In His Protection, page 23
Parker put his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. “What’s going on, Skylar?”
“Is there someone here who can watch her while we talk?” Everly didn’t need to know her uncle was in trouble.
“Yeah. Wait for me in my office.”
“Make sure you tell your people not to let her out of their sight.”
His lips thinned and his eyes turned cold. “Someone messes with my daughter and it will be the last thing on this earth they do.”
“Who messed with me, Daddy?”
He kneeled in front of her, and those eyes that were ice-cold a second ago turned soft. “No one, baby girl. I’m going to let you play with the guys for a little while.”
“Yay! Can we cook something?”
“I think you can probably talk them into that.”
While Parker took Everly to the back, Skye took Fuzz with her to his office. What if she couldn’t rescue Tristan? She’d had a higher-than-a-kite druggie point a gun at her once. She hadn’t been as scared then as she was now. If she failed to save the man she was in love with, she didn’t know how she’d live with herself. That was if she did manage to live through this.
She’d been so stupid to worry that people would gossip about her. Who cared? She would either keep her job or she wouldn’t, but losing Tristan would devastate her. She wanted to find a bed, climb in, pull the covers over her head, and have a good cry, but she didn’t have the luxury of doing that. Somehow, she had to save her man.
Please, God, don’t let it be too late.
Parker came in, closing the door behind him. “Start talking. Why is my daughter in danger?”
“They have Tristan.”
“Who has him?”
“The drug dealer who thinks I took his money.” She brought up the texts, then handed him her phone.
He grimaced at the picture of Tristan. “The hell? They beat him.”
“Scroll down.”
“I’ll kill them.” He handed her phone back. “No one threatens my daughter. Let’s go.”
“No. You can’t. If they see you, they’ll kill him. I have to do it. You need to stay with Everly. Make sure they don’t get to her.” She blew out a breath. “I don’t know how, but I’ll get him away from them.”
“How much did you supposedly take?”
“I have no idea how much Thomas Grant thinks I stole.”
“Take a guess.”
She shrugged. “It had to be enough for Grant to come looking for it. But we’re wasting time. I need to make a plan.”
“Pay them.”
“What? I don’t have that kind of money, however much it might be.”
“I do. Think a hundred thousand would do it? I can get my hands on that right now. More, it would take some time.” He paced to one end of his office, then back. “Actually, it might be good if it’s more. You can tell Grant, or whoever’s collecting his money, that that’s all you could get this fast. If it’s not enough, then they need to give you more time.”
“That might work, but if it doesn’t, I don’t see Grant letting either one of us go.” She doubted Grant intended to let either one of them go even if it was enough money.
Parker’s phone played “Secret Agent Man.” He pulled his cell from his pocket. “That’s Kade. There’s no one better to help us come up with a plan. I’ll put him on speaker.”
“Wish you were here, brother,” Parker said. “We have a situation.”
“Tristan called a while ago, said about the same thing, but he’s not answering his phone.”
“He’s not answering because some assholes are holding him hostage. They beat him up, Kade.”
“Tell me everything,” he said, his voice turning hard and menacing.
“Skylar’s here with me. I’ll let her fill you in.” He handed her his phone. “I need to check on Everly. Make sure the boys are keeping her close.”
“I’m so sorry, Kade. This is my fault.”
“How so?”
She told him about Danny, the rumors, and Grant’s demand today for his money. Her phone rang, Johnny’s name coming up. “Hold on a minute.” She switched phones, leaving the line open on Parker’s phone. “I can’t talk right now, Johnny.”
“Where are you? I’m supposed to be with you at all times if you leave the building.”
“I know, but it couldn’t be helped. Listen, I’m with Parker, so I’m safe, but I have to go.”
“The chief’s missing.” She put him on speaker so Kade could hear. “Vee called, wanting to know if he was with you. His car’s on the side of the road about three miles from here, and he’s nowhere to be found.”
