by Jessie Evans
When she stepped through the bedroom door to see Cole tied to one of the wingback chairs near the window—blood matting his hair to his head and sporting a black eye so nasty his lid was swollen shut—her fight-or-flight response kicked into overdrive. She wasn’t going to freeze this time like she had after that gunman opened fire. She was going to fight back or get away and get help. But she’d better do one or the other soon. If she allowed Neil to tie her up, she would be out of options and she and Cole would be at his mercy.
The thought made her shudder as she stopped beside Cole and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “How are you?”
“I’ve been better,” he said, his voice scratchy. “Sorry I didn’t warn you sooner.”
“Sorry I didn’t run faster,” she said, before turning back to Neil. “Can I get him a drink of water before you tie me up?”
“He’s had water.” Neil shooed her toward the chair next to Cole’s with the barrel of the gun. “I’m old, honey, not stupid. I’m not going to give you the chance to run.”
The way he said it was so final, confirming her suspicion that if she sat down, she might never be getting back up again. She might never get to tell her dad she still loved him, no matter how much he’d hurt her. She might never get to be a better aunt to Clementine or a better sister to Tulsi or a better person, period, than she’d been the past twelve years.
Worst of all, she might never see Grayson again, or get to finish falling in love with the best man she’d ever met. And he would have to live with the knowledge that his father had killed her, which just might destroy what was left of his faith in good winning out in the end. Grayson had snapped back from more than his fair share of tragedy, but even a man as strong as he was could only take so much. Sooner or later, everyone has a breaking point, the feather that brings them crashing to their knees after they’ve been bearing the weight of the world on their shoulders.
The thought zipped through her head; a moment later she took a deep breath and stopped fighting the hysteria rising inside of her. She buried her face in her hands and let go. She let out all the tears she’d held back for years, all the pain and outrage she’d swallowed and denied, all the hurt and sadness and thwarted longing for justice. Her first sob felt like it was wrenched from some hidden, horrible place deep inside of her and it wasn’t long before she was weeping like the world was coming to an end.
“Now, come on, don’t cry, honey,” Neil said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Right,” Cole sneered. “I’m sure my face made that clear to her, asshole. No one’s getting hurt around here.”
“Shut up, Lawson,” Neil growled while Reece continued to weep. “Or I’ll find something to stick in your mouth.”
Neil’s hand settled on her shoulder, but Reece flinched away, sobbing harder as she fell to her knees by the bed, peeking through her fingers at the bedside table only a few feet away. She was close now. She just had to keep the show going a little longer.
“All right, Reece,” Neil said in a harder voice. “Pull yourself together. This isn’t like you, girl. You’re tough as nails.”
Reece cringed closer to the bed, tears coming so fast now that her nose had started to run. It reminded her of the day she’d escaped from Neil the first time, when she’d climbed the tree to her bedroom and huddled in her closet, crying hysterically in the dark while she gathered up the courage to go tell her parents what had happened. She had never dreamed that Neil would be taking advantage of that time to call her dad with his own version of the story.
He had been way too calm and collected from the very start, heading off her allegations before she could even make them. She should have known she wasn’t the first woman he’d terrorized. But if she had her way, she would be the last.
Neil stepped toward her and she scuttled away, heels digging into the carpet as she crab walked closer to the bedside table. She was nearly there, her fingers already itching with the need to wrap around cold steel, when Neil leaned down and grabbed her around her upper arm.
“Get up,” he barked, his thick fingers biting into her skin as he jerked her to her feet. He was more than a decade older than he’d been but still strong enough to lift her off the ground with one hand.
With a frightened whimper she didn’t have to fake, Reece went limp, mimicking her niece, Clementine, when she was a toddler and would go boneless in the middle of a tantrum. But when Reece hit the floor, she didn’t keep wailing. She stayed limp and with one last pitiful moan, let her eyes roll back, her lids slide shut, and lay still at Neil’s feet.
