Her Mountain Brothers

by Crowne, K. C.

  “Then let that person be me,” I said.

  “No fucking way,” Hazel argued, shaking her head.

  “Why not? I’m his best friend. I’m sure I’d make excellent bait as well,” I said.

  “No,” Wyatt said. “If anyone goes, it’s me.”

  “Fuck, no,” Hazel and I said at the same time.

  “Why not?”

  Because you’re already injured, Wyatt. You can’t really defend yourself if the going gets tough,” I said. “I can fight back. I stand a better chance at escaping.”

  “No,” Hazel said. “No, it has to be me. No one else needs to be hurt by my brother’s antics.”

  “I still say we check out this address first. If nothing comes of it, then one of us will head over to the meeting with whoever has your friend,” Wyatt said. He gave me a look, and I knew he was up to something. I just wasn’t sure what. I decided to play along.

  Hazel didn’t seem convinced, but when Wyatt joined me in front of the door with his pants and shirt on and both of us towered over her, she must have realized she had no other choice.

  Heaving a sigh, she said, “Fine.” But she didn’t look happy about it. “Just know that I won’t let up. I won’t let either of you go. It will be me that replaces Christina.”

  Wyatt shot me a look that said “Hold back,” so I did. I didn’t argue with her. As much as I wanted to, I followed my brother’s lead.

  “Let’s just see what happens at this address, alright?” I said. “But first, we need to get Wyatt cleaned up, make sure his wound doesn’t get infected.”

  Mentioning Wyatt and his wound softened the look on Hazel’s face. I almost felt bad for using it to help execute my plan. The way she looked at my brother, it was clear she loved him dearly and that she’d do anything to protect him.

  And I felt the same way about her.

  “You’re right, but we need to hurry,” Hazel said, motioning for my brother to follow her into the bathroom. We shared a look, and I think that’s when Wyatt figured out my plan. He had one of his own, but this part wasn’t in it. He hesitated, but while Hazel’s back was turned, I spoke softly into his ear.

  “One of us has to do it, or she will.”

  She loved him, I saw it in her eyes. She had feelings for me, but I knew she would always love Wyatt more. They deserved to be happy together, and by handing myself over, I was killing two birds with one stone. The two people I loved most in the world would end up happy, eventually, and at least they’d be alive.

  I had a split second to make a run for it. Wyatt hesitated but relented, walking over to Hazel and sitting down on the bed. He never took his eyes off me, mouthing the words, “Don’t do it.” But I knew I had to do it. There was no other way.

  She removed his shirt and started caring for the wound, her back to the door.

  That was my moment.

  I opened the door and slipped out, the truck keys in my hand. I heard Hazel’s voice calling out to me, cursing me, but I had a head start on her. I ran like my life depended on it, because hers certainly did, and made it to my truck seconds before she did. Locking the doors, I started the old truck as Hazel approached, screaming at me with tears in her eyes.

  “Don’t do this, Ryder! Please don’t do this! I can’t lose you,” she wailed beating her fists against my window. She fell to her knees in the parking lot as I drove away, trying my damnedest not to look back at her.

  Her screams echoed in my ears for a long time after I drove away, but I kept on chugging along the freeway, headed toward the address she had given to Wyatt.

  Wyatt

  I ran to her as fast as I could, scooping her up with my good arm and lifting her off the ground. She fought against me at first, not wanting to go back inside, but the truck was long gone, with no way for us to follow him. She pounded her fists against my chest, screaming at me in a fit of rage. I guided her back into the room and shut the door behind us.

  “How could you?” she howled. “You tricked me!”

  “Hazel, I didn’t know! I swear to you,” I said, grabbing her fists. Her entire body shook as she wept. “Do you think I wanted that to happen?”

  “You were up to something, both of you,” I said.

  “Yes, I was,” I admitted. “I was planning on running off myself, not letting him go.”

  She stopped fighting me and stared at me with big, bright eyes that shone with fear and anger, a blend of emotions that shook her to her very core.

