"She could've been killed yet again." His sister's expression and voice were sympathetic. "So, you brought her here, because you care about her and you're a protector. Because your observations and instinct told you she'd been ill-treated by a man in the past and because you hadn't protected me when you think you should've, you'll protect her."
Price nodded. "Yeah. You're pretty damn smart, baby sis."
Fee's lips twisted into a smile. "That's Dr. Baby Sis." Her expression grew serious. "So…back to my question. What if she doesn't want to be here?"
"Yeah. What if?" He blew out a rough breath and scrubbed both hands over his face. "I would let her go to wherever she needed to be."
And he'd shadow her and make sure she was damn well protected. Because whatever had gone on in her past, something was catching up with her, and he wanted to be there when it did.
"Good, that's good." Fee patted his knee.
Damn, he was fucking tired. He'd been going non-stop since the emergency call-out for a personal security detail late on Saturday night. After he'd provided escort for the client out of the situation she'd gotten herself into and to a safe place, he'd only managed to catch a battle nap on the SSI jet from L.A. into the Elk City airport. Once home, he'd grabbed a quick shower and change of clothes to go to Ma's to be with Tara.
Ever since he'd come upon the asshole—his name was Billy Ray Horner, according to Dan—trying to knife his woman, he realized he shouldn't have fucking left Idaho. He should've asked Ren to send someone else and stayed to talk to Tara, because then he would've been here when she'd fucking needed him.
"Fee? Do you think Tara could lo-…like me? For a boyfriend, at least? I was…am willing to wait—"
"She likes you." Fee sighed. "But you really need to talk to her and see where she's at emotionally and mentally. Also, you need to give the woman a break. She's still getting to know and appreciate your wonderfulness. She has told me and the other SSI gals that she wants the kind of relationship I have with Trey and they have with their men."
"Yeah, Trey and the guys shared that with me. It gave me some hope."
Fee smiled. "It's a start…but something happened to her a little over two years ago and it was…extreme."
"Worse than Dr. Adam-fucking-Stall stalking and raping you, then trying to kill you?" Price stiffened as he thought of all that motherfucker had put his baby sister through.
"Yeah." Fee lightly stroked a finger over Tara's bruised and scraped hand. "Lots worse. She's a helluva strong woman, Price. Outwardly she appears well-adjusted, but there are times I see nightmares in her eyes. She has to be having flashbacks from the trauma."
PTSD. He knew all about that shit. He had his own nightmares from his time on the teams. Not as much as he used to, but they were there, lingering in the back of his mind, coming out when he'd had a bad op or some odd thing triggered a memory.
Fee leaned forward and gave his knee a jiggle. "Yeah, I've also seen nightmares in your eyes sometimes. You understand and that's good. Talk to her. Share your feelings. Just be you, because, big brother, you are one of the nicest, most honorable men I know. While you always gave me and the older sibs the room to make mistakes and fight our own fights, you were always there to back us up if we needed a helping hand."
Price picked up Fee's hand still on his knee and gave it a squeeze. "I wasn't there for you after Stall hurt you."
His heart hurt when he recalled what she'd gone through, but that was over now, all but for her own flashbacks which Trey had shared were tapering off. The motherfucker Stall would never see the light of day outside prison walls and he'd been permanently crippled by the avalanche of rocks Fee had unleashed on the bastard.
"You can't be everywhere. None of what happened to me was your fault, just as what's happening to Tara isn't your fault," Fee lectured. "Also keep in mind, she's in Idaho because she survived. She wouldn't thank you for thinking she needs a man's protection."
"I want to be her safety net." Price looked Tara and a sense of peace settled over him. For this moment, she was safe and in a place he could protect her. But his sister had a valid point. "I have no doubt Tara can kick butt with the best of them. She kicked the shit out of Horner tonight." But she'd struggled and was injured because the motherfucker had put her on the ground. He and the guys would be teaching ground-fighting sessions for Tara and any of the other SSI women who wanted them. "I'd trust her at my back anytime."
