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“Goddamn. He went back for Quin.”
Charles “Charlie” James passed away peacefully forty-nine hours later, surrounded by his family and friends. Regardless of the fact she hadn’t been there, he’d given his life in order to save his daughter. In my eyes, he was a hero…full stop.
The house wasn’t a total loss, however there was extensive fire and water damage. Quin insisted on seeing it for herself. After a brief argument, which I had no hopes of winning, I drove her there. She’d been a rock for days, a shoulder for her mother to lean on, but seeing the devastation firsthand was when she finally crumbled.
Earth-shattering sobs tore through her as I held her close in front of her childhood home. There was nothing I could say, nothing I could do to ease her pain except share in her grief.
“We’ll rebuild, baby. We’ll keep his memory alive.”
The loud rumbling of engines interrupted our time on the farm. We looked behind us to see several vehicles pulling up the gravel driveway.
“What the hell?” She wiped the tears from her eyes as the processional came to a stop a few feet away. The door to a dark blue pickup truck opened and a familiar figure stepped out. “Pete? What’s going on?”
“Quinny,” his voice cracked, tears shining in his wrinkled eyes as he took her in his arms. “Charlie was my best friend and I’m gonna miss him like crazy, but he was a prideful old coot. Mountain Grove was his home and he should have never shut them out.”
“You have such a way with words,” she chuckled, giving me a glimpse of the strong woman I loved so much. “What does that have to do with anything though?”
“The town voted unanimously. We take care of our own, and you and Millie are ours. It will take a few months, but with everyone pitching it, we’ll have the farmhouse back to its old glory in no time.”
Gobsmacked was the only word I could think of when I finally noticed the contents of the dozen or so trucks lining up on the lawn. Trailer after trailer full of supplies from wooden support beams to windows. They had everything necessary to transform the burned-out structure in front of us back into the cherished family home it had been a few days before.
“I don’t know what to say.” Quin slumped against my side.
“Say yes. We let you and your mom down, Quinny. We let Charlie down. Give us the opportunity to fix what was broken four years ago.”
“Okay,” she croaked.
_______________
“WE KNOW WHEREthey’ve been hiding.”
Two days had passed since we’d left a piece of our hearts behind at the hospital. The entire family, including Millie, who’d been staying with the Smiths, had gathered at Ma and Pop’s for a combination family dinner slash funeral preparation when we were interrupted by Caleb’s unexpected visit.
“Where?” I leaped to my feet, meeting him halfway across the room, my brothers quick on my tail.
“They’ve been switching up their locations daily, but we finally got information which puts them in the same warehouse where my father found Quin.”
“Who’d this information come from?” Luc pressed.
“Me.”
Keaton entered the room behind him, looking even more unkempt than he had the last time I’d seen him. His normally well-groomed hair was greasy, as if it hadn’t been washed in more than a week, and his clothes were dirty and rumpled. He looked more like a homeless man than a federal agent at the moment.
“And how exactly did you get this intel?” I questioned.
He held up one fist, the knuckles raw and bruised. “Hard work.” He smiled, holding up the other fist. “And determination.”
“Dude, really?” Rico laughed. “Naming your fists went out in the eighties.”
“I’m old-school.” He smirked.
“Enough, children.” I looked back at Caleb. “When are we going? And don’t you dare fucking say I’m grounded.”
“Kolton is meeting us at the station in fifteen minutes, so we’ve got to go now before we lose the element of surprise.”
Kolton Lane was not only an officer with the Mountain Grove Police Department, he was also Caleb’s brother-in-law.
“Give me two minutes.”
