Chapter Twenty
Lia cried out—clearly in pain, so Gard did the only thing he knew how to do. He fired his weapon at his target.
The man who’d been holding Lia fell backward, but Lia did too, falling right on top of him with another cry of pain.
Gard rushed forward, pulled Lia off of the man and into his arms and as far away from the fire as he could. He wanted to find out where she’d been hurt, carry her out of here, but he had to be sure he’d incapacitated her captor.
Trying to be gentle, he shoved her behind him, so he was between her and the man.
Who writhed on the floor, blood pouring out of his shoulder. The one part of his body he hadn’t been able to hide behind Lia, making it the only target for Gard to shoot at. Fire licked around the guy, but he seemed more pained by the bullet wound.
He swore and groaned and squirmed there on the floor. He didn’t appear to have a gun or any other weapon, but next to him on the floor was a knife.
Covered in blood.
He swore and whirled to Lia. She’d stumbled back into the table but was holding herself upright with one hand against it. The other hand clasped her side. Blood leaked out between her fingers.
For one horrible moment, everything inside of him froze. Instinct, training, everything evaporated and there was only a bone-deep, mind-numbing terror at the sight of Lia’s blood.
“I’m okay,” she said, but she said it through gritted teeth. And that poked through the freeze. Everything shuffled back into place.
Act. He had to act. Save.
Her gaze met his, clouded with pain, but coherent. “Sammy?”
“She’s good. Now let’s get you good. You need an ambulance.
” Gard still had the gun pointed at the man.
The guy had shoved himself against the cabinets and was sitting up, cursing up a blue streak as blood oozed from his shoulder.
Fire crackled around them and the smoke was getting thick enough to start to become a problem.
The man’s gaze was on the knife. He reached out.
In quick moves, Gard strode forward and kicked the knife far away from the man. He could feel the heat from the fire, smoke stinging his eyes and throat.
Likely the guy was going to suffer burns if he didn’t get out of the way.
Gard felt nothing about that observation.
Gard moved over to Lia without looking away from the man. He couldn’t carry her and hold his gun ready to shoot. He couldn’t really put his arm around her waist and help her walk without hurting where she was holding herself.
“It’s okay,” Lia said, her voice sounding thready at best. “I can walk.”
He wasn’t sure he believed her, but if she could get to the front…
“Walk out the front door. Royal’s brother-in-law should be waiting for you, okay? Tell him to send in someone to arrest this asshole once backup arrives.” He eyed her speculatively. “Lia…”
“I got it,” she said. She was ashen at this point, but she pushed off the table and walked out of the room, clutching her side. Just like he’d asked her to.
The fire kept growing up the side of the door. Flames licked the ceiling now. Gard pulled his shirt up over his nose to try and block out some of the smoke that was making his eyes water.
“A lot of drugs for as small-time as you guys are,” Gard told the man on the floor.
He looked even paler than Lia, turning a pasty kind of gray. “Small-time.” The guy snorted. “You have no idea, buddy.”
Gard smiled at him, but it wasn’t nice, though it was hidden behind his shirt. “Good. That means we’re going to find out, and you won’t see life out of a cell for a very long time.”
Gard heard sirens now. The sound of voices outside the back door. Firemen, he hoped. He didn’t want to just leave this guy here, even with the gunshot wound, but he needed to get to Lia and—
Beckett strode in from the front, gun drawn, badge hanging from around his neck. He surveyed the kitchen.
“Stand down, Fairhurst. Go take care of your family. I’ve got it from here.”
Gard gave one last look at the man who’d hurt Lia. And Sammy. And Dani, no doubt. “Don’t be gentle,” he told Beckett.
And then he was jogging outside. There was a fire truck, and two ambulances parked outside, along with a row of patrol cars, all with their lights flashing. The group that had been partying was mostly being arrested, though Gard wouldn’t be surprised if a few had made a run for it.
He couldn’t care about that when he saw Sammy running toward him. She reached him and threw her arms around him, and he held on tight.
“You’re supposed to be long gone, kid.” He looked around, trying to find Lia in the crowd. She should be with the ambulances. One was pulling away. Was she in it?
“When the police cars got here, Deputy Campbell said it was okay if we stayed,” Sammy said, still holding tight to him. “The paramedics wouldn’t let me sit with Lia. They just took her away. What happened, Gard?”