"If after your talk Tara chooses to leave your house, she can stay with Trey and me while she recovers. I've learned that proximity helps in speeding up a relationship. If I'd lived in Idaho for the first ten months after I met Trey rather than New Mexico, he and I would've been living together a hell of a lot sooner."
Price chuckled. "And the company jet would've had a lot less mileage on it." Trey had visited Fee monthly, sometimes twice a month, while she lived and worked in New Mexico.
"Yeah, Ren said something about wishing I'd cut his brother some slack a lot sooner." Fee giggled just as Tara whimpered and grimaced.
“Fee?” Price looked at Tara then at his sister. "She's hurting."
“She’s as comfortable as I can make her for the moment. I’ll stay here tonight, so I can monitor her symptoms. If her pain increases, I'll give her more morphine. She could be a fast metabolizer. I'll ask her when she wakes up. I don't have any of her previous medical records and don't want to over-medicate.”
“Thanks, sis.” He stroked the back of his finger over Tara's high cheekbone. He'd wanted her in his bed, but not this way—not injured and in pain. “She’s just so pale.”
"She'll be fine." Fee touched his arm. "The wound was nasty, but nothing vital was hit. Infection is what I need to keep ahead of. And knowing Tara, she'll be up and moving by tomorrow afternoon.
"Yeah, she's the type to downplay an injury.” After all, she’d done the same thing on Saturday after being shot at. She still wore a bandage covering a cut on her shoulder from that incident.
“Come on, big brother,” Fee said. “Let the woman sleep. We’ll hear her if she needs us.”
Price reluctantly followed Fee out of his main floor master bedroom. He could’ve put Tara in one of the upstairs guest bedrooms, but dammit, he wanted her in his bed. Later, after he got rid of the SSI gang currently camped out in his great room and made sure Fee was comfortably set up in one of the other bedrooms, he’d sit in the chair next to his bed and be there if Tara needed anything.
Leaving one of the double doors to his bedroom slightly ajar, he moved down the hall that ran the width of his house and led eventually to his home office. At the midpoint of the hallway which serviced the two rooms, he turned right and entered the great room.
The open concept room was filled with well-wishers from the SSI family and Dan Morgan.
“How is she?” Dan asked.
While Price considered Dan a good friend, right now all he wanted to do was kick his buddy’s ass.
“She's sleeping. So, no, you can’t grill her any more this evening,” Price snarled as he and Fee joined Trey on one of the sofas near the fireplace. Kicking Dan for doing his job as sheriff wouldn't be appropriate, but it didn't mean Price couldn't make his feelings known. "Why in the fuck couldn’t you have waited to get her statement until tomorrow? At Ma's, she was in pain and half out of it."
"Fuck, Price. Maisie's dead. Tara said Horner admitted to killing Maisie. Horner is now claiming he's an innocent victim. That Tara caught him fucking Maisie in the front seat of his truck and killed Maisie in a jealous rage, then turned on him."
The atmosphere in the room went tense with hushed disbelief. Price broke the uncomfortable silence. In a low, feral tone, he growled, "What the fuck, Dan? You fucking believe that bullshit?"
His friend held up a hand, a look of disgust on his face. "I didn't believe one word out of the fucker's mouth. Neither did my deputy, who I’d made sure witnessed Tara’s questioning so that later no one could say I was b
iased because of my friendship with all of you."
Dan and his deputy had pushed Tara hard as she lay on top of Nick's desk. While her voice had been weak and shaky, her story never wavered. His little firefly had a core of steel. But Price still wished he could've protected her from what had been something between an interrogation and the taking of a witness statement.
"Besides, the coroner's report and crime scene analysis will prove Horner's guilty as hell. I've got one of my deputies running Horner's prints through the system to see if he has any priors," Dan said. "Maisie wasn't just fucked. She was brutally raped and not in the fucking truck. There were no signs of semen in the truck that the crime scene team could find. She also had gravel imbedded in her back, for chrissakes. But I still needed to get Tara's side of the story—and I’ll need to go over it with her again when she's awake, just to make sure she didn't leave anything out. Details might come back to her after she's rested and isn't in pain. Forensics will link the bastard to the crime. Tara's testimony will be the nails in the asshole's coffin."
