Badlands Beware

by Nicole Helm

  Duke’s expression went even more granite. “And which of your brothers’ lives are you willing to risk?”

  It was a jab, but somewhere between that explosion and here he’d figured out what he hadn’t fully understood until this moment. Yeah, four of his brothers were in love with Duke’s foster daughters. Three of them had kids or babies on the way to support and protect. They had lives, and they shouldn’t be taking unnecessary risks.

  But they had. Over and over again this summer. Why?

  Because nothing was ever going to be truly good until the Sons were gone. Truly taken out. The more of them they arrested, the more they had a chance of someone giving that last piece of evidence that brought the entire group to its knees.

  “All of them, Duke. All of them.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “I will not be carted off while you do something dangerous,” Rachel said. She was careful to keep her voice quiet like they were doing, but what she really wanted to do was yell.

  Her father’s grip was tight on her arm and she wanted to shake it off and rage at him for even considering the fact they would go off and leave Tucker to do this, other Wyatt boys or no.

  “Give me a second,” Tucker said, and then she was being passed off and it was so infuriating because she couldn’t exactly walk away, could she? Not in this foreign territory she didn’t know.

  “Listen. I’m not going to do anything stupid. My brothers, law enforcement agents who can also arrest these guys, are going to come and be backup. Maybe get some information that helps us land an even bigger blow to the Sons. I have to do this, and I’m sorry, I can’t do it with you here.”

  Emotion clogged her throat. To get this far and then be relegated to...dead weight. Swept off by her father.

  “It isn’t right. I didn’t do anything,” she said, feeling raw and cracked open. She couldn’t do anything. She understood she was a liability in the here and now and it was an awful, awful feeling.

  Tucker’s hands cupped her cheeks. “Yeah, figuring out where the evidence was, punching Shay in the face, using Morse code to tell McMillan his double agent was really a double agent, getting abducted and dragged through the woods but being smart enough to stay alive—nothing at all.”

  It should have been patronizing, but instead it was soothing. Because Tucker sounded...awestruck. Not in an oh-poor-little-Rachel-managed-to-do-something way, but like she was strong and all that stuff had mattered.

  And it had. What might have happened if she hadn’t gotten the message to McMillan? Yes, he might not have been shot, but Dymon could have gotten away with a lot more, and done a lot more damage.

  “The Vianni part of this is over. Now, it’s the Sons part. Let your father take you back to North Star. You’ve contributed, and probably have the concussion to prove it. Now, it’s my turn. Okay?”

  It wasn’t okay, but she understood he had to do this. For himself. For his brothers. She moved her hands to his on her face, then slid her palms down the length of his arms, over his shoulders and up to his face.

  “Okay,” she said, and then pressed her mouth to his. He stiffened, likely because her father was around, but she didn’t care. Not when he was going off into danger, and she was letting him.

  But he relaxed into it, kissing her back in a way that felt like some kind of promise. He pulled back, taking her hands off his face.

  “Be safe, and don’t do a thing until your brothers are here.” The kiss had felt like a promise, but she needed the words. “Promise me.”

  There was a pause, and he squeezed her hands in his. “I promise. Now, let your Dad take you back to North Star. You’ve got a hell of a bump on your head. I’m completely unscathed.”

  But he wouldn’t stay that way necessarily. Still, there was nothing she could do about that. She’d only be in his way if she tried to convince him to take her along. Rachel knew she’d achieved some important things throughout this whole mess. Now her role was to step back and let him take the next step.

  Hadn’t she been harping at him to take help from his brothers—no matter what they’d been through and what he wanted to protect them from? Now, she had to take her own advice. Let him get the help he needed.

  It didn’t make it easy, but it also didn’t make her a failure.

  “Be safe,” she repeated, giving his hands another squeeze before letting him pass her back to her father.

  It was hard walking away, but as her father led her, the adrenaline began to fade into something heavier. Her head ached. Her body hurt. She felt nauseous.

