Chapter Twenty
Granger held on to her and led her deeper into the cave. His flashlight helped them not trip over anything, but the dark around the beam of light somehow felt more oppressive as they moved along a cold, wet cave wall.
But he was here, and Brooke had help. She still couldn’t get over it. “Why did you come?”
“I was in the area.”
She scowled at his back. “Granger.”
“It’s a long story. We’ll get it sorted soon enough. Look, right ahead.”
He pointed and she saw the little sliver of natural light.
Almost there. She could cry. Or just collapse. But she didn’t let herself do either. Getting out was only one step. Then they had to deal with the aftermath. Find the police and tell them about Leon, get back into that cave and collect the necessary evidence and so forth.
But, man, all she really wanted was to go home.
And she didn’t let herself think too deeply about the fact she didn’t have a home, but when she thought about one, she pictured Zeke’s half-renovated house. Viola. Him.
It took longer than she’d expected to get to the entrance, but they finally did. It felt blinding to step out into the sunlight, and she had to squeeze her eyes shut. Granger held tight to her, and she still didn’t know how this was possible. This whole weird day.
“You didn’t have to come.”
He laughed. “Only you would say that to me after I saved your butt, Brooke.”
She managed to blink her eyes open and not immediately shut them against the brightness. “It’s not that I’m ungrateful.”
“You don’t want to put me out. I know. I wish you’d get it through your head you’re not a burden to us. Any of us.”
That was not the first time he’d said that to her, but maybe it was the first time she was really taking it on board.
She didn’t know what had changed. No, that was a lie. She knew it was Zeke calling her out on not wanting to be a burden. It was Zeke, period. It shouldn’t be about him. No matter what he’d done or said, he didn’t love her. Not really.
But he’d jumped in to help after all this time. He’d claimed he’d changed, that his roots could be hers, and she didn’t feel so afraid with him that she was . . . well, what Granger had said. Some kind of burden.
Something on Granger’s phone beeped and he frowned at it. But he smoothed out that frown quickly. He pointed to a trail outside the cave.
“Follow that path and you’ll find the rescue team. They’ve been focused on the west entrance. You can tell them I helped, or say you handled it yourself. I’ll back up the story either way.”
He even gave her a little nudge in that direction while he moved in the other.
Brooke stared at him in confusion. “Where are you going?”
He paused a second, looked in the opposite direction of the trail then at his watch. Gauging something, though she couldn’t tell what. When he looked at her, his expression was the stern kind of North Star taskmaster she hadn’t seen in a while. Because they weren’t North Star anymore. “I started looking into Royal, your father, the lawyer, after your and Zeke’s call. I don’t like what I’ve found out about your father, Brooke. The ties he might have, and what he might have people doing for him. I’m just going to go make sure everything is good on some of those loose ends.”
“That doesn’t explain where you’re going.”
“I think I’ve got a lead on who put that explosive in your car, the tracker in Royal’s. I was working on that when we got word of the cave-in. Go find the rescue team, Brooke. Your head’s bleeding. I’ll handle this.”
“Handle what?”
He sighed. “Look. There’s a little group of guys that have a prison connection to your father. I think they were after you but got . . . sidetracked when the cave-in happened and they couldn’t easily get to you.”
“Sidetracked by what?”
He looked up at the sky and shook his head. “Fine. Sidetracked by Royal himself. And Zeke. And a woman, I’m assuming that’s Zeke’s sister.”
Brooke immediately turned away from the trail. “I’m going with you.”
“Brooke. You’ve got a rescue squad looking for you, and this is dangerous. You’ve got a gash on your head. Go get checked out and—”
“You trained me yourself, Granger. Self-defense. How to shoot. If I can help, I should.”
“When was the last time you practiced any kind of shooting? I’ve got a few people coming. No worries, Brooke. I can handle it.”
He could. Probably. But she was always letting someone else handle it. Hiding in caves with remains that couldn’t do anything to her. “I’m not going to leave Royal on his own again. I can’t abandon him.”
“You never did, Brooke. You were a kid.”
She hated that he knew her this well. That, aside from Zeke, Granger and his wife and a few other North Star people were the only ones who did. Because she could fool anyone else.
But not family.