He must have stopped to help someone or made a traffic stop, except it was Grant or one of his people. “Johnny, I know, and I’m handling it.”
“Not by yourself you’re not. Where are you, Sheriff?”
“I’m sorry, but I have to go.” She disconnected. When this was over, she’d explain why she couldn’t include him. Hopefully he wasn’t one to hold a grudge.
“How long now before you’re supposed to meet Grant?” Kade asked.
She checked her watch. “Two hours and twenty-five minutes.”
“I’ll see you in about an hour and a half.”
“Wait, what?”
“Are you at the firehouse?”
“Yes, but—”
“Stay there, Skylar.” He disconnected.
Huh?
Chapter Forty-Seven
The next time Tristan saw Kade, he was going to give his brother a big smack right on his lips. Kade had taught both him and Parker how to get out of zip tie handcuffs. For that, he would be forever grateful.
The first mistake Drake had made was to cuff Tristan’s hands in front of him. He still could have broken the ties if his hands were behind him, but it would have been much harder. Unfortunately, they’d roughed him up before he had a chance to break the ties, or he would have fought back. Now his hands were free, but his legs were duct taped to a chair. He couldn’t do anything about that unless they left him alone.
They were in a rental cabin about ten miles outside of town, one of the many the Mackel family owned around the area. Tristan found that darkly amusing. If Miss Mabel knew a major drug dealer, his enforcer, and a dirty cop were using one of her vacation cabins for criminal activity, she’d march in and vanquish all three with her cane.
Since Miss Mabel wouldn’t be coming to the rescue, maybe he could stir things up, get them to turn against each other. “Skye didn’t take your money, Mr. Grant.” It left a sour taste to be polite to a major drug dealer, but it probably wouldn’t be smart to call him dirtbag.
He focused his attention on Pretty Boy. Yeah, he was here. Whether by choice or force, he didn’t know. “If I had to guess, I’d say Danny was the one with sticky fingers. What’s your last name, anyway, Pretty Boy?”
“Shut the fuck up.” Danny punched him, and the ring he wore sliced open Tristan’s bottom lip.
It took every bit of his control to keep his hands on his lap, the severed zip ties hidden, and not strike out at the man. His right eye was already swollen shut from when he’d tried to fight Drake taping his legs to the chair.
“As I was saying, Mr. Grant, you might want to ask Danny here where he was during that raid.” Tristan lifted his shoulder and wiped his bleeding mouth over his shirt. “I say that because there was an investigation, and Skye was cleared by her department of having sticky fingers. Did Danny tell you that?” He glanced at Pretty Boy, who was shooting daggers at him.
He turned his attention back to Grant. “No, I don’t think he did. Members of her team were with her at all times, and they all said they never saw any money at their location.” He didn’t know if that was true, but it sounded good.
“Another thing you might want to think about. Sheriff Morgan was engaged to your friend here but broke up with him a few weeks before the raid on your property. Caught Pretty Boy cheating on her.” He gave Danny a disgusted look. “Doesn’t sound like such an honorable man, does he? Want to know what I think?”
“By all means, share your opinion,” Grant said, sounding a bit bored.
“I’d bet serious money that Danny boy’s ego didn’t take that well and he wanted revenge on her. What better way to get it than to put her in your line of sight? Added benefit of that, it takes attention away from him and his sticky fingers.” Tristan decided it was time to shut up and let all that sink in with Grant.
Grant eyed Danny, and Tristan could see that the drug dealer was considering the possibility that Danny had been lying to him all this time. Passing Thomas Grant on the street, one would peg him as an accountant or maybe an attorney. He was tall and thin, blond hair and blue eyes, and wore a button-up blue shirt and gray pants. He did not look like a man who headed up a large drug operation. Tristan decided the man was very smart and surrounded himself with mean-ass enforcers like Homer Drake.
“He’s making that up.” Danny took a few steps back, distancing himself from Grant. “I know for a fact Skye took the money. She told me she had it.”
