by Nicole Helm
He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Then again he hadn’t meant to sleep with Cecilia. But both had happened and left him feeling...settled. Instead of the scatterbrained panic, hopping from one problem to another, he felt clearheaded.
Guilt could seep in if he let it. That this was the wrong time and the wrong place and it was not precisely...right.
But it had felt right. Righter than most of the choices he’d made in the past year or so.
He had spent a lot of years in his life convincing himself that no one could understand him like his brothers did. They’d shared a kind of tragedy, something other people couldn’t imagine. Based on the way Cecilia had reacted to his explanation of his scars, she couldn’t imagine it either.
But she treated him like something other than the boy who’d spent his formative years in that gang. More than a piece of the Wyatt whole.
He yawned when his phone trilled again. He’d almost forgotten that’s what had woken him up in the first place. A repeated phone call when the world was still dark could mean nothing good. He grabbed his phone and saw Cody’s name on the screen.
He only got half of his brother’s name out before Cody was talking over him. “There’s been a fire at Duke’s. Everyone’s safe and fine, but it was set purposefully and in the middle of the night like this. It was meant to scare us.”
Any good feelings or relaxation seeped out of him. He tensed and disentangled himself from Cecilia, pushing into a seated position on the bed. “You’re sure everyone’s all right?”
“Thank God for Dev making the dogs stay with us at the Knights’. Cash was barking before I think the thing was even lit. I thought for sure it was a ploy to get us out, but nothing else happened. We’re all over at Grandma’s and we haven’t been able to find anyone on the property.”
“What is it?” Cecilia hissed from behind him.
He waved her off. “It’s got to be Elijah, though.”
“Seems the only option. Everyone is fine, so I’m not sure what his purpose was. They got around my security measures, but didn’t actually hurt anyone or take Mak? All these near misses seem...unlikely.”
“Yeah. Yeah, they do. Listen, I’ve got to explain it to Cecilia. Then we’ll go from there. Keep watch, though. Be careful. Anything else happens, keep us updated.”
“Same,” Cody said before Brady ended the call.
“What is it?” Cecilia demanded, before he’d fully pressed End. “Mak? Is it—”
He took her hands in his, trying to find his own calm and reason before he attempted to give her any. “Mak is fine. Everyone is fine. There’s been a fire at Duke’s house. Luckily, Dev had been making Sarah take care of his dogs and they—”
She immediately threw the sheets off and began to pick up her clothes. He could tell she regretted the sudden movements by the hiss of her breath, but she kept going. “We have to go. We have to go to them.”
“No. No, I don’t think so.” He got out of bed himself, slid his own boxers and shorts back on before crossing to her side of the bed where she was now fully dressed and looking at him furiously. “Sit down. Don’t hurt yourself. Listen.”
“Listen? Listen!” She waved her arms wildly, then winced. “They burn down Duke’s house—his house—at night which means even if they’re okay Duke and Sarah and oh, God, Brianna and Nina were staying there and Rachel, she—”
Brady stood in front of her and took her hands in his again. It was the only thing to keep her still, and when she tugged he squeezed hard enough to have her taking a sharp breath. “Another one,” he ordered. “Deep breath in, and then out.”
He didn’t expect her to listen, but she did. Still, when her gaze met his it was determined. Haunted. “We have to go. Now.”
“Cecilia, no. We can’t do that. This is what he wants from you. From us. Think.”
She wrenched her hands out of his, groaning out loud this time. “I don’t give a flying leap what he wants from me. He burns down my family’s home and thinks I’m going to what? What would you have me do, Brady? Sit here? No. I refuse. I don’t care what Elijah’s plans are.”
“You need to,” he said sharply. He didn’t like being sharp with her, not right now, so he softened his words by cupping her face with his hands. “We need to. Remember you’re not alone. Mak’s not alone. So, we have to work through that fear and not let it lead us. That’s what he wants. It’s what they always want. When fear wins, so do they.” He couldn’t let Elijah win ever, but now it seemed even more imperative to find an end. For all of them. So Cecilia could heal, so Duke could rebuild, so they could live...normally, if that was ever possible.
She rested her hands over his on her face. “But I am afraid, Brady,” she said in little more than a whisper.
He knew that was a great big hard admission for her, so he made his own. “I know. So am I. Fear is normal. We just can’t let it make the decisions. When you got Mak, you didn’t panic. You didn’t run right to me. You made plans. You were careful, and so far Mak is safe and sound. So that’s what we have to do.”
She sucked in a breath and nodded with it. “Okay, okay. Maybe you’re right. I knew... I knew I couldn’t just run with him or he’d be hurt. I had to think. I had to plan. So, yeah. That’s what we have to do. So... He set a fire—”
“That didn’t hurt anyone. It’s important to remember that. Everyone is fine. He set a fire to lure us home. To scare us home. I believe that. Don’t you?”
She didn’t answer right away. He could tell she gave herself the time and space to really think it over. “Yeah. He’s tired of sending his goons after us and failing. He’s setting a trap.”