Neil cursed beneath his breath. “Get up, Reece. Reece?”
Heart pounding and thoughts racing so fast it felt like her synapses were firing at the speed of light, Reece forced herself to stay still. She’d sworn to herself that she wouldn’t freeze up, but playing possum might be her only chance to take Neil by surprise. She only needed him to drop his guard for a few seconds, just long enough for her to go for his gun. That was a better plan than going for the weapon in the bedside table anyway. She knew Neil’s gun was there, and he’d have to kneel down to check on her sooner or later. And when he did, she was going for his eye sockets with her thumbs and the gun as soon as he dropped it.
She was bracing herself to move fast when she heard the front door open and a deep voice call out. “Reece? Where are you? You left your cell in the truck.”
Reece’s gut cried out for her to warn Grayson, but she forced herself to stay frozen, knowing if she gave up on her act now she wouldn’t have a chance to use her allegedly unconscious state to her advantage.
“Get out of here Grayson, your—” Cole’s words cut off with a sick thud and a groan of pain and Reece barely resisted the urge to flinch. But the best thing she could do for Cole was hold still. She just needed Neil to leave the room and she’d have Cole untied in two minutes.
Surely Neil was going to make a run for the front of the house to confront his son any second.
Any fucking second now, Neil!
But he didn’t run. He stayed put until Grayson found his way back to the bedroom.
Reece knew the moment Grayson saw her on the ground. A pained sound burst from his lips—a sound that came from the same place as her tears—and any doubt that he’d meant every sweet word he’d said the past few days vanished.
Now she could only hope that they both made it out of here so she could assure him she felt the same way.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Grayson
Cole Lawson was tied to a chair, moaning as blood flowed down his temple, and Neil was back from the grave and had a gun trained on Grayson’s chest, but his gaze kept returning to where Reece lay on the worn beige carpet beside the bed. Her face was mottled red and it looked like she’d been crying not long ago, but now she wasn’t moving.
She wasn’t moving. Grayson wasn’t even sure she was breathing.
Fear rushed through him, chilling him from the inside out. “What have you done to her?” He started past his father, but Neil jabbed the gun into his chest, pushing him away from the bed.
“Stay back, son. I don’t want to shoot you, but I will.” Neil’s flat, bloodshot eyes assured Grayson that his father meant every word. “She’s fine. I didn’t touch her. She got scared and fainted that’s all.”
“Jesus Christ, Dad. That’s all? That’s fucking all?” He drove his hands through his hair and fisted them in the strands. “You scared a woman so badly she passed out. What the hell is wrong with you? Have you completely lost your mind?”
“Might as well,” Neil said, raising his volume to match Grayson’s. “I’ve lost everything else. My ranch, my horses, my family, my good name. Why not throw my mind into the mix? What good has it done me?”
“You faked your death, Dad.” Grayson shook his head side to side, feeling like he was in the middle of one of his combat nightmares and couldn’t wake up. “Do you realize how crazy that is? I buried you. I mourned you and held Layla while she cried at your g
rave.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” his father said, his brow furrowing and the barrel of the gun wavering before it steadied again. “I did what I had to do to protect myself from the goddamned police state this country has become. It’s all that communist president’s fault. If he hadn’t—”
“Who was that man we buried?” Grayson cut in, unable to handle one of his father’s rants right now, not when the woman he was falling in love with was unconscious on the floor behind him.
“Tell me!” Grayson insisted. He took a step to the right, but his father mirrored the movement, ensuring he remained in between Grayson and Reece.
Grayson’s jaw clenched and his teeth bit into his bottom lip. He was going to have to overpower Neil and take the gun if he was going to have any chance of getting Reece out of here and to the hospital, where it looked like she belonged.
He’d never seen her so pale, not even the day she almost passed out in the barn.
“He was nobody special,” Neil said gruffly. “Just a body.”
“Just tell me you didn’t kill him,” Grayson said, pacing to his left, leading his father away from Cole and Reece. “Tell me there’s still at least that much decency left in you.”