“Maybe you’re right, but I’m not doing it now. I can’t . . . always be saved. At some point, I have to be part of the saving.”
“He’s not alone. We’ve got this handled.”
“He’s my brother, Granger.”
He sighed heavily. “Why’d I recruit all these stubborn mules?”
he muttered. He glanced at his watch. “Gabriel should be here any minute. Reece not far behind. Shay had to stay with the kids, and that was a fight and a half. But I’ve got Betty on standby at her insistence just in case anything gets hairy. She can patch you up. Come on.”
Brooke followed him carefully through the trees, the gun from Leon still in her hand. Gabriel and Reece were former North Star operatives like Zeke. Reece had gotten out himself almost before she’d joined up, so she didn’t know him that well. Gabriel had been around a lot during her time and had been there at the end. He’d even married Zeke’s cousin, Mallory, who’d gotten Zeke into North Star. Brooke had been close to Betty, who was North Star’s resident doctor. Since the support staff people had spent a lot of time together, and as Betty and Brooke had both been interested in medical science, it had been a quick and easy friendship.
Though, like with most North Star people, Brooke hadn’t kept in good touch, not wanting to bother anyone. Always feeling a little “other”
once North Star had disbanded and so many had gone on to start lives and families.
But that was the thing. All these people were married, many with kids. Granger had a wife and a ton of foster kids at home. Reece had a wife and a stepson and, if Brooke recalled correctly, a few more kids since. She didn’t know if Gabriel and Mallory had a family, but still. Betty had married a sheriff and moved to Montana to help raise his twins, last Brooke knew.
They’d all gotten away from the danger of North Star because of those families, those choices.
“Granger. You don’t have to be doing this. I can . . . I’ll handle the stuff with Royal. You all should go home.”
“Home,”
he said, shaking his head. “Home is family, Brooke. And that’s what we are. With or without North Star, we’re all family. No matter how anybody feels about it. Forever.”
He gave a glance over her shoulder then pointed through the trees. “Reece is over there. He’s watching something. We’re going to approach silently, okay? Don’t make a sound.”
She nodded. She could do that. She might not be good at the whole operative-and-handling-danger thing, but she knew how to follow orders. And she did know how to shoot the gun she carried now that she could see it.
She would help. Whatever this was, she was finally going to help Royal. No matter what he’d gotten himself into.
She followed Granger cautiously until Reece’s careful hiding spot came into view. He’d created a natural kind of trench with some fallen logs and a rock outcropping. Brooke and Granger joined him behind the barrier.
They all crouched low and spoke in barely-there whispers.
“Five men, four armed. Surrounding Royal, Zeke and an unknown woman.”
Reece flicked Brooke a look and then one at Granger, who gave a little go-ahead nod.
“Royal’s been shot, but he’s awake,”
Reece continued, handing Granger a pair of binoculars. “He’s alert. Betty’s on standby, not far off. Minute we can, we’ll get him to her.”
All that fear Brooke had let go once Granger had appeared crept back in. Her brother had been shot. He and Zeke and Carlyle were surrounded by five people. She didn’t dare peek over the barrier. She just had to . . . deal.
But not alone. Not hiding. Together.
Family.
Zeke was prepared to get shot. Hell, he’d survived it a few times, he could do it again. He didn’t let himself dwell on the errant thought that here he was in a standoff, finally not having a death wish, and he just might get himself killed.
Nah. Not today. He had to make Brooke believe they could make this work. Couldn’t check out now. He wasn’t going to let this end in any way she might blame herself.
Just then, as if on some cosmic cue, far off but distinct, Zeke heard a whistle. A North Star whistle. Then he saw the glint of something—a gun. And he recognized the hand making a gesture from behind a tree. Walker.
“Cops,”
Carlyle whispered. “Behind us.”
Backup. All different kinds. Zeke grinned.
He aimed his weapon right at Jeremiah Campbell. “Took down too many men like you in my life. Won’t faze me to do it again.”
Jeremiah must have sensed something because he looked behind him. Walker and Cash stepped out from their hiding places. Both held guns. But before Jeremiah could even react to that, the sounds of heavy footfalls reached them.
