Chapter 18
It had been a blood bath tonight. Chaos described the scene around him, but Dom kept his cool.
Kept from revealing the fear. It was his job to figure out why.
To determine what had happened. People he considered his closest friends in the world, as close as brothers, were counting on him to do that now.
And one innocent man was already dead. A private bodyguard hired by Mason Barratt to guard his only daughter. No more than twenty-four years old, with two toddlers waiting for him at home. The other guard—well, no one knew if he’d pull through or