“Of course I didn’t kill him.” Neil’s obvious outrage would have been laughable if anything were funny right now. “He was from over in Peyton Springs. Died in a car wreck not long after I got the news that I was being targeted by the FBI. I found a couple of local boys willing to dig up the body and keep their mouths shut.”
He made a snarling sound. “Or I thought they’d keep their mouths shut. But one of them must have gone to the police. Otherwise, my face wouldn’t be on the T.V. every goddamned time I turn around.”
“It was your friend in the FBI.” Grayson crossed to the entrance of the walk-in closet on the other side of the room, determined to ensure Reece was out of the line of fire. “He’s been taken into custody and told his superiors everything. He’s not going to be helping you anymore. There’s no one left to help you.” Grayson turned back to face his father. “Except me.”
“You?” Neil’s eyes narrowed. “Why? You think I’m out of my mind.”
“I do, but I care about Reece,” Grayson said, willing his father to keep moving closer. Just a little closer and he could go for the gun. “I want her safe. Let her and Cole go. As soon as I know they’re off the property, we’ll leave. I’ll drive you across the border into Mexico tonight.”
His father shook his head. “They’ll be watching the border crossings.” He swallowed, his throat working. “I should have left after the funeral, but Jay said he could get me a new passport if I gave him a couple of weeks. I should have known he’d get caught. He never was as smart as he thought he was.”
Neil cursed and let the barrel of the gun dip; Grayson’s muscles tensed. His father wasn’t as close as he’d like him to be, but he sensed his shot to go for the gun was coming if he could just keep Neil talking.
“Then we’ll hide you,” Grayson continued, edging forward a half step. “We’ll fill the truck bed with saddle blankets and hide you underneath before we start across the border.”
“It won’t work,” Neil maintained in a strained voice. “My only shot is to head north to Canada, all the way up to the top, near the arctic circle. They won’t expect that.”
“Then we’ll head north,” Grayson said in a placating tone. “Just let Cole and Reece go and we can hit the road.”
Neil’s expression hardened and he lifted the gun, taking aim at Grayson’s chest. “That’s not going to happen, son.”
Grayson froze, cursing himself for reminding his father that there were hostages in the room.
“I’m not a fool. I know they won’t keep their mouths shut long enough for me to get away,” Neil continued. “So here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to tie Reece to that chair next to Cole’s. Then we’ll take Lawson’s truck and start north. I parked it behind the house so nobody would see it when they pulled up, but it’s got a full tank. We should be able to get five hours down the road before we stop for gas. If we swap it for something new between here and the Canadian border, we might actually have a shot.”
Neil backed up, motioning for Grayson to follow with a wave of his free hand. “Now, get over here and get this girl before she wakes up.” He glanced to his right before doing a double take and turning to search the room. “What the hell? Where she’d go?”
“I’m right here, asshole.”
Grayson spun toward the sound of Reece’s voice. She stood on the other side of the bed, a furious expression on her face and a gun in her hands. The moment he saw the gun, Grayson dropped to the ground, giving her a clear shot at his father. His hands had barely hit the carpet when one shot rang out and then another.
The nearly simultaneous boom, boom was deafening in the small room, echoing off the walls and vibrating the wood planks beneath the carpet. Grayson’s ears immediately started to ring, and when he called for Reece, he couldn’t hear his own voice, let alone her reply. Heart slamming against his ribs, he glanced over his shoulder to see his father on the ground and surged to his feet, knowing he had to disarm Neil before he checked on Reece.
He crossed the room in three strides, reaching his father’s side just as Neil groaned and reached out, fumbling for the gun that had dropped from his hands when he fell to the floor. Grayson dove the last few feet, grabbing the shotgun and rolling to his left, his shoulder slamming into the chair where Neil had planned to tie Reece.