“Drop your weapons,”
Hart shouted, cresting a hill. Gun drawn, with Chloe Brink not far behind. Both in their Bent County uniforms.
“Now,”
she added.
The man who hadn’t had a gun took off running, while two of the gunmen dropped their weapons. Another held on to his and ran. Jeremiah just stood there. Fuming while the North Star contingent quickly stopped the attempted runners.
Reece Montgomery and Gabriel Saunders each took out a gunman, while Cash’s brother, Palmer, took out the other.
A convergence of the different facets of his life. All coming together to help. Protect. Save.
Then there was Brooke. She had some crusted blood on her temple but didn’t look to be actively bleeding. And she rushed to Royal’s side. He wanted to run to her too, but he let her have the moment with her brother while Granger texted Betty to come on down and Hart radioed for an ambulance.
Zeke gave one more glance at Jeremiah. Walker and Cash had guns trained on him while Chloe moved over with a pair of handcuffs. She kept telling him to drop his weapon, but he hadn’t yet.
So Zeke walked over.
Jeremiah didn’t lift his gun, but he lifted his chin. “You’re on my list.”
Zeke reached forward and grabbed the gun out of Jeremiah’s hand before the man even had a chance to react. North Star training at its finest. He handed it to Chloe. “I’m on everyone you know’s list,”
Zeke returned. “And I still sleep soundly at night because you all are nothing. Always have been.”
Chloe cuffed the man and then jerked him away. More cops were appearing, dragging the now-handcuffed perpetrators back toward the road where, hopefully, cruisers were waiting to take them to the sheriff’s office.
Because all of these people had come together to help, to do the right thing, to protect each other. Against a small contingent of people who’d worked together to hurt and harm.
Zeke’s childhood had been marked by the inability to save his mother against men like that and, like so many realizations lately, this one hit him out of the blue.
He’d spent most of his adult life trying to make that all right. Solve it, like it was a problem. When all it had ever been was a tragedy. One that he’d had no control over.
Not his fault.
Walker pounded him on the shoulder. “What the hell?”
Zeke shook his head. “Didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. How’d you find us?”
Walker jerked a thumb at Cash.
Carlyle’s fiancé shrugged. “Carlyle and I track each other’s locations. When she disappeared, I figured she’d gone to see you, but after a while I realized she wouldn’t let you hit the cave alone. But when the cops hadn’t seen you guys, we checked it to see where she was. Lost service here and there, so couldn’t pinpoint an exact location at first, but we got close, then your friend found us.”
Zeke scoured the scene. Granger and Gabriel stood just a ways back from where Brooke knelt next to Royal. Betty was with her, clearly working on Royal.
She was okay. Okay.
Carlyle sauntered over, wrapped an arm around Cash’s waist but looked up at Zeke. “Just going to stand there staring at her?”
Zeke scowled at his sister. “Giving her a minute with her injured brother.”
“Give her a shoulder, dipshit. They’re going to cart him out of here the minute they get a stretcher in. She’s going to need support.”
When Zeke didn’t immediately jump to action, Carlyle made a disgusted sound. “If she walks out on you, you damn well deserve it.”
Then she gave him a physical push with her free hand.
Zeke grumbled, but he moved over to the scene around Royal. They had him up in a sitting position and Betty had already wrapped a bandage around his arm.
“Nice save,”
Zeke offered to his old boss.
Granger shrugged. “Only because you two got me started on looking into that lawyer Brooke paid. Led me to Jeremiah, which didn’t sit right. Started keeping tabs on a guy who visited the alleged Jeremiah in jail weekly without fail and that led me here.”
Two EMTs with a stretcher appeared and gently but firmly moved Brooke out of the way. Zeke reached out and helped her to her feet. Once she looked up at him, she simply fell into him.
He wrapped his arms around her, held her. Up to this point, he’d kept every feeling as much on lockdown as he could, but too many rushed through him now with her in his arms. The kind of relief that threatened to buckle his knees.
“Everything’s okay,”
he told her, holding her close. “Everyone’s going to be just fine.”
She nodded into his chest. “He’ll be okay,”
she said, and he knew she was saying it to reassure herself, not because she knew it was true. But it would be true.
They were all going to be okay. He rubbed a hand down her back and promised himself he’d make sure of it.