Embattled Home (25 page)

Chad turned to scan the area for other threats and heard Lora cry out, then there was a blast of sound. When he turned back around, he realized Derek hadn’t been out cold as he’d pretended. Chad looked at the knife in the unconscious man’s limp hand, and the huge tree limb hanging from Lora’s. Blood coated the end of the wood, glistening in the evening light, and he was a little shocked at what she’d done. But appreciative. He moved to the man’s side and without even checking for a pulse, knew that he was gone. There was a crater in his head the size of a softball. He pressed his fingers to the carotid artery and confirmed what he suspected. Derek was dead.

Chad looked up at Lora and saw the knowledge in her eyes, but he also saw the disbelief. With one blow, she’d ended years of torment and subjugation. As Mercy climbed out from underneath the tree and clutched her mother’s legs, he saw the fear of what she had done change to fierce satisfaction. She had protected her daughter to the end.

When he heard the report of weapon fire, he lunged forward to wrap himself around the two of them and took the brunt of the fall on his side. Half a dozen more shots, sounding different than the first, echoed across the mountain before silence moved in. He peered over his shoulder.

Brock was just swinging down off his dark gelding and Flynn was moving in from the house side of the hill. Chad couldn’t believe his eyes. What did Brock think he was doing?

“What the hell are you doing up here?”

Brock took off his dripping hat as he peered down dazedly at the black clad merc he’d just shot, then looked up. “Tara came up to the house. She’d been bound and gagged and her truck had been stolen, but she managed to get loose and make it to help. I knew something was going on so I came up the mountain.”

Chad looked at the gelding again. It was breathing hard and lathered. He’d raced up the mountain it looked like.

Lora shifted and he moved, setting them away from him. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head, her bedraggled hair hanging down into her face. “We’re fine. Is that all of them?”

He looked at the mercenary on the ground. Flynn was checking his pockets and unloading the weapon the man had carried, but even from here Chad could see the man’s life had already leaked away. “We need to contact law enforcement. We’ve got a hell of a mess to explain.”

*     *     *

Lora watched yet
another truck pull into the driveway and pull into the yard. They had been coming and going for hours. First it had been the local sheriff’s department, and then it had been the FBI. The federal agency had had Derek under surveillance for the past several weeks. Months, actually. Duncan’s quiet probes had spurred them to focus their attention.

After they’d come down off the mountain, she’d given Mercy a bath, but her little one didn’t want to go to bed alone. Which was why she was curled up on the couch, even in the midst of the chaos around her, sound asleep. She stroked her hand over Mercy’s feet, where they rested on the cushion beside her. At Chad’s request, Garrett had brought up an old bear that had belonged to Chad years ago and she’d taken to it instantly. Handsome had been gutted, revealing the tiny black box GPS Derek had tracked them with, and placed into an evidence bag. Chad had explained that the receiver had had enough battery life to send a single ping every day. Just enough for Derek to keep tabs on them.

A black coroner’s van had arrived to collect the dead. Ambulances had arrived to collect the living. Harper had had to be flown out by Careflight to Amarillo, and she prayed that the big former SEAL would be okay. He’d been struck in the chest with a round and from the look on the other’s faces, it didn’t look good. There’d been a lot of blood. She’d known that. Flynn had been the one to find him and his pale eyes were more haunted than normal.

Rachel had been grazed by a shot from the mercenary she’d been fighting with. Probably had a broken rib, but she would be sore more than anything. Lora wished she could have seen the woman kick the guy’s ass, but she’d been a little busy then.

A cup of coffee appeared in front of her and she looked up at Chad’s older brother, Brock. She gave him a tight smile as she took the cup. “Thank you very much.”

He lowered himself to the chair catty-corner from the couch. “Are you doing okay?”

She nodded, cradling the cup to her. The coffee was scalding hot, but she was still chilled, even after the shower and bundling up. “Warming up. This will help.”

Brock cradled his own mug, looking down into the liquid without seeing anything.

Lora frowned. “I’m curious why you came to help? I didn’t think you liked your brother.”

His dark navy eyes swung to hers. “Is that what you thought? That I didn’t like my brother?” Frowning fiercely, he shook his head. “It’s quite the opposite, actually. I just…never knew how to relate to him. He did everything I wanted to do, had a girl who loved him, did what he wanted.”

“Didn’t you have that option as well?”

Frowning at her, he shook his hand and ran a hand through his curls, darker than Chad’s by a few shades. “I was always expected to be the one to take over, and don’t get me wrong, I love my life here. But I never had the chance to live like he did.”

Lora felt like she was wading through personal issues that the two brothers needed to hash out. Was this even her business?

“Honestly,” he continued, “I think it’s envy that has ruled us for so long. But how can I even say that when he returned wounded?”

Lora felt a presence move up beside her and looked up at Chad’s quizzical expression. He looked at his brother as if he’d never met him before. “What the fuck are you saying?”

Brock winced and looked at his little brother. “Nothing, Chad.”

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this? Better yet, why didn’t you join up to experience it yourself?”

“And leave Dad here alone? Who would have run the place?”

Chad gave him a disbelieving look. “Dad. Do you seriously think he couldn’t do it?”

Brock just shook his head. “You don’t understand.”

