Chapter Nineteen
Gard was at the bottom of the pile of what had once been porch stairs when the door creaked open. He froze in his quick rush toward the house, determined to get to Sammy and Lia before any fire did.
A shadow moved out onto the porch, slowly and carefully. One step back and then another. Then the person turned into the light coming out of the window.
“Sammy.” Fire forgotten, Gard rushed toward her.
She let out a desperate kind of sound. “Gard.” She fell into him at a kind of awkward angle, clearly not seeing that there were no stairs. But he caught her, and she was sobbing into his chest as held her close.
Relief swamped him, but he couldn’t let that make him forget there was still danger here.
He started to carry her away from the house.
He’d gotten her into the shadows as a couple other people stumbled out of the house and onto the porch, clearly in response to the fire.
Some were coughing. Some were complaining about the party being ruined.
Quickly and quietly as he could, Gard carried Sammy through the shadows, as far away from the people as he could. Her arms were behind her back, and he couldn’t quite figure out why, but he didn’t want to ask her until he had her out of earshot of the people trickling out from the house.
Once he had carried her into a thicket of overgrown bushes, keeping them in shadow and hidden even if people started using flashlights, he spoke.
“Can you walk? Are you hurt?”
“I… I’m okay,” Sammy said on a choked sob. “But they hurt Mom. They hurt her and left her outside. Lia said you got her, but—”
“We’ve got her. She’s on her way to the hospital. She’s going to be okay.”
Sammy made another sobbing noise. “My…my hands are tied up,” she managed to say, clearly trying to whisper but struggling.
Gard couldn’t see in the dark, but he felt down her arms then gently turned her in place so he could try to untie the knots even in the dark. His hands fumbled on the ties. Lia hadn’t come out of that house yet, and he had to get to her, but Sammy needed to get out of here. Fully out of here.
Surely Lia would come out with the other group of people. She wasn’t just going to stick around in a fire.
Unless.
Gard shoved that unless away and focused on untying Sammy.
He heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Careful footsteps. Gard let out a low whistle, a signal to Royal or Zeke if it was them. He couldn’t see in the dark, but he knew it was them when they nearly silently entered the thicket of bushes.
“One of you get me a light, the other hide it as best you can. I have to get her untied.”
Some shuffling and then the light of one of their phones clicked on at a very low setting, but enough Gard could see the knots and fully untie them.
“Gard, Lia is still in there. With him,” Sammy said. Her voice was scratchy but she sounded more determined than scared. “She set the fire to get me out. But she wouldn’t come with me. She stayed there. With him.”
Gard looked at the house. People milled in the yard now. Some laughed. Some shouted. The fire had grown in intensity but was still relegated to the backside of the house. He searched the crowd again. Even though it was shadowy, he thought he’d be able to recognize Lia.
She wasn’t among them, or she’d be separating herself. She’d be trying to find them. She’d be doing something.
“Still in there with who?” Gard asked.
“I don’t know. Mom knows. He’s the guy who hurt her. He hit Mom so hard and…” Sammy started to sob again.
“It’s okay, baby. I’ve almost got it.” He fumbled a little more, but finally got the knots undone so Sammy’s hands fell to her sides. He pulled her into a hug, tight and close. Relief coursed through him, twined with the continued worry for Lia.
Lia. He had to get her out of there. But first… Sammy…
“Could you guys get in the back of the house?” Gard asked Royal and Zeke in low tones.
“No. Cut through the overgrowth on the door just fine, but the fire started right there by the door. Blocking any entrance or exit from the back. We could see in the kitchen window—the fire is basically on the door.”
Gard swore inwardly, rubbing his hands up and down Sammy’s arms to try and keep her warm. He wished he had a coat for her, but he didn’t have anything. He’d need Royal and Zeke to take her to the truck, and Gard would go find Lia and—
“Gard, like I said, we could see through a window,” Royal said carefully. Too carefully. “A guy was…holding Lia in the kitchen. Right by the fire.”
Gard’s grip on Sammy tightened for a second before he forced himself to relax his hands. It was his only outward reaction. Inwardly, he didn’t let himself have a reaction either. He just relied on his training. He knew how to deal with danger, emergencies, threats.
He’d deal with this one.
He crouched a little so he could be eye level with Sammy. “I need you to go with Deputy Campbell, okay? He’s a police officer and a good friend of mine. You do what he says. You can trust him. I promise.” He moved her toward Royal. “Get her out of here. I’m going to go get Lia.”