  “I don’t know what you think you’re doing kissing that boy,” Dad grumbled, once they’d put some distance between them and Tucker. “I hope it doesn’t mean what I think it means.”

  If she’d had any energy, she might have smiled. She was still so relieved he was alive, she couldn’t muster any anger toward him. “If all of your daughters end up with a Wyatt, is that really so bad?”

  “It is when they have to be dragged through pain and danger to arrive at that conclusion.”

  She frowned. Dragged? “It’s your fault I’m even here. That Tucker is even here. This all begins with you.”

  “If this is all my fault, then the Sons are all those boys’ faults.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, because of course that wasn’t true. So, maybe it was true it wasn’t her father’s fault the Viannis were after him. But... “You had that knife. The one that hurt me. You lied to me, and made me doubt myself.”

  He was quiet for a few seconds as they walked. She could smell the acrid tinge of smoke on the air and knew they were close to getting to North Star.

  “I did what I thought was right at the time. I’m sorry it hurt you, baby. You’ll never know... I wanted you all safe. I’d been at the ranch in WITSEC for almost eight years when they found me again. I’d built a life. A better life than the one I’d grown up in, a better life than I’d had on the force. I had your mother, and I had you and the other girls. I could have run, but I wasn’t going to give up this life I loved for some lowlife crime group. I needed something stronger than WITSEC, and evidence seemed the best way to keep them gone. An insurance policy.”

  “So, you let him go?”

  “I didn’t have him. I had to get you to the hospital. I couldn’t go after him. But I could collect what he left behind. I could use it as my own threat. And it worked.”

  “Until now. Why now?”

  “That’s why I went to Granger McMillan. When I got a few veiled threats earlier this month, I went to his father. He’d been in charge of WITSEC when they moved me and we’d become friends. He recommended his son’s organization to help get to the bottom of it. Because as far as I knew, the Viannis were all dead or in prison. Granger started looking into it, and when he found some connections between the Vianni group and the Sons, he brought me in.”

  “Of your own volition,” she said.

  “More or less. I wanted to protect you girls. Getting out of the way seemed the only option. Besides, I had the evidence. I knew I could use it if I needed to, and I thought McMillan could help me get it into the right hands, but I had to be sure I could trust him. I wasn’t sure. I’m still not sure.”

  “He got shot. By this Dymon man. I told him he was the man from my dreams, more or less. He was going to help, but Dymon shot him first.”

  “Not Dymon. Vianni. The man who blinded you was Vianni’s son,” Duke explained. “McMillan told me he’d hired a Vianni underling in the hopes he’d be a double agent. He named some low level thug I hadn’t ever had contact with, and I didn’t recognize him. He must have had plastic surgery, taken on this new identity, because he was supposed to be dead. I was told a hit had taken him out right after your attack. I figured it was because he’d failed. You recognizing his voice is the only reason I put two and two together.”

  “So, you killed the man
who was after you?”

  “Appears so. I’m not saying that will end the Vianni group, but the family I put behind bars is mostly dead. It should be over.”

  “Except Tucker is still out there, trying to take down the Sons.”

  “He’s a Wyatt, Rachel. They can put on a good show, but they can’t let it go. Not while the Sons still exist, not while Ace lives, even if he’s in prison. You get wrapped up in a Wyatt, that’s what you’re getting wrapped up in.”

  He didn’t say it like it was some failing, only like it was fact. Which, no doubt, it was.

  “You couldn’t let injustice go when you saw it. You wouldn’t run away when that came back to haunt you.” She inhaled. “I know you love them like sons, and I understand why you’d be protective of your daughters. But you gave us the example. Doesn’t it make sense that we’d all see that in you, even if we didn’t know the details, and admire it in others?”

  Duke was quiet for a long while, though instead of holding her arm he slid his arm around her shoulders and led her that way.

  “I want that head of yours checked out,” he said, planting a gentle kiss near the place her head hurt the worst.

  “Because of Tucker or just in general?”

  Duke chuckled. “Both.”

