A few yards from the porch, his phone buzzed in his pocket, momentarily distracting him from his target. Laurel’s name was on the screen when he pulled it out, so he answered, hoping for news on the warrant.
“Fairhurst,” he answered in a quiet voice, not taking his eyes off the shadows moving inside the house, making sure no one took interest in what was going on outside in the frigid cold.
“We’ve got a search warrant for the house,” Laurel said without preamble. “Still working on the property beyond the house. They’re owned by two different people.”
“I got Dani. I sent her with Walker Daniels to the hospital. She told me they’re keeping people in a cellar under a barn. You have an eyewitness. Get the warrant. And get a team out here.”
Laurel was quiet for a few seconds—but he could hear the hum of voices. Like she’d covered her receiver and was barking out orders.
“Beckett is on his way to Dry Road. He’ll be waiting for the search warrant to come through with some deputies. I’ll call again about it, then head to the hospital to talk to Dani.”
“She might not be up for it,” Gard said, hoping it wasn’t true but needing to prepare Laurel for the possibility.
“Okay. I’ll see what I can do with it. Please tell me you haven’t pulled in any civilians besides Walker Daniels.”
But Gard couldnottell her that. Though technically Royal wasn’t a civilian, and Zeke didn’tseemlike a civilian.
Laurel sighed heavily. “How many, Fairhurst? Just so I can tell Beckett and he doesn’t try to arrest your civilian help.”
Wincing, Gard realized he had to give over the names. “Royal Campbell and Zeke Daniels. They aren’t doing anything. They’re just…backup.”
“Sure,” Laurel replied. “Listen. We’ve got movement. We’ll have people on standby, ready to move the second we can. Just sit tight.”
Sit tight? No, he didn’t think so.
Gard looked at the house and since he wasn’t thinking so damn hard about what was going on in there, it finally dawned on him what the odd smell stinging his nostrils was.
Smoke. And from somewhere behind the house, he saw a flicker of light…flame. Fire.
So no, he couldn’t sit tight. The house was onfire.
“Call the fire department, Laurel,” he barked into the phone, then shoved it into his pocket.
And ran.
Chapter Nineteen
Gard was at the bottom of the pile of what had once been porch stairs when the door creaked open. He froze in his quick rush toward the house, determined to get to Sammy and Lia before anyfiredid.
A shadow moved out onto the porch, slowly and carefully. One step back and then another. Then the person turned into the light coming out of the window.
“Sammy.” Fire forgotten, Gard rushed toward her.
She let out a desperate kind of sound. “Gard.” She fell into him at a kind of awkward angle, clearly not seeing that there were no stairs. But he caught her, and she was sobbing into his chest as held her close.
Relief swamped him, but he couldn’t let that make him forget there was still danger here. He started to carry her away from the house. He’d gotten her into the shadows as a couple other people stumbled out of the house and onto the porch, clearly in response to the fire. Some were coughing. Some were complaining about the party being ruined.
Quickly and quietly as he could, Gard carried Sammy through the shadows, as far away from the people as he could. Her arms were behind her back, and he couldn’t quite figure out why, but he didn’t want to ask her until he had her out of earshot of the people trickling out from the house.
Once he had carried her into a thicket of overgrown bushes, keeping them in shadow and hidden even if people started using flashlights, he spoke.
“Can you walk? Are you hurt?”
“I… I’m okay,” Sammy said on a choked sob. “But they hurt Mom. They hurt her and left her outside. Lia said you got her, but—”
“We’ve got her. She’s on her way to the hospital. She’s going to be okay.”
Sammy made another sobbing noise. “My…my hands are tied up,” she managed to say, clearly trying to whisper but struggling.
