Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
Owen
Bang!
Bang!
Releasing my hair, Madden drops to his knees crawling for cover. My ears ring from the blasts, but I recover quickly after years of training and experience. I may only have one working eye, but when I see Mom and Livvy scrambling toward me, I could cry.
They’re alive.
When I got in my Jeep after the game, I had just started the engine when my front passenger and back driver’s side doors opened.
Someone in the back seat pressed a pistol to the back of my head while the other in the front seat, wearing a tactical vest, held his phone out to me.
On the screen, Mom and Olivia were in a horse stall holding on to each other, crying.
Then the camera flipped to a suited man with ginger hair. Fucking Carmine Madden. “Officer Swift, I see you’ve met my associates.”
My sister yelled my name in the background, and Madden smirked. The way his eyes danced, I swear he got hard hearing her plea. It was like looking into the eyes of the devil.
“Your sister’s feisty. I wonder what it would take to quiet her down.”
“Don’t you fucking touch her!” I roared, only to have the pressure of the pistol pressed against my skull intensify.
“Now, now. Let’s not get too excited. I’d like to make you an offer.”
He was using my family as chess pieces, but what he was going to ask for I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t bait him... I waited him out.
“You, for them.”
Relieved he was willing to let them go and that he didn’t ask for Daisy or Cal, I had no problem agreeing.
I drove to the ranch with one gun to my head and one in my ribs, following their every instruction and praying the entire way there that the redheaded bastard kept his word and didn’t hurt them.
Once I saw for myself that Mom and Livvy were okay, I let one of his minions zip-tie my hands together and push me to my knees. I kept my end of the bargain, but instead of keeping his, he made my family watch as he beat the shit out of me.
His brass knuckles hammered against my ribs, bit into my kidneys, and smashed against my face and head repeatedly.
The blows hit so hard my vision flashed white.
As I blinked the world back into view with my eye that hadn’t swollen shut, brass flew at my face once again.
I staggered but didn’t go down. Then a blow to the back of my head sent me sprawling forward.
A yank on the back of my shirt returned me to my knees. With bloody straw stuck to my face, obstructing what was left of my vision my stomach revolted and I threw up.
Behind me, Madden laughed.
Goddamn coward had me tied up and still had to use brass knuckles to beat me. Just when I think he can’t be any more of a pussy, he lunged forward with his knife, slicing what felt like the mark of Zoro into my back. Then things went fuzzy.
I heard my sister yelling, but she sounded miles away. Her screams meant she was alive and kept me going, reassuring me I was the only one taking the hits. Not her or Mom. That’s all that mattered.
I must have hallucinated from the pain because I had visions of Daisy sneaking into the barn, with the men holding us hostage none the wiser.
The three most important people in my life all here with this psychopath and his henchmen.
I watched as my hallucination got into place and lined up what I think was the shotgun I keep in the back seat of my truck.
I tried to signal for her to get the hell out of here, instead she held a finger up to her perfect lips.
And then the sound of gunfire ricocheted off the barn walls.
The two men taking aim at my sister and mother drop to the ground each taking a shot to the side of the head.
Fighting unconsciousness, I whip my head back to Daisy, but she’s gone. The gun is laying on top of the stack of alfalfa, but she’s nowhere in sight.
The horses whinny and pace in their stalls as I struggle to get to my feet. With all the hits to my head, my balance is off, and I stumble. Successively. I make it to my feet on my second try only to be halted before I can take a step in her direction.
“Stay where you are! Hands where I can see them,” a female voice shouts from behind me.
I stop as instructed, my bound hands held out in front of me as I turn my head toward the voice of authority.
With one eye swollen shut, my blurry vision prevents me from seeing who's talking to me, but they’re aiming their gun at the cowering ginger, not me.
It’s then that I notice the badge and hear a dispatcher over someone’s radio.
She’s law enforcement, and I know her.
“Swift, you good?” Deputy Norris asks. She was the deputy on the scene after Daisy’s fall. I’m relieved to see a familiar face.
It takes a second for me to register the two officers behind her. All three are focused on the prick from Boston.
“Carmine Madden, you are under arrest for murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say…”
As the two officers with Deputy Norris put Madden in cuffs, Mom yells, “Daisy!”
I don’t hear another word of the Miranda rights I know by heart because she’s here.
She wasn’t a figment of my imagination. Time slows as my pulse thunders a punishing beat in my head.
She’s running across the barn, and I clumsily meet her halfway.
The fruity scent of her shampoo and her trembling body against mine are a godsend.
“How badly are you hurt?” she asks, pulling back to inspect me. “Where did he cut you? I saw the knife.”
I turn sideways so she can see the slices in my back.
“That piece of shit!” She takes off toward the officers, and with my hands still tied, my attempt to stop her is futile.
Norris blocks her path to Madden. “Daisy, I can only imagine how you must feel right now, but I can’t let you attack him, as much as I may want to. We can’t risk making any mistakes in this case. Not if we want to put him away and keep him there until his dying days.”
“He tried to kill Owen! He threatened his family and mine!”
As is so typically Daisy, she leaves out the part where he tried to have her killed.
“You saved them tonight,” Norris says. “The dispatcher you spoke to heard the whole thing. We have his recorded confession. You got him.”
Mom and Olivia join me as a young officer approaches with a pair of safety shears to cut the zip ties from my wrists.
“You’re one lucky man,” the officer says. “She loves you so much she was ready to kill for you. I’m just glad we got here when we did.”
“What do you mean?”
“Miss McKinnon was about to pull the trigger when I pushed her to the ground and Deputy Norris took out the armed assailants.”
Oh, thank God.
As much as it means to me that Daisy would kill for me and my family, I’m glad she didn’t pull the trigger. It’s a burden she won’t have to live with every time she closes her eyes. Even if the victims deserved to die, taking a life can also take a piece of your soul. I know from experience.
“Thank you.” I shake his hand and then pull Mom into a hug, with one arm, my sister in the other. My body is exhausted and sore, but I’m not letting them go.
“Did he hurt you?”
“No, son. We’re okay. A little shook up, but okay.”
“Bro, look at your girl. She’d tear his face off if she could,” Livvy says, referring to my feral little clover attempting to get to Madden. She’s yelling obscenities at the evil fuck as the deputies search him and strip him of his many weapons, several of which are covered with my blood.
“Passionate is the word I’d use to describe her, sweetheart,” Mom says thoughtfully, watching the fiery brunette I love more than she’ll ever know. “She’s passionate about those she loves.”
“Clover,” I manage to say loud enough for her to hear above the chaos.
She turns, and when she sees the three of us together, tears stream down her face. Finally leaving Madden behind, she joins our hug, completing our circle.
After a couple of minutes, Mom steps away, taking my sister with her, giving the two of us a moment together.
When I wrap her in my arms, she hugs me back but stops when she touches one of the cuts on my back, opting to rest her hands on my hips. I hate it. I want all of her. Always.
“Thanks for saving me,” I whisper into her hair.
She pulls back to look at me. “Well, you’ve waited a long time for me to figure my shit out. It would be a shame for something to get in the way now.” She winks, lightening the mood just like I would if I were in her shoes.
I know most would say that two such similar personalities will never work, but they’d be wrong.
“I love you so damn much.”
“I love you more.”
I scoff. “In your dreams.”