Badlands Beware

by Nicole Helm

  Tucker didn’t recognize him—not that he’d recognize every Sons goon. Still, there was something different about him. About the way he dressed and held himself, as though he wasn’t quite used to the rough terrain.

  Sons members were too local, too used to living in the elements and outside of society. This man didn’t even have a knife on him. Just the high-powered gun, some zip ties, the phone and a tiny bottle of something Tucker assumed was a knockout drug.

  All the tools for kidnapping.

  Tucker’s stomach roiled, but he didn’t let it show. He sneered down at the man.

  “I assume you’re with Vianni.”

  The man spit at him.

  Tucker didn’t flinch, didn’t jump away, as the spit missed him entirely. He kept his sole focus on the assailant. “Who are you here for?”

  “Not you.”

  “I guess I could just leave you here, all tied up, and never let anyone know.” Tucker looked up at the sky. “Might be fall, but sunny day like this? Going to get pretty hot.”

  “Bud, so much worse is coming for you if you don’t let me go. I don’t even care what you do.”

  Tucker leaned in, smiled. “Oh, you’re going to care.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The gunshots had Rachel pulling out her phone. She was afraid to speak too loudly, but her phone was having trouble picking up her voice with her shaky whisper. “Call Cody,” she finally said with enough force.

  “Rachel? Where are you?”

  There was a sharp command in his voice that calmed her. Because he would know what to do when she didn’t.

  “I’m in the stables at our ranch. Tucker saw someone and went after them. There’s been gunshots. I know you’re in Bonesteel—”

  “I’m going to get off the line and call Brady. He’s right next door.”

  “No! Listen. I mean, you can call Brady, but you have to know North Star is mixed up in this somehow. They have Dad. Tucker was working for them. Then this woman helped us—helped me not get taken by North Star and... I don’t understand what’s going on.”

  There was a brief pause. “I’m calling Brady to help Tuck. As for North Star...” Another pause that had Rachel holding her breath. “The woman? Was her name Shay?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. You stay put. I’ll get back to you on the North Star thing.” The connection clicked off and Rachel slipped her phone back into her pocket. Sure, Brady could maybe take care of things, but he was hurt, too. Likely Dev was out in the pasture somewhere with Sarah.

  Would they have heard the gunshots? Surely, they’d have had to. Wouldn’t they come running? Call their own reinforcements?

  She couldn’t just stand here, though. Tuck could have been the one shot.

  She heard the door creak open and she pressed herself against the corner.

  “Rach?”

  “Tuck.” She raced forward too quickly and tripped, but arms grabbed her before she could fall face-first. She was too relieved he was okay to be embarrassed. She held on to him as he helped her back to her feet. “You’re okay.”

  “Yeah. We have to get out of here.”

  “No, it’s okay. I phoned Cody. He was calling Brady and figuring out the North Star thing and—”

  “What did you do that for?” he demanded, his voice sharp and unforgiving. He released her and she stood in the middle of the stable, feeling unaccountably chastened.

  “What do you mean, what did I do that for? A man was out there. I heard gunshots. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Just hide here like I told you to.”

  “You don’t get to boss me around, Tuck. Certainly not when there are guns going off. We agreed to talk to Cody about—”

  “About where your dad might be. Not drag my brothers into a lethal situation.”

  “Why not? You got dragged into Brady’s thing. Brady was dragged into Felicity’s. It’s what we do. Get dragged into each other’s dangerous run-ins. And it always goes a little better with help, doesn’t it?”

  He was silent.

  “Besides, it’s too late. Cody is calling Brady and he’s going to look into the North Star thing. He knows Shay.”

  “Well, he used to work for them.”

  “But he knew who she was even before I said her name.”

  “Sit tight,” Tucker said, like he was about to leave her alone again. Oh, no. Not going to happen. She lunged forward and managed to grab his shirt.

