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Royce or one of them must have moved or made a sound because Briar looked up.
“Oh, hey, guys. Would you mind cuffing this piece of shit?”
The FBI, in the form of Agents Gomez, Richardson, and even SAC Klay, arrived about three minutes later. Between them, they had everyone left on the property restrained, but the guy Topher had hit had disappeared.
“Fuck,” muttered Topher, “I knew I should’ve hit him harder.”
An ambulance was on the way to cart off the injured bikers. One with a gunshot wound, Hog with the ruptured knee, and the two in the basement who were also regretting their life choices. None of them were talking now, but hopefully, after they met with prosecutors, they’d change their tunes.
“Have you found Tia?” Gomez demanded, looking around as if they might be hiding the girl behind them. “No? I’m searching the barn.”
Royce’s attention was divided between making sure his sister and Briar were going to be okay and helping with the search.
“You stay here, I’ll go with Gomez,” Bishop said.
“Gomez,” Agent Gomez said, “doesn’t need you to tag along. But if you insist, don’t get in my way.”
She stalked off in the direction of the barn, leaving Bishop standing there. After a second, Bishop shook his head, shot Royce a “what the hell” look, and trotted after her.
Standing off to one side, holding her left arm close to her torso, Briar was speaking with Agent Klay, filling him in on what had happened. Royce wanted to listen in but they’d both shot him twin looks of don’t even think about it. He wanted, needed, to get Briar back to his house where he could soothe her cuts and bruises, where he could reassure himself she really was okay. He glanced over at them again, right as she looked up. She caught his gaze and gave him the hint of a smile.
Briar was a professional. This wasn’t the first time she’d had to get out of a sticky situation and wouldn’t be the last. Briar loved her job and Royce loved that about her, he just needed to remind himself how very capable she was.
His attention wandered to his sister. Raine was sitting on the front steps of the house, her arms wrapped protectively around her body. Topher stood next to her, not saying anything, just being protective—remarkably, Topher often seemed to be tongue-tied around Raine. Privately, Royce found it amusing that a decorated Navy SEAL was cowed by his sister.
“Royce! Topher!” Bishop jogged toward them from the barn. “Gomez found her.”
Behind Bishop came Agent Gomez, her arm around the girl, supporting her. They hadn’t been kind to her, even in the day since he’d last seen her. She had new bruises and a black eye. Anger surged deep in his belly, fury that there were monsters out in the world who thought they could treat other humans like trash.
Klay and Briar waited where they were, letting Gomez approach them. Tia was obviously scared and reluctant—until she spotted Raine.
Tia jerked away from the agent’s grip and stumbled to his sister, who wrapped her arms around the girl.
The words were muffled but Royce heard her exclaim, “Raine, I thought they killed you.”
“It would take a lot more than what those cowards had in them to kill me,” Raine replied, brushing her hand across Tia’s dark head. “I’m a little banged up, but I’ll be fine.”
Hours later, Royce pulled back up at his house, the brakes of the 4Runner shrieking hideously as he came to a stop in the driveway.
“You need to replace your car,” Briar said with a grimace.
“Top of my list.”
Inside, Briar headed immediately for a shower. Royce wanted one, too, but held back, not wanting to invade Briar’s privacy.
Up until she yelled, “Are you coming in or what?”
He was already all-in.
The bathroom was steamy already and Briar was scrubbing shampoo into her hair when Royce pulled aside the curtain and climbed into the shower.
“I hate seeing you bruised up like this. Your shoulder hurts again.”
Royce moved to take over the scrubbing. It was all he could do to not wrap Briar up in bubble wrap to keep her safe.
“Yeah, but at least Hog didn’t break my knee. All I need is some Advil, not surgery.”
“Truth.”
