AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was as careful, as quiet, as she could be. She was small. For the first time in her life, she was grateful for that. She made it right under the door without disturbing it one bit. Then she was behind the buffet. There was stuff stored beneath it. Stuff she could see.
No real knives or anything, though. She’d been hoping for a meat cleaver that was at least as long as her arm or something.
No such luck.
But there was a meat fork.
One of those really wicked looking things people used to stab hams or something when they were carving them. It was about all she was going to get. Dylan slipped it quietly out of the bin of soapy water it rested in. There was crusty ham on the tines, but, well, she didn’t exactly have time to wash it right now, did she?
Now, she had to find a way to get across the room. To where her baby sister was the captive of a madman.
60
Arthur stayed where he was,behind a dumpster withTrash’d Man Removal Serviceprinted on the sign, trying to decide what to do next. The last thing he should do was rush in there like Geena had.
Of course, she had.
Geena had always believed she was living on borrowed time. That she had survived that day just for their daughters. To bring Dylan into the world. Or maybe for today—to protect them when they needed it most.
Arthurknew.
She’d survived that day for the girls.
Well, she was going to survive today, too. Even if Arthur didn’t.
Fear for his wife, for his girls, had his gut clenching. There could be dozens of people in the inn right now—his girls, his Geena, his mother, brother, and nieces—his entire family was in that building right there.
The last thing he could let himself do waspanic.
He checked the parking lot behind him. It hadn’t changed much since the last time he was there.
The same wooden chairs his father had made forty years ago still set on the veranda in front of his family’s inn.
Hell, he had missed this place. So damned much.
There weren’t a great deal of cars. The inn probably wasn’t super busy. Thankfully.
The side door, not even fifteen feet from where he hid, jerked open. Two young women came out, panic in their movements.
For a moment, he stared. At first glance, they looked like his twins. But it wasn’t Devaney and Dahlia there. At all. He recognized one, though. Gerald’s youngest girl. He’d seen her photo on the internet the last time his brother had been mentioned. That was his brother’s baby girl right there. She looked like his girls.
The other girl…He knew. With one look, heknew.That washisbaby girl there.
Neither saw him where he hunched down.
His girl identified herself. “This is Daisy Talley. I'm at the Talley Inn. An armed gunman is holding the people in our dining room hostage!”
Daisy.ThatwasArthur's fourth daughter right there.Daisywas safe. One of his girls was safe, for now. Now he had to find the other seven.
“I don't know. He has a woman with him. He has a gun to her head. There are between a dozen and two dozen people in the dining room, including my sister Dusty. And other people. Just hurry.”
Destiny. Devaney.Two of his girls were in there with that bastard. And Geena.
Arthur needed to get in there.
He was their father—and they needed him now.
61
