“Don’t worry, I won’t tell them you said so.” She loved the way the brothers teased one another. All in good fun. Rory had forgone a lot of the social aspects of life to fulfill his obligation to family and business. He knew what was important.
“Please don’t. I’ll never live it down.” He kissed her on the side of the head. “What I’m trying to say is that everything seems easy with you.”
She laughed under her breath. “You think finding me the way you did, staying up all night at the hospital, losing your cattle, what that means to your business and family, and my brother a sore spot between us is easy? If so, then the rest of our lives should be a piece of cake.” She heard her words echo in her ears and backtracked. “What I meant was . . .”
He squeezed her thigh again. “Relax. I know what you mean. All that stuff is hard, but when it’s just you and me”—he hugged her close—“like this, it’s simple.”
Someone hammered something heavy against metal outside. Rory stiffened against her. She tried not to think the worst, but had to face reality.
“Trouble just came home.”
“Your brother?”
“Probably. It’s coming from the barn.”
“Stay here.” Rory stood, pushing her off his lap and gently setting her away from him. “Is your brother armed?”
“With stupidity.” She remembered the last time she saw him. “And yes, he had a handgun the last time he came home. I don’t know where he got it. I’ll be surprised if he hasn’t shot himself in the foot yet.”
That made him smile. He headed for the door, but she grabbed his arm and stopped him.
“I’m going with you. He’ll listen to me.”
Rory pressed his lips together and one eyebrow shot up. He eyed her, not believing a word she said. “Yeah, right.”
“Rory, please, he’s my brother.”
He peeled her fingers from the grasp she held on his shirt. “I don’t want you to get hurt again. If he brought his friends with him . . .”
“You’ll be outnumbered.”
“Trust me, sweetheart, that won’t be a problem.”
His assurance didn’t help. Neither did the sheer size of him. All those muscles were impressive when combined with his height, but all she saw in her mind was that knife Derek liked to use. Her mind conjured one nightmare after the next, all of them filled with images of that knife plunging into Rory’s chest.
Sadie let loose Rory’s shirt and went to the cabinet near the front door. She opened the door and pulled out the rifle she’d cleaned, loaded, and tucked away just in case something like this happened.
“What are you doing with that?”
“Protecting what’s mine.”
Rory eyed her. “I am going out there.”
“I’m not stopping you, but I’m not going out there without this gun. If Derek is with my brother, I’m not letting him get a piece of me. Or you.”
“Do you know how to use that thing?”
“Yes. I do. Very well.”
The banging stopped. The ensuing quiet turned to an eerie silence that thickened the tension between her and Rory.
“Let me go in first. If it’s just your brother, we’ll talk to him, see if we can get him to turn himself in.” Rory pulled out his cell phone, scrolled through his contact list, and hit dial.
“Who are you calling?”
“Deputy Foster—”
“Mark? You’re calling the cops.” She shook her head and pinched back one side of her mouth in a half frown that didn’t even faze him.
“It’s Rory Kendrick. I’m at the Higgins place. Connor and maybe some of his friends are out in the barn. I’ll try to detain him until you get here,” Rory told Mark.
Sadie sighed, opened the front door, and walked away from Rory. He had every right to call the deputy sheriff and let him know her brother was here, but she didn’t have to like it. She wanted to protect the little boy she held on to in her mind, but she knew she could no longer help the man who’d chosen a life that led to nothing but ruin. Connor needed to face reality. If she could get him to see reason and turn himself in to Mark, he might have a decent shot at making a deal to turn Derek over to the authorities. After all, Derek was the one forcing her brother to cook meth and sell it.
There you go again, making excuses for him.
She’d been doing it all her life. Hard to stop now, but like her father said, sometimes you have to let go of the rope, or you’ll get burned. She needed to let go of the hope that the sweet little boy Connor had once been, before the drugs had erased him a little at a time, would somehow magically reappear. Not going to happen so long as Connor went headlong down the road to destruction.
