Badlands Beware

by Nicole Helm

  “She didn’t sound like she was in it for the long run,” Rachel said. “She got us the note. Surely you can get in touch with her and give her the option of helping us.”

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  It was a woman’s voice, and Rachel could only assume it was Shay herself.

  “So, you’ll help us?” Rachel demanded.

  “Yeah, but you’re not going to like how.”

  * * *

  TUCKER HAD TO blink to make sure that was indeed Shay entering the room from where Nina and Brianna had disappeared earlier. “How...”

  “I figured you’d hit up Cody once you figured out Duke’s note. The weapon that did that, huh?” Shay said, nodding toward Rachel’s face.

  Tucker glared at Cody. “You didn’t tell me she was there,” he gritted out.

  “He didn’t know,” Shay said with a grin. “Nina’s the one who gave me the heads-up.”

  “I never should have let you two become friends,” Cody muttered. “You’ll get kicked out. This would be the last straw.”

  “I’ve been saying that for months now. Apparently, Granger loves me. Also, you didn’t let me become friends with your wife.”

  “What aren’t we going to like?” Tucker demanded, wanting to keep the focus on what needed to be done.

  “My brother do that?” Cody asked with some surprise as he noticed Shay’s bruised cheek.

  Shay shook her head. “He wouldn’t hit a woman,” she said as if that was a bad thing. “Rachel did it.”

  Cody let out a low whistle. “Nice work, Rach.”

  “Can we focus?” Tucker demanded.

  “So, all you Wyatts are wound that tight, eh?” Shay said to Cody, earning a frown from both Wyatts in question. “Duke’s not going to talk to me. Even if I said I was in cahoots with you. Why do you think that letter I smuggled out was in code? We need to get Rachel to him.”

  “Or we need to get Duke to Rachel.”

  Shay shook her head. She was still dressed all in black, but no mask or hat. Her blond hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she stood there, legs spread, arms folded across her chest like some kind of special ops soldier.

  In a way, Tucker supposed she was.

  “We’re not getting Duke out of there. It’s not possible unless they’re distracted by something they need more than Duke’s knowledge of the Viannis and the Sons.” Shay looked meaningfully at Rachel.

  Even though it didn’t change what she’d said, Tucker moved in between Shay and Rachel. “No.”

  “Don’t say no,” Rachel told him. “Not for me. You’ll tell me what you mean, and I’ll say no if I see fit.”

  “She wants to use you as bait,” Tucker said disgustedly.

  “And what’s wrong with that?” Rachel returned.

  He, of course, couldn’t answer that. What he thought was wrong with that wouldn’t be appreciated.

  “How would we do it?” Rachel asked calmly.

  Tucker didn’t know how she could be calm. Maybe because she hadn’t actually seen that knife that had been used to take away her eyesight, sitting there grotesquely in a box. Maybe because she didn’t fully grasp what the Sons could do on their own, let alone with another dangerous group of criminals.

  Or maybe she was calm because she lived that night over and over again in her dreams and she had no control over that. This...she felt like she could act on.

  How could he not support that?

  “I take you to headquarters,” Shay began. “I’ll say I tracked you down and convinced you to ditch Tucker. You’ll say you want to help your father in whatever way you can. Which is all true.”

  “Except it’s sending her into the lion’s den.”

  “Only one, and the less dangerous of the three,” Shay returned. “While they’re focused on getting information from Rachel, it’ll give me a chance to slip out and grab Tucker. We’ll work together to get Duke out.”

  “Except Rachel is stuck in there then.”

  “It might not matter,” Rachel said. “Depending on what the full truth is.”

  “No, it’ll matter,” Shay corrected. “The whole point of me going against the group I’ve dedicated six years of my life to is to help keep you and your father from being caught in a crossfire that’s got nothing to do with you, and only a little to do with your father. Tucker will take Duke. I’ll go back in and get Rachel.”