  Something inside of her eased. She was still scared, worried for Tucker and all the Wyatts. Worried for McMillan and if he’d survived the gunshot wound. But her father was safe and here with her. One arm of this whole complicated thing had been taken care of.

  Now Tucker needed to take care of his, and come back to her in one piece.

  * * *

  TUCKER WAS INTENT on keeping his promise. There was just one little problem. The three men on the road weren’t staying there. Apparently, they’d grown tired of waiting for the dead man.

  Jamison and Cody were close enough that they’d be here in the next ten to twenty minutes, if they rushed, which they likely would. The other three were much farther away, and Brady and Dev were physically compromised in that group.

  But Cody had messaged them all.

  Tucker wouldn’t hide from the men walking up the side of the hill. He’d promised Rachel he wouldn’t do anything until his brothers were here, but he could hardly help it when two of the three men were coming for him—one staying behind and poking through the car Duke had left.

  Still, Tucker remained still. He kept his gun ready, and he listened.

  “These Vianni morons. Soft city idiots. I’m already tired of cleaning up their messes.”

  “You can’t say no to that kind of cash, though. Not with everything falling apart. I’ve been thinking of heading to Chicago myself.”

  The other man offered an anatomically impossible alternative and they both chuckled good-naturedly.

  Tucker might have been swayed by the fact they sounded like any two men shooting the breeze. But he had files on these guys and he knew what they were capable of. Monsters could walk and talk and laugh, but what they were willing to do was what made them monsters.

  They were coming up on him. Whatever happened, his brothers were on their way.

  “What a lazy SOB. Couldn’t even drag her this far?”

  “Oh, he got this far,” Tucker said companionably.

  They whirled on him, one with a gun and the other with a knife. The one Tucker knew from his files as Justin Hollie sneered.

  “A Wyatt.” He flipped the knife in his hand. “Your free pass is over. We don’t have to worry about hurting Ace’s kids anymore.”

  Which wasn’t what Tucker had expected anyone to say, let alone so gleefully. “Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

  The man snorted. “Guess you’re the last to hear. Ace is dead. No need to come after us anymore. He can’t do crap.” He spread his arms wide. “Now, I’m a reasonable guy. I let you go, you leave us alone.”

  “Jail isn’t dead.”

  “He died in jail. Crossed the wrong guy.” Hollie snapped his fingers. “Boom. Gone. I heard it was even on the news.”

  Tucker couldn’t process that. It couldn’t possibly be true. “I don’t believe you.”

  He shrugged. “No skin off my nose. Just telling you there’s no beef here anymore.”

  “Of course, if you want one, we can give you one,” the other man said. Travis Clyne, Tucker was pretty sure. The rapist who’d gotten off because the prosecutor hadn’t thought the case was tight enough.

  Tucker pushed away the thought of his father being dead. It just wasn’t possible Ace Wyatt, the black cloud over his entire life, had just been...killed in jail like a common criminal, instead of the evil incarnate that he was.

  Because there were two men who’d done plenty of evil right in front of him. “It turns out I’ve got a beef with kidnapping, explosions, killing people.” He turned his gaze from Hollie to Clyne. “Rape.”

  “Your funeral.” Clyne lifted his gun, but before he’d even gotten close to aiming, a shot rang out. It didn’t appear to hit anyone, but Cody and Jamison appeared on either side of the Sons members.

  The one with the knife whirled out toward Jamison, but Tucker shot, causing Hollie to stumble with a scream of pain. Cody punched Clyne before he could get a shot off at Tucker.

  The third man came charging up, likely hearing the commotion. He stopped abruptly when all three Wyatts pointed guns at him. Looking at his friends writhing on the ground, then the guns, the man dropped his own.

  “On your knees,” Tucker ordered.

  “Here. Tie him up.” Cody tossed him some zip ties.

  “Jeez. Do you always have these on you?” Tucker asked, quickly putting them to use.

  “Never leave home without them,” Cody returned, using more to tie up the man he’d punched. Jamison was doing the same.