Letting go wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
“Sadie, hold up,” Rory called in an angry whisper.
“If he’s in there, he’s going to answer to me first. Then you can turn him over to the cops.”
Rory’s dark gaze and frown reminded her of the man she used to see in him. Now she knew he wasn’t that guy, and the ominous look in his eyes was because he didn’t want her to get hurt again.
They made their way across the grass and weeds, drawing closer to the barn.
“The stupid thing is stuck.” Her brother’s muffled voice carried out to them through one of the open barn doors leading out to a paddock.
“Bang it again. Get that damn barrel open. We don’t have all night.”
Sadie stopped in her tracks at the sound of that familiar voice. It followed her into her nightmares each night. I like to watch you bleed.
Rory stumbled into the back of her and grabbed her shoulders. He rubbed his hands up her trembling arms. He leaned in close to her ear and whispered, “What’s wrong?”
She turned her face toward him and whispered back, “That’s Derek.” The quake in her voice made Rory squeeze her shoulders.
“Give me the rifle and go back to the house. I’ll take care of this.”
“Hurry the fuck up,” Derek ordered.
A shiver rocked her whole body, vibrating up her spine. Rory wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed the top of her head. “You’re okay, sweetheart. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Sadie stiffened her spine and shook off her fear and Rory’s embrace. She stood on her own and turned to face him. “You go that way around the back. They probably have a truck or something parked behind the barn. If they came in the back way, that’s why we didn’t hear them drive up. I’ll go in through the front. I’ll keep them focused on me and you make sure they don’t leave before the sheriff’s guys get here.”
“Scott and Tony took the smaller stashes out to Butte and Missoula. We need to get this to my guy tonight, or it’ll be my ass, which means it will be yours, too,” Derek warned.
“This is a bad idea,” Rory said.
He was probably right. She tried to think of a better plan than facing off with a knife-wielding drug dealer.
She wrapped her fingers around Rory’s arm. “I just thought of something. If my brother drove, he left the keys in the ignition. He always does. No one would steal his piece of crap truck. Get the keys, then they can’t leave.”
“Cover the front, but do not go inside.” Rory touched her chin, tilting her face up to his. He leaned down and planted a soft but quick kiss on her lips. He gave her one last resigned look and took off around the paddock to the back of the barn.
She hoped he found the keys in the truck and that stopped her brother and Derek from leaving long enough for the cops to arrive.
“Got it,” her brother said, drawing her closer to the front barn doors to get a better look and keep an eye on them. If they tried to go out the back before Rory had a chance to get the keys, she’d stop them.
“Fuck yeah. Pull it out and load up the bags,” Derek said.
Sadie snuck around the barn doors and slid along the aisle, her back against the stall wall. She stopped at one of the open gates and hid in the darkness. Her brother and Der
ek stood at the other end in a pool of weak light cast by a single bulb burning just outside the workroom door.
Connor pulled out several bags of packaged drugs from a fifty-five-gallon barrel and stuffed them into the duffel bag at his feet like stacked bricks. She’d never really noticed the barrels. They’d always been there, long ago used and left to rust as her father grew frail and the business dissipated along with his health.
“Hurry the fuck up,” Derek ordered.
“I’m going as fast as I can. Once we deliver this, I’m out. I don’t owe you anything more.” Her brother’s voice held little conviction. Too weak to stand up for himself, he’d keep going along so long as Derek threatened him. So long as Connor got the drugs he craved more than a life with his family.
“You’re out when I say you’re out.” Derek picked up one of the drug bricks and tossed it on top of the others.
Sadie worried about Rory, moving around the back of the barn and approaching the truck. He wouldn’t have much cover. If he got into the truck, Derek and Connor might spot him. Sweat broke out on her brow. She kept to the shadows, barely breathing, hoping they stalled these two losers long enough for the cops to arrive.