“But…”
The protests came from Sammy and Royal, but Gard ignored them. “It’s all right. Everything is going to be okay.”
Trusting Royal to take care of Sammy, Gard stepped out of the bushes and headed for the house.
Because he was damn well going to make sure of it.
Lia struggled against the too-tight grip on her throat. Every once in a while, she managed to take in a breath when Bruiser’s grip loosened a little bit.
But mostly she wasn’t getting nearly enough oxygen, which made panic scatter through her. The panic was making her sloppy as Bruiser dragged her back toward the fire.
He’d ordered everyone else outside, so it was just him and her now. And the fire he was dragging her toward.
“You want to ruin my place?” he demanded. “You’ll get ruined in return.”
She tried to pull against his grip on her throat, dig her heels in so he couldn’t keep dragging her forward. There’d been a time when she’d known how to fight back—or if not fight back, mitigate the painful results. Seven years of safety had made her soft. Panic was dulling her instincts.
Think. What would Agent Wood say? She tried to think back the FBI Agent who’d given her the skills to bring down an entire group of criminals.
When you’re in a tough spot, you look for the weak spot.
Bruiser was strong, no doubt aided by fury and whatever he was on. The grip on her neck tightened until she started to see spots. She needed to breathe. She needed air.
Don’t panic. Weak spot. Weak spot.
He was trying to drag her forward and she was fighting it. But she couldn’t fight it. Surprise was a weak spot, she remembered.
So with the last bit of energy she had, she stopped fighting the forward progress and threw her weight into it instead. Bruiser stumbled in surprise now that there was no oppositional force. His grip loosened enough for her to suck in a breath as they stumbled forward, toward the fire.
But Bruiser regained his footing quick enough, and after maybe two decent breaths, his arm was crushing against her windpipe again.
They were so close to the fire now. She could feel the heat pouring off it. Flames licked higher and higher, smoke hanging in the air so that even if she could get a breath, it was sour and heavy.
“You like fire so much?” Bruiser said, huffing and puffing in the exertion of the fight. “Let’s see how you like this.”
Lia braced herself, or tried, for whatever he was threatening. She held her breath and planted her feet and—
“Let go of her and step away.”
Both Lia and Bruiser stilled. Tears immediately filled Lia’s vision. It was Gard’s voice. She couldn’t see him because of Bruiser’s grip on her, but she knew it was him.
Here. To save her.
Bruiser carefully turned, but he positioned Lia in front of him. She pulled at his arm on her windpipe because she couldn’t breathe again. She didn’t want Gard to see her like this, but he stood there. Stoic. Sure.
Gun pointed at them.
Smoke swirled between them as flames licked up the door and wall behind Lia and Bruiser, but she could see Gard’s blue eyes were intense and direct and on Bruiser. Not on her.
After trying to save Sammy, Lia understood why. He was maintaining focus and distance because he wouldn’t be able to do either if he focused on her. Just like she hadn’t been able to spend time looking directly at Sammy without emotions taking over.
“Who the hell are you?” Bruiser demanded, which made sense. Gard didn’t look very cop-like in his plain clothes, gun drawn, and blank expression on his face. He looked like some kind of…vigilante or something.
But he didn’t answer Bruiser’s question. “Drop your arm and step away or I shoot,” he said, calm and intimidating.
Lia could feel Bruiser moving behind her.
She didn’t know what he was doing, but she could hear him messing with something.
She struggled to get a little, tiny breath, but it wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t enough. So much so she almost didn’t know that Bruiser was now holding the sharp edge of something against her back.
Gard couldn’t see it. He didn’t know. And Lia couldn’t tell him, because she couldn’t even breathe.
“This is your last chance,” Gard said. His finger curled around the trigger.
Lia didn’t know how he could shoot when Bruiser was using her as some kind of shield, but Bruiser’s grip on her neck eased a little bit.
Lia could struggle in a smoke-filled breath and then another.
She coughed on both, but it didn’t even matter.
He was letting her really breathe. She thought maybe…
Maybe he was actually going to let her go fully.
He was afraid enough of the gun that he would do what Gard said.
But he had a knife…or something sharp pointed into her back. If he let her go and Gard didn’t shoot, would he hurt Gard with it instead?
Lia couldn’t let that happen.
So with another sucked-in breath, she managed to get out half the sentence. “He’s got a kni—” Then she let out a scream of pain as agony sliced through her.