“We can’t fall for it. We need to do the opposite of what he’ll expect. I think...” He sighed heavily. This changed things. There was no escaping what he’d hoped to avoid. “You were right. We need to go into Sons territory. He doesn’t think we will, which means we’ll have the element of surprise. We need to take him off guard. It’s the only way we win.”
She searched his face, as if looking for doubt or that earlier reticence. She didn’t find it. He wouldn’t let her.
She nodded once. “All right. Let’s pack.”
* * *
BRADY EXPLAINED TO her where the fishing cabin was located, and that it wasn’t that far from the Sons’ current camp on the east side of the Badlands. They were going to have to be strategic about where and how they entered the area, but getting there wouldn’t be too long of a haul.
They’d both gotten a couple hours sleep, and that would have to tide them over for a while. She wanted to be in Sons territory by sunrise, but they’d have to hurry.
She didn’t let herself think about Mak, or her childhood home being on fire. She didn’t think of poor Nina and Cody having to get Brianna out, or what the confusion might have done to Rachel in worse circumstances. She couldn’t even begin to let herself think about what would have happened if the dogs hadn’t been there.
Her brain wanted to go in all those directions, but she couldn’t let it. She had to focus on Elijah. How to take him off guard. How to take him down before he did another thing to hurt or scare her family.
“I found a backpack,” Cecilia offered, coming into the bedroom where Brady was carefully counting first aid items and foodstuffs and the few camping supplies Grandma Pauline had thought to pack them. “We can both carry a pack now,” Cecilia said.
“You better fill yours with bandages and anything that can be used as bandages,” Brady muttered.
“I think we’ve got a lot bigger fish to fry than fussing over a few...” She trailed off at the look he gave her. It was a warning and a censure and yeah, a little hot. Since they didn’t have time for a repeat earlier performance she held up her hand. “Okay, the injuries are dangerous and we have to take them seriously.”
“You shouldn’t be hiking, camping or fighting off biker gang mem
bers at all. Nothing is going to heal. Something will get infected, and I promise you it’s not the picnic you seem to think.”
“I suppose not, but once we do all those things, and get Elijah arrested, you can lock me up and nurse me back to health in whatever ways you see fit.”
He snorted. “You wouldn’t agree to that in a million years.” He surveyed the items he’d spread out. “Your pack needs to be lighter. I don’t want you arguing over that. It’s because of the extent of your injuries, not because you can’t. Got it?”
She wanted to argue, just out of spite or pride, but both had to be left behind. Elijah had started a fire at Duke’s house, and even if he hadn’t hurt people, he’d made it clear he could.
That couldn’t continue.
She put the pack she’d found on the bed next to Brady’s, then let him divvy up the supplies as he saw fit. She didn’t let herself watch, because she would have argued.
“We’ll get as close as we can to Flynn in the truck. It’ll be a hike to get to the main camp.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think he’ll expect us here. Even if we never show up at the ranches, he won’t think we’ve come for him. He’ll think we’ve only run farther away. He won’t expect a direct attack. I don’t think he could.”
“No, I don’t think he could,” Brady agreed. “But, we have to be prepared if he does.” Brady stood back and examined both packs, now full. He scratched a hand through his hair. “This could easily be a suicide mission. Even if the Sons are weaker than they were, the fact they’re still inhabiting Flynn and not moving on to a new, smaller camp means they’re not falling apart, or even factioning off from what we can tell.”
“The camp wasn’t at Flynn when you were a kid.”
“No. Flynn is Ace’s origin story. It’s where he was abandoned. It’s his mecca, and it’s where he tried to make us all into Wyatt men.” Brady rolled his shoulders as if to physically move past those old, awful memories. “He built camp there this year to make his final stand...or something. Didn’t quite go as planned for him.”
“And if Elijah is Ace’s son, he might be the cohesive reason they’re not splitting off.”
Brady nodded grimly. “Exactly.”
He was being stoic. Planning and trying to figure the situation out, but the weight of what he would be facing hung over him. “I know this is hard for you.”
Brady shrugged that away. “Jamison did it. To save Gigi. I can do it.”
“The ability to do something and the toll it takes to do something aren’t the same.”
His gaze met hers over the bed. “If you’re trying to talk me out of something, you don’t know me very well.”
“Situation reversed, you’d do the same thing, only you’d tell me you were trying to protect me.”
“Is that what you’re trying to do?”
She shrugged much like he had. “Maybe.” It felt a little uncomfortable. After all, Brady was bigger, stronger and more versed in what the Sons could do than she was. It seemed kind of ludicrous, even with her law enforcement background, that she could protect him.
But the more she learned about his horrifying childhood, the more she wanted to at least shelter him from that.
“It won’t affect my ability to get this done.”
Cecilia frowned. Were all men this dense or only Wyatt men? “Maybe I was worried about something else.”
“Like what?”
“Like your feelings, Brady.”
His eyebrows drew together like he didn’t understand how that could possibly be a concern.
Which irritated her enough to say something she’d planned to keep to herself. “When you care about someone, you care a little if they have to relive their childhood trauma.”
He stared at her for a minute before skirting the bed. She wanted to run away. To forget they’d ever had a conversation about anything. There were far bigger problems than feelings.