Connor leaned over and zipped the first duffel bag closed, grabbed the handles, stood up, and tossed it straight into Derek’s chest. “Take that to the truck. I’ll pack up the last of this, then we’re out of here.”
Fear tore through Sadie’s guts. She couldn’t let Derek catch Rory.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Sadie stepped out of the shadows, the rifle butt tucked up against her shoulder, the barrel aimed right at Derek’s chest.
Derek dropped the bag and walked back into the dim light, smiling in a way that sent a shiver of fear dancing up her spine. “You came back for more.” The glint of excitement in his eyes shone brighter than the light gleaming on the knife he pulled from his back.
“Take one step and I’ll shoot you dead.”
“Yeah, right. You can barely hold that gun, let alone hit the side of this barn.”
Sadie kept her gaze locked on Derek but addressed her brother. “Who taught you how to shoot, Connor?”
“You did.”
“Who never misses?”
“You.” Connor tugged at his hair and swore under his breath. He scratched at his leg, then his arm, and wiped the sweat from his face. Dark circles marred the undersides of his eyes. His pale skin made him look sickly, but it was nothing more than the drugs he kept pumping into his system. Just looking at him made her sad.
“Seriously, Derek, don’t fuck with her. You got away with it once, doesn’t look like she’ll let you do it again.”
“That’s right.” Sadie sent Derek the same menacing smile he’d given her.
Derek took a step toward her, testing her. She fired, missing his head by a good six inches and blasting a chunk of wood out of the workroom wall next to him. Splinters sprayed his hair and shoulder.
“I said don’t fucking move.”
“Don’t you fucking move.”
The deep voice startled her, but the hand that gripped her hair and the gun barrel pressed to the underside of her chin stunned her. Her breath caught in her throat, her heart stopped, and her mind went blank except for one thought. I’m dead.
The man holding the gun moved from the side to stand in front of her, just off to the side of the rifle she still held pointed at Derek.
“You just had to come out of the shadows,” he whispered for only her to hear. “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”
She eyed him wondering what he meant. Wasn’t he with Derek and Connor? He looked like a thug. Shaggy dark hair brushed his shoulders and tattoos wove up his arms—an intricate tribal pattern overlaid with a twisting vine of wicked blades for leaves, an open rose in full bloom, and an ominous skull in the center of his forearm. But his softly spoken words and the resignation and regret she caught in his eyes said there was more to him than the tough exterior.
He nudged the rifle with his shoulder. “Toss that to your brother.” His deep voice demanded one thing, but the hand softly holding her hair at the back of her neck said something else altogether.
She slowly lowered the rifle from her shoulder, held it by the barrel and stock, and tossed it to Connor.
“Put that thing in your truck bed, then come back,” the man ordered her brother.
Connor rushed to do his bidding.
“You’re going to get it now,” Derek mocked. “Shoot that bitch, Trigger.”
Sadie swallowed hard at the menacing nickname.
Trigger cocked up one side of his mouth. He glanced over his shoulder. “Get that shit packed up.” His gaze locked on hers again. He pulled her close and barely spoke above a whisper. “Reach into my jacket. Find the inside pocket and pull out the slip of paper inside.”
She glanced over Trigger’s shoulder. With him standing in front of her, Derek and Connor couldn’t see what she was doing. The gun still touched her chin, but barely pressed against her skin. She reached inside his jacket, traced her fingers over the lining, and felt the outline of a folded piece of paper. She reached up and into the pocket to pull it free. She crushed it in her hand and let her arm fall to her side again. “Good girl. Contact DEA Special Agent Cooke. Give him that paper. You can’t save your brother from what’s coming, but you can save yourself.”
“Who are you?” she whispered.
“Do what I say. I’ll get you out of this barn without that fuck hurting you again.”
“We’ve got it all. Connor, stash it in the truck, I’m going to play with your sister.”
“Leave her the fuck alone. We got what we came for, now let’s go.”
