And do everything he could to keep Sarah safe in the process.
Chapter Nineteen
“I don’t get it,” Chuck protested. “Why do we have to leave?”
“It’s just for a few days,” Sarah replied quickly. “You’ll be back on the property before you know it. Is your stuff packed? We have another car leaving in a half hour.”
Chuck crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m not going until I get an explanation as to why we have to leave,” he said.
Behind him, milling in the entrance hall to the lodge, were a half-dozen other guests who were equally confused as to what was going on. Sarah ran a hand through her hair, trying to pull herself together. She understood their reluctance to leave, especially without really knowing why they were asking them all to go. Unfortunately, though, she didn’t have time to offer explanations right now. They were on a tight deadline to get the property cleared…fast. None of them could say for sure when Granger and his men would attack, the guys just knew it was going to be soon and they didn’t want to get caught unprepared.
All the staff at the lodge were in the process of moving the guests to a motel in town, where the sheriff said he would have a few of his men standing guard until the threat from Victor Granger was neutralized. It wasn’t much, but it was the best they could do for now. Sarah just knew there was no way they could stay here. All of them had been through so much to bring them to Warrior Peak in the first place, and she would never forgive herself if staying at the lodge now brought even more trauma into their lives.
Spinning a story to get them out of here had been tough, though, and Sarah felt guilty for uprooting them from their safe space without a good explanation. She had been trying to coax them into gathering their stuff and leaving, while the other women helped clear out their rooms and a couple of the guys shuttled them to town.
It had been an all-day job so far, and she could feel the exhaustion making her hazy around the edges. She wanted to curl up in bed and sleep, but she doubted she would be able to get any rest, even after all of the guests were safely at the motel.
“There’s been a threat against the property,” she told him finally. “We need to get you out of here until we can be sure that it’s been dealt with.”
Chuck’s face dropped. There was a murmur of surprise among the other guests. Hopefully, that would be enough to hold them for now, and convince them it wasn’t safe for them to be here.
“I’ll finish packing up,” Chuck muttered, and he rushed back toward his room, followed by the other guests who had overheard. Sarah closed her eyes and leaned back against the door for a moment, breathing a sigh of relief. This was the last group they had to get down to the motel, then the only ones left on the property would be the eight of them. The remaining staff would be staying in town, too.
Not that she imagined it was going to be much easier then, given how much Xavier had been digging in his heels about this. He and Lawson were in the office right now arguing. She’d passed by a half hour ago and heard raised voices, but she understood it. Though it was home to all of them, Xavier was the most attached to this place. It had, after all, been his family’s property before they’d turned it into Warrior Peak Sanctuary. He had to feel like he was losing part of himself and his past byleaving the lodge to be threatened, possibly even destroyed, by Granger and his men.
Sarah shivered when she thought about that evil man, and when she remembered the look Lawson had given her when he had gotten off that call with him. His eyes had landed on her immediately for a moment, and she had known without him having to say anything that Granger had said something about her.
Finally, when the last group of guests were shuttled out of the lodge, Sarah stepped outside to the porch and inhaled a big lungful of fresh air. It was nearly ten, and she could feel the raw exhaustion getting the better of her. From the moment the sound of gunfire had first filled the air in the town square yesterday, she hadn’t had a moment to pull herself together. She wasn’t even sure if she could at this point.
Especially with so much tension between the guys in the lodge right now. None of them had eaten all day, and she doubted that was helping much with their frazzled nerves. She had thought about going to the kitchen to cook something up, but with how shaky she was right now, she wouldn’t have trusted herself around a hot stove.
She stared off to the edge of the property, where the trees that lined the horse paddocks in the distance had started to cast long shadows on the ground below. She shivered as she looked at the trees. They would provide good cover for someone looking to sneak up on them. She could almost feel eyes on her now, like Granger and his men were watching her from the shadows, ready to make their move at any moment.
“Hey.”
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a voice behind her. Turning, she saw it was Lawson.
“Oh, it’s you,” she murmured, sighing with relief.
He nodded, stepping out on to the porch behind her and slipping his arms around her waist. “Sorry to scare you,” he said, placing a kiss on the side of her neck.
She closed her eyes, trying to let the comfort of his presence ground her some. It did, a little. It seemed like a miracle that anything could break through the weight of the fear in her system right now, but Lawson could.
“You finally get Xavier to agree with you?” she asked him, and he let out a small chuckle.
“The day I get Xavier to admit he’s wrong about something is the day hell freezes over,” he said wryly. “I don’t think I’ll ever manage that. But he’s not fighting me on it anymore, at least. He’s with Hannah right now. Calming her down.”
“She okay?”
“As much as she can be.” He sighed. “I don’t think any of us are exactly at the top of our game currently.”
Sarah leaned against him and nodded in agreement. Right now, it felt as though they were on the eve of war, just waiting for the battle call to sound. It would be a miracle if they all made it out of this in one piece. Tensions were high, and everyone was scared, but dealing with it in their own way.
“Have you checked in with Sheriff Willis?” she asked him, and she felt him sigh against her neck.
“I tried to get through to him, but all the lines are busy and our cell phones don’t seem to be working, either.”
She turned to him, her brow furrowed. “Why do you think that is?”