  “You will stop this right now.” He tried to tug her hand off his shirt, but she only held on tighter. “I don’t know what the damn key unlocks, Tucker. I don’t understand anything Dad said in that letter. Now there’s a man after us. Don’t brush me off. Don’t tell me to sit tight, and don’t act like a child because we need help. I can’t even do the one thing Dad seems to think I can.” Emotion rose up in her throat, making her words squeak when it was the last thing she wanted. “If we need help, it’s because of me. Not you.”

  “Rach.” Instead of tugging her hand away again, he drew her close and smoothed a hand over her hair. “None of this is your fault.”

  Wouldn’t that be nice? She leaned into Tucker, wondering if she’d ever fully believe that when the letter had said she was the key. It helped that he’d said it, though. That he’d take the time to give her a hug.

  Someone cleared their throat from over by the door. “Uh, sorry to interrupt but I was just wondering if I should ask why there’s a guy in zip ties lying next to the creek?” Dev said.

  “What are you doing here?” Tucker demanded, releasing her abruptly.

  “What am I doing here? You know how sound travels, right? Gunshots ring out while I’m tending to my cattle, and I’m left figuring out who the hell is shooting things. I sent Sarah over to Grandma’s to round up help.”

  “Tucker’s being very childish about help.”

  Dev made a sound that might have been a laugh, if he wasn’t perpetually grumpy Dev who almost never laughed. At least not without a sarcastic edge. “Yeah, we Wyatts get that way sometimes. Should I leave the guy where he is?”

  “Yes,” Tucker said.

  “And there aren’t others?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Who is he?” Rachel demanded.

  There was a pause and Rachel didn’t have to see to know something passed between brothers.

  “I guess I’ll go head over and stop Sarah and Brady and whoever else off at the pass.”

  “Have Brady call local police—ones he’d trust to keep it as quiet as possible—to pick up the guy.”

  Dev didn’t say anything to that, but she heard him retreating so she assumed it was some kind of assent.

  “What exactly are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to follow the original plan. Sort of. The next step is getting Cody to see what he might be able to tell us about North Star and Duke, but I want to keep the rest of the family out of it as much as we can. Not because I need to do this on my own, but because the more people we drag into this, the more targets they have. The wider it gets, the harder it is to fight.”

  She supposed that made sense. A gunman had been waiting on the ranch. What if Sarah had happened to drive by on her way to town? Or what if Dev had come that way instead of across the pasture where Knight land butted up against Reaves land?

  If she and Tucker went off on their own, maybe they’d be able to keep the focus on them, not their families.

  “So, we’re heading to Bonesteel on Buttercup?”

  “Not exactly. The guy has to have a car around here somewhere. And it just so happens, I grabbed his keys.”

  * * *

  TUCKER LED RACHEL toward the front gate. He imagined Vianni’s man had hidden the car somewhere on the gravel road. There weren’t very many places to hide a car, so it should be easy enough to find.


  “It still doesn’t make sense,” Rachel said, one arm hooked with his as he helped her walk. Though this ground was a little more familiar than not, she didn’t spend a lot of time walking this far past the main buildings.

  “What doesn’t?”

  “Dad’s note. I’ve gone over and over my dream. There’s never been anything about a key. Or a lock. Not in old dreams and not in the new ones. Dad wouldn’t even know about the new ones. I never mentioned it to anyone until you. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I don’t think he knew I still had the nightmares. I didn’t tell him. I didn’t wake up screaming. For all he knew, they went away.”

  It made Tucker’s chest ache that she’d continued to be tormented by the dreams and hadn’t told Duke, or anyone else. Just dealt with them. As they slowly morphed into something real.

  “What else could it be?”

  She shook her head as they walked. “I don’t know, but we’ve only focused on my dream. Maybe it’s something else...”

  “Okay, so the note said you know the key and the lock. We’ve been focusing on the key, since we found that. Maybe we should think about locks. Are there any locks in your dream?”