  “Wyatt, I— I can’t lose you, either. I can’t lose either of you,” she said. “I love you both too much.”

  Hearing those words fall from her lips, even through the tears, caused my heart to thunder in my chest. She loved me. I’d waited nearly all my damn life to hear her say it. I stroked her face, comforting her. “And we both love you too. Neither of us could live with ourselves if something happened to you, that’s why Ryder went through with this.”

  My phone buzzed, causing us both to jump. Hazel reached for it, but I pulled it back, not letting her take it from me.

  “Is it Ryder?” she asked impatiently.

  “No,” I said, watching her face fall. “It’s Boone. I told him they had Christina, and—”

  “You what?” Hazel asked. “You told him?”

  “Yeah, right after I saw his message with the address,” I said.

  “Oh no. No, no, no,” she said, falling to the ground again. She kept shaking her head and repeating the word no. “If Boone knows, he’ll try to go to her,” she said.

  I looked at my messages and she was right. A chasm opened in my chest and I had to stave off my own cresting wave of emotion.

  Don’t do anything more. I’m handling things from now on. Take what you have to the police, and whatever you do, keep Hazel safe. Take care of her. Tell her I love her and I’m sorry.

  It almost felt like a goodbye, and in a way, it was. He was done, handing himself over to the people who wanted him dead. Hazel grabbed my phone from my hand and read the message, her voice catching in her throat. Her hands fumbled as she typed something, and I couldn’t make out what she was typing. A second later, my phone rang and Hazel answered.

  “Boone, please,” she begged. “I can’t lose you.”

  I sat down beside her on the floor, my ear close to the phone so I could hear his responses to her.

  “I love her, Hazel. I can’t let anything happen to her,” he said. “I can fix this, but we both know what that means. And I’d rather trade myself for her. I’d do it any day of the week.”

  “No, Boone, please; this isn’t goodbye.”

  “It is goodbye, Hazel. I’m sorry,” he said. “Tell Ryder and Wyatt to take care of you. I love you.”

  “No, Boone, please—”

  Before she could say anything else, the line went dead. Hazel screamed in frustration, throwing the phone across the room. It hit the wall with a dull thud, bounced off, and hit the floor.

  “They’re all going to die. All of them,” she whimpered. “And there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  Hearing her cry broke my heart, and I felt so helpless. I hated feeling helpless. I had to take care of her but wasn’t sure how I could do that. And my brother and friend were out there, meeting with some very bad men and were likely going to get themselves killed in the process. I couldn’t sit around and do nothing. I just couldn’t.

  “If I rent us a car, can you drive?” I asked.

  “Of course! But—”

  * * *

  Before she got any slick ideas, I put my hands up, stopping her. “We’re not going to the meeting location. I want to get us a car and get the hell out of here. I need to keep you safe, and I think the safest place for you is far away from Los Angeles while all this shit goes down. I need to get you clear of it, Hazel.”

  “I’m a big girl, you know. I can take care of myself.”

  “Yes, but I also owe it to Ryder and your brother to make sure you’re safe. I gave them both my word,” I said. “And I hate f
eeling useless. At least let me do this one damn thing.”

  “I understand,” she said, staring at her hands. She was quiet for a second, seeming to ponder something over before saying, “You know, I think there were some cards in the office for a rental car place nearby. They even offered to pick you up.”

  “Sounds perfect,” I said, grimacing as I stood up.

  I had no idea where we’d go, but at least we’d be out of dodge. I grabbed my phone, pocketing it, and said a silent prayer that I’d hear from both Ryder and Boone in a few hours, telling me everything worked out and they were all safe.

  It was probably too much to ask for, but hell, hope was all I had left at that point.

  * * *

  “Why are we stopping?” I asked as Hazel pulled over to the side of the road.

  I looked around and I didn’t see much. There were just some old warehouse buildings, which made me a bit suspicious. I’d let her drive because my right arm was all banged up, but I was regretting that choice as she stepped out of the car.

