyes adjusted to the darkness. “So, have you been planning to kidnap me all week?”
Gabe leaned over me. A light gale of minty breath swirled about my face. I inhaled deeply. My head fell back against the window, and he ran his hand behind my shoulder and inside my sleeve to caress my arm.
I could hardly think.
“Uh huh,” he purred in my ear as his head fell against my neck. “I was all prepared.”
He pulled me down the seat so my head rested on the armrest. Then he threw half his weight on me. My eyes closed in slow motion as he kissed a path from my collar to my ear.
“I thought you weren’t looking for a girlfriend,” I blurted nervously and broke his spell. Sometimes when I panicked, I talked. Hearing the sound of my own voice was comforting.
Gabe lifted himself up with his long arms and snapped me a look. “Whatcha gotta go and say that for?”
I bit my lips into a crooked line and shrugged. Did I bring an image of Jordan Halverson to his mind? Sometimes my mouth ran faster than my brain.
“I had a change of plans. That okay with you? Like last month, Av’ry.”
“Just checking,” I said.
Gabe slunk back against the seat.
“I never in a trillion years thought I’d come here and find...I mean I loathed the idea of coming here,” I told him.
Gabe stayed silent.
“When I saw you in the truck that first morning...” I paused and blew out a sharp breath.
“You were really trying hard to get my attention,” he joked and leaned closer. “It worked pretty good. Every morning I still wait for a show.”
I pressed a finger to his smirking lips. The drumming behind my ribs grew louder. I was so sure the sound was filling the truck. Gabe removed my hand from his face and daringly slipped it under his T-shirt. I sucked in a mouthful of air. He held my hand to his warm, thudding chest. His insides were mirroring mine.
Was that what he was trying to show me?
“Don’t flatter yourself, Gabriel Halden,” I teased. “It was an accident.”
I shifted my hips to face him. I walked my other hand up his bare arm. An electric spark twitched in my fingers when he flexed. It was a welcome sensation. I got braver and leaned up. A force lured my mouth to test his warm lips, and he sighed against me but didn’t move.
He made my heart race faster.
I edged back to observe his whole face. My fingers glided through his chestnut hair from the nape of his neck to his temple. I couldn’t believe what I was doing.
“Brace yourself, Av’ry,” he whispered as my other hand slipped and grazed the rippled scar on the side of his stomach.
He tipped his chin toward me and, with a sudden urgency, grabbed the back of my head and pushed his lips into mine. Our mouths collided. The kiss was potent, hurried. Neither of us took a breath. I grabbed at his collar and tugged at the fabric as if it would make him kiss me harder. It did. Minutes passed before we began taking turns gasping for air. The sound of his panting made me more ravenous.
Breathless and winded, we continued perfecting our seven minutes in the dark, forgetful it was morning. Forgetful where we were.
Until light flooded the garage.
Gabe abruptly freed my lips. “What the flip?” He exhaled hot air into my ear.
My pulse raced from exhilaration and the unforeseen raid. We pulled apart quick enough to spot Lane pushing the garage door up into the ceiling with one hand. He circled the pickup in fast motion and loomed at Gabe’s door, knocking on the window with his key. I straightened, ran a hand over my tousled hair and willed my blush to go away. Gabe folded his hand around my lower back, caressing the exposed skin of my hip. I was too stunned to shake it off. With his other hand he pushed the door into his older brother’s shoulder.
“What?” he asked.
“Jeezus, Gabe! It’s my freaking garage. I thought you were Caleb. Get a room,” Lane yelled. His brows and nose crumpled. “Meggie will skin your ass.”
I leaned closer to Gabe.
We were just kissing.
“She’s not gonna find out,” he said in a rattled voice.
“Lemme in. We gotta go.” Lane shoved his brother into the center of the cab. He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and fixed them on his nose. “I’ll drive. There’s a blowout. Just south of the river. It’s ours.”
The black cloud over the flat forever land was visible as soon as we left town. I had no idea what a blowout was or if it was something catastrophic. Gabe held his arm on the seat behind my head, but he wasn’t touching me. We all sat wordless, stoic, for a good stretch. Unfortunately, my thoughts were loud and jumbled. The impromptu garage reunion had me wired.
“It ain’t a blowout,” said Gabe just outside of the Williston city limits. Truck traffic was exceptionally heavy as we headed south. “It’s a tank battery fire. See the second smoke cloud? That’s a flash explosion. Yippee-ki-yay.”
“Hey yeah, you’re right.” Lane angled the dashboard and lifted his gaze to the horizon to squint. “Strange. There wasn’t any lightning or anything,” he replied. “The last one out here was near Stanley, and it started from a cloud to ground strike. Lit up like an atomic bomb. Remember that one when we were kids? Some idiot lit a cigarette while standing on a tank and one tank after another shot outta the ground like bottle rockets. Maybe you weren’t born.”