Grayson was back up in seconds, glancing down at his father, cataloging Neil’s injuries. Blood seeped from a wound on his right shoulder, spreading out to stain his gray sweatshirt a deep crimson. He needed medical attention—the sooner the better—but he wasn’t mortally wounded. Reece hadn’t been shooting to kill.
Now, he just had to pray his father hadn’t been, either. Because if he had, Neil wouldn’t have missed his target at such close range.
Grayson spun, stomach lurching when he saw the place where Reece had been standing was empty. “Reece!” His cry was met by more ringing silence, sending a rush of terror stinging along his skin.
Gripping the shotgun tight, he hurried around the edge of the bed to find Reece curled into a fetal position on her side, clutching her head with both hands.
“I’m here, babe.” Grayson knelt beside her, hand shaking as her brushed her hair from her face. “Show me where you’re hit. I’ll apply pressure while I call the police.”
Reece sucked in a shaky breath and blindly reached for him. She fisted his sweater in her fingers, but she didn’t open her eyes. “Head,” she finally whispered in a thin voice. “Really bad.”
Grayson felt gingerly around the back of her head, but he didn’t feel any blood. “But no new injuries? You weren’t shot?”
“No,” she whispered. “But it’s bad. I need to go to the hospital.”
“I’m calling the ambulance right now,” Grayson said, digging his cell from his pocket. As soon as the dispatcher answered, Grayson rattled off the Hearst ranch’s address and made it clear both the police and paramedics were needed right away.
“We’ve got two people in need of immediate medical attention, one with a gunshot wound, one with complications from a prior skull fracture. And there’s a third man who’s also sustained head injuries,” he said, hurrying back around the bed to check on Cole just as his father sat up with a miserable groan, obviously intending to make a break for it.
Grayson planted his foot in the center of his father’s chest and shoved him back to the ground, summoning a cry of agony from Neil.
“The gunshot victim is Neil Parker,” Grayson continued, not feeling an ounce of pity for his father. “He’s wanted on federal charges and has been holding two people hostage at the Hearst ranch.”
As soon as the dispatcher assured him that the police and ambulance were both en route, Grayson hung up and knelt behind Cole, untying the other man’s hands. Cole grunted in pa
in as he shook off the ropes and stood, but when he turned to Grayson he seemed steady on his feet.
“You’d better give me that,” he said, reaching for the gun in Grayson’s hand. “I’ll make sure Neil keeps his ass right where it is until the police arrive. You check on Reece.”
Grayson handed over the gun with a grateful nod and hurried back around the bed to Reece, his breath catching when he saw her pushing into a seated position, blood leaking from her ears and nose.
“I can’t breathe,” she said, swiping at her nose with a trembling hand. “What’s happening?”
“You’re bleeding, babe.” Cursing, Grayson reached for a box of tissues on the bedside table, snatching several from the top and pressing them lightly into her hands before going back for more. “I’m guessing you have a cerebrospinal fluid leak. The paramedics are on their way. I’ll make sure they call ahead on our way to the hospital and get the helicopter ready to airlift you to San Antonio.”
“The surgery,” she said, meeting his gaze with eyes so filled with pain it broke his heart. “If I don’t make it through, tell my dad I forgive him okay? And that I love him and Mom. And Tulsi and Clementine, too. I love them all so much and I’m sorry I was too stupid to realize that’s all that matters until now.”
“Don’t talk like that. You’re going to be fine,” he said, taking her hand and holding tight, willing his strength into her, wishing he could take her place. “Everything’s going to be fine. I’m not letting you go, yet, Shortstack. Not when we’re just getting started.”
“I’m sorry,” Reece said, her eyelids fluttering. “I would have loved you. I was halfway there, Grayson. I…wanted to. So much. You’re the only one I ever…”
Her eyes rolled back and Grayson reached out, catching her before she could fall to the carpet. With a pained moan that vibrated through his chest, he pulled her into his lap, cradling her close as he rocked her back and forth, silently willing her to hold on.
He couldn’t lose her, not when they’d just found each other.