Zeke reappeared in the doorway, holding the screen open with his foot, his expression stark. “She’s not here, boss.”
Craig spun around, drawing his pistol in one easy motion. “What the hell do you mean, she’s not here? We left her tied to the freaking chair!”
Zeke made a helpless gesture. “The back window is open, and she’s gone.”
Craig cursed again, the first time Sean had ever heard his voice raised in anger. That couldn’t be a good sign. “Find her, damn it! Maggie, get your ass over here!”
Sean looked over his shoulder, wondering what Baker would do. When she shuffled toward them, he turned back to Craig and found he’d moved. His old friend, his best buddy, had his arm outstretched, the muzzle of his pistol maybe two inches from the sweet spot between Sean’s eyes.
“If he doesn’t find her, Sean,” he said quietly, “you’re dead.”
* * *
Sophy leaned against the back of the house, bent at the waist, trying to fill her lungs with air, trying not to empty her stomach on the pine needles. Sweat beaded on her face, burned her eyes, and shudders vibrated through her from head to toe. She was safe, thank God, but Sean wasn’t. Maggie wasn’t.
When she’d heard Sean’s voice outside, she’d felt the most incredible relief and the most painful regret, so grateful that he’d come for her and so sad that he’d had to experience this—his sister threatened, his friend betraying him, facing death when he’d finally discovered life. She hadn’t known what his plan was, but she knew he had one. She’d known he would do his damnedest to save her, and he had. He’d brought the cavalry.
Damn it, it couldn’t mean sacrificing himself.
Beside her, intimidating in tactical gear and apparently not even noticing the heat, Ty held his weapon as if it were an extension of himself. She knew nothing about guns and didn’t want to, but she was thankful he and the others did.
“You okay?” he whispered.
She lifted her head to nod and caught a glimpse of movement behind him. It was Zeke, pressed tight against the building, easing around the corner of the house not fifteen feet from where they stood. Clamping her hand over her mouth to keep from shrieking, she raised one shaky hand and pointed. Ty whirled around, the gun ready to shoot, then relaxed. “It’s okay, Sophy. He’s one of the good guys,” he said, and Zeke flashed a friendly smile.
A good guy? How smart was Craig that two of his close employees were both working against him? But it wasn’t smart that mattered, she grimly reminded herself. Craig was vicious and manipulative and murderous—enough to kidnap her, to kill people who threatened him, even to kill people who didn’t threaten him.
“I need to take her out front.” Zeke’s tone was as normal as when they’d met, when they’d discussed ice cream instead of handing her over to a killer. “Just for a minute. A distraction. Defuse the situation and give the rest of the team a chance to move in.”
Ty started shaking his head before Zeke finished speaking, but Sophy didn’t give him a chance to argue. “Will it help Sean?” At Zeke’s nod, she nodded, too. “I’ll do it.”
“Sophy—”
She waved Ty off. “What do I have to do?”
“Look scared.”
Her smile was wry. “I’m very good at that.”
Laying his hand on her arm, Ty said intently, “Be careful. And you—you protect her.”
“With my life,” Zeke answered with an easy grin.
Sophy couldn’t find anything amusing in his words.
“Put your hands behind your back,” Zeke said as they walked toward the front of the house. “Pretend they’re still zip-tied. Otherwise, they’ll know someone helped you escape.” In a louder voice, he called, “I found her!”
As they reached the front corner of the house, he moved to her right side, unholstered his gun, took hold of her upper arm with his free hand and murmured, barely moving his lips, “That isn’t Maggie out here. It’s my boss. Don’t give her away.”
Sophy got a glance at the scene and stumbled, her brain too frozen to even think about Maggie. Sean stood motionless, tension radiating off him in thick, suffocating waves, with Craig’s gun so close to his head that the steel almost touched his skin. Craig was statue-still, too, his arm never wavering, his aim as steady as a rock. Nothing on his face to suggest he even knew the man he was about to kill. Oh, dear God.