“Is this something common?” I asked naively.
Gabe’s hand grazed the side of my neck and I shivered. Finally some attention.
“Yeah and no. Not on our sites, but yeah, pretty often lately,” he shared.
I crinkled my nose. “This is your site? I mean it’s owned by HalRem?”
“Yep, we own the mineral out this way, not the land,” Gabe said. “Dad’s g
onna be stark raving mad.” Then his breath tore out noisily and he yelped. “Holy shit! There goes another!”
We all fixed our eyes on the billowing cloud of black smoke adding to the already dark fog coating the field. Lane stomped the gas. I glared as the odometer climbed from sixty-nine to an unnerving ninety. One of my hands wrapped around the door handle and the other clamped down on Gabe’s knee.
None of us thought to wear seatbelts.
The truck shot down a side road and traveled at an impressive speed, kicking up debris and dust and rocks. Pebbles and dirt struck the side panels. I flinched as they hit the window. Sirens sounded in the distance. The dirt road divided the wheat field in half. As we approached, all I could make out was a black haze casting an eerie shadow against the sun.
“Pull over!” yelled Gabe as he tossed a glance over his shoulder.
Lane turned off the road, and we watched a handful of rescue and fire vehicles spring past like darts. “It’s a big one. Gonna be a mother of a fire.”
My expression froze. I turned my eyes on Gabe. “Caleb took Josh to a safety training thing. Is it here?”
Gabe looked at his brother. I observed their exchange and grew more agitated.
“No. No. I don’t think so,” recalled Lane. “I would’ve known. I supervise here. Nothing was scheduled. Must be farther out. Dakota’s mighty big, Avery.”
And apparently the Haldens had lots of oil wells.
The fire was astronomical. Smoke curled upward. Bouquets of flames soared in three different areas. Pickups and HalRem trucks moved out of the way as fire trucks inched closer to the monstrous blaze.
Gabe and Lane launched themselves out of the driver’s side.
I locked my gaze on Gabe as he sprinted to a group of men standing around waving HalRem hats in the smoke and talking on CB radios. The men acknowledged and greeted him as if he were important. I snorted to myself, knowing he was only nineteen.
Nineteen and born from a Halden and a Remington.
I lost track of Lane as he scurried off like a mouse and disappeared into a sea of fire trucks and rescue equipment. I sat perfectly still in spite of the situation. I had no reason to leave the safe, sheltered sanctuary of the cab. I was not taking my eyes off Gabriel Halden.
Out of the chaos, Lane appeared, grabbed Gabe’s arm and dragged him aside. My eyes riveted on him as he shouted at Gabe and motioned with his hands. Gabe’s eyes fell. He turned and kicked a large piece of gravel into the air. Then together they charged at me.
I slid into the center as Gabe flung open my door. My heart pounded. Both brothers jumped in at the same time and bumped me on both sides. The pickup shot in reverse and spun into a donut, before it peeled away from the disaster. Lane zipped around an incoming rescue squad and flattened tall wheat stalks like they were blades of grass. He maneuvered through shallow ditches to avoid stopping.
Was I part of a bank heist? Was I riding in the getaway car? Something was terribly wrong. “What’s going on? Why are we running?”
I felt behind my back and found my seatbelt. Tight-lipped, Gabe helped me secure the buckle and put on his. Lane was driving like Evel Kneivel on a bad day.
“C’mon, one of you better tell me. Is it going to blow or something?” I tasted fear; it tasted like bile.
“It already blew,” Lane said sharply. “We’re heading to an accident. Don’t know much about what’s happened. We’ll get there as fast as I can drive.”
Sweat ran down Gabe’s face like melted butter. His lips puckered as if he was holding back a cry of profanities. I listened as he took deep, measured breaths through his nose. He stared pensively out the window while the scenery flashed by on fast forward.
“Hunt—I’m gonna kill that goddamn bastard,” Gabe muttered. “I’m gonna get my Springfield and friggin blow out all his tires and pepper his Hummer until it collapses and then go after—”
I leaned my shoulder against his arm and asked into his sleeve, “What’s he got to do with anything? What aren’t you saying?”
“One of my guys saw Caleb tear out of the site after the fire started. Said Hunt and his guys were there minutes before the whole thing went up,” Lane told me. “The accident involved a silver Raptor.”
“Is Joshie with him? Please say he’s not.”
Lane locked his jaw. Fire trucks headed in both directions, clogging the roads. Flatbeds loaded with pipes and tankers transporting oil, gas, and water, doing their routine routes, paraded along. My gaze shot ahead and spotted blazing flares lining the road. Men were swinging orange flags.
Gabe’s neck cranked like an owl and his twisted body followed.
“Medevac,” he said, alarmed. “Hurry up, dammit. You gotta get there!”
Fear registered on his face. It made my insides tremble.