  She shook her head. “No keys. No locks. Nothing even symbolic of a key or a lock.”

  “So let’s think about Duke. Do you remember anything about keys and locks you specifically associate with him?”

  They reached the gate and Tucker looked down the gravel lane. He wanted to get out of here before the police arrived. Avoid answering any questions they’d have so he and Rachel could move on to the next step.

  He wasn’t looking forward to bringing Cody into this, but there didn’t seem to be another option. Brady was involved now. Dev as well, to an extent.

  It ate at him that he’d failed so spectacularly at keeping them out of it. He’d wanted to let them heal and protect their families and instead...

  “Wait.” Rachel stopped abruptly. “Key and lock. It wouldn’t have to be...literal, would it?”

  “I mean, we have a key. That’s pretty literal.”

  “Or it’s not. It’s not about the dream. It’s not about the key. It’s about Dad. Take me to the cemetery.”

  “I’m sorry...what?”

  “The cemetery. Where Mom’s buried. It’s not far from here. Dad always said... Mom was the key to his lock. Like, always. It was one of his favorite sayings before she died. He doesn’t say it much anymore. But he used to. Key and lock.”

  “Okay,” Tucker said gently. “But...”

  “Maybe it’s nothing. I know it sounds crazy. But Dad wrote that letter and it says, Rachel knows the key and the lock. Well, if he’s the lock—she’s the key.”

  Tucker couldn’t imagine what might be hiding at the cemetery, let alone at Eva Knight’s grave, but it was hard to refuse her request. Even knowing it was beyond a long shot.

  “We have to find the car first.” He opened the gate and led Rachel through. The Knight ranch was the last turn off on the gravel road. If Tucker had been trying to hide a car, he’d have gone past the gate, then tried to hide the car in a ditch.

  They walked down the side, Tucker keeping an eye and ear out for any cars that might be coming.

  Just as he’d predicted, he found the car just a ways down, half in a ditch. You’d only see it if you passed the gate and likely their little spy had been counting on no one going that far.

  Tucker helped Rachel into the car, then slid into the driver’s seat himself, adjusting the seat. It smelled a little too much like cigarettes and cheap cologne, so he rolled down the windows.

  Keeping his eye out for a police cruiser, he took the backroads to the cemetery where Eva Knight was buried. The parking lot was empty, which was good. “We can’t spend too much time here.”

  “I know. I just need to... I don’t know. If she’s the key...”

  “I get it.” He thought it was too symbolic and metaphorical, but she had to look. Hell, even he had to look or he’d wonder if he’d missed something. He got out of the car, then went over to Rachel’s side and helped her out, leading her through the archway of the cemetery entrance.

  He didn’t have to lead her any farther than that. She’d clearly been here plenty, since she walked around the other graves with unerring accuracy, before stopping in front of her mother’s.

  Eva Knight. Loving wife and mother to all her girls. 1970–2006.

  She’d been more than that little epitaph. She’d been the only calm, gentle presence across the Knight and Wyatt ranches. Until Rachel had taken on that mantle, and maybe Tucker had tried to be some of that as much as he could.

  “I miss her,” Rachel said softly.

  “Me too.” Missed her, and felt suddenly ashamed he’d let Rachel get so involved in this. Eva would have expected him to keep her safe. Keep all the girls safe. “She’d want you to be safe. At home.”

  “No. No, she wouldn’t.” Rachel smiled at him, and though there were tears in her eyes, they didn’t fall. “She wanted everyone to treat me like an equal. Even if it hadn’t been for the blindness, I was their only biological daughter and she never wanted the other girls to feel less. She was careful. So careful to treat me like everyone else. To give me the same responsibilities and expectations. Honestly, I think that’s why... Well, Dad and Sarah, they kind of treat me like a maid. They don’t mean to. It’s just, I was always supposed to pull my weight. Mom wanted me on equal footing.” She took a deep shaky breath. “I am on equal footing. Maybe you have the eyes and the police skills, but I know the key and the lock. What do you see?”

