He dialed Royal, who answered almost immediately.
“Hey. I’m just about there. Just turning into Wilde. What’s up?”
“Okay. Stop at the intersection of Dry and the highway.” He hadn’t realized how out of breath he was from carrying Dani until he tried to talk clearly. “I’ll meet you there in a minute and explain everything.”
Formulating the plan as he drove the short distance, he arrived at the meeting point just about the time Royal did.
Gard got out of his truck and Royal followed suit, meeting him between the hoods of their trucks.
“I need you to take my truck,” Gard told Royal. “My sister is in the back seat. She’s hurt. She needs a hospital. You take her to the ER and get her the medical attention she needs. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Sammy and Lia are still in that house. I’m going to get them out.”
“You let aciviliango in there?” Royal said, clearly both shocked and disapproving.
“Lia knows what she’s doing. Let’s switch keys,” he said, holding his out to Royal, but Royal clearly hadn’t clued into just how little time they had.
“How the hell does Lia thebakery ownerknow what she’s doing when it comes to some criminal organization?”
But Gard didn’t have time to answer that question. He tried to hand Royal his keys again, but they were both distracted by another truck pulling up.
“That’s Zeke and his brother, Walker,” Royal said. “Their sister is stepmom to one of your niece’s friends, so they kind of already have the gist of what’s going on,” Royal explained. “How many people are in that house?”
“At least ten. Probably more. Probably armed.”
“Probably,” Royal muttered disgustedly. “Let’s do it this way. Walker will drive your sister to the hospital. Zeke and I will come with you. Between the three of us, we should be able to handle over ten guys.”
“Ten guys?” Zeke said on approach. “Piece of cake.”
Gard appreciated the confidence, even if it didn’t penetrate. He handed his truck keys to Walker, then moved to his truck. He opened the back door to talk to his sister.
“Dani, a friend of mine is going to drive you to the hospital. You’re safe with him, I promise. I’m going to go get Sammy.”
She looked up at him with tears in eyes glazed over with pain. Her face was so bloody. Everything was sobad. “Gard.”
“Let the doctors take care of you,” he said, managing to keep his voice firm instead of hoarse. “I’ll bring Sammy to you as soon as I can.” He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Be good.” He closed the door, not waiting to see if she was going to say anything else.
One person was safe now.
He just had to get the other two.
The ringleader,who called himself Bruiser, had insisted Lia take a seat at a kitchen table that had seen better days. The windhowled in through the broken window in the kitchen area and Lia shivered against the cold.
Whatever Bruiser was on must have been keeping him warm because he only wore a frayed T-shirt and ratty jeans that looked like they hadn’t been washed in a while. He was making her a drink. She figured he thought he was slick since she couldn’t see what he was putting in it.
And she supposed he was slick enough. Ten years ago, she would have fallen for it hook, line and sinker instead of recognizing the hunched posture, the carefully arranged body to block anything he was doing from her line of vision.
So when he put the cup in front of her, she smiled tremulously at him, trying to remember who she’d been and what she’d felt at fifteen. She needed him to believe it. The fear, desperation, and sad, pathetic hopesomeonemight save her.
He slid into the rickety chair next to her. Like,rightnext to her. Lia had to fight the urge to lean away. Not out of fear. Just pure disgust.
Don’t fight your real feelings. Use them for what you need to project.So Lia let her body hold that wariness and fought the disgust from showing in her expression.
They were alone in this room, though she could look out into the living room and see Sammy. The girl sat stiffly on a table, arms tied behind her back with a frayed-looking rope. No one went up to talk to her or bother her, which was good considering the circumstances, Lia supposed.
But Lia had a bad feeling that meant she was earmarked for somebody. Probably the man currently talking toher.