“You’re a lying piece of shit.” Tristan shook his head, disgusted with the man. “Nothing worse than a bad cop.” He glanced at Grant. “How much you missing, anyway?”
Grant turned to Drake, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his gaze focused on Danny. “Take Mr. Church’s picture.” Then Grant raised his hand and pressed the barrel of Tristan’s own gun to his head. “Smile for the camera, Mr. Church.”
Not likely. He stared straight into the lens, refusing to flinch from the press of the gun to his head. There had been suspicion in Drake’s eyes as he looked at Danny. His hope was for Grant and Drake to turn on Pretty Boy. Maybe beat the truth out of him.
Grant nodded when Drake held up the phone, showing him the picture. “Send that and the one you took this morning to our lovely sheriff. Give her this address and tell her she has three hours to bring me my money.”
Which she did not have. And what picture had they taken this morning? It wasn’t of him, so what did they have—along with one of him sporting a closed eye and split lip—that would make sure she’d appear? He knew, and she knew, that she didn’t have Grant’s money.
It wouldn’t matter to Skye that she couldn’t arrive bearing a briefcase full of thousand-dollar bills, and it wouldn’t matter that she’d ended things with him. She’d take one look at that photo of his battered face and mount a rescue. And if he knew her as well as he thought he did, she’d come alone after getting that message.
“Think this will get your girlfriend’s attention,” Grant said, showing him the phone screen.
Tristan saw blood boiling red. “You touch one hair on that little girl’s head, and I swear on all I hold holy that you’ll live to regret it. I will come at you with everything I have.” He prayed he lived through this so he could follow through on that threat.
“You especially should fear her father. He’ll tear apart with his bare hands everything in his way of getting to you. And if that doesn’t scare you, my brother Kade should. He’s the one you won’t see coming until it’s too late. Smirk all you want, Mr. Grant, but you do not want to be on a Delta Force operator’s radar. I promise you that.” He turned his gaze on each man in turn. “None of you do, and he will come after all of you. Never doubt that.”
The three men shared uneasy glances. He didn’t think they were afraid of him, but if he got out of this alive, they should be. As for Parker, a father’s rage and thirst for revenge knew no bounds. He hoped they realized that. But it was the threat of having a Delta Force operator coming at them that had them apprehensive. They were smart to be worried.
“You know, thinking about it, Kade’s still going to be pissed that you messed up his brother’s pretty face. You might want to consider letting me go and crawling back under your rock. We’ll just call today a misunderstanding.”
“You’re a funny man, Mr. Church, but if you think you’re scaring me, you’d be wrong. I’m not leaving without my money.” Grant pointed the gun at Tristan. “Bang.”
Tristan stared him down, refusing to flinch. His most fervent wish right now was for Kade to have been home. This would all be over now.
Chapter Forty-Eight
When Parker returned to his office, Skye grabbed his arm. “Your brother’s on the way.”
“They let Tristan go?”
“No, Kade. He said he’d be here in an hour and a half.”
“Thank God.”
“I don’t know how he’s making that happen, but I agree.”
Kade could be a ghost when he wanted. She’d watched him in action at their drills. Too many times when she had thought he was at one end of their fake town, he’d materialized right in front of her. It was spooky.
“Knowing Kade, he’ll commandeer the fastest helicopter on the base.”
She wouldn’t put it past him. “Okay, we have a little over an hour before he arrives, and we need a plan. I’ve been thinking, what if we get a dye pack from the bank and put it in a briefcase? When Grant opens it to make sure all his money is there, it explodes in his face.”
“Does our bank have them? I can’t remember there ever being a bank robbery here.”
“I don’t know.” She took out her phone and called Annie. “Question, do you have dye packs?” She nodded at Parker, letting him know they did. “Great, I’m going to need one.” She cut Annie off. “No, the bank isn’t going to be robbed, and yes, I’ll tell you why I need it when I can.” Okay, that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “Their dye packs are triggered by a sensor at the bank door and are set to go off twenty seconds later,” she told Parker.
