by Nicole Helm
Brady twisted in his seat, though it hurt his shoulder, and gave Gigi a big grin. “Gigi, you’re a star.”
She beamed at him. “I like pretending. And I like Mak. We’re going to keep him away from the bad men.”
“Yes, we are.” He turned back to face forward. From inside the truck he could do a better scan. Still no one. He blew out a breath, warning himself not to relax. There was a lot that could go wrong yet.
But one hurdle had been jumped.
Gigi entertained Mak in the back seat by talking and making faces. Mak happily gurgled and drooled back. Brady let himself watch that, reminding himself that he wasn’t so much bringing Liza and Gigi into danger as letting them help an innocent child escape it.
They’d both crossed Ace, in a way, and so they were already living under that specter—no matter how many high-security prisons the man was put in.
Brady scanned the highway in front of them, then glanced in the rearview mirror. There was a lone Chevy truck. Something about it didn’t sit right with Brady.
“Speed up,” he ordered.
Liza raised an eyebrow, not taking her eyes off the road. “Tone, Brady.”
Brady didn’t have the patience to sweet-talk Liza. “Not crazy speed. Just enough so I can tell if this Chevy is pacing us.”
This time she didn’t make a snarky comment, she did as he asked. When the Chevy kept pace, Brady inwardly swore. He kept that emotion out of his voice when he spoke. “We have a tail.”
“That doesn’t mean he knows we have Mak,” Liza said calmly, reaching across the console and resting her hand on his arm. “In fact, if we can convince him we don’t, all the better.”
Brady flicked a glance at Mak in the car seat. Gigi had reached across the space between their car seats and was holding his squirming baby hand in hers.
“Then I guess that’s what we have to do.”
* * *
CECILIA DROVE OFF the reservation, watching her rearview mirror. She hadn’t spotted a tail yet, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be one. Surely Elijah or his “buddies” hadn’t simply stopped following her because she’d left the rez.
But she made it miles and miles down the mostly empty highway. If she saw a car, it usually passed her or was headed in the opposite direction. Cecilia knew she should relax as mile by mile they continued without being followed.
But she couldn’t seem to let her guard down. Elijah wouldn’t give up that easily, which meant he had something else up his sleeve.
If they made it home, she’d have help. Support. She didn’t want to bring her family into this, but her family was already in danger. She might have felt guilty for getting involved in the first place, but all she could think of was Layla lost in the dark cloud that had become her life.
She’d begged for help. Begged for a chance to be a mother to her child.
There was no way Cecilia could have turned away from that, even to protect her family. And she knew, because of how her family was made up, because of what they’d been through, there was no way her family would have wanted her to turn away from Layla.
They’d want to be part of the fight too. So many of them had been impacted by the Sons. The Knights were not the kind to turn away from the dangerous just to save their own skin. The Wyatts even less so.
Thinking of it made Cecilia feel a little teary, so she focused on the road. On getting home.
When they weren’t too far away from the turn off the highway to head toward home, both her and Rachel’s phones chimed in unison.
Rachel sighed as she dug her phone out of her purse. “I really hate simultaneous texts. They’re never good.” She hit the button for her phone to read her text to her.
From: Gage Wyatt
Knight-Wyatt dinner at Grandma Pauline’s. Everyone mandatory.
“Do they have to be so bossy?” Cecilia muttered. Then she frowned. “Brady can’t go.” How was he going to get out of “everyone mandatory”? Or would he try to bring Mak to the ranch? Surely not.
“Why can’t Brady go and why do you know that?”
Cecilia didn’t want to explain the whole thing yet. She only wanted to go through it once, hear all the disapproval once. And there was going to be some serious disapproval. “We’ll get to that. Just text him that we’re already on our way.”
Rachel used her voice-to-text to send the reply.
Cecilia signaled the turn onto the gravel road that would lead them to the Reaves Ranch, Grandma Pauline’s spread.
