by Cara Carnes
“He’ll be here in ten with his uncle,” Jesse said. “I saw a trailer out back. I’ll make sure it’s ready to use.”
More warnings were etched within the interior. He ignored the stench of death and stood beside Kamren as she stroked the agitated horse, who’d somehow survived the carnage.
He glanced out the back exit and spotted two dairy cows gutted. Nausea pitched his stomach, but he’d seen worse. By the time Brant and his uncle arrived, Vi had surveyed, scanned, and recorded every crevice of the ranch and a quarter mile around.
The teams walked the perimeter of the small farm, but no evidence was found aside from ATV tracks.
Brant’s uncle Bart was a vet and a sourpuss of a man who’d rather spit on you than shake your hand. Dallas and his brothers moved out of the way as he shuffled into the stall and took Kamren’s place with the animal.
“What the hell happened out here?” Brant’s voice thundered in anger. “What the hell has she gotten into now?”
“None of us are in the mood,” Dallas warned.
“Step back and check the attitude or I’ll have Addy teach you some manners,” Vi ordered.
“It’d be a pleasure,” the woman returned quickly.
“Rachelle shouldn’t be exposed to this violence. Whatever mess Kamren’s in, she doesn’t have any right dragging her into it,” Brant growled.
“The most violent thing that girl’s dealt with was when my girl over there made her stop fondling Masons,” Addy said. “Advice. Take a few steps back and assess the situation with your brain instead of your dick, Doc.”
The man stormed from the barn. Kamren wandered out in time to see him stamp away.
“I see I’m still his favorite person,” she replied.
Dallas was sick of the man’s attitude. It was clear he didn’t fully understand the family history or the shit Kamren had endured. Whatever he’d heard or seen from Rachelle was a drop in the bucket. Though it wasn’t his place to share, Dallas couldn’t stomach much more attitude from the surly prick. He sure as hell wouldn’t let Kamren take it much longer, not on top of everything else.
Dallas followed her to the winch that’d obviously been used to hoist the animals up and into position. She studied the line and looked over at Vi again.
“This system’s old, jerks fast on the start. There’s blood on the line,” she commented.
“Someone injured themselves?” Vi asked.
“Possibly,” Kamren muttered. She clutched Dallas’s belt loop again and motioned toward outside. “Why? Why would someone do this?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart, but we won’t rest until we figure it out.” He kissed her forehead and drew her to his side. “Come on, let’s get you back to The Arsenal. I think you’ve given everyone enough to go on for today.”
Kamren rested her head against him and looked over at Vi. “Thank you. Thank you all.”
“You two go on out. I’ll call Sheriff Haskell and report it. I think we have enough lead time on evidence gathering,” Nolan said.
“I’ll make some calls, figure out what to do about cleanup,” Dylan said. “Jesus, this is fucked up.”
Dallas watched as Vi steered Kamren toward the truck. Good. She needed to be away from here, sooner rather than later. “Thanks, man.”
His brother’s gaze settled on Brant as the man shoved his cell phone into his pocket and glowered at the women near the truck. “Not liking his treatment of the women much.”
“Yeah, think it’s time he and I have a chat.”
“Sanderson and Jud will stay back with you. Addy’s team is maintaining a protective detail,” Dylan commented. “We’ll get Kamren to the compound.”
“Appreciated.” Dallas closed the distance between himself and Brant. “A moment.”
“Not sure I have anything to say.”
“Good, because this is a one-sided conversation. You lay into my woman again, I’ll lay you out.”
“She’s an abuser.”
“Thinking you need to rewind what you remember, replay with the brain God gave you. Whatever you saw, I’ve seen the scars. The burns, knife wounds. Whip marks. Only one of them is a walking road map for abuse, and it’s sure as fuck not Rachelle.” Dallas fisted his hands. “Kept my mouth shut too long, letting you take gouges out of her she can’t afford to lose. No more.”
“She beat her sister,” Brant spat angrily.