“Maybe we can retrigger it somehow. Kade would probably know.”
“Annie, I’ll get back to you.” That was disappointing. If the pack exploded in Grant’s face, they could use the diversion to take the men down and rescue Tristan.
“On the off chance the dye pack’s trigger can’t be reset, I’m going to go ahead and get the money,” Parker said. “I hope they can come up with a hundred thou.”
“I don’t think we need that much. Twenty-five thousand in hundreds and twenties or whatever denominations they can come up with will work. Even ten thousand if we put ones, fives, and tens under hundred-dollar bills will look like a lot. We just need it to buy me some time once I’m inside.”
Parker was pacing again, and the tension in the room was agitating Fuzz. Fuzz knew something was up and was pacing right along with Parker.
“I’m going to take Fuzz with me,” she said. “If Grant or whoever is with him goes for me or tries to hurt Tristan, he won’t like that.” And please don’t let her get Tristan’s dog killed, but Fuzz could be the difference between success or failure. He could give her the few seconds she might need to win this war. Because that was what it was...a war.
“I don’t like this, Skylar.”
“Tell me about it, but we don’t have a choice. Go get the money. Ask Annie if she has a briefcase you can use.”
“I have one here.” He stopped his pacing, planting himself in front of her. “Don’t get some idea to be heroic and go deal with this yourself. You be here when I get back.” He stared at her for a moment, then said, “If you haven’t figured it out yet, my brother loves you.”
“I know,” she whispered. And she did. But would he forgive her for not believing in him?
While Parker was at the bank, Skye called Dustin. She told him what was going down and what she was going to do. If she died, she wanted to make sure that Danny didn’t walk away unscathed. “No matter what happens, don’t let him get away with this,” she pleaded.
“I promise you, Skye, his life as he knows it is over. As soon as we hang up, I’m calling his captain. I wish I could order you to not go through with your plan, but I’m not your boss now, and even if I was, you’d do it anyway. Stay safe, you hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you.” They signed off. Her legs refused to hold her up anymore, and she planted her butt on the floor. Fuzz didn’t waste any time landing on her lap. “I know,” she said, burying her face in his neck fur. “I’m worried, too.” What if...
No! She couldn’t think like that. They would rescue Tristan. Everly would have her uncle, and Parker and Kade would have their brother. Nothing less was acceptable.
The thought that she’d been trying to keep out pushed its way in. This was all on her. She was the reason Tristan’s life was in danger. If the worst happened, she would never forgive herself. Dangerous men who didn’t blink at killing someone were here because of her. She already didn’t forgive herself for that.
She didn’t know how long she and Fuzz cuddled, taking strength from each other. Well, her taking strength from Fuzz. She wasn’t sure what she was giving him other than her fears and tears.
At some point, Parker returned, carrying a large bank bag. “Why are you on the floor?”
Because she and Fuzz were having a moment? She lifted her hand, and he helped her up. “Fuzz and I were making rescue plans. How much do you have there?”
“Annie was able to come up with twenty thousand without us giving her prior notice. I had to tell her what it was for, but she promised to keep quiet.”
“Good.” She glanced at her watch. “Kade should be here soon.”
“I’m here.” Kade walked in and right behind him were two men who, like Kade, were made of muscles. All three wore black T-shirts and black cargo pants, and one of them was covered in tattoos. They each had sidearms at their waists, carried duffel bags, and one had a long gun slung over his shoulder. Danger radiated from the three men.
Kade came straight to her and wrapped his arms around her. “We’re going to get him back, Skylar.” He then slung an arm over Parker’s shoulders. “Big brother was always getting us out of trouble. It’s our turn to return the favor.” He pointed to the man with the tattoos. “That’s Viper. He’s our sniper.” He lifted a chin toward the other one. “This dude here is Cupcake. He can make anything out of nothing.”