  They all stood at the same time.

  “Unscathed again,” Cody said with the shake of a head. “You’ve got the touch, Tuck.”

  Tuck let out a breath, almost a laugh. “Yeah, I felt bad about that for a while. I don’t think I do so much anymore.”

  “I’ll call county to pick these guys up. They’ve already got some guys collecting evidence on the explosives,” Jamison said.

  “There’s also the car down on the road.”

  Jamison nodded. He quickly called all the information in. When he hung up, Tucker knew he had to broach the topic he didn’t really want to understand.

  “They said Ace is dead.”

  Jamison and Cody exchanged a glance. “We heard that too. Gage was getting everything confirmed when you messaged. We told him to stay put, we had this.”

  “Do you think he actually listened?”

  Jamison smiled wryly. “The county guys will pass it along if he started heading this way.”

  “Do you think it’s true?”

  Both brothers sobered. Cody shrugged helplessly, and Jamison ran a hand over his neck.

  “I don’t know what to think,” Jamison said. “So, let’s focus on the here and now. Waiting for some guys to cart these morons away. Making sure Duke and Rachel are really safe.”

  Tucker turned to Cody. “North Star is beat up pretty good.”

  He nodded grimly. “They’re all getting transported to the hospital. Liza’s got the girls so Nina could drive over and pick up Duke and Rachel.”

  “She needs a doctor.”

  “I’m sure Nina will see to it.”

  Tucker nodded, but the possibility that Ace was dead overshadowed everything. “If he’s dead, that means...it’s over.”

  “We’re law enforcement, Tuck,” Jamison said, ever the cop. “As long as they’re out there hurting people, it isn’t over.”

  “No... But he is. Ace existing, linking us to it. The emotional aspect. It’s over.” He rubbed at his chest. “He can’t be the boogeyman if he’s dead.”

  Cody nodded. “So, we�
�ll hope he is. Dead just the way he deserved. Broken and in jail with absolutely no fanfare.”

  Tucker let that settle through him. It seemed impossible, but it would be fitting. No standoff. No showy end. Nothing that could be described as godlike or awe-inspiring to the wrong kind. Ace’s worst nightmare. To have a boring death no one remembered.

  Tucker smiled at his brothers. Yeah, that’s what he’d hope for.

  Epilogue

  There was fanfare.

  No one said they were celebrating Ace Wyatt’s death. They were celebrating Duke being okay. They were celebrating Brady healing and Felicity finding out she was having a girl. They were celebrating life and joy.

  But Rachel knew that at least some of that joy was in knowing the man who’d caused them such pain and fear was well and truly gone.

  Grandma Pauline had made a feast fit for royalty. They’d shoved everyone around the table as they always did. Even Dev was smiling. It was the best dinner in Rachel’s memory.

  Dad was safe. Everyone was safe. The men Tucker and his brothers had arrested had even agreed to talk, which had led to more arrests and a complete federal raid on the Sons compound. They hadn’t been eradicated, but they had been taken down quite a few pegs.

  And Ace Wyatt was dead. All the Wyatt men seemed...lighter. A little out of sorts, but lighter. After dinner, no one was quick to leave. Even Dad and Sarah who had ranch chores to see to lingered.

  “Why don’t you go on out to the porch,” Grandma Pauline said quietly into her ear.

  Rachel frowned. “Why?”

  “Just go on now.”

  Confused, Rachel did as she was told, stepping out into the quickly cooling off night.

  “Rach? You’re not headed back on your own are you?”

  Tucker. She should have known. He must have snuck out, and Grandma Pauline had sent her to find out why.

  “No.” She moved toward his voice. “What are you doing out here all by yourself?”

  He was quiet for a moment. “I’m not sure. Everyone’s so happy. I’m happy. But... It’s weird. I don’t know how to feel about... I’m happy for all of them. Happy Ace isn’t a shadow on our lives anymore, but I always assumed there’d be some big standoff. And now he’s just gone. I’m happy, but it’s...complicated.”