“I think you put a lot of expectations on yourself and what you think people wanted for you but never bothered to talk to the people involved.”

Frowning, his older brother sat back in the chair. “Maybe,” he agreed softly.

The agreement obviously set Chad back. Brock had the typical older sibling personality, used to taking on responsibility.

Lora watched the two of them interact and wondered at it. She’d never had that understanding with anybody and marveled at the conversation she could see silently taking place between the two of them.

Chad held his hand out to his brother. “Don’t waste your life wishing things had been different. Change the now.”

Brock took his brother’s hand with a nod. “I will. Hey, did you mean what you said to Tara? She told me she came up here the other day and you turned her away.”

Chad’s brows lifted in surprise. “I did.” He glanced at Lora. “I’m in a long term relationship and off the market.”

Sighing, Brock fingered the fabric of the chair he was sitting in. “I always thought the two of you would end up together.”

Chad made a face and grinned. “I think that’s what Tara thought too.”

Brock stood up from the chair and held his hand out again to his kid brother, but Chad tugged him into one of those back-slapping man hugs. Lora couldn’t help but smile as they stepped apart.

T
he FBI agent
in charge was a ball buster. Frank Calhoun,
Special Agent Calhoun
, Chad was reminded, didn’t like that a private security company had messed with his investigation. No matter how good they were. After listening to hours of snide comments and fielding dirty looks, Chad asked him to step outside.

Calhoun, sorry,
Special Agent Calhoun
, had directed too many investigations to be circumvented. As Chad squared in front of the man on the front porch of the house, he forced himself not to try to wave away the smoke the man was blowing in his face or to crow about the collar. Yes, Derek, the focus of their investigation was dead, but they had two mercenaries in custody that were wanted by a dozen different agencies around the world.

“And you have enough evidence here,” he waved a hand around the house, “to put them in lockup in this country for sixty years.”

Special Agent Calhoun ran a hand through his thinning hair. “You should have contained him when you had the chance.”

“You mean when I was fighting to get him away from Ms. O’Neil and her daughter on the mountainside? And I had a guy firing behind me?”

“Yes,” the man snapped. “You lost a valuable target. He had a list of charges as long as my arm waiting for him, but you give us these penny-ante crooks instead. Malone had embezzled millions. Murdered his mother.”

Chad leaned over the man, getting in his face. “And he beat the shit out of his ex. Where were you when he was trying to force himself on her three weeks ago? And where were you each time he violated that damn protection order she had against him?”

Calhoun’s jaw clenched. “We would have blown the investigation if we had stepped in at that time.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Chad planted his hands on his hips. “So she was an acceptable casualty? And the daughter was an acceptable casualty.”

Chad knew by the look in the other man’s eyes that he was right. Bastards. “Get what evidence you can and get out of here. I need to get to the hospital to check on my man. Another casualty because you didn’t step in sooner.”

Turning, he headed inside the house. Calhoun tried to call him back but he ignored the man.

Duncan would have been proud of him. God, Duncan. Boss man had not been happy when he’d called hours ago, when all the crap went down. But he’d understood. Chad could hear it in his voice.

As soon as he could break away, he would be driving to Amarillo, where they’d flown Harper. The need to call the hospital again needled at Chad, but he knew he would get no more information than he had last time. He needed to be on site to get the info he needed. Flynn said that it looked like Harper had been shot twice. Close range. Luckily, the shooter hadn’t been as good as Harper himself. If the man recovered it would be a hell of a story.

Chad’s gut clenched, but he forced himself to walk inside fairly normally.

Lora was asleep on the couch. Most of the people had left, other than Flynn and a nameless agent at the kitchen table. Even as he watched the man received a text message, then gathered up the forms he was filling out. With a final nod, he left the house.

Through the front bay window, Chad watched the line of nondescript vehicles turn and head down the mountain. They’d tramped everything into the ground, collected all available evidence, and left a mess in their wake. Brock and his father had left long ago.

Rubbing his eyes, he looked up at the moon. It had to be creeping on toward three a.m., but he was restless as hell. Lora had curled up on the couch with Mercy and he took a minute to ease another blanket over the two of them. Now that the threat of Derek was gone, they needed to head back to Colorado.

Flynn sat at the kitchen table nursing a cup of black coffee. He was the only one who had escaped injury completely, lucky bastard. Bruises were developing all over Chad’s body from the fights and his right kidney ached like a mother. Lora had patched up the scratch on his shoulder. And his leg was chafing. He just didn’t have time to take care of it.

“Are you able to get them back? I have to head to Amarillo to check on Preston.”

Flynn nodded. “Of course. I expected you to.” He surveyed his boss up and down. “You may want to shower first. Harper’s not moving for a while.”

Chad looked down his body and realized he still had on the same clothes he’d started the morning with. He sighed. Another delay. “Yeah. I’ll go clean up and gather my crap. I’ll call Brock in the morning and send him up for the horses. Take your time heading back. We don’t have to race anymore.”

Flynn gave that single, somber nod and went back to staring into his coffee.

“Are you okay?” Chad asked.

For a moment, when Flynn looked at him, he felt like there were many things unsaid that he needed to let out, but then his eyes chilled. “I’m fine. Go get your shower, boss man.”