“Probably. Horrible shit goes down in screwed up homes like the one they lived in.” Dallas clenched his jaw, glared at the man. “Shouldn’t have to tell a doctor that shit. You know.”
“I’ll steer clear as long as you assure me Rache is secure out at your place.”
“Gotta admit I’m not sure how the fuck she is. Last time I saw her, she was grinding up against me, making it clear she wanted way more of me than I was willing to give. Seeing how she’s done the same with most of my brothers, I’m thinking you get where her mind’s headed.” Dallas crossed his arms.
“Rache isn’t like that.”
“Maybe not the Rachelle you know, but the one we see? She’s got more issues than anyone realizes, except maybe Kamren. She’s seen plenty of her sister’s trouble.”
“Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree about that,” Brant said.
“Long as you keep your distance, that’ll do.”
“How is she?”
Dallas stared at Zoey as he sat at the remaining seat in the whiteboard room. For a brilliant woman, she had a way of asking things better left unspoken. Gage glowered at him from his lean against the wall. The man was mighty protective of Vi and Mary’s new hire. On a different day, Dallas would find it amusing.
There wasn’t much amusing today, though.
Exhausted, he expended a breath and looked at the brainiacs at the head of the table. He hadn’t seen much of Rhea or Bree lately. While the former had been working on some secret government contract, the latter had simply been AWOL, working on a “secret project” within her lab. They’d both joined the fray once word about what went down at Kamren’s home spread at The Arsenal.
They bookended Mary and Vi. Cord and Zoey closed off the genius side of the table. The six had been at work for several hours with the datasets spewed out by HERA while he and everyone else worked to put the Garrett farm to some semblances of right, if there was such a thing. Personally, he was sorely tempted to raze the damn place.
Rachelle hadn’t surfaced. She’d been deep within her head since they’d all had a come to Jesus with her, but Riley assured them all she was okay.
He looked around. “Anyone find Cliff?”
“Yeah, he took it harder than I’d expected,” Nolan said. “Said we should look into Wayne. Cliff did some work for him a while back, then cut himself loose. He thinks it could have something to do with him. I asked him about Mills in case he knew something we hadn’t gotten from him. He didn’t. All he said was it might’ve been Wayne.”
“That’s doubtful. He’s a lazy shit,” Dallas said. He’d met the man a couple times. He was Hailey’s cousin, and the drug-dealing bastard who’d supplied the drugs that she’d used to…
Not now.
“What’d HERA find?” Dylan asked.
“Some of the kills were hesitant, while others were almost savage in their…” Rhea swallowed. Eyes wide, she continued. “Right. So, at least two perpetrators, possibly three, though we think the hesitant one grew more confident.”
“It took time,” Jud said. “Lots of noise. No one heard anything?”
“My team and I canvassed neighbors, but folks aren’t saying anything. If they heard, we won’t be privy to details.” Addy knocked her fist on the table. “Though, I’d go back and knock heads together to get our girl answers.”
“Thinking there’s a line forming for that right,” Jesse muttered. “Her shit simmered on the back burner too long while we were away.”
“Possibly, but the timeline isn’t making sense to us. I mean, she went eighteen months digging into her dad�
�s death. Aside from pissing off the Marville Dogs, she had very little in the way of elevated danger to her directly,” Vi said, “until we pushed Mills, then he pushed back, and we shut him down.”
“Fallout from Dom’s hit against Javier?” Gage asked.
“Doubtful. Marcus barely got Dani out of there. Dom didn’t leave anyone standing that’d react against him or his sister,” Jud said. “Street justice—swift, fast, untraceable.”
Dallas wouldn’t have expected anything less from the man he’d once called a friend. Truth be told, he was glad at least their mess was off the list of shit they had to handle. “We’re missing something.”
“Yeah, which is why we gave what we knew to Doctor Sinclair. Figured a psychological approach might be in order at this point,” Mary said. “Especially since the why is escaping me.”
“So it’s not about the hunt for her father’s killer?” Bree asked.