“Come on. We’ll follow to the hospital.” He put his arm around her and started to lead her toward the road. “Did they check you out? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. All those guys did was tie me up and…say awful things. They didn’t hurt me though. Just Mom. Have you heard anything about Mom?”
“Not yet. Let’s find Royal. He’ll drive us to the hospital. We’ll see everybody. It’s all right now.”
Gard wanted to believe it, but he wasn’t sure he’d breathe until he saw Dani and Lia again. Safe and sound.
He searched the crowd for Royal, but before he could get anywhere, Laurel approached.
“Fairhurst.” Her expression was calm, and she smiled reassuringly at Sammy. “I know you’d like to get to the hospital, but I’d really like to hear Sammy’s side of things before I let you guys go. It’ll help us deal with charges quicker if we can get it down now.”
Frustrated with the holdup, but knowing this was best, Gard nodded. He squeezed Sammy to his side, and reminded himself Lia might have been bleeding, but she’d walked out of that house on her own two feet.
She was okay. They were all going to be okay. And they were going to put these assholes behind bars.
“Tell Detective Delaney-Carson everything you know, and then we’ll go to the hospital. Okay? Just start from the beginning. Your mom texted you when you were at the movie?”
Sammy nodded, leaning into him. “Yeah. I knew she’d keep hounding me if I didn’t go out there, or worse.
Maybe she’d come in and make a scene. I knew she’d want me to go somewhere, but I didn’t…
I didn’t want to. So I gave my purse to Izzy and said I had to go to the bathroom.
I figured if Mom tried to get me to go somewhere with her, I’d tell her I left my purse and phone inside and I’d go get it and call you. ”
“That was smart, Sammy,” Laurel said reassuringly. “It definitely helped us find you quicker. So you went out to the back of the movie theater?”
Sammy nodded. “I didn’t see Mom, but this guy came up and grabbed me. I was fighting him—I totally kneed him in the crotch and he swore. I know I hurt him, but… He pointed to a car, and I could see Mom was in the back. They…they…” Her voice broke. “They were hurting her.”
Gard held her even tighter. She was crying, but she got the rest of the story out.
How she’d gone with them, so they’d stop hurting her mom.
How they’d brought them both here. Tied Sammy up, beat Dani when she tried to stop them, then pretended like everything was fine and she was just invited to this party while they left Dani unconscious in the backyard.
“I kept crying, asking for Mom, but they just laughed and took me inside. I think he liked that I was crying, that I was scared. So I tried to stop…being that on the outside.”
“That’s brave, Sammy,” Gard managed to croak out through a throat so tight it was a wonder he could breathe. “Very brave.”
“They took me inside and mostly that guy would just say…gross stuff to me, but he didn’t do anything.
He said stuff about drugs, but he didn’t make me take anything or drink anything.
He was going to…hurt me or do something.
I know he was going to, but…he wanted to mess with me first. But then Lia came. ”
Tears were streaming down her face. She looked up at Gard. “She set the fire so I could get out. She saved me.”
Gard nodded. He had to clear his throat to speak. “That should be enough, Laurel. We’re going to the hospital. Now.”
Laurel nodded. “Go with Morris. She’ll run code to get you there ASAP.”
Lia felt woozy. She didn’t think she’d done a very good job of answering the doctor’s questions, and now she was waiting in a hospital gown, a big bandage fastened to her side.
Someone would come stitch her up soon. They’d already put some local anesthesia on the spot—after painfully disinfecting the hell out of it—and now they were just giving the anesthesia time to work.
Apparently, she had a bruised windpipe, but no serious damage that couldn’t heal on its own there. The smoke inhalation was negligent. The stab wound had been deep and would require some serious babying, but it hadn’t hit anything important enough to require surgery.
Which was all great and good, but she couldn’t just sit around here, bored out of her mind, waiting. She needed information and she didn’t know where her phone had gone to in the fray.
She needed to see Sammy or talk to Gard, or she’d even settle for Royal if someone could tell her what was going on. She knew Sammy got out, but was Dani okay? Was Gard beating himself up?
She needed to know.
Carefully, she sat up in bed. Still woozy, definitely dizzy, but she could totally walk if she could hold onto something. She pushed to her feet.
It didn’t hurt so much—the pain seemed to float under a cloud of something else, the painkillers—but she wasn’t steady at all and her vision kind of wavered. She sat back down on the edge of the bed with a thud, and then a wince as some pain jolted past the cloud.