Chapter 40
SEBASTIAN
The drive back to the ranch is silent. Lennox sits beside me in the truck, her hand in mine, staring out the window at nothing. Behind us, a convoy of vehicles follows: my ranch hands, Warren’s rental truck with Cole driving and Nathaniel coordinating cleanup crews via phone.
I keep glancing at Lennox, watching for signs of shock or trauma or a breakdown. But she just sits there, eerily calm, her thumb rubbing circles on the back of my hand.
“Are you okay?” I finally ask.
“I don’t know.” Her voice is quiet. “Ask me tomorrow. Or next week. Right now, I’m just numb.”
“That’s normal. After what you went through.”
“After what we all went through,” she corrects.
“Sebastian, I watched your father kill a man, your father, who I was sure hated me, killed someone in front of me. For me. I watched you and your brothers fight like this was just another day. Watched Caroline coordinate a military operation like it was routine.” She turns to look at me. “Have you done this before?”
The question hangs in the air between us.
“Never me personally,” I say carefully. “But paid people to handle problems that needed to disappear? More times than I can count.”
She nods slowly, like that confirms something she already suspected. “I always thought that my family built their legacy through honest work.”
“They did. But honest work doesn’t mean clean hands. Not at this level.” I squeeze her hand. “Lennox, every family with real power has done terrible things to protect it. That’s just the reality of what we are.”
We pull through the ranch gates just as the sun is setting. Our house waits ahead, lights on, looking peaceful and safe despite everything that happened over the last sixteen hours.
Caroline is already here, her car in the drive. She meets us on the porch.
“Sheriff bought the story. Ruled it a justified rescue operation. Tragic loss of life, but necessary given the circumstances.” She looks at Lennox. “You’ll need to give a statement tomorrow. Just stick to what we discussed.”
“I understand.” Lennox’s voice is hollow.
“Good. Now get inside. I’ve had food brought out. You need to eat, shower, rest.” Caroline’s clinical demeanor softens slightly.
Cole pulls up behind our truck, and Warren climbs out slowly, his movements careful after the exertion of the day. “Your rooms are ready,” I tell them. “Second floor. And there’s a room down the hall for you, Mr. Briggs. I’ll show you—”
“We’ll find them,” Warren says. “But first, enough with the Mr. Briggs shit. You did things today that deserve a first name. It’s Warren, son.
” He holds out his hand, and I shake it.
He moves to Lennox, pulls her into a careful hug.
“I’m proud of you. For being strong and not breaking.
Now go inside. Eat something. Your brothers and I are here for a few days.
Make sure you’re really alright before we head back to Montana. ”
She goes inside with Caroline, leaving me alone with the Briggs men.
Warren turns to me, his expression hard. “Walk with me.”
We move away from the house, toward the barn, leaving Cole and Cage to get cleaned up. Warren is silent until we’re out of earshot.
“You did good today,” he finally says. “Calling me, getting her back. That was the right call. I’m glad you didn’t wait for us.”
“She’s your daughter. You had a right to be there, but I couldn’t leave her in that place a second longer.”
He stops and turns to face me. “But here’s what I need to know now—what happens next? With Marshall gone, with that threat eliminated, what’s your plan?”
“For Lennox?”
“For everything. Your family’s been in a war for sixty years. You just eliminated the other side. That’s going to have consequences. Legal ones, probably. Business ones, definitely. And I need to know my daughter’s not going to be caught in the fallout.”
Fair question. I was so focused on getting Lennox back that I didn’t think much past that.
“Caroline’s handling the legal side. Making sure the narrative holds. As for business…” I pause. “Marshall had his operation, land, assets. All of that will go through probate. We’ll probably acquire most of it eventually.”
“So you’re expanding your empire on the backs of the people you just killed.”
“That’s how this works. You know that.” I meet his eyes. “But to answer your real question, Lennox will be protected. From legal consequences, from business fallout, from everything. Whatever comes from today, she’s insulated from it.”
Warren studies me for a long moment. “You love her.”
I don’t hesitate to give him an answer. “Yes. I do.”
“Good. Because what happened to her is the kind of thing that changes people. Breaks them, sometimes. Lennox is going to need support while she processes it. Are you ready to give her that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Even when it’s hard? Even when she has nightmares or questions whether she can live with being part of families that do these things?”
“Especially then.” I pause. “Sir, I know how this didn’t start great, but that’s not what this is any more. I love her. I’ll do whatever it takes to help her through this.”
“Good.” Warren starts walking back to the house. “Because my daughter’s strong, but she’s not made of stone. Today, she saw things she can’t unsee. Learned things about all of us she can’t unlearn.”
“I know.”
Inside, I find Lennox in the kitchen picking at the food Caroline brought. She looks small, fragile, nothing like the woman who recovered cattle in darkness or stood up to my entire family.