  “Just the grave. Just the grass around it. There are some flowers in the holder.”

  “Fresh?”

  “Yeah, they’re drooping a bit. Maybe been here a few days, but fresh enough.”

  “So, Dad’s been here recently. Before he left.”

  “It could have been one of your sisters.”

  She shook her head. “No. They always tell me if they’re going so I can go, too. It had to be Dad. And it was in the last few days. The key has to be here.”

  Tucker didn’t remind her that technically they had a key, and they were essentially just searching for a lock. Still, he would do it for her because... Well, his leads were nonexistent. He went around the grave, looking for anything. He even pulled out the flowers and looked into the water holder. He laid his hands over the stone, and it was only as he moved his palm over the side of the grave that he felt something odd under his foot.

  Unsure, he stood. “Wait. This is...” Tucker toed the grass with his boot. A whole section of it moved, like a square of sod had been placed down over dirt. Coincidence, no doubt. Still he let go of Rachel and crouched down. He pulled up the square of sod. Underneath was freshly unpacked dirt. Tucker poked his finger into it. Not far beneath the crumbles of dirt was something hard.

  “What is it?” Rachel demanded.

  He began to dig in earnest. It was just a tiny metal tube, but it had a lid and Tucker screwed it off. He pulled out a slip of paper. It only had numbers on it, but it was clear what they were. “I found a piece of paper buried in the ground. There are numbers on it. It’s a combination. Like to a safe.”

  “The only safe I know of is...”

  “Grandma Pauline’s,” they finished together.

  Chapter Sixteen

  They drove to Reaves ranch in silence. Rachel felt a little raw as she always did after visiting her mother’s grave. She’d only been seven when Mom had died, but she had worked so hard to live up to that memory that it felt like her mom had been around longer.

  Which was nice.

  It was also strange that Tucker had said Eva would have expected him to keep her safe, and suddenly she understood her place in her family a little better. Mom had done her best to make her an equal for two very different reasons—biology and her blindness—and both
had worked. She was an independent, equal individual in her family.

  If she’d felt trapped before this all started, or scared her future was never going to change, maybe that was just normal adulthood stuff—not the result of her blindness.

  “What are we going to do?” Tucker muttered. “Just barge in and demand Grandma Pauline let us open her safe?”

  Rachel didn’t think he was actually asking her, but she answered anyway. “She knows something, Tuck. If this leads to her safe, Dad certainly didn’t hide it there without her knowing.”

  She could sense his frustration. She wasn’t sure exactly what it was toward, so she reached over and rested her hand on his arm. It was tense, and she imagined he was gripping the steering wheel hard enough to break it.

  “If Grandma hid something about this, you should be angry with her,” he told her.

  “I’ll save my anger for when I know what actually happened. You’re only angry because you’re scared.”

  “Scared?” he demanded.

  “Your brothers can take care of themselves, even if they’re injured or have kids to protect. You have a certain comfort in knowing they’re all law enforcement and know how to deal with these issues. But your grandmother?”

  “Raised the six of us, put the fear of God into Ace so he never came after her, and taught us all how to shoot way better than any law enforcement training. I’m not scared for her.”

  Rachel wasn’t so sure. Sometimes you could know someone was strong and good, like her father, and still worry something had changed. Or something had been there that you’d never known.

  She sighed as Tucker slowed the car. “How are we going to play this?”

  “We’re going to go in and tell her we’re going to open the safe.”

  “You’ve met your grandmother, right? You go in there demanding things, she’s going to knock you out with that wooden spoon.”

  Tucker didn’t say anything to that, so she opened the car door and slid out. “You let me handle it,” she said decisively. She closed the car door and started striding for the house. Tucker hadn’t parked in his normal spot, so once she reached the house she had to feel around for the door.