  “It’ll be your last hurrah. You take people out of North Star custody, no amount of Granger liking you keeps you in North Star,” Cody said gravely.

  “I’m okay with that. I wasn’t at first. But this whole thing... It’s been different since you left, Cody. Since Ace has been in jail. It should have made it easier, but we’re going at it harder and caring less and less who gets caught in the middle. I won’t be party to it any longer.”

  “All right, what do you need from me?” Cody asked.

  Cody and Shay discussed some technical stuff to do with the North Star security systems and Tucker turned to Rachel. She had her chin set stubbornly. It was stupid to try to convince her to back out of this, but...

  “You’re risking your life. I want you to understand that.”

  “Duke already risked it,” Rachel replied. “Risked Sarah and me, all of us. Didn’t he? By going with them.”

  “North Star brought me in because he wanted you protected. I was there to make sure you weren’t brought into the thick of things.”

  “Maybe, but we’re here. In the thick of things. I won’t be swept into a corner. Maybe what we found in the safe hurts my feelings. It...hurts. Even if my father has a good reason, to know that’s there is painful. But you were the one who told me it doesn’t change the fact he’s a good man who’s always been a good father. He loved my mother. He loved me and my sisters. He raised us when she died, and all the while...” She blew out a breath. “You’ve all lived with terrible things. Now, I’m living with mine. I won’t back down. You wouldn’t. None of my sisters would. None of your brothers would, and I know my father wouldn’t. So. Why should you expect me to?”

  “It’s not that I expect you to, Rach. It’s that I care about you and I want you to be safe.” Which he would have said before kissing her. Of course, he cared about her—about all the Knights. But it felt heavier in his chest, even in this kitchen with his brother and a North Star operative a few feet away.

  She reached out and he took her hand. She squeezed it and smiled at him. “We’re all doing this because we care about each other.”

  Which wasn’t exactly what he’d meant or felt. He’d meant her in a very uncomfortably specific way.

  “It’s a risk, but it’s not like I’m walking into Sons territory. I’m walking into a group who wants to take down two very bad groups of people. It’s the lowest risk I could take. You’re taking a bigger one trying to get Dad out.” Her hand slid up his arm, shoulder, until her palm cupped his cheek. “So, we both have to support each other taking risks to end all this danger. I’d like to have my life back. I’m sorry I ever wanted something different. It was perfectly nice. Well, mostly.” Her thumb moved across his jaw, then she dropped her hand as if she remembered there were other people in the room.

  “We should move immediately, right?” she asked.

  “Right,” Shay agreed. She gave Tucker a considering look but crossed to Rachel. “I’m going to give you a panic button of sorts. It’s tiny and easy to lose, so I’m going to sew it into the sleeve of your shirt. Okay?”

  Rachel nodded and held out her arm to Shay. Shay worked on sewing the tiny button into the inside of Rachel’s sleeve, and Tucker was not at all surprised his brother pulled him away from Rachel and into the hallway.

  “It’s not really going to go down like this.”

  “What isn’t?” Tucker muttered.

  “You and Rachel? Don’t think
I didn’t notice that little moment. That’s five for five.”

  Tucker shrugged uncomfortably. “It’s not like that...exactly.”

  “Yeah, exactly.” Then Cody laughed. Loud and hard. “Jesus. Dev and Sarah.”

  “Not in a million years,” Tucker said, managing a small laugh of his own. “They’d eat each other alive first.”

  Cody shook his head. “Don’t bet against it.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Rachel did her best not to act nervous. She knew Tucker didn’t approve of this plan, but he was going through with it because of her.

  So she had to be brave. She had to be sure. Too bad she was wholly terrified.

  Shay had sewn a panic button into her shirt, instructing her that it had to be pressed three times to send a signal. Which would go to Cody, who would no doubt send the whole Wyatt clan after her.

  After her, because she was going to be the distraction. The bait. She was going to walk into North Star and demand to see her father.

