Chapter 41
Forty-One
I t was as if his heart had stopped working mid-beat. A wave of nausea washed over him as he tried to make sense of the scene unfolding in front of him. “What the fuck is going on here? Evie, are you okay?”
She nodded, pulling her dress up higher on Sammy’s back. She’d lost all the color in her face and Sam felt fucking furious.
Holy fuck. His barely-an-hour-old daughter was in the line of fire, with only Jake’s body and Evie’s hands as protection.
Derrick moved his arm, swinging the gun so it was now trained on Sam. Good. That’s right where he wanted it to stay.
“Why don’t you come join your little family and the good doctor here.”
Sam walked over, positioning his body away from his girls, but still close enough he could cover them if he needed to.
“You got your gun on you?”
Sam shook his head. And as much as he wished he was lying, he wasn’t. Abby hadn’t wanted the guys to carry at the wedding. The only person that he knew ignored that request, for sure, was Hank .
“Turn around and show me.”
He turned slowly, allowing Derrick to see he was telling the truth.
“I’m unarmed. Please put down the gun. I just want Evie and the baby to be safe.”
“I can’t. This is the only way I can think to do this…”
“What exactly is this?” Jake asked.
“You…” Derrick pointed the gun back at Jake. “Don’t. Speak. And you, Boss Man…. Well, you took something from me. It’s only fair I take something of yours.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Sam’s heartbeat thundered in his ears. “But you are fucking crazy if you think I’m going to let you stand there pointing a gun at my woman and child. She just gave birth, Derrick! Whatever the fuck this is about can wait.”
“Sam, you have to calm down,” Evie whispered.
“I’d listen to your missus if I were you.” Derrick smirked but Sam saw how awful he looked. Dark circles under his eyes. Pale skin. His beard had grown out in the few days he’d been away.
“My sister. My beautiful baby sister. She’s gone. Because I couldn’t get her the money to give her a fighting chance.”
“One of your sisters died?” Evie gasped. “That’s why you had to go home? I’m so sorry.”
“You’re part of the problem, Evie. Fuck. I don’t want to hurt you or the baby, but Sam has to pay. There has to be justice in this world. And I’ll do it, for her.”
“I don’t think you understand how important it is for Evie and the baby to get checked out right now.” Jake stepped away from Evie and Sammy, taking Derrick’s attention with him. Sam’s mind was reeling.
And then, the gun went off.
Evie screamed, the baby wailing in her arms. Sticky red rivers began to appear on the sleeve of Jake’s white dress shirt .
“Jake!” Evie cried. “Derrick, why?”
“I fucking told him to stop talking! No one leaves until I get what I came for! That’s barely a scratch. He’ll be fine.”
Jake pressed his hand over the wound and nodded, but Sam saw how ashen his face looked.
He needed to figure out what was going on, and fast. “Can you explain?—”
“YOU DON’T DESERVE AN EXPLANATION!”
Sammy continued to cry, and Derrick’s shaky hands pointed the gun towards Evie. Jake and Sam both took two steps towards each other to create a wall of protection in front of them.
“I never met your sister. I’m so sorry she’s gone, I can’t imagine that pain. But I’m not sure how I could have had a hand in her dying.”
“Because you stopped my fucking father from getting his hands on this land. If you hadn’t, that asshole would have stopped holding her care over my head! He would have given me my fair share of the land. Your father went back on his word and my family suffered for it.” Derrick’s hands shook and sweat dripped down his face. “We were going to drill this land, sell the oil and be set for life. My sister would have had the best medical care. She finally would have been able to have a good and comfortable life. But you fucking couldn’t just do what Joel agreed to in the first place. You didn’t even want this ranch after he died, but no matter what we tried, you refused to just let it go! And now, Monica is gone forever.”
“Garrett is your father?” Evie’s whispered question rocked Sam to the core.
“No. That’s not right, is it?” He didn’t want it to be true. God, how could he have been so blind to what was going on right under his nose.
Derrick nodded, and the knot in Sam’s stomach doubled in size. “So, you were working with him. This whole time? You were helping him steal from us? You helped him kill our cattle? You fucking told him when we were off the ranch so he could wreck Evie’s apartment? He fucking hurt her, Derrick! And I trusted you after to keep her safe!”