Derek grabbed Connor by the front of his jacket and hauled him close, holding the knife up to intimidate him.
“No,” Sadie yelled.
“Shut up, bitch.” Derek got in Connor’s face. “Your brother needs to remember his place.”
“You touch my sister again, and I’ll take off with these bags and dump them, then we’ll see if the boss wants to play with you.”
Derek shoved Connor away. Connor stumbled back a few steps, then rushed forward and grabbed the two bags from the floor. He turned his back on the knife-wielding hothead and stormed off to the truck.
Sadie shifted her gaze to Derek, who slowly walked forward, the knife in his right hand, his left index finger poised on the wicked-sharp tip of the blade.
“I’m going to make you bleed, bitch.” He slashed the knife through the air across his body.
Trigger shoved her back two steps, putting distance between them and Derek. “You’re not slicing her up. We have business, and we’re late.”
“Come on, man, it’ll only take a minute.”
“Touch her and you’re dead.” Rory held the rifle pointed directly at Derek’s head.
Connor rushed back into the barn. “Where the hell did you come from?”
“Get over there,” Rory ordered.
“Take him down,” Derek called, moving forward to help Connor.
Rory anticipated Connor’s rushed move, sidestepped, and cracked Connor in the ribs with the rifle stock. Connor pressed his hand to his side and fell to his knees, trying to catch his breath.
Trigger glanced past Sadie and out the other side of the barn. Sirens sounded in the distance. “Cops are coming. We need to get out of here.”
“Not without the drugs.” Derek ground the words out, crouching, ready to go up against Rory.
Trigger grabbed her arm and hauled her to the side and shoved her into an empty stall. “Stay put,” he demanded under his breath. He held the gun up trained just over Rory’s shoulder. “Don’t be stupid, man. You don’t want to start something I’ll have to finish.”
Trigger ran to Derek and grabbed him by the arm. “We have to go now. They’ll be here any second, and we’ll be screwed.”
Rory kept the gun trained on all three men.
Connor made it to his feet, his arms
banded around his middle. Trigger tugged Derek backward to the other side of the barn. After several stumbling steps, Derek finally turned and ran with Trigger and Connor out the doors and off into the night.
Rory ran to Sadie just as she walked out of the stall. He grabbed her and held her close. “Are you okay? Did that guy hurt you?” Rory rubbed his hand over her hair and neck and looked her up and down.
“No. I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me at all.”
“He pulled your hair.” Rory tipped her chin up to look at her skin where Trigger pressed the gun. “There’s no mark.”
Sadie wrapped her arms around Rory’s neck and held him tight. “He barely touched me. He didn’t want to hurt me. In fact, he whispered that he’d make sure nothing happened to me.”
“He did?”
“Yes. It was strange. He gave me this.” Sadie held up the slip of paper.
“What’s in it?”
She opened it up and stared at the strange arrangement of letters that didn’t spell anything. “A code?” she asked.
“Could be. Stay put. I’ll catch up to them.”
She held tight to him. “No. Let the cops handle it.”
“But . . .”
“Rory, let it go.”
“You can’t keep protecting him.”
“I’m not. I’m protecting you. One’s got a gun, the other likes to play with knives. If something happened to you . . .”
He crushed her against his chest and kissed the top of her head. “I’m just glad nothing happened to you. When I saw that guy with his hands on you and that gun pointed at you . . . I told you to stay outside.”
“I thought they might see you by the truck.”
Cop cars pulled into her driveway, their headlights blinding Rory and Sadie. The blue and red lights swirled around the inside of the barn.
Sadie dipped her hand in her blouse and tucked the paper into her bra. Rory’s gaze followed her hand’s progress. She gave him a shy smile and shrugged. “He told me to give it to a DEA agent. It seemed important that only he get it.”
“I don’t like this,” Rory said.
Mark cautiously entered the barn, gun in hand and pointed at the ground. “You guys okay?”
Stone Cold Cowboy Page 13