  Shay warned her they wouldn’t let that happen. That they’d likely put her in an interrogation room, holding the carrot of seeing her father over her head until she answered all their questions.

  She was supposed to refuse. Give them bits and pieces to keep their attention, but mostly be difficult, and lie if necessary. So that all eyes were on her while Shay and Tucker snuck in to get Duke out.

  It was a lot of pressure, and while her family treated her as an equal more often than not, no one had actually ever put pressure on her. The hardest thing she’d ever done up to this point was demand to teach art classes at the rez. There had been some pressure to succeed so no one pitied her for failing, but not like this.

  “Okay, you’ll drop us here,” Shay instructed Tucker.

  The car came to a halt. Rachel was seated in the back. She hadn’t realized until this moment she was going to have to trust Shay implicitly, not just to be telling the truth but to guide her through a completely unknown setting.

  When the door next to her opened, Rachel had to fight the desire to lean away. To refuse to get out. She stepped into the autumn afternoon instead.

  “Don’t be afraid to speak up if I’m walking too fast or something. Better to get there in one piece than worry about hurting my feelings or whatever.”

  The no-nonsense way Shay took her arm and said those words had Rachel’s shoulders relaxing. Maybe it was scary, but at least Shay wasn’t going to be all weird about her being blind.

  “Let me talk to her for a minute,” Tucker said briskly.

  “All right,” Shay said. She let Rachel’s arm go and Tuck’s hands closed over her shoulders. He gave them a squeeze.

  “You be smart. Take care of yourself first. I couldn’t...” He let out a ragged breath. “I don’t want you hurt, Rach.”

  “Tuck...” She didn’t know what to say. There wasn’t time to say anything. So, she could only give him what he’d given her. “I don’t want you hurt, either.”

  “Then we’ll stick to the plan, and everything will be okay.”

  “You don’t actually believe that,” she said, both because she didn’t and because she could hear it in his voice that he didn’t, either. “We’ll stick to the plan, and hope for the best. And if the best blows up in our face, we’ll just have to fight like hell.”

  He chuckled softly. “Yeah, you got that right.”

  Then, before she could say anything else, he kissed her. It wasn’t sweet or light. It was firm, a little fierce and had her heart beating for an entirely new reason aside from fear. “Stay safe, Rach.”

  He released her, and she was passed off to Shay. It was disorienting for a lot of reasons, but the whole being shuttled between people in foreign settings certainly undercut the happy buzz of that kiss.

  “They all like that?” Shay asked, leading her forward.

  “Like what?”

  “Like...gentlemen, but not wimps about it. Think of women as equals, and aren’t too keen on using them as a punching bag. Kiss like that and then walk away to save your butt—while you’re also busy saving your own butt.”

  Rachel had to smile. “Pretty much.”

  Shay didn’t say anything else to that, just kept leading Rachel forward.

  “Can you describe it to me? Give me some kind of idea of where they’re going to take me and how to get out?”

  “Good idea.” Shay explained that it looked like a hunting cabin from the outside. Inside, they had different holding rooms, a medical center and a tech center. She explained the layout, which room Duke was in and what room they’d probably take her into.

  “So, if for whatever reason you want to run, they’re going to be able to track you until you get off the property. Not much use in it. But, to get out the door, you’d just need to remember how to get to the hallway.”

  Rachel filed all that away, tried to bring her own picture to her mind. It would help if she found herself needing to escape.

  Shay brought her to a stop. “All right. Here we go.”

  Rachel expected her to knock or buzz in or something, but the sound of the door opening was the first thing she heard once they stopped.

  “This is an interesting turn of events,” a male voice said. “Where’s the guard dog who gave you that shiner?”

  “I got to her without Wyatt,” Shay returned. She spoke differently to the man. Sharp. All business. Any hint of the woman who’d asked if the Wyatts were all like that was gone.

  “How?”

