Chapter 40 Oak
Oak
I’m bleeding all over the truck, the red trickling down my arm and getting onto everything from the seat to the steering wheel.
There’s a sizeable bullet wound in my bicep, but I can’t be bothered to deal with it right now.
I’ll worry about it later. Right now, my sole mission is to get that little girl back.
They’d taken her.
In the chaos, they’d shoved Bonnie aside, kicked Ivy down, and taken Genie.
And when Jules had tried to get to her in the midst of the madness, I’d watched one of the secret service fuckers hit her upside the head.
That asshole will have a nice black eye tomorrow when he’s sitting in jail, but I plan on giving him more of a reminder why he shouldn’t touch my girls.
My girls.
Fuck.
The pickup truck isn’t as fast as I’d like, but it can keep pace with the standard issued Suburbans the Senator is riding in.
I know he’s in the third vehicle along with Jules’ brother and Genie.
I’d watched someone shove Genie into her brother’s arms and then shove the both of them into the car.
I can only hope that her brother is as good as she says he is and that he’s protecting that little girl right about now.
“Don’t make the main car lose control,” Cash orders, clearly panicked as he pulls out his phone. “We have to block them. If they crash, Genie isn’t in a car seat.”
“I know,” I say through gritted teeth as I focus on keeping pace with the line of cars. The back Suburban moves with me, so I can’t get around him. Which leaves one option.
In the back seat, Jules is rubbing her head, trying to gather her senses after being practically knocked out. Sawyer is talking to her softly, her face twisting from confusion to more and more panicked by the second.
“Hold on,” I say, and hit my fender against the rear quarter panel of the back car.
Immediately, they turn sideways and lose control, clearly not as skilled of a driver as he should be.
It shoots off the road into the field and slams into a tree, coming to an abrupt stop.
One down. Two more to go until it’s the car we need.
“I’m making calls,” Cash says, holding the phone up to his ear.
“We’re headed past US three thirty-two,” he shouts into the phone when someone answers.
“They’ve kidnapped a little girl. Third car back is the target.
” He hangs up and dials another number, repeating the same sentence over and over again.
“Genie,” Jules whimpers, rubbing her head.
“We’re gonna get her back,” I reassure her again. “Don’t you worry.”
“If they leave, we won’t be able to get close again,” she informs us.
I’ve already figured as much. The Ward Family has enough money to make sure we never get close again.
If they get away, the only way to save Genie is for Jules to go back herself, and then she’d be married off to that asshole that shot me.
Which isn’t an option. Now that I’ve accepted I love her, I’m not allowing any of that to happen.
The next car proves to be a much better driver. When I hit him, he corrects and stays on the road.
“Hold on,” I grunt. “This is gonna hurt.”
I gas the truck, thankful I have a big ass cattle guard on the front as I ram it into the rear end of the suburban. The car swerves, misses the correction, and zooms off the road. A second later, it rolls.
“We can’t do that to Genie’s car!” Jules says, her panic clear in her voice.
“I know,” I reassure her. “We just have to get to the car.”
Strangely, this isn’t the first high speed chase the Green River Basin has seen. Apparently, we like trouble here, or it comes looking for all of us. I don’t know which.
“Everyone’s on their way,” Cash says, tossing his phone onto the dash and checking his gun.
“Everyone?” Sawyer asks.
“Everyone,” Cash repeats, nodding. “You call the Sheriff?”
“Yeah, He’s aware and on his way.”
The first set of cars appear on the side of the road, too late to block the convoy, but falling in line behind us. The next set block the road and force the four remaining cars to go off road for a few beats to avoid a collision.
Cash whistles. “Would you look at that.”
Ahead of us, I watch as cars come speeding from the ranches, great lines of them, everyone coming out to block the road.
And there are only so many roads here. If they can’t get passed, they’re stuck.
They pile up, speeding to cover the roads, blockading the way out of the basin until the only way to leave is over the mountains on either side of us.
The Suburbans in front of us screech to a halt when they realize they can’t go around them anymore.
Their reverse lights come on, but we’re all filling in around them, circling them, so that there’s no way out but through.
If this was an assassination attempt, they’d be well and truly screwed right about now.
The third car whips around the others, gains speed, and tries to ram through the blockade.
It’s fucking stupid to do, considering cars are now parked three deep.
There’s no ramming through all of them. The Suburban slams to a stop as it T-bones the front car with a loud metallic sound of two vehicles crashing and starts smoking immediately, threatening to catch on fire.
Trapped. Nowhere to go. Just how I like my corrupt politicians.
“Genie!” Jules screams, scrambling from the backseat into the street. “Genie!”
I curse under my breath and follow after her, still ignoring the drops of blood trickling from my elbow. “Get the baby!” I shout, rushing forward, right on Jules’ heel. “They’ve kidnapped the baby!”
Cash and Sawyer are right behind us, both of them trying to keep up. Cash keeps ahold of Sawyer so he doesn’t trip over any of the rocks or other road hazards, but it isn’t long before they’re right behind us, keeping pace.
Before we can grab the door handle and jerk it open, the car door opens with a violent swing.
Senator Ward stumbles out, those eyes the same as Jules’ staring at me with hatred.
He’s bleeding from a cut on his forehead, but it’s the gun he trains on Jules that has me holding up my hands. She stops, her eyes wide.
He wouldn’t shoot his own daughter, would he?
“I should have discarded of you the first sign of trouble,” he snarls, staring at his child like she’s the most disgusting thing he’s ever seen. “Your mother defended you then. She’s not here to now.”
He flicks the safety off.
“Stop!” someone says from the growing crowd, and as one, we all turn to look at the speaker.
My chest tightens as one woman steps from the crowd.