But he came right up to her and touched her cheek. “I’d relive a hundred childhood traumas for that innocent baby. For my brothers. For the Knights. For a lot of people.”
Outrage and hurt chased around inside of her chest, leaving her unable to speak or move. He’d do it for anyone. Fine and dandy.
“It would be my duty, no question. But I’m doing this not just as a duty, Cecilia. Not just because you’d do it without me or because God knows you need someone making sure you take as much care of those injuries as possible.”
His fingers traced her jaw, causing a shiver to snake through her even as she tried to stand tall and unmoved. He had just told her he’d do this for anyone, as if that wasn’t some kind of warped slap in the face.
“I love my brothers with everything I am, but because of how we grew up there...we have to protect each other. Have to. I’m sure we’ve all felt a certain level of protectiveness for you girls, but it’s not the same. Early on I had to accept I can’t save or protect everyone.”
“What is your point, Brady?” she muttered, wishing she had the wherewithal to pull away from his hand gently caressing her cheek.
“The point is there’s no obligation here. Not really. I could convince myself I don’t need to help you but that would be denial. Because in the end, for whatever reason, I want to be by your side for your fights, and I want you by my side for mine. Not blood, not obligation, not shared crappy history, but because you’re the person I need. Because there’s something here. I wouldn’t say I would have chosen that, but there’s no turning back now.”
Cecilia didn’t often find herself speechless, but that just about did it. Words were not her forte, more so, she didn’t think they were particularly Brady’s forte. But he’d laid it all out. Honesty complete with uncertainty of how or why, but a certainty it existed.
And he was still touching her face, watching her like there was anything she could say.
She cleared her throat. “When this is over...” She didn’t know what she was trying to say. Or maybe she did and just didn’t want to admit it to herself. The words stuck in her scratchy throat anyway.
Brady pressed a kiss to her forehead, briefly rested his cheek on the top of her head. “Let’s get it over, first.”
Which somehow wasn’t the answer she wanted. Or the reassurance. “Just know, if you take it all back, I’ll kick your butt to Antarctica and tell your family you’re a turd.”
A smile tugged at his lips despite the pressing, dangerous circumstances. “Deal.”
Chapter Sixteen
Brady did best with a specific goal in mind. The goal was to get to Elijah before they were expected. If he focused on that goal, he didn’t think about how close he was to stepping into his own personal hellscape, or that Cecilia was seriously compromised by her injuries.
It was still dark when they reached as close to the Sons camp as he dared go by truck. The sky to the east hinted at the faint glow of dawn, but the stars still shone brilliantly above the inky dark of the shadowy Badlands.
It was beautiful and stark and it had Brady’s chest tightening in a vise. His father had believed this land had anointed him some kind of god, and so Brady had never had any deep, abiding love for it.
But he remained, didn’t he? He could have moved. He could have left South Dakota altogether, but he still lived just a quick drive from the place where all his nightmares had been born.
He wasn’t sure what that said about him, and knew he didn’t have time to figure it out now.
“Jamison and Liza did their best to give me an idea of the different areas of camp. Liza wasn’t familiar with Elijah—not as a member, or a high-ranking official.”
“What about as Ace’s potential son?” Cecilia asked.
Brady shook his head. “I didn’t bring it up, but she would have told Jamison if she’d heard anything like that.”
“And you think Jamison would tell you?”
“Maybe not before, but knowing Elijah is after Mak and we’re after Elijah? Yeah. He would. He’d have to.”
“So, we have an idea of how the camp is laid out. Any idea where we find Elijah in it?”
“Depends. What Liza described to me isn’t all that different than the camps when I was a kid. Different location, but same basic tenants. There were a few more permanent residences than the Sons are used to, but those were blown up a few months ago by North Star.”
Cody had been part of North Star, a secretive group working to take down the Sons of the Badlands, and had delivered the first devastating blow to the Sons by taking out some of their higher-ranking members and arresting Ace, but still the Sons continued to exist, and cause harm.
Brady considered what he knew about the gang both from growing up within its confines, his work as a police officer, and what Liza had told him during their phone call.
“My guess is they constricted. Got closer together. That’ll help. But I don’t know where Elijah fits in the hierarchy. Ace was still in charge when Liza was there.”
“He has men he can send after us. Doesn’t that put him high up?”
“I think so. The guy with the gun yesterday—I recognized him. Not by name, but I remember that face. He’s not just Elijah’s man, he’s been a Sons member for a while. Elijah has to be some kind of leader to have veteran members doing his bidding.”
“Unless it’s a coup. Maybe he’s trying to overthrow Ace? He’s recruited men in the Sons like he recruited some kids from the rez?”
“Could be. One thing we know is that with Ace in jail, the foundations of the Sons have been shaky. Cody overheard them talking about power vacuums a few months ago.”
“Maybe Elijah filled it.”
“Maybe.” Brady took a deep breath. “It’s the hypothesis I’m going to work off of, and it just so happens I know where the powerful men of the Sons congregate.”
She shifted in the seat. They were sitting in the dark so he couldn’t see her face, but he didn’t really want to. He didn’t like to be reminded of his father’s former standing in the Sons. He didn’t imagine other people found it very comfortable either.