“She was hiding out back,” Zeke said as he half nudged, half dragged Sophy a few yards closer. She wasn’t trying to put on an act or be obstructive. Her brain just wasn’t functioning. She couldn’t get beyond the gun pointed at Sean, the look on his face, the terror that robbed her of breath. She would never forget this moment, this one horrible ugly terrifying moment, as long as she lived.
“Nice of you to join us again, Sophy.”
She tore her gaze from Sean long enough to see that some of the tension had eased in Craig. He cocked his head to one side, studying Sean, then slowly lowered his arm and widened the space between them again until he stood even with Jimmy. Things were back to normal, back to the way he’d expected them to go this morning, and that calmed his ire.
“I’m sorry, buddy.” The expression on his face really seemed regretful, but his voice didn’t. It was the quiet, deadly cold Sean had described to her. “You really have been the best friend I’ve ever had, but I know you, man. You’re too honest. You won’t stay quiet about a murder, especially your sister’s or your girlfriend’s. You’ve got a conscience, and I can’t afford that.”
“Now the team has some room to work with,” Zeke whispered. “When I give you the sign, duck around to the back of the house and get down.” He released her arm and shifted his body forward to help block the men’s view of her.
“You can’t afford—” Sean’s voice was husky, thick with bitterness. “How many millions have you made, Craig?”
“Not enough.”
“Remember when all you wanted was to clear enough to rent an apartment? Then enough to buy that motorcycle, then to party a little? What happened?”
“I realized I lacked ambition. The money’s there to be made, Sean. Why shouldn’t I be the one to make it? Why shouldn’t you?”
Sean sadly shook his head without offering an answer. Sophy knew him well enough to know this was the end of the conversation for him. Presumably so did Craig, because he gestured with his pistol. “All three of you, on your knees.”
The fake Maggie swayed on her feet, looking too tired, drunk or high to hold her position. Sean caught her, holding her until she was steady, then helped her to the ground. Sophy was pretty sure the unsteadiness was a ploy on her part to tell Sean something. Was she giving him a signal, like Zeke, to run like hell?
Unsure what to do, Sophy dropped to her knees, tightly clenching her hands behind her back. A dozen feet separated her from Sean, less than that from Zeke, whose left hand was behind his back. He surreptitiously flashed three fingers, then two, then one, and AJ’s voice boomed across the clearing from an electronic bullhorn, “This is the police. Lower your weapons.”
She didn’t need to see Zeke vigorously waving her on. She dived from where she knelt, then belly-crawled like a snake on hot steel to the cover of the house. She was struggling to her feet when footsteps thudded behind her. Sean grabbed her arm, hauling her with him so that her feet only touched the ground every few steps. The fake Maggie was with him, her own weapon in hand. As soon as they turned the corner to the back, she yanked off the black wig and glasses and fluffed her sweat-soaked pale blond hair.
Shouts came from the front, the loudest, most enraged ones from Craig. His ranting was mostly unintelligible and punctuated with rapid-fire shooting. Sophy sank to the ground, Sean with her, his arms tight around her, her head against his chest, and she focused hard on not hearing the sounds of the battle: Craig’s screaming, gunshots from a half dozen different weapons, a grunt and a thud from the roof above them, a new barrage of shots. She covered her eyes with her hands and silently chanted, S
ean’s okay. Daisy’s okay. Dahlia’s okay. I’m okay. Sean’s okay. Daisy’s okay—
Abruptly the shooting stopped. The air seemed to simmer, the echo of each shot vibrating across her skin, and the scent of fresh-spent ammunition drifted as lazily as the scent of the flowers that grew across the driveway.
Special Agent Baker crouched, taking Sophy’s and Sean’s hands into hers. “Are you two all right?”
Sean nodded.
“Stay here until one of us comes to get you. You don’t want to see...” Breaking off, she quickly straightened and strode off.
You don’t want to see... Anyone dead? That grunt and thud from the roof above them—had one of their rescuers been injured or killed? Ty or Tommy or one of the others? And Craig... All his screaming and shooting... They’d likely had no choice but to kill him.
“I hope he’s dead.” Sean tilted his head back against the wall, sorrow etched into his face, shadowed in his eyes. “I know it sounds awful, but...”