  “I’ll be right back,” she said. “You stay here.”

  “Hell no,” I told her, getting out of the car with her.

  She quickened her pace, doing her best to keep herself a few steps ahead of me as she headed for the warehouses. I had to speed up to catch her, grabbing her arm as she fought against me.

  “Let me go!”

  With lightning fast speed, she spun and swung her leg out, kicking me in the shin. It hurt like hell, but I didn’t budge. I wouldn’t budge. Not unless she turned her ass around and headed for the car rather than the warehouses.

  “We were supposed to be heading to Mexico,” I said.

  “Yeah, well, I decided to make a pit stop,” she said, her head held high, her chin jutting out defiantly. “Thought I’d pick up a few of our friends along the way.”

  I looked to the warehouses lost in thought, my gut churning, and while I was distracted, Hazel took advantage of it. She slipped her arm free and took off running, and boy, she was fast. My legs were longer than hers, but I was built for heavy lifting, not running. She was on the track team in high school. She’d been one of the fastest girls we had too. Not much had changed between then and now; she still ran like the goddamn wind.

  I booked it after her, but she was like a cheetah after her prey and there was nothing on God’s green earth going to stop her. She didn’t even bother to watch where she was going either, which scared the shit out of me.

  I had to focus on her, not where we were headed, which made me nervous. I couldn’t lose sight of her, especially as we got closer to the buildings. I followed her through a doorway and tried to keep pace as she weaved in and out of the corridors, faking lefts and rights, trying to throw me off. I slowly gained on her, and just when I thought I might finally be able to grab her, she stopped.

  I hit the brakes as fast as I could, feeling like a car skidding on ice. She was a sports car, able to stop on a dime. I was more like a tank; it took me a while to slow and then stop. I just barely avoided running into her, which wouldn’t have ended well for her. It only took me a second to realize why she’d stopped running.

  We were there.

  In a large, empty room, I saw my brother standing off to one side, partially hidden from view. He saw me at the same time, and even though he couldn’t say anything, I read the reaction on his face before he was able to check himself and smooth his features. The look of shock that had been there a moment before was gone in a flash.

  “Hazel,” I whispered, taking her arm, hoping it wasn’t too late to escape with her.

  A large garage door in the far end of the room opened at that moment, pulling up slowly and revealing about ten armed men who were just looking for a reason to shoot somebody. In the middle of all of them was a petite Hispanic woman tied to a chair. I figured that must be Christina.

  “Hazel, come on,” I said, though I knew we were too late.

  My brother hadn’t been able to control his reaction quickly enough, and they saw us. A large man, who had to be at least six-foot-seven and weighed in at more than four hundred pounds— much of it solid muscle— stepped toward us. As far as I could tell, he wasn’t armed. He may have been one of the only ones who wasn’t.

  I had a tight grip on Hazel’s arm and began walking her backward, but she dug her heels into the ground and refused to budge. The man walked up to us and smiled.

  “I thought I said only one of you, or your friend dies,” the man said.

  “I tried,” Hazel said. “He wouldn’t let me go. I had to trick him to get here, but neither of us are armed and I’ll hand myself over willingly if you let her go, like we discussed on the phone.”

  The man looked me over, then studied Hazel. “And your brother?”

  “I have no idea where he is. I told you that before,” she said. “Nothing has changed on that front. My brother is in the wind. I swear it.”

  From the corner of my eye, near Ryder, I saw movement. A bright red mop of hair had joined him, hugging the side of the building, just out of sight. Boone had finally decided to make an appearance.

  The man seemed to mull the situation over, stroking his mustache as he studied Hazel. Then he shrugged.

  “I’m not so sure your brother cares about you, so to be sure, I’ll keep the girl hostage in addition to the two of you,” he said. “Maybe your brother won’t want four murders on his hands.

  Fuck. Just as I expected.

