She sucked in a breath, trying to even out her racing heart, but the slow straightening of Charlie’s spine made it impossible.
“What’s—”
Danny pressed her palm over Craig’s mouth as she listened.
Tires were coming up the road toward them, crunching over the scattered gravel.
“Get her away from the road.” Danny grabbed Sam’s limp body and dragged her back, hauling her older sister into the brush and away from whoever was coming their way.
Charlie rushed in to help her as the vehicle closed in.
Whoever it was, they were moving fast. Fast enough that Danny was still in view as the dim cast of running lights illuminated the trees above them.
Craig snagged her around the waist and pulled, taking her into the woods and down to the ground as the large engine of a truck roared toward them. Danny pushed up to her knees, lifting a branch to peek out as it raced past. The Bellamy brothers were in the bed, hanging onto the side as the half-ton bounced along the rutted road.
The driver’s window was down. Cool eyes met hers through the leaves, holding her gaze for the split second it took for the truck to pass them.
But it was long enough.
Craig pulled her close as another truck followed the first, this one moving faster.
Because there was a driver behind the wheel who was practiced at moving along this road.
“It’s JD.” Danny stood, stepping out into the road, blocking her friend from what he most definitely was trying to do.
“What in the hell are you doing?” Craig grabbed her, pulling her back from the road for a second time. Danny fought him off and stood her ground, blocking JD from continuing his pursuit.
“Get out of the way, Danny.” Frankie stood in the back, slamming one hand against roof of the cab. “We can catch them.”
Danny turned to look behind her, in the direction of the Bellamy brothers. Maybe she shouldn’t have stopped them.
Lance broke through the trees, his body bigger than she remembered it being. “No.” He rubbed both hands over his face, fingertips raking at the skin. “Holy shit.”
Alex stood beside Frankie in the back of JD’s truck. “Danny?”
She swallowed hard, trying to convince herself she was wrong.
That it wasn’t who she thought.
But it was.
She looked from sister to sister, the realization of what they were facing turning her stomach.
“Our father was driving that truck.
TWENTY-FIVE
“I’M SO SORRY.” Tate Miller looked like he hadn’t slept in the last two days as he scrubbed one hand over the stubble covering his jaw. “I ran background checks on them. Nothing came back. They were clean. Had references and everything.”
“If anyone should have known they were an issue, it was me.” Lance looked just as bad as the owner of Miller’s Security.
At this point they all did.
JD silently sipped his coffee, the lines around his eyes barely softening as he drank.
They’d let the girls down. All of them.
They promised this was a good idea. That they would be safe.
They were wrong.
“How’s the sister they took?” Tate’s tone was cautious, hesitant.
“Sam will be okay.” Craig hated that any of the girls had to go through it, but Sam was strong. She would be okay just to spite the fucking Bellamy brothers.
If that was even their real name, because at this point it was looking like identity theft might be the least of the brother’s law breaking.
Craig wiped his burning eyes. He hadn’t slept well since the night two men he allowed into Shadow Pine tried to abduct Danny and her sisters, intending to make good on the plans their father made.
Their still very much alive father.
“I’ve got my guys coming in for round the clock security.” Tate pulled out his phone. “Only men who’ve been with me for years. I have a few cops I’m tapping to see if their interested in taking on some off-duty work.”
“It’s not your fault, man.” JD had been silent all morning, sitting through the meeting.
Stewing.
And what he was upset about probably had less to do with what they were discussing, and more to do with a certain tree climbing Karlson woman.
“I can’t help but feel like it is.” Tate shook his head. “You said these girls needed someone they could trust and I served them up to those peckers on a silver platter.”
The guilt he felt was written all over his face. In the tightness of his jaw and the squint of his eyes.
One guilt-stricken man sitting next to another.
Danny poked her head into the kitchen. “Hey, Jude’s coming in for a snack.”
A second later the ten-year-old bounced into the kitchen, looking no worse for the wear.
“Hey, Craig.” He grabbed a banana and peeled it, biting off a mouthful as he came to stand between where Craig and Lance sat. “Whatcha doing?”
“We’re making sure everyone stays safe.”
He could lie to Jude. Sugarcoat the truth to make it more palatable.
But the kid was smart. Smart enough to figure out something was happening and then take that burden on himself like he had countless times before.
And Craig wanted to keep Jude a kid for as long as possible. One who knew he was safe and loved and appreciated.
It’s how Craig knew he wasn’t like his parents.
Because he was willing to suffer so Jude could be happy. Willing to sacrifice anything to protect the child at his side.
Jude nodded. “That’s good.” His eyes scanned the men at the table around him, moving slowly, assessing each with a shrewd gaze.
“You wanna stay?”
Jude’s wide eyes snapped to Craig. “Can I?”
Craig glanced to where Danny still stood in the doorway. She smiled softly.
“Definitely.” Craig stood up, passing his seat to Jude and standing behind it.