Instead of making an easy turn, Cecilia heard a faint pop, then the car rumbled and the steering wheel jerked. Cecilia almost lost her grip, but managed to tighten her hold at the last second. She braked a little too hard, fishtailing and tipping precariously into the gravel.
She managed to wrestle the truck to a stop, and quickly braked. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but that pop she’d heard had sounded like a gunshot to her.
“Stay put,” Cecilia ordered, heart hammering in her chest. Still, her voice was calm and authoritative.
She slid out of the driver’s side, pulling the gun out of its holster but holding it behind her as she eyed the area. A big truck slowed to a stop on the highway a few yards away from where she stood.
She kept the gun out of sight as the driver leaned out of the window. “Need some help?” The man offered a pleasant enough smile. Cecilia was also certain she’d seen this same exact man come out of Layla’s house with Elijah. It had been a long time ago, probably a year or two, but Cecilia rarely forgot a face. Especially one that ugly.
She fixed a grateful smile on her lips. “Oh, wow. That would be so great! I’ve got a spare in the back, but changing a tire can be such a pain.”
The man smirked and shoved his truck into Park. It looked like there was potentially another passenger in the vehicle, but hiding. Cecilia pretended like she didn’t notice. He slid out of the truck and there was a gun in his hand as a sleazy grin spread across his face.
Cecilia didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate. She kicked straight out, landing the blow on the gun itself and knocking it out of the man’s hands. She pivoted quickly, landing an elbow against his jaw. A nasty cracking sound whipped through the air and blood spattered.
Cecilia didn’t have time to wince, she had to duck the returning blow. She didn’t duck low enough and it clipped her head. Which probably hurt his hand more than her skull, all in all. But the satisfaction of missing most of that blow knocked her off-balance for the next, which hit her right in the cheekbone.
Pain flashed behind her eyes, but she could hear someone approaching. She didn’t have time to even suck in a breath. She landed a knee to the man’s groin and he let out a wheezing breath as he fumbled. She whirled to face the man, gun at the ready.
He had his own, so she shot, aiming for the arm so he’d drop the gun, ideally before getting off his own shot. She wanted both of them alive. They might have useful information after all, but if either of them went for Rachel, she’d shoot to kill.
The man howled and dropped his gun as the bullet hit him in the forearm. Blood gushed and he grabbed his arm and screamed.
The other man was crawling toward the dropped gun, still wheezing, but Cecilia quickly scooped it up off the ground. She held one gun on each man and eyed them with disgust.
“Elijah sent you.”
“He’ll keep sending more,” the man she’d cracked in the jaw replied with a bloody smile.
“And I’ll keep kicking their asses,” Cecilia replied with a shrug. “Rach?”
“I already called Gage,” Rachel said. Apparently she’d gotten out of the truck during the fight, but Cecilia had been concentrating too hard on the men to notice. “He’s not on duty, but he called dispatch for us.”
The faint sound of sirens wailed in the distance, a sign that help was on its way. “Guess you boys are headed
to jail,” Cecilia said with a smile. “Anything you want to tell me about your buddy?”
The one she’d shot had stopped screaming, but he looked at her with cold eyes as he gripped his bleeding arm. “He’s going to get you. He’s going to make you pay. He’ll only kill you if you’re lucky.”
A cold shiver went through Cecilia, but she didn’t let it show outwardly. “He’s going to try all those things, and he’s going to fail. Just like you.”
She tried to believe her own words, but the cold chill remained as she waited for backup.
Chapter Six
Brady paced the living room at Grandma Pauline’s, Mak snuggled into his good arm. The boy cried if he tried to put him anywhere else or give him to anyone else. As it was, he wasn’t sleeping. He was simply looking up at Brady with big brown eyes, a serious expression on his little face.
Brady didn’t know what to do with that, or Gage currently coordinating officers to arrest the men who’d attacked Cecilia.