Price planned on being there when Dan spoke with Tara again. If his friend treated her as anything but a victim of an assault, he and Dan would be having a talk.
"But Dan, when you came inside the diner, we told you what she’d told us," Keely said. "Why do you have to talk to her again?"
God, Price loved Keely to pieces right now. He shot her a grateful smile for her support of Tara.
Dan responded, “I need to hear it from her. She's the witness and a victim. I don't want this fucker slipping off the hook for any reason. The prosecutor hates hearsay evidence even with the excited utterance exception. I also need to get the time sequence straight. According to the on-scene time of death estimates, Maisie was most likely dead before Tara even returned her brother's phone call and went outside."
That had bothered Price ever since Tara had told Dan the movements that led to her fight with Horner and the discovery of Maisie's body. He understood leaving the table to have a private phone conversation with her brother, but—"Why did she leave the diner? And why go out the back way where she knew she wouldn't be able to get back inside?"
"Aidan, that's her oldest brother, told me she was upset with his news and was heading to her vehicle to go home when she told him someone was with her in the darkened lot." Dan's lips thinned. "Horner had to have broken the only light back there. Nick said it was unbroken when he arrived earlier in the evening. Tara parked her Rover under it. We found glass on the hood."
"Tara said she heard Horner near her vehicle, cursing her. So he was waiting on her to leave the diner," DJ reminded them all.
"So, what was the bad news that caused her to run?" Keely asked Dan. “Did her brother tell you?”
"Yeah, and it's bad enough that her three brothers are on their way here from Missoula," Dan said. "I figure, depending on whether they drive or fly, you'll see them soon."
Shit, he was going to have to deal with three men who wouldn't like the fact Tara was in his house…in his bed.
Her brothers could go fuck themselves.
Tara was the only one who'd decide if she remained in his home or left. Moreover, if her brothers challenged Tara’s right to make that decision, he’d go to war for her.
If she chose to leave—his heart stuttered at the thought—she'd be moving to the Fee and Trey's or the Lodge. Because no way in hell would he or any of her SSI friends allow her to go back to the isolated cabin outside of Elk City. It was too dangerous.
The shooter who'd targeted her on Saturday was in the wind and could be hiding anywhere in the vast National Forest or the wilderness areas, waiting for a chance to shoot at her again. Horner was definitely not the shooter; his blood type didn't match that of the sniper's. That had been the first thing Dan had checked once they'd transported the fucker to the county jail.
"The man who attacked and raped Tara back in Montana—"
"Wait," Price interrupted Dan’s words. "What?"
Fee covered Price's fisted hand.
Dan looked at Price. “You didn't know about her previous attack?"
"No," Price gritted out. Every muscle in his body went taut preparing to annihilate the man who'd hurt his firefly so badly she'd fled to a different state, away from her home and family. "Keep going."
Dan nodded, his expression dark. "The call that upset her—It was about Steven Miller, the man who attacked, raped, and sold Tara into slavery with one of the Lake Superior sex slave operations over two years ago. He was convicted a year ago and sentenced to multiple life sentences for murder. The fucker escaped."
"Escaped…how?" Price throttled back the rage threatening to overtake his body.
He'd guessed that Tara had been attacked, possibly raped, and Fee had pretty much confirmed his conclusions. But sold into sex slavery?
It was a lot worse than he'd thought. No wonder Fee had urged him to check into Tara's current emotional and mental state. It amazed him that Tara could even stand to be around and work with men.
Dan grimaced. "Miller appealed the conviction on some trumped-up technicality. The Nightwalker brothers can give you more details on the escape. Since Miller was serving several consecutive life sentences for murder on top of kidnapping and rape convictions, his escape has just shot this motherfucker to the top ten of every law enforcement jurisdictions' most-wanted list."
"Why does Tara's brother think Miller would head this way?" Ren asked. "If I were him, I'd leave the States, cross over into Canada, get a new ID, then travel to a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S."