It was simple to say he wanted Jude to just be a kid, but Danny’s son had felt the responsibility of protecting his mother and aunts for too long.
Long enough he would resent having it stripped away.
“This is Tate. He’s in charge of the security guards.”
Jude’s skin paled a little. “Like the ones who took Sam?”
Tate’s face fell. He straightened in his seat. “That was my fault. I’m the one who sent them here. I thought they were good guys, but they tricked me.” He cleared his throat at Jude’s unrelenting gaze. “I’m sorry for that.”
“Did you do it on purpose?”
Tate’s attention lifted to Craig before going back to Jude. “No.”
“Then it’s okay. Sam won’t be mad at you.”
“I’m not sure I would take it that far.” Craig had seen Sam since her close call, and she most definitely was placing blame on anything and everything with involvement and a dick.
“She’ll be okay. She’s just scared right now.” Jude bit off another chunk of banana.
JD’s brows went up. “You think your Aunt Sam is scared?”
Jude nodded. “It’s why she’s so mean. Cause she doesn’t want people to know.”
The men around the table were silent.
The weight on their shoulders just got a hell of a lot heavier.
Tate stood. “I’m going to get on it then.”
“I think I’d like to keep an off-duty here each shift if possible.” Lance flipped his folio closed. “We’re willing to pay to make it happen.”
Tate nodded. “I will do my best.”
“That’s all you can do.” Lance shook Tate’s hand. “Appreciate it.”
“I’m heading out too. I got work to do.” JD stood. “Let me know what you need from me.”
Lance gave him a nod.
“Can I go with Kari?” Jude shoved in the last of his banana.
“Sure thing. She’ll be happy to have help with the girls.” Lance smiled at his nephew. �
��You’re a good kid, Jude. You know that?”
Jude grinned. “Thanks.”
When the front door clicked shut behind Jude, Lance turned to Craig. “Have you found anything?”
He’d started looking for Danny’s father the second the police left and all the women were home safe. He, Lance, and JD took shifts making sure no one tried to come back for another shot, until Tate was able to bring in a few of his trusted men to relieve them.
But sleep still wasn’t coming easily. Not with knowing what he did.
And not knowing what he didn’t.
“At the time the trailer burned down he was using the name Mehir.” The sisters had given him everything they remembered, recounting a childhood that would make the most hardened of men have trouble sleeping at night.
“He owned at least two properties, one of which he used to host the spiritual retreats that catered to women of the upper class.”
“Like my mother.”
Craig nodded. “Like your mother.” He shifted through the file he’d already amassed on the man who chose a name meaning ‘reward from God’ as his single moniker. “There’s no telling how much money he made off of them, but I don’t think that was his only objective.”
“I don’t think I like where this is going.” Lance leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. “He was breeding?”
Craig dropped his gaze with a nod. Finding out you were conceived as part of a twisted cult leader’s plan for the end of times was not something anyone seeking their biological parent expected. “Which means there’s probably a lot more of you.”
Lance’s head dropped back. “Fuck.”
Unfortunately, based on the information from Danny and her sisters, their father was not hard on the eyes, and had a certain amount of charisma and charm that pulled women in. Unsuspecting women seeking spiritual guidance and enlightenment.
Like Lance’s mother.
Lance stood, his shoulders a little more slumped than normal.
His eyes met Craig’s.
“Find him. So I can kill him.”
****
DANNY CURLED CLOSER to Craig, relaxing against him. After cycling through all the channels twice, she settled on a cooking show.
Something to occupy her brain without requiring thinking.
“How’s Sam?” Craig’s palm slid up and down her back, soothing the edginess that still lingered.
“Pissed.”
“How did Tate’s sister do?”
“I guess as good as can be expected.” Tate Miller, the owner of the security company that hired the Bellamy brothers, sent his hairdresser sister to Shadow Pine to try to fix the damage the brothers did to her hair.
Cutting Sam’s hair might have been the worst thing they could have done to her, and that included zipping her into a bag.
“I spoke with the detective handling the case today. He said they don’t have any leads on who the Bellamy brothers might be.”
Danny and her sisters were overwhelmed with everything. Dealing with the police was the last thing any of them wanted to do, so Craig stepped in.
It was the best decision anyway, since the cops weren’t the only one’s doing an investigation.
“What about you? Have you found anything?” She didn’t have nearly as much faith in the cops as she did in the man beside her.
He’d found her after all.
“Not much. Just a couple vacant properties that have suspicious ownership.” Craig paused. “I do have a friend doing some digging. Hopefully he can find more.”
“What about James?”
That was the part Danny tried not to think about. Her youngest sister had always been wild. A free spirit in every sense of the word. The fact that she moved on without telling anyone wasn’t shocking. James had done it countless times before. Grown restless with the monotony of whatever life she was living and dropped it in the past, chasing the excitement of the new and fresh.
Probably because their lives had been so restricted. James wanted to be free.
But the timing made Danny’s stomach turn. “She’s probably just found something new to do.”