“That’s the thing. Why kill him in the first place? That why has never been answered,” Vi said. “Kamren found lots of dirt on local folks, shady things, but HERA’s yet to find a hard line between any of it and Kamren’s dad.”
“Except for Mills. He reacted swiftly to the push,” Addy said. “I thought he and his cronies were connected.”
“Kamren dug deep, uncovered lots of vipers, but they aren’t necessarily the nest we’re looking for,” Mary said.
“Meaning?” Dylan asked.
“Meaning they may have been involved in something her dad stumbled across, but that didn’t get him dead,” Zoey said. “We’re missing the path leading to the why.”
“It was personal,” Vi said. She glanced about the room, but her gaze settled on Dallas. “Kamren’s hiding something important.”
“She’s not the only one,” Gage commented, his gaze on Zoey, whose face reddened.
“It’s likely something she’s either embarrassed about, or it’s so dark and ugly she doesn’t want to breathe life to it,” Nolan said. “She was raised to keep things to herself, relying on no one.”
“The mom,” Dallas shared. “She’s mentioned stuff, that she wasn’t a good woman. Abusive.”
The women looked at one another. Zoey bit her lip. “Yeah, about that. They all lived pretty off the grid, except for Rachelle and Cliff. But the mom didn’t have any form of paper trail round about the time Kamren went off grid.”
“And by ‘off grid’ you mean ‘stopped going to school’?” Jesse clarified.
“Right. So we all know the Marville school system goes to the sixth grade, then they’re bussed to Resino, or Nomad. Kamren stopped going in the third grade. She’s shared that much.”
“Because of the dyslexia.” Dallas’s jaw twitched. I was hard to imagine a kid not getting the help she needed to learn. Pissed him off to think her parents hadn’t bothered trying. She’d been too much of a burden. Too much trouble.
TJ and DJ were both significantly behind. Heck, TJ wasn’t far away from the age Kamren had been when her parents gave up on her. He couldn’t fathom not giving them everything he could in the way of help.
“Doctor Sinclair thinks the mom had severe issues, issues that’d explain some of Rachelle’s erratic behavior. She can’t give us many details, but she did say we needed to find out more about the family history.” Mary’s voice lowered. “She’s concerned.”
“I’ll talk to Kamren tonight and get some more details.”
Heat settled against Kamren’s back as Dallas covered them both with a thin blanket. Darkness encroached from the window she’d stared out the past couple of hours as life continued around her. A young man she hadn’t met yet named Jacob had taken TJ and DJ under his wing as the rest of The Arsenal handled the carnage at the farmhouse. That was about the extent of what Kamren knew.
Weak as it might seem, she’d left the details to Dallas and everyone around her. The firm grip around her waist redirected her thoughts to the man behind her, at her back in every way she’d needed today. “Thank you.”
The soft utterance tumbled from her.
He sighed deeply and kissed her shoulder. “Shit day, Kam.”
Yeah. Shit day indeed.
“You want details of what we have so far?”
“Yeah.”
“First, we checked on Dani and made sure she was secure. Things are calming with the Marville Dogs. The crew left is loyal to Dom, so that’ll likely keep your girl’s world a lot calmer than it’s been in a long time. She’s worried about you, so much so she’s coming out here tomorrow.”
“Good. Then she can see you’re good people. She means something to me. You mean something to me,” she whispered. “Did…did Juniper make it?”
“Yeah, Bart phoned, letting us know he’d bring him over in the morning. Riley and Cord have already made room for him in the barn.” He ran a hand down her hair, then kissed her shoulder again, as if knowing she needed the physical contact, a connection to reality so the horrors of today didn’t rip out the last of her sanity. “How long have you had Juniper?”
“He’s Rachelle’s,” she commented. “A gift from mom right before she…”
“I’m gonna have to ask some hard questions right now, sweetheart. No easy way to broach this subject, but we need more information about your family, your mom. Rachelle. I know you said your mom hurt you more than your dad, but I need more.”
“Why?” She already knew the answer. “You think it’s related.”
“There are some concerns.”
“Mom and dad had issues.”