"Vengeance," Dan said.
The word froze Price's blood. "Why? She was a victim."
"Tara Nightwalker is a fucking hero,” Dan said. Ren had said as much on Saturday. “She was the main reason Miller was convicted for the murders of three other Native American women he kidnapped and raped and who didn't survive his abuse before he could sell them into slavery. The murder convictions assured he'd never see the light of day outside prison walls ever again. At his sentencing hearing, he vowed to kill Tara."
Praying it wasn’t so, Price asked, "Did she see him kill the women?" He hoped she didn't have those nightmares on top of whatever else had happened to her.
"No." Dan's expression grew even darker. "Miller boasted about all the women he'd killed as he hurt Tara and threatened to do the same to her. He bragged about how he'd buried three of them on the Blackfoot reservation lands in one of their most sacred areas. His way of thumbing his nose at the Blackfoot belief system. After Tara escaped, her detailed statements about what he’d told her led tribal and Federal authorities to the graves. They found the bodies of the three women. Forensic evidence tied their deaths to him and backed up everything Tara told authorities."
"Why didn't he kill Tara?" Tweeter asked. When Price growled, Tweeter shot him a commiserating glance. "Sorry, buddy, but it's a logical question."
Dan snorted. "Miller was also greedy. He kidnapped Native American women to sell since their disappearances weren't pursued as aggressively by the Feds who had ultimate jurisdiction over crimes on tribal lands. Mostly, he took the women, raped and then sold them. But according to what he told Tara, sometimes he got carried away and they died from the abuse. He reined himself in with Tara since dead women wouldn't get him paid."
"How many women did he do this to?" Fee asked.
Price unfisted his hand and turned it over to clasp hers, giving her comfort, just as she'd given him.
"No clue. They might never know until they find the bodies and can tie him to them in some way." Dan shook his head. "The Feds concluded Miller expected all the witnesses to his crimes would eventually die on the ships. From interviews of the survivors who were lucky enough to be rescued from the brothel ships, the Feds have concluded most of the women sold into sex slavery died and their bodies were dumped into Lake Superior. The perverts visiting those ships liked to rape, then kill the women."
"How do you know all
this?" Price asked Dan as he swept a glance over Ren, Trey, and Tweeter. "Was this what you guys kept from me on Saturday?"
All three nodded, dark looks on their faces.
"I don't know how the others found out," Dan said. "I recognized Tara's name when she moved into the area, but couldn't put my finger on why I did. So, I checked her out and remembered the case but not all the details. I obtained the court transcripts. What I read in those was why I called her a hero. Without Tara's testimony, Miller would still be taking Native American women, terrorizing them, and selling them into hell."
Price would eventually find out just how Tara had managed to survive and turn the tables on Miller. He hoped she'd trust him enough to tell him all about it herself. Then let him be there for her when the nightmares hit.
"How did Miller take Tara? She's not one to be easily taken. Tonight's attack proved that," Price asked.
"Miller was a smokejumper instructor at Missoula," Ren said. "He's a real piece of work. From what Tweeter found out about him through his online presence because—"
"Nothing ever entirely disappears from the Internet," Tweeter interjected.
Ren nodded. "Miller's a white supremacist, a misogynist, and a perverted psychopath—"
"From the Dark Net sites he visited, he was an extremely fucked-up sadistic sicko," Tweeter again interjected.
"Who somehow made it through the military and into the forest service without anyone killing him for all of the above," Ren concluded.
"That's more than came out at the trial. Could I have copies of what you've found, Tweeter? I want to add them to the file I'm starting on Miller." Dan blew out an angry breath. "'Cause I figure—as does her brother Aidan—Miller will come here. According to Aidan, Miller had a thing for Tara and she turned him down. Supposedly, Tara has a sixth sense, or as Aidan called it a shamanic sense, about people. She told her brothers Miller had a dark aura and that he was a killer. They brushed off her feelings. Aidan said no one in their family will ever question her instincts again."
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