“Probably, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone with a fair amount of power believes she has something that belongs to them.”
“James isn’t like that.” She’d told Craig a million times. James might be carefree and untethered, but her baby sister wasn’t the type to steal. “She’s just not the sort to lay down roots.”
“But that lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to consistent income.”
Danny lifted her brows at the shocking amount of naiveté in his statement. Even she knew how easy it could be for a beautiful woman to earn a lucrative amount of money from men. “James is a dancer.”
Craig stared at her. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“Stripper. James is a stripper. That’s probably why she was in Vegas.” Danny pulled up the blanket she covered him with the night he slept on the couch. “And she’s not hurting for money.”
“How do you know that?” Craig’s tone was different than she’d heard it in a while.
But familiar.
“Are you trying to trick me into giving you information, Mr. O’Neal?”
“Does that mean I don’t have to trick you?” He tugged her closer, leaning into her neck and breathing deep.
“We each have private accounts, but Alex manages a single investment portfolio for us all. We all have money transferred automatically every week, and James is still sending money, which means her private accounts have a balance.”
Plus James was as frugal as they all were, and her income rivaled Frankie’s.
“It’s probably just some guy who wants her and can’t take no for an answer.”
“It’s possible, but ten thousand dollars is a lot of money.” Craig cleared his throat.
Danny leaned up, eyes moving over his face. “What haven’t you told me?”
He was holding back. She was sure of it.
And honestly, she understood why.
A lot had happened. The kidnapping. The police reports. Adam’s special airing last night.
“The person looking for her wants her. Alive.”
The possible reasons for someone to offer a reward to the types of people Craig said knew about it was troubling.
The fact that this person specifically asked that James be brought to them alive was something else entirely.
“I need the information Alex has on the bank James’ money is coming from.” Craig caught a bit of her hair, stroking it away from her face. “I’ll find her, Danny. I promise.”
She could doubt him. Choose to let fear rule her life.
But Craig had been right about everything else. He’d made good on every promise and every intent.
“I know.” Danny smiled. “I’m glad you came to Shadow Pine, City Boy.”
His fingers traced across the line of her jaw, the pad of his thumb stroking her lower lip.
“So am I, Danny girl.”
****
“THAT’S A LOT of people.” Sam leaned, looking further down the road outside. “I don’t think I have enough in the cases.”
“I don’t think they’ll mind.” Danny stood at Sam’s side, staring out at the crowd lining the street.
Cars were parked anywhere they could fit and their owners milled around town, taking pictures of the buildings with cell phones.
No. Not people.
Women.
Lots and lots of women.
“Lance was right, wasn’t he?” Alex stood on Sam’s other side, the painted tips of her fingers holding the slats of the blinds wide as she squinted through them. “It’s almost all women.”
Sam straightened, stepping back and smoothing down the front of her apron with one hand before her fingers went to the cropped bangs of her hair, smoothing the pixied strands to one side.
Danny gave her a small smile as she reached out to adjust the pieces in front of one of Sam’s ears.
“It really does look pretty on you.”
Sam’s eyes dropped. “Thank you.” She sucked in a deep breath, her gaze coming back up as her shoulder and spine straightened. “Are we ready?”
Danny smiled.
Sam was so damn strong. Nothing could break her. Not ever.
Including the man who’d been trying for years to accomplish it.
That was why their father really wanted them. Not because they were special.
They were.
Not because they were unusually attractive.
Unfortunately they were that too.
Nope. Mehir wanted them because he intended to prove he controlled everything in his world.
That he was more powerful than they were.
He was wrong.
And it was his own fault.
He’d made them what they were. Shoved the sisters into a bond that nothing could break. Not time. Not distance.
Not differing opinions.
Nothing.
Together they would find James. Bring her home.
And finish what their father started.
EPILOGUE
“CLOSE YOUR EYES.” Jude’s voice was filled with excitement as he stayed glued to her side. “Don’t peek.”
“She won’t peek, Buddy. Your momma likes surprises.” Craig’s hand rested on the small of Danny’s back, solid and steady.
“Ready?” Jude was bouncing, his hand in hers bobbing with each hop.
“I’m ready.” She smiled. “Can I open my eyes now?”
“Yes.” Jude jumped in front of her, arms spread wide. “Ta-da!”
The table behind him was set with a huge vase of flowers in the center. Balloons were tied to the clear glass and floated far enough above they wouldn’t be in the way during breakfast.
“I love it!” Danny grabbed Jude’s face with her hands and planted a kiss on his forehead. “This is perfect.”
Jude beamed at her. “They’re your favorites.”
Danny’s gaze lifted over his head, this time actually looking at the blooms. Tulips, lilac, and hydrangeas filled the arrangement.
“They are.” Her eyes went back to the boy in front of her. “How did you know that?”
“You say it all the time.”
“It’s a smart move.” Craig’s attention was on her son. “That way we always know what to do to make her happy.”
Danny (Big Northwest Book 1) Page 25