Lane inched into oncoming traffic, his face mashed against the window to see if anyone was coming. Then he gassed Gabe’s pickup and swerved around a semi. The oil truck had HalRem plastered all over it. The driver laid on the horn. I squeezed Gabe’s knee, and he curled his fingers over mine as another tanker plowed at us. Gabe’s palm was sweaty. We shared a fretful glance and then my eyes flitted to the odometer.
The helicopter flew over. My heart pounded as the chopper hovered and then landed directly in our path. Cresting the hill, the imagery of red and blue flashing lights and a gaggle of rescue vehicles came horribly and noticeably into view.
“That’s Caleb!” I yelled.
Lane slammed the breaks as we nosed at full speed into the roadblock. The tail end of a silver pickup was sticking out of a ditch on its side. Gabe didn’t move. Lane took a few beats to gather his wits and then jumped from the cab, leaving the door wide open. He made hasty running steps to the scene. A first responder stopped him and grabbed his arms before he could get to Caleb’s truck.
“That’s my brother! Lemme through! That’s my brother’s truck!” he hollered and forced himself through the human barricade.
His shrill voice jolted me. Was Josh in that truck? Was he okay? I thought about Meggie. I needed to check. I turned to Gabe. His body was rigid. I thought he might crumble to a thousand pieces if I touched him.
I was eager to jump out and chase after Lane. “Come on, Gabe. Aren’t you coming?”
His breath whipped out hard, and he walloped the dashboard with his fists. I gazed, captivated. He leaned forward, his sun streaked hair falling into his hands.
“I can’t do this. I can’t do this again. I can’t live this way. I can’t do this no more,” he chanted.
“He’ll be okay. I just know it, Gabe,” I said as I rubbed his back.
My eyes lifted over the dashboard. Was I lying?
I strained to see if Josh was in the crowd. He was nowhere. Gabe lifted his head out of his hands, flashed a forlorn look at me, and then hopped off the seat and took off. Somebody reached inside the truck and tapped my shoulder as I watched Gabe run. I startled and turned.
“What happened?” I said as I got a quick look at Josh. He looked fine except for his gruesome costume. “Joshie, are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s not all real blood.”
“Where’s Caleb?” I asked nervously and continued to follow Gabe with my eyes as he crawled down the ditch. “Is he okay? What happened? You have to tell me.”
“He’s stuck in the truck. We crashed and rolled into that ditch. I crawled out. He’s talking fine and everything.”
I watched Josh take a deep breath. He looked rattled. His hands were shaking.
“Hunt’s guys flipped like fifty times. You shoulda seen it.”
“You really okay, Josh?” My hands fidgeted in my lap.
“Yeah. I got winded. I ran away. They want me to get in that ambulance. No way, José. I don’t do ambulances.”
I turned to examine him again.
“Jeez. You’re really bleeding,” I pointed out.
My stomach somersaulted. On the side of his eye was an open gash, too good to be the work of Caleb and a ma
keup brush.
“No, Avery. It’s fake. Remember, I was gonna act out the trauma thing with Caleb? Some training. Pretty ironic.”
“That’s real. You need to get looked at,” I said, straining my voice above the swooshing helicopter rotor. “Meggie’s going to freak.”
“It’s fine. We should go check on Caleb. They can’t get him out.” The helicopter took off from the scene, spun around above the pickup, and aimed for Williston.
My throat constricted. We both climbed out and covered our ears.
“I’ll see if it’s Caleb!” he yelled over the sound of the rotor and took off.
I hoped it wasn’t Caleb. He had to be okay.
Ambulances and rescue trucks blocked one side of the road. Oil field traffic trickled by under the direction of a safety worker. A crowd of gawkers had amassed as one passerby after another moved in to get a look, make a call, or snap photos from their phones. Word that the Halden boys were involved was spinning in the air. I heard all their names mentioned as I stood back and watched.
“C’mon,” Josh waved me on from afar. “He’s still stuck! He was asking for you.”
As I walked forward, I scanned the area, dreading what was up front. The sirens bleated. The sheriff arrived and questioned everyone. Only three trucks were involved in the crash, Caleb’s and two of Hunt’s employees.
“Is he okay?” For a moment, as I took in the scene, my nerves felt like they were bathing in acid. Gabe was hanging down a steep grade with his stomach half on the ground, half on the tipped truck, his head stuck in the rear sliding window, talking casually with Caleb.
“He’s talking?” I asked Lane as he abandoned his conversation with one of the emergency responders.
He pulled off his glasses and jammed them in his pocket. The blood vessels in his eyes pulsed. I searched his sweaty face for some answers.
“Yup. Says he’s fine. He’s butted up against the steering wheel. If they turn the truck, it’s going upside down and it’ll crush his ribs. All his signs, they’re good. Somebody’s gotta figure out how the hell to get him out.”
Stubborn Page 17