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That much she knew. Just by what Ethan shared about Brax, the man had been adopted by the Savage father when Brax was only a teenager. She still couldn’t believe how easily he betrayed the Savages and for what? The approval of a father that didn’t want him? She understood all too well the power someone else could hold over another. Being shunned and discarded like a piece of unwanted furniture hurt. She supposed some people couldn’t handle it. Brax was proof. She wouldn’t have either had it not been for her younger sister needing her. But Brax had all of the Savage brothers and their surviving sister to love him. Only, from the stories and maybe after today, it was a million times obvious that he never accepted them as family.
It had to be reciprocal to work.
“How do you know it’s him? I thought he was in jail for his last bought with the law.”
Riley shook his head. “We don’t. Just running possibilities. But he was released on bail, awaiting trial for what he did to Ethan and Remy.”
Oh great.
She’d been so caught up in her own problems she didn’t realize that small detail.
“Plus, that fire has the mark of being man-made.” Riley pointed and the growing column of smoke off in the distance. “Black smoke means oil and none of us have any sitting around the cabin. You already know about Reaper and his brothers. Brax and what he tried to pull with poisoning the wildlife. Shooting Ethan.”
“Yeah. All for money. Think he’s wanting revenge for getting hauled in? Didn’t Damon say Reaper promised he would keep a close eye on him and the rest of his family?”
“True, but he still has a job to do, babe. He can’t keep them under twenty-four-hour surveillance.”
Good point.
“Who knows, maybe Reaper has a hand in this. Maybe he decided he didn’t like going against the grain after all.”
They bounced along the back road, Riley finding every damn pothole there was in the dirt road and slamming into it. If they made it to the house without breaking an axle it would be a miracle.
She couldn’t say she knew any of the men they spoke about personally. Class had kept her busy during the days, then waiting tables in the afternoon for extra cash only left her with the time she spent with her men. Holden threw an arm out in front of her when Riley took a dip in the road too fast.
“You remember what Ethan and Remy said, Riley. We heard it too. Reaper is looking for allies, not enemies. Looking to clean up his family name.”
“How the hell can you be so sure? Can you trust him?”
“Riley’s right, Zahara. We can’t measure a man by his family’s bad deeds. He has to earn his reputation on his own merits. So far, he’s done nothing to us but help when we needed him.”
Holden spoke about the time Reaper swooped in just before his brothers killed Remy and Ethan in a hand to hand fight. If he hadn’t shown up when he did the six to two odds would have turned out unfavorably for Ethan and Remy, to say the least.
Another boom ripped through the trees and rattled the truck windows.
Riley gritted his jaw so hard she heard something crack, but he didn’t take his focus off the road as he took a switchback, kicking up a stream of dust. Gravel pelted the undercarriage like rapidly firing BB guns.
“When we get there, we have to make sure the fire doesn’t spread. We have to protect the animals and the surrounding lands, including my father’s.”
She grew quiet, placing a hand on his arm as a way of offering her support. “I don’t know anything about fighting fires of any kind, but point me in the right direction and I’ll do what’s needed.”
Back on the main road, Riley slammed on the brakes in a cloud of dust and Holden threw open the passenger door, hopping out.
She reached for him. “Where are you going?”
“Stay with Riley,” he ordered, sending her hackles up, but she understood the curt order. But still. “I have to go check to make sure Remy and Ethan aren’t at their cabin.”
“Be careful,” she hollered, as Holden tore through the field of long grass that hugged the lake separating his cabin from Ethan’s. Two miles of a mixture of dense woods and open fields separated the brothers.
Rocks the size of Texas weighted her gut down. She had a bad feeling about all of this.
“Don’t worry about him—he can take care of himself.” Riley grabbed her palm and pressed a quick kiss to it.
“Of that, I have no doubt. When he knows what he is up against.” Fields of dry grass passed them by in a blur. The cloud of smoke reaching into the sky from between the trees where the Savage home stood. “It will spread.”
“I know. We’ll do what we can. Don’t leave my side. We can’t afford to get separated.”
Riley popped the clutch and downshifted, taking another deep curve before hitting pavement, the smell of burned rubber barely touching them before they were off. “Grab the phone for me. I tossed it in here somewhere.” She dug around the seat and found it stashed under a T-shirt tossed aside earlier.