Brady didn’t know if it was the same men who’d tailed him and Liza yet, but his tail hadn’t approached them. They’d kept driving when Liza had turned off onto the gravel road to Grandma Pauline’s.
Gage strode into the room, and Brady didn’t even let him speak before he was peppering him with questions.
“Make and model?”
Gage’s expression was grave. “Same as yours. They must have backtracked and waited for Cecilia and Rach.”
Brady swore.
“It might not be such a bad thing.”
At Brady’s glare, Gage held up his hands. “You—the guy with the baby they’re looking for—were deemed not as important. That means they don’t know where Mak is.”
“I don’t think Cecilia and Rach being a target is a good thing.”
“I didn’t say that. I said it’s not such a bad thing, because it means they don’t know where the baby is. Based on the condition of the two men that tried to ambush Cecilia, I don’t think we need to worry too much about her safety.”
Brady grunted. He knew Cecilia could take care of herself. She was a fine cop, even if he didn’t always agree with her methods. But it only took one second to be taken down. Since he was currently the one with a gunshot wound that wouldn’t heal, he thought he had some perspective on the matter.
But it wouldn’t do to argue with Gage over it.
“You want me to take him for a bit?”
Brady gave a shrug. “Seems to be happy here. Where are Cecilia and Rachel?”
“Should be any minute. Just finishing up giving their statements.” As if on cue, they heard a commotion in the kitchen. Both men moved toward it.
Mak began to squirm in Brady’s arms as he registered Cecilia’s voice. Still, Brady stopped cold when he saw her.
Grandma Pauline was bustling around her while Duke Knight demanded to know what was going on. Sarah and Liza helped Grandma gather ice and towels, Tuck led Rachel to the table where Dev was already sitting with Felicity. Wyatt boys and Knight girls—men and women now—always working together to help each other.
“Well. Have that seat, right there.” Grandma Pauline motioned to Cecilia, pulling an empty chair out from the table.
“I’m fine,” Cecilia said, but she was already moving for the chair because God knew you didn’t argue with Grandma Pauline.
Her eye was swollen. Blood was spattered across her shirt, but it didn’t look like it was hers. When Gage had told him there’d been an incident, but Cecilia had taken care of it, Brady didn’t realize “incident” meant fight and “taken care of it” meant gotten hurt in the process.
Something dark and vicious twisted inside of him. Brady couldn’t say he fully understood it. He’d felt similar when seeing what his father or the Sons had done to his brothers—but this had a sharper edge to it. Not just anger. Not just revenge. Something closer to vengeance than he’d ever felt.
“You hand that baby over now,” Grandma Pauline ordered Brady, already settling a bag of frozen peas over Cecilia’s eye. “Nothing better for a few bumps and bruises than holding a sweet little boy.”
It took everyone in the kitchen turning to stare at him to be able to move, to relax some of the fury on his face. To just...breathe. He met Cecilia’s confused gaze past the bag of peas Grandma Pauline held under her one eye.
He had a flash of that ill-fated New Year’s Eve kiss. Where she’d been laughing at him, poking at him. She’d kissed him out of some kind of...dare inside of herself, he’d always been sure.
But something had changed when she’d pressed her lips to his. A seismic shift inside him. An opening up of something he’d wanted closed. Maybe that was the moment everything had started to unravel for him.
It was all her fault, he was sure of that. If only he could be sure of what was winding through him, tying him into knots.
Mak squirmed, started babbling somewhat intensely, breaking Brady from the moment. He looked down at the baby, then remembered what Grandma Pauline had told him to do. He moved to Cecilia’s chair and had to kneel down so he could shift Mak into Cecilia’s waiting arms. It required getting close, smelling her shampoo, brushing her arm.
Cecilia still looked at him, as if she could see into his thoughts. As if it shook her as deeply as it shook him.
He stepped away, shoved his hands into his pockets. He was losing it. Hallucinating due to lack of sleep. That was all.
That was all.