“Sam,” Evie warned. He looked over his shoulder at her and instantly shrank back. Silent tears were streaming down her face. She looked so fucking tired, but her eyes were pleading with him. There was nothing more important than keeping the situation calm while Derrick’s gun was still pointed at them.
“Yeah, I did all that. And you know what? I didn’t feel bad about it. Because I thought in the end, I knew I was doing the right thing for my sister.”
“Why wouldn’t Garrett give the money to help his own daughter? Fuck, I didn’t even know he had kids!”
“I’m his,” he scoffed. “But my sisters aren’t. The fucking prick knocked my mom up when they were sixteen. He wasn’t around growing up, but you bet your ass he came back looking for me the minute that survey first came back saying there was oil here.”
“I can’t believe you’ve been working against us this whole time.”
“Monica was sick her entire life, Sam. I was able to send money home to cover things as long as I did his bidding. Until she got worse.”
“That’s when you started siphoning money again from the ranch?” Evie asked. “You should be home, grieving with your family, Derrick.”
“I can’t be with them right now. Knowing I was so close for so long to getting Monica the help she needed.” He turned away from Evie, staring straight at Sam. “You died last year. All on your own, and it was like God had given me the greatest gift. Finally, finally, my asshole father was going to have the ranch and I’d be free of this place. I’d have the resources to get the best treatment in the country for my baby sister. But you got a miracle. And she didn’t. How is that fucking fair, Boss Man?”
Before Sam could answer, his ears picked up on sirens in the distance. God, he wished it was more than just an ambulance coming towards them. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one who heard the sirens.
“How? How did you alert them?” Derrick shoved his gun into Sam’s chest, his eyes wide with fury.
“I didn’t. It’s an ambulance, coming for Evie and the baby. Let’s get out of here, Derrick. Go to the bunk house. Let Evie and Jake get medical attention. Please.”
“Sam, no! We need you with us.” More tears poured down Evie’s face. “I won’t let this be the last time I see you.”
“You need to go to the hospital with Jake. You need to take care of yourself and our daughter. I won’t be far behind.”
Derrick laughed at his declaration. “We’re not going anywhere.”
He turned, waving the gun in the air. “It’s not enough. Not enough for you to suffer physically. Don’t you see? I don’t want you to die, Sam. I want to hurt you. Make you feel every ounce of pain your selfishness caused in me. In my family. We’ll never have another moment with Monica. Why should you get to walk into the sunset with your automatic little family when my family is so fucking broken? It’s not about taking you away from everyone. It’s about taking your whole world away from you. I was just going to settle for Evie, but I don’t think that’s what I’ll do anymore. Because imagine my delight when the perfect answer came into the world tonight.”
“No!” Evie screamed. “Your sister wouldn’t want you to hurt my baby. Please, Derrick! Let us help you. Let us get you help!”
Sam looked to his left, catching Jake’s eye for half a second. The small, almost imperceptible nod from his friend told him everything he needed to know. He didn’t wait. And the second his body started moving towards Derrick, he saw Jake lunge to cover Evie and the baby.
His shoulder slammed into Derrick. Although the man had twenty pounds, and a good three to four inches on Sam, he was no match for the element of surprise. The only thing Sam was thinking about was getting the gun out of Derrick’s hand. That’s why he missed the other fist flying towards his face.
His jaw took the punch with a crack. Somewhere in the distance Evie screamed again. Sam’s hand reached for Derrick’s arm, slamming it down over and over again as Derrick landed punches in his side.
His vision tunneled, focused solely on getting the firearm away from Derrick.
“What the fuck?” a voice growled over his shoulder.
“Hank! Help Sam!!”
“Oh God! Hank! He’s got a gun!
“Daisy, get out of here!”
“Fuck that! They need our help!”
“Sprinkles, get back here!”
The weapon was so close to coming loose from Derrick’s grip. Sam just needed to wrench his arm a little more to the left…
The boom of the gun going off a second time rang in his ears.