“So many people would be safer with him gone. Including us.” She snuggled closer. “I’m sorry, Sean. For so long you saw only the best in him, but the worst had overtaken the good. I don’t think he was salvageable.”
A crooked smile touched his mouth. “Mr. Obadiah said that about me once—that I was salvageable. What do you think? Was he right?”
“He must have been because you’re pretty near perfect.”
His smile slowly faded. “Who got you out?”
“Ty.” He’d whispered her name from the shadows of the bedroom, sliced the plastic cables with a wicked-sharp knife, then dragged her across the room and out the window, all in a matter of seconds.
“I owe him.” Sean ducked his head to watch her. “I owe you, too. All the time I was waiting, all I could think was how desperately I needed you—”
He stopped abruptly, somberly, leaving her to wonder how he’d meant to finish it. I needed you to survive. To be safe. To know that I’m sorry. To forgive me.
But he finished simply. “I needed you. I didn’t even know you a week ago, and now I don’t know how I could live a week without you. Am I crazy?”
It felt so good to smile, warming the cold places inside her, banishing the fear, giving her hope and strength. “If you are, I am, too. I’m crazy in love with you.”
“Crazy in love...” His voice was barely audible, as if he was talking more to himself than her. “Yeah. Last night in bed you drove me mad with wanting and having. Waking up this morning with you beside me seemed like the craziest, best thing in the world. Finding you gone today made me insane with fear. Yeah, I’ve been crazy since I met you.”
Footsteps sounded a moment before Ty rounded the corner. Like Special Agent Baker, he crouched in front of them. “You guys okay?”
Sean exchanged a look with Sophy, then said, “Yeah. We are.”
Ty studied them both a long time before taking his word. “You heard Kolinski’s meltdown. He shot Jimmy by accident and wounded one of the deputies, nothing major. We had to take him out before he killed anyone else. He’s dead, Sean. I’m sorry.”
Sean stared into the woods for a time before replying. “He wanted me to make Maggie understand the consequences of her actions, but the funny thing is, he never got the consequences of his own actions. He didn’t want to kill her—she forced him into a corner. He didn’t want to kill me—I gave him no other choice. Things didn’t go his way, it was never his fault.” He sighed and confessed, “I’m glad he’s dead.”
“Some people deserve to die.” Ty stood, extended his hand and pulled Sean to his feet. Still holding on to Sophy, Sean pulled her up, too. “There’s a lot of people on their way out here—medical examiner’s office, crime-scene techs, reporters. We know where to find you. Go home, clean up and cuddle up with the kids. We can wait until tomorrow to talk to you.”
“Thanks, Ty.” Sean’s voice was husky, his eyes bright, his movements jerky as he hugged his friend, then just as quickly let go. Holding tightly to Sophy, he set off toward the Chevelle, careful, she noticed, not to look back.
She didn’t bother to herself. As of the moment he died, Craig Kolinski and all his problems became part of the past, and she fully believed that the past was best left behind. All the shadows, the fears, the worries, the mistakes... In the eternal scheme of things, Craig had to answer for his actions, but she and Sean could concentrate on the future.
And what a happy, bright, sunny one they faced.
* * *
Sean was in one of the places he liked best in the world—the garage at Charlie’s Custom Rods—finishing up for the day when he heard the voices he loved best approaching the open bay door. Doing up the last buttons on the clean shirt he’d changed into, he walked toward the front as Daisy and Dahlia skipped inside.
Daisy stiffened her left leg, hunched her back and dragged herself to him, making a menacing face along with a growl that dissolved into a giggle. “Did I scare you, Uncle Sean?”
It was Halloween, and she’d ignored all the girlie options in favor of a custom-made zombie costume. If not for her sweet little face underneath all the makeup, it would be a little on the disgusting side. When he’d said as much in the planning stages, all three of his girls had given him duh looks. It’s Halloween, Sophy had said, as if that explained everything.
He shrank back and made his voice squeaky. “Oh, no, it’s a zombie! Everyone, run for your lives!”