“I guess some of you need an introduction,” Cecilia said softly, looking down at Mak. She took a deep breath, gazing down at him. “I had wanted to wait for...”
The door open and Jamison walked in with Cody and Nina and their daughter, Brianna.
“...the Bonesteel contingent,” Cecilia finished.
If Brady wasn’t totally mistaken, she seemed a little deflated everyone had shown up so quickly. But there was no more putting it off.
“You explain your end, then I’ll explain mine,” Brady said. Maybe it came out more like an order, but he wasn’t feeling particularly genial or accommodating at the moment.
“Yours?” Cecilia asked, just enough acid in her tone to get his back up.
Brady’d kept one secret from his family, from Gage in particular, in his entire life. And it was this. Everything culminating with Cecilia needing his help.
Would he have ever told if she hadn’t? If her problem hadn’t connected to Elijah through this innocent child?
Would-haves didn’t matter, because this—what was in front of him—was all he had. “Yes, my thing. My connection to Elijah, and why I think we need to disappear.”
* * *
THE ENTIRE KITCHEN seemed to go supersonic. A cacophony of noises and arguments on top of arguments. Cecilia winced against the noise, then against the pain in her cheek.
Cecilia wouldn’t admit it out loud, but a few of the jerk’s blows had landed and left her feeling sore and achy. At least she’d taken the two guys out all on her own.
She had to admit, Grandma Pauline was close to being right. Mak in her arms didn’t take away the pain, but it certainly shifted the pain to something bearable under a curtain of calm.
Mak was safe. No matter what happened today, no matter what would happen after today, Mak was safe. Maybe she should have brought him to both families in the first place, but she wouldn’t beat herself up for what could have been.
He was here now, a large group of people ready and willing to fight for him.
Tucker had said, from his standpoint as detective, he thought the men she’d beaten up had followed Brady and Liza first. They’d given up on them and switched their gears for Cecilia and Rachel.
Which meant they didn’t know Mak had been in the car with Brady the whole time.
She couldn’t relax completely of course. Elijah would keep coming for her, and she was here now, which meant he or his men would be
soon enough. But Cody had all sorts of security on the Reaves Ranch.
This was the safest place.
And Brady wanted to disappear? No way.
A piercing whistle stopped the competing voices. Grandma Pauline scowled at all of them. “Now. How are we ever going to know what to be mad about if we don’t let them explain themselves? Boy—”
“Cecilia needs to go first,” Brady said.
Usually it amused Cecilia that Grandma Pauline still called any of the Wyatt brothers boys, when they hadn’t been that for a very long time. Even more amused that they answered to it without complaint.
But Cecilia couldn’t find the means to be amused right now. Mak was in her lap, happily squirming and talking to her in his own language. His dark eyes were wide, trusting.
And she knew without a shadow of a doubt she’d have to leave him again.
But first she had to explain Mak and her dilemma to all the Wyatts and all the Knights. Then she’d have to figure out how to disappear...and lead Elijah away.
Which was going to be quite the challenge with all these voices in her ears.
“Let’s start with the simple question,” Grandma Pauline said. “Who’s the boy?”
Cecilia explained who Mak was, and how she’d taken him to Brady because she thought he’d be protected there. “He was protected too. Elijah knows I took him, but he hasn’t figured out where. So, that’s our priority. Keep Mak a secret.”
“We’re all here. How much of a secret could it be?” Brady demanded.
There was a dark, edgy look in his demeanor that was so...not Brady. Brady was the even-keeled one who never lost his temper. When Dev or Cody raged, when Jamison got too high-handed, when Gage didn’t take things seriously enough and Tucker was too quiet, there was always Brady ready and willing to bring the disparate parts together to create a unit. There wasn’t a dark side to Brady.
She’d never thought.
But this was...uncomfortable. Like realizing you hadn’t known someone at all. He was fierce, angry, and just barely tethering his temper...all completely visible in his expression and his demeanor. It was like he’d become someone else altogether.