  “Everyone has to take a bathroom break now and again, Parker. Now are you going to step aside or what?”

  The man grumbled, but Rachel was being led forward so he’d clearly allowed entrance. “Wait here for McMillan.”

  Rachel listened as the footsteps quieted.

  “McMillan is my supervisor,” Shay said in a whisper. “He’s all bark and mostly no bite. I imagine since he’s been handling Duke, he’s going to be the one who questions you. If not? Be as difficult as possible until they bring McMillan in.”

  “All right.”

  “Shay.”

  Rachel had assumed Shay was the woman’s first name all this time. But the way her superior barked it out, Rachel had to wonder if it was actually her last name.

  “Sir. A little late, but better late than never.”

  “How’d you manage what you failed at earlier?” He emphasized the word fail as though failure was the absolute worst thing a person could do.

  “Followed them. They were on the run, off their home territory. Wyatt let his guard down and I convinced Rachel to talk to us. She’s willing, if you let her see her father.”

  “Dymon!” the man yelled.

  More footsteps, a few hushed words, then someone took her other arm. Shay’s grip tightened and Rachel felt a bit like she was in the middle of a tug-of-war.

  “Who’s that?” Shay asked, suspicion threading through her voice.

  “Your replacement,” McMillan said, his voice so chilly Rachel thought to shiver. “Shay. You’re done here.”

  “Sir, I think a woman should—”

  “I said you’re done here,” McMillan said, and this was no bark or yell. It was cold, a succinct or-else order.

  Shay slowly released her arm, and Rachel was being led away. The grip on her other arm was unnecessarily rough. She remembered what Shay said about being difficult. “You’re hurting me,” she said, trying to tug her arm away from the too-tight grasp.

  “Oh, you have no idea what’s in store for you, little girl,” the voice hissed.

  Rachel’s entire body went cold. She recognized that voice.

  It was the voice from her dream.

  * * *

  “SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT.”

  Tucker whirled, gun in hand. It was only Shay, but she’d snuck up on him soundlessly. Still, he didn’t have ti
me to worry about that. “What isn’t right?”

  “New guy. McMillan isn’t in the habit of hiring new guys.”

  “He hired me.”

  “Not the same. You’re not an operative. You’re like a...liaison. This guy I’ve never seen is in the South Dakota headquarters of North Star, and I’ve never heard his name or even heard whispers of a new guy.” She rubbed a hand over the back of her neck. “Something isn’t right.”

  “You left Rachel in there? When something wasn’t right?”

  “Calm down,” Shay said sharply. She pulled her phone to her ear. “Wyatt? Yeah, I need you to do some spying for me.” She sighed heavily. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you ask your wife if she thinks you should stay out of it when her sister is in North Star headquarters with a stranger.” Another pause. “Yup, that’s what I thought. Someone named Dymon. Get me anything you’ve got on him.” She hung up, shoved her phone in her pocket.

  “Are you sure they’re not tracking you through that?” he asked.

  “Do you think I’m dumb? I had your brother take care of all the tracking devices when we were there.”

  “It never occurred to you that a group that tracked your every move might not be on the up and up?”

  “Look. You don’t know anything about North Star, or McMillan for that matter,” she snapped. “Like that your father was responsible for his wife’s death.”

  Tucker didn’t say anything because he hadn’t known that. At all.

  “Grief does funny things to people. He’s not a bad guy, and whatever is going on doesn’t make him one. It makes him...human. And, hell, aren’t we all?”

  Tucker didn’t want to think about how human they all were. Not when being human meant making mistakes, and they couldn’t make any with Rachel inside North Star.

  “Let’s move. The less time she has to be in there, the better.”

  Shay nodded. “On that, we can agree.”

  It was Shay’s plan since she knew the headquarters—what from the outside looked like an upscale hunting cabin. They bypassed the front, and Shay would occasionally pause to do something on her phone that allegedly moved the cameras or turned off security or whatever else North Star had in place.