Dani’s gaze turned to her. “Who are you? A cop?”
“I’m going to carry you back to my truck,” Gard said, ignoring Dani’s question to Lia. “I know it’s probably going to hurt, but we’re going to get you to a doctor. Don’t touch your head and just hold on to me if you can.”
He carefully pulled her into his arms and gingerly got to his feet. Dani didn’t really hold on to him. She was limp in his arms. Had she lost consciousness again? That wouldn’t be good. She needed to stay with it.
“Dani, where are they keeping you?” Lia asked. Both to keep Dani engaged and because… Gard might have to take Dani to safety, but that didn’t mean Lia had to. If Dani could tell her the holding place, Lia could go and… Find Sammy.
They had to find Sammy.
Dani groaned, her head lolling as Gard began to walk. But after a few moments, she spoke. “It’s a…cellar thing. Under the barn. The barn’s falling down, but the cellar is intact. They lock us up in there when they’re not…” She trailed off.
Lia wasn’t sure if she’d lost consciousness or didn’t want to say. Particularly in front of her brother. Who was carrying her gingerly back the way he and Lia had come. Lia looked back out into the dark night. Where was the barn? Where was Sammy?
“Gard, I tried to stop them,” Dani said, her voice going squeaky. “I tried so hard. They have her. In the house. You have to get her. You have to.”
Sammy. Lia looked toward the house, her brain already working through options. Sammy was in the house. In the party. Lia and Gard wouldn’t be able to sneak her out, but…
But Lia might be able to. If she walked into a situation she’d been in before, knew how to work.
“We’ll get her. First, you need some help.” Gard was walking forward, but he paused and looked over his shoulder at Lia when she didn’t follow. “Come on. We’ll get her to the truck and then you can drive her to the hospital. It’ll be faster than waiting for an ambulance to get out this way.”
But that wasn’t the right plan. Lia couldn’t tell if Gard knew that and was in denial or he really hadn’t thought it through.
“Gard, I need you to let me do this. You take Dani to the hospital. I’ll handle this.”
“I’m not leaving you here, Lia.” He said it so quickly she knew he wasn’t in denial. He just didn’t want her doing this.
But she had to. She understood his reticence. He was the trained professional. Butshehad done this before.Sheknew how to handle this. “I promise. I know what I’m doing.”
“So do I, Lia. I have a gun. I have the training. Now, come on.” He started walking again, but Lia couldn’t follow.
“No. Because I know how to walk into a group like this without putting up one red flag. I can walk in there and walk outwithSammy. I know I can. You can’t go in, guns blazing. I can go in and…do what I did all those years ago. Infiltrate.”
“Lia, you can’t—”
“Listen to me. We don’t have time to argue. I just go up to the door. I’ll say Dani gave me the address. That we worked together at the diner. I’ll make up a sob story and say I need a job too.”
“Lia.”
He sounded so absolutely wrecked, but if she thought about that, about what they were all putting him through, she might crumble. And she couldn’t. Not when Sammy was in there.
“If Sammy is in there like Dani said, I get her out. IknowI can do it. I’ll sneak her out, then Royal can pick us up. He’s on his way, you said. And if Sammy’s not in there, I get information and walk out just fine. I know how. If you go in there, even if you take down a few guys, you get shot before you accomplishanything. You have to let me do this. For Sammy.”
“Gard. They took Sammy in there. You have to get her out,” Dani said, her voice sounding thready. Then she let out a little sob. “I tried so hard to keep her out of it.”
“And if everything goes to hell? If it isn’t like what you knew before? What then, Lia?”
She couldn’t acknowledge any of those possibilities. She had to only focus on one thing. “I can do this,” Lia said earnestly. “Ihaveto do this.”
Gard inhaled loudly in the quiet, freezing night. She couldfeelthe way this was tearing him in two. It was tearing her in two as well, since she didn’t want to hurt him any more than he was already hurting.
But they didn’t have a choice.
“You will stay right here while I get Dani to the hospital. Do not go inside, not until Royal texts you that he’s here. Then youcan go in, and he can step in if something goes wrong. But you have to wait until he gets here.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Promise?” he demanded.
