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He watched that car go into the ditch, and his own girls' faces flashed into his eyes. Those girls—they were justgirls.The youngest one might not have been even eighteen yet. Kids.
They didn't deserve this at all.
Jason pulled the truck to a stop. “Come on. We just need one. Kill the rest if you have to.”
Wayne climbed out behind him as fast as he could.
49
Dylan’s headhurt from where she’d slammed into the dashboard. Well, where the airbag had kept her from slamming into the dashboard anyway. She turned.
Toward Devaney.
Her sister wasn’t there.
Her sister’s door stood wide open.
Dylan jerked around.
Dahlia was in the back seat, big eyed and terrified. Dorie was yanking at her seat belt. But they were moving. But where was… “Dahlia, where’s Dev?”
“I don’t know. She was right here. Then she got out. She just got out.” Dahlia was yanking at her seat belt, with hands that shook. She struggled with the latch. Like she used to when she was a kid. “Where is she?”
Dylan jerked open her own door.
That’s when she sawthem.The two men in dark suits that had been in that diner. The ones who had watched Dahlia and Devaney.
And they had her sister. Why would they be taking her sister? Her mom and dad had said there were people after them. They had. Maybe they hadn’tliedabout that?
“Dev!” Dylan didn’t stop to think that they had carried guns. They had her baby sister. “Let her go!”
It was obvious they weren’t there tohelp.Not the way they were dragging Devaney over the embankment. Devaney fought and twisted, and it just wasn’t enough.
“Run, Dylan!Run!” Devaney shouted. “Get out of here! All of you!”
The younger man reached out and slugged her sister with something in his hand. Devaney went limp in the guy’s hold. The other man, the older man, yelled or something. He scooped Devaney up and tossed her over his shoulder.
And carried her toward the truck that was waiting.
Dylan could never hope to get over the rock-covered embankment fast enough to help her sister. She dove to the ground when the man who had hit her baby sister turned the gun toward her and startedshooting. He wasshooting.
All she could hear was Dahlia screaming her name. Dorie’s terrified shouts. And then the men drove away. Her sister held captive in their truck.
“No!” Dylan just yelled it as she watched them drive away.
Devaney.
50
The closer theydrove to Masterson, the more concerned Arthur got. Geena was on the verge of total meltdown. She was just getting more and more terrified the closer they got to where that Smith guy and Pryor were probably headed. Arthur was just as concerned. Not just for Dylan and the younger girls, but for Destiny Marie and the older. For his family.
Jason Smith knew he had an ace in his sleeve just because he knew where Arthur's older girls had been all these years. Arthur wasn't a fool. Leaving the girls behind all those years ago had been a terrifying gamble. He had just counted on Gerald's connections being enough to scare Jason and Morris and their goons away from the four older girls and the rest of the Talley family. And on them not wanting the attention going after innocent children would bring. Morris Preston had beenallabout fitting in with life around Masterson County. Keeping his dark side hidden from the rest of the world. He'd wanted the power being a wealthy man in a small town had brought him, for one thing. For another, Masterson was where all the man's secrets were buried. If someone looked too closely at what Preston had been doing in Masterson all those years, Morris Preston's empire would come crumbling down.
Like it just had.
Morris Preston and Jason Smith had had an ace in their sleeves where Arthur was concerned, yes. But he and Geena had had one, too. Everything Geena had seen. She'd recorded video testimony years ago. And Arthur had hidden copies of that testimony in various safe deposit boxes decades ago. As long as Geena knew what she knew, Jason Smith wouldn't risk going after one of their girls.
But Jason was most likely getting desperate.