Daisy whooped and continued to limp around the space, trying different growls.
“What about me, Uncle Sean? How do I look?” Dahlia’s dress was pale blue and white, reaching to her toes, and her hair hung in long curls, held back from her face with a sparkly tiara. She’d been practicing wearing it—and correcting him every time he called it a crown—for the past few days.
“You’re beautiful, doll. You’re gonna capture all the boys’ hearts.” A few months ago, he would have said break instead of capture. But a few months ago, he hadn’t known Sophy.
His gaze shifted to her, wearing jeans and a sweater, her hair pulled back in some fancy braid. He loved that style, mostly because it was so much fun to take it down. “That goes for you, too.”
Her smile turned smug. “I’ve already got the only boy’s heart I care about. Are you ready to go trick-or-treating?”
“Yep.” He closed the door, set the alarm, then followed them outside before locking the front entrance behind him.
“First we go downtown,” Dahlia said.
“Because the places down there have candy,” Daisy added.
“Then we go to the houses nearby—”
“Because they have candy, too.”
“And then we get to go to the haunted house at River’s Edge—”
“Because they have ghosts and coffins and screamy things and candy!”
As the girls picked up their pace, Sean took Sophy’s hand. “Their first Halloween.”
“I bet you were more of a trickster than a treater when you were a kid.”
“Aw, we never did anything worse than toilet-papering a house or putting shaving cream on a car. No real damage. I bet you were always a princess.”
She smiled, and everything in his world felt exactly right. “So often that Mom bought me a real tiara. That’s what Dahlia’s wearing.”
They turned at the corner to head downtown. It wasn’t dark yet, and the evening was just cool enough to make zombie outfits and princess dresses comfortable. A few yards ahead of them, two pint-size superheroes walked with their mom; across the street was a vampire with a fairy and a monkey trailing behind holding their parents’ hands. It was the kind of scene Sean had never imagined himself in—homey, small-town, bordering on saccharine.
He’d never known he had a need for those things hiding inside him.
He’d had a lot of anger at Maggie for getting herself in trouble and making him come home, but he owed her a lot. If not for her, he never would have set foot in Copper Lake again, fallen in love with Sophy and his nieces, and
had a family who meant everything to him.
Things hadn’t turned out so well for his sister. Sophy’s kidnapping and Craig’s and Jimmy’s deaths had finally made her see reality. She’d pleaded guilty and terminated her parental rights to the girls. Sean was in the process of adopting them, and Maggie was learning a tough lesson in prison. It would be years before she got out, but the last time he’d seen her, she’d remarked that she might be better for it.
With Craig dead, Sean’s involvement with the DEA had ended. There had been no one in his former boss’s organization who cared enough to avenge his death. The DEA had made a lot of arrests and closed down his operations, but someone else was just waiting to take them over, Special Agent Baker had told Sean. Still, she and Zeke would stop them, too.
There was a crowd on the streets that bordered the square. Traffic had been blocked off so the kids could roam freely, lining up to get candy, running across the grass with capes flowing behind them. Sophy gave the girls their bags, then slid her arm around his waist, smiling up at him. “Too bad we couldn’t leave the kids with someone else and do a little trick-or-treating of our own.”
“I know some tricks.”
“And I have some treats.” Her look was bold and wicked and roused an immediate response in him, and the mischief dancing in her eyes told him she knew it.
He pulled her close and nuzzled her ear. “Halloween’s not over until midnight, princess, and I know for a fact you don’t turn into a pumpkin at the stroke of twelve.”
“I think you’re mixing your holidays with the fairy tales you’ve been reading the girls.” Her voice was breathless, and she became more so when he kissed her.
A call from a few yards away forced an end to the kiss. “Uncle Sean, Aunt Sophy, come on!” Daisy shouted while Dahlia held her back from heading on to the next storefront.
“We’re coming.” Arms still around each other, he and Sophy followed the girls.
Fairy tales. He’d never believed in them, not as a kid, not as a grown-up. But he knew now: wishes were granted; dreams did come true; princesses could fall in love with commoners.
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