“Think I figured that much out, sweetheart. Their issues are all over you, literally.”
“He was a mean brute, but not physical. His punishments were challenges, survival and tactical. Lessons meant to make me stronger, not break me down.”
Dallas tightened as he processed between the lines of what she hadn’t said. He couldn’t understand the level of evil her mom had become toward the end. “Your mom hurt you.”
“Dad tried getting her help lots of times. Pills. They just made her worse,” Kamren whispered. “She hated me, said I ruined everything. I stole him away from her.”
Memories engulfed her; things she’d never given voice to spilled forward in a rush of words. “She was beautiful, the same hair and eyes like Rachelle. The prettiest voice. Sometimes she’d sing, back when I hadn’t stolen him away and I was just her little girl. She’d dress me up in pretty dresses with matching shoes.”
“Then she changed.”
“No,” Kamren argued quickly. “Dad changed. I changed. Cliff changed. He didn’t want to be the little hunter; he didn’t want to be much of anything. He hated the outdoors, hunting. Tracking. Anything to do with Dad.”
“So Dad took you out.”
“Yeah, said I had a natural talent, just like my grandpa.” Kamren swallowed, focusing on the swirls Dallas created on her arm and down her back. “That’s when she changed, turned mean.”
“And Rachelle?”
“She loved Mom so much. She was the little princess, doted on. Loved.”
“What happened to your mom?” Dallas asked as he drew her closer. Kamren turned and wrapped her arms around his strength as a flood of memories assailed her.
Face buried in his neck, she gave him the skeletons she’d buried. Literally. “It was the summer after second grade when Dad hauled me east, into the Appalachians. We were gone a long time, months. When we got back, things hadn’t gone well with Mom. She’d gone into her head, where things made sense only to her. Dad went to the bank to catch the mortgage up. Mom dragged me out to the barn, the post where…”
Dallas tightened, as if bracing for what was to come. She let the rest of the sentence die. He read plenty of the shit between the lines without her filling them in.
“I must’ve passed out. She went way longer than normal, but we’d been gone way longer, too. I had months of beatings to take.”
“A shotgun blast woke me up. Dad had come home, found her still laying into me. Rache was in the house cryin
g. Cliff was standing there, staring down at all the blood. Mine. Mom’s.” Kamren swallowed. “Rache came out. She was so young. Her little mind must not have been able to handle what she saw. Mom dead, Dad holding the gun, and me bleeding from my beating. She wasn’t the same after that. I know I mentioned the pills before, her needing help.”
“Jesus.”
“Mom was born off grid in the Appalachians. Dad buried her in the northwest corner of the property by where he’d bury our dogs. Said that’s what she deserved for treating him and his kids like animals.”
“Jesus.”
“Before that I’d had some freedoms, friends. After that he didn’t let me go anywhere. I was in charge of the house. Hunting. Trapping. I didn’t have time to be a kid. Have friends.” She ran her hands down Dallas’s back. “Dani never gave up, though, came out every night to check on me. She didn’t know what happened with Mom, but she knew it wasn’t good.”
“I crawled into my head after Dad died, needing answers even though they didn’t matter, not really. Our family died that night,” she whispered. “Riley said Rache was ghosting through life. She wasn’t the only one.”
“Do you think…” He pulled her tighter into his arms and whispered the rest against her cheek. “You think she hurt your Dad?”
No. She shook her head; the vehement rebuttal died in her throat, though. Somewhere deep, deep down the thought took root and grew as leaves of truth she’d refused to see branched outward, until all she was left with was the truth. “God, I hope not.”
“I hope not too, but whatever we find out, we’ll deal. You aren’t alone with this anymore, Kam,” he whispered. He feathered kisses along her forehead. “Gotta go get the girls working this. We need to track Rachelle down. She’s been AWOL, but in contact with Riley. Cliff mentioned Wayne. Was she close to him?”
“Dunno, maybe. He hung out with Cliff at the house sometimes,” Kamren admitted. “You think Wayne did this?”
