Chapter 15 #2
She drove off, glad the roads were pretty clear. They were still packed with snow, but perfectly drivable. She called Florence on Bluetooth. “Hey, Grandma.” She thought she would try calling Florence her grandmother.
Florence laughed. “That sounds great. Are you coming in, or are the roads too bad?”
“I’m coming in. I’m about…”
Suddenly, a truck started to veer out of his lane and headed straight for her. A drunk driver? She didn’t have anywhere to go but into the snowbanks created by the snowplows.
She lay on the horn, but the truck was fully in her lane and getting close.
“What’s wrong?” Florence asked, sounding worried. Then she said, “Ava, call Dan. Lacy’s on the way here again, but she’s in trouble on the road.”
Lacy tried swerving into the truck’s lane to get out of his path, but he corrected his driving, targeting her. “Pickup coming from Yuma Town,” she hurriedly told Florence. “He’s aiming his truck right at me.”
He struck her car hard, she screamed, and drove into the snowbank.
Then she was stuck. She tried to back out, but her front wheels were too deep in the snow. His truck had a big bumper grill to protect it, but hers was badly smashed.
“He has got a gun.”
“Stay in the car. Ava’s calling Dan and Rory. Everyone’s headed your way.”
“It’s one of the quadruplet brothers.”
“Letting everyone know.”
“Get out of the car!” the brother yelled at her.
She didn’t respond. She was scared to pieces, and she wasn’t getting out of the car where he could take her somewhere else and kill her.
“You know what happened to them! Get. Out. Of. The. Car. Now.”
“What do you want? And which one are you?” She suspected it was Canton, that he would force the truth out of her.
“Canton, but I suspect you know that. Ren didn’t want any part of this, so he returned to Florida. Me? I’m going to learn the truth, and you’re going to tell me.”
“Ren didn’t believe what Timothy and Manning were doing was right.”
“I don’t give a damn about you. I just want to know where my brothers are.”
“I told you. I never saw them at the shop. You would have smelled them if they had been there. And the same with the ranch. But I’m sure they would have realized they couldn’t have hassled me there, not with all the ranch hands who work there.
Then the blizzard came, and who knows what happened to them. ”
“They would have shifted to stay warm. They didn’t stay in their cars.”
“Then look for them. I’m not leaving the car.”
“The sheriff’s office isn’t looking for them, are they?”
No, they’re looking for Canton though.
Then she heard cars and trucks tearing down the road, coming from both directions, converging on Canton’s truck and her car. Lights and sirens were going.
She wanted to open her door and slam it against him to make him drop the gun in the piled-up snow. He raised the gun and pointed it at her. “Maybe you don’t know where they are, but if they’re dead because of you, you’re going to pay for it.”
She didn’t have a choice. No one was there yet, and if he shot her, she would be dead. She unlocked the door and slammed it against him, and the round he had chambered went overhead.
She closed the door and locked it. Rory’s truck came sailing from behind, veered off, and struck Canton hard, knocking him into the snow.
The other vehicles rushed up to join them. Rory jumped out of his truck in a heartbeat. He immediately plowed through the snow to reach Canton and made sure he couldn’t harm anyone. She got out of her car and joined him.
“Is he…”
“Dead. Where’s the other one?” Rory stood and wrapped his arms around her.
“Going home. Ren didn’t want to be involved in this any longer.”
“Smart man.”
Dan, Chase, Stryker, Leyton, Ricky, and Travis exited their vehicles at a run. So did Hal, Ted, Wyatt, and Blaze. They all surrounded them, and Dan checked out Canton, shaking his head. “It’s Canton, right?”
“Yeah. He said Ren returned home,” Lacy said, clinging to Rory.
“I’ll notify Ren that his brother is dead after he pulled a gun on you. Hopefully, he’ll understand what was at stake,” Dan said.
“Good.” She was glad that he would know what happened to the one brother and could probably presume that his other brothers met a similar fate.
“You’re coming home, right?” Rory asked Lacy.
Rory wanted her home with him. But he would support her if she wanted to go to work. He would take her, though.
“Yeah, I think I’ll skip work today,” she said.
“We’ll have your car towed and fixed up,” Dan said. “And we’ll take care of Canton and his truck.”
She got a call from Florence, answered it, and put it on speakerphone.
“Are you all right?” Florence asked.
“Yes, thanks. You sent reinforcements, and they rescued me.”
“Oh, I’m so glad. Why don’t you take a day off from work?” Florence asked.
“You’re all right with it?”
“If I were you, I would do it. Frank is home while someone is over there filling all the bullet holes in the upstairs hallway and painting them after that, and Ava is here with me, helping out with the coffee shop. I want you to relax after what you’ve been through.”
“Thanks, uh, Grandma.”
Florence chuckled. “I love it when you call me that. I feel like I have a family again.”
“You do.”
Then they ended the call, and Rory drove Lacy back to the ranch. “Thanks for my rescue.”
“I was just glad I got there before it was too late.” He couldn’t afford to lose her ever.
“Me too.” She sighed. “Our new year will be the best ever.”
“I agree.” With no more trouble from the Wranglers, it would be. He was so glad Lacy had come into his life. He couldn’t believe how much trouble she’d been in until the brothers came after her. “We have a New Year’s dance coming up.”
“And a wonderful dance partner to enjoy it with. You are my everything.”
“Mine too.” And he couldn’t wait to marry her and go on their honeymoon. But for now, he was just glad to take her home and keep her safe.