  Hazel still seemed unfazed. She sat there calmly and quietly. I had no idea how she wasn’t freaking the fuck out, but I was impressed and I tried to follow her lead. I wasn’t surprised by his dirty tactics or the fact that he’d break a deal he just brokered in good faith. Not in the slightest. Hazel yanked her arm free and walked toward the man.

  The men behind her raised their weapons menacingly, a dozen gun barrels trained directly on her. She held out her hands to show she was unarmed.

  “That’s not what we agreed on,” she said, her voice calm as she spoke slowly.

  “Yeah, but now that you’re both here, it’s just easier this way,” the man said, motioning for two men behind him to step forward. “And I’m nothing if not efficient.”

  The two men had guns as large as their arms and masks covering their faces. One grabbed Hazel’s arm, the other grabbed my bad one, and I winced in pain.

  That left eight others armed and ready to fight. Our odds of making it out of this alive and in one piece weren’t looking good, not in the least. Even if Ryder and Boone could surprise them, I wasn’t sure they could take on eight to ten armed men at once. That was asking a lot from a couple of guys without any sort of training.

  Without a solid plan in mind that would keep us alive, I let the armed man hold onto my arm. I gave him the sense that he was in control, while keeping an eye on my brother and Boone. As if on cue, Ryder nodded his head at me, and I knew exactly what it meant.

  With my good arm, I swung at the man, clocking him right in the face with my bare fist. The crack of my fist meeting his nose sounded like a baseball hitting an old leather mitt. The snap of his nose was loud, and the blood started to flow immediately. The man’s neck snapped backward, and he let out an audible grunt but remained standing.

  His grip loosened on me, though, so I lashed out with my leg, knocking him off his feet, and the gun fell to the ground when he landed flat on his back. We both went for it at the same time, just as shots rang out around us, the shots sounding like thunder rolling across the sky. I was a half second faster than the big man, grabbing the fallen gun first. I spun, rolled over, and brought it to bear on the man.

  Ryder and Boone had stepped out of their hiding places and opened fire from their positions, drawing the attention of the armed men. Hazel had broken free and with the help of Ryder, was standing near the man who had grabbed her. Boone had focused on saving Christina, and the men around her were on the ground, bleeding. The element of surprise had given us an advantage and the momentum was on our side fo
r now, but more men flooded the room from a back door and outnumbered us in a matter of moments.

  The man on the ground by Hazel kicked her feet out from under her. She went down like a sack of dirty laundry. I heard her grunt when she fell backside first onto the pavement as I rushed toward her. Ryder did as well, but we were too late. The man had his gun back and it was aimed directly at her face. He lifted Hazel to her feet and drug her over to the big man.

  “We’ll kill her. I swear to God I’ll blow a hole in her big enough to drive a truck through. Don’t fucking think I won’t,” the big man said. “If you want her alive, throw down your weapons.”

  Hazel screamed in frustration, “Don’t do it, they’ll kill all of us if you do.”

  The main guy shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe we’ll let her live since she’s pretty harmless.”

  Ryder and I looked at one another.

  “No, please,” Hazel pleaded. “Shoot this fucker. Don’t give up.”

  The math was not on our side. There were too many of them and only four of us. And they had Hazel. There was no getting around it. We were outnumbered, outgunned, and if we did anything rash or stupid, Hazel would be the first of us to die.

  I dropped my gun first, laying it gently at my feet. Ryder did the same thing next. We watched Boone, who was closing in on Christina, and he finally relented, placing the weapon at his feet and putting his hands up.

  It was over.

  Hazel

  Harmless, huh? I always loved when men underestimated me based on my size. It had happened with Wyatt earlier and I was still in a bit of a snit about it. I was going to make these assholes sorry for ever messing with me and my family. My guys giving up their guns put a kink in my plan, however. I had intended for them to be ready to fight when I made my move. Now I had to just do it and hope for the best. Not a great plan, but the only plan I had.