“Hey,” I say quietly as I move to her and place my hand on her back.
“Hey.” She sets down her fork. “My dad have words with you?”
“Just making sure I’m ready to support you through processing today.”
“And are you?”
“Yes.” I lean over and kiss her head. “Lennox, whatever you need, space, conversation, distraction, anything, I’m here.”
“I need…” She stops, shaking her head. “I don’t know what I need. Everything feels surreal. Like it happened to someone else.”
“That’s shock. It’ll wear off eventually.”
“And then what? Then I have to deal with the fact that fifteen people died today because of me?”
“No, not because of you. Because they made choices. They took you, threatened us. They paid the price for those choices.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“It is simple. Someone tried to take you from me, and I made sure they couldn’t.” I cup her face gently. “I’m not going to apologize for that. For getting you back. For eliminating the threat. For any of it.”
“I’m not asking you to apologize.” Her voice goes quiet. “I’m just trying to figure out how to live with it. How to be the kind of person who’s okay with what happened today.”
“You don’t have to be okay with it. You just have to survive it.” I pull her against me. “And I’ll help you with whatever it takes.”
She wraps her arms around me and holds on tight. We stay like that for a long time, just holding each other while the reality of the day slowly sinks in.
Eventually, Warren comes out of his room, and Cage and Cole come back from getting cleaned up.
“We should eat,” Warren says, eyeing the food Caroline left. “Been a long day.”
We gather around the table for an odd family dinner. Lennox picks at her food but doesn’t really eat. I can’t blame her. My own appetite is gone despite not having eaten since morning.
After dinner, Warren heads to his room, the exhaustion visible on his face, but he says he needs to call someone. He’s moving more slowly and relying on his cane more than I’ve seen him use it before.
Lennox whispers, “He has a girlfriend. Claire, that’s who he has to call.” She giggles quietly, and my heart settles at the sound. “Isn’t that ridiculous, my dad has a girlfriend?”
“Good for him, he deserves to have a companion. Your mom’s been gone a long time, and if she can put up with him, she’s probably a saint.” I laugh with Lennox, and her brothers shake their heads.
“It’s gross, he kisses her and she sleeps over.” Cole rolls his eyes. “He’s our dad, it’s weird.” That gets us all laughing even harder. Laughing about my father-in-law having a girlfriend isn’t exactly how I expected tonight to end, but it breaks the tension.
The boys head upstairs, and I start cleaning up, giving Lennox space to just sit and process.
“Sebastian?” Her voice is small.
“Yeah?”
“Will you…” She stops and starts again. “Will you go to bed when I do? I don’t want to be alone.”
“Of course.” I move to her, pull her to her feet. “Come on. Let’s get you upstairs. You need rest.”
In our bedroom, I help her out of her clothes, the same clothes she was wearing when they took her, now rumpled and dirty. She stands passively, letting me undress her like she’s a doll.
“Bath or shower?” I ask.
“Bath. I want to soak the feeling off me.”
I run a bath while she sits on the edge of the bed, staring at nothing. When it’s ready, I help her in, then start to leave.
“Stay, please. Just sit with me.”
So I do. I sit on the floor beside the tub while she soaks, occasionally adding hot water, not talking unless she wants to.
“They kept me in a basement and tied me up, but they didn’t… they didn’t do anything to me. Didn’t touch me inappropriately. Just kept me tied up.” She stares off into nothing. She’s told me all this before, but this is her processing, and she needs to talk it out.
“I’m glad.”
“But if they had, if they’d hurt me that way, would you have made them suffer more?” She lets her head roll along the tub to look at me, her eyes focused now.
The question is loaded. Testing.
“Yes,” I answer honestly. “If they’d hurt you like that, I would have made sure their deaths took hours instead of minutes. I’d burn the world down for you, Lennox.”
She nods slowly, like that confirms something. “Is it sick that I find comfort in your capacity for violence?”
“No. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be protected by someone who can actually do it.” I move closer to the tub. “Lennox, we’re not good people. Not by normal standards, but we’re your people. And we’ll always protect you. That’s worth something.”
She holds my gaze for a long moment, then nods. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay. I can live with that.” She stands, water sluicing off her body. “Help me dry off?”
I wrap her in towels, helping her into sleep clothes. We climb into bed together, and she immediately curls into me.
“Thank you,” she whispers. “For coming for me. For bringing my family. For everything.”
“Always. I’ll always come for you.”
She falls asleep quickly, exhaustion taking over. But I lie awake, listening to her breathe, cataloging every sound in the house. Making sure she’s safe.
Downstairs, I hear Warren moving around; his uneven gait gives him away. He’s checking doors and windows, probably, the habits of a man who’s spent his life protecting his family.
We’re alike in that way. Both of us willing to do terrible things to keep our people safe. Both of us are carrying the weight of those choices. Both of us know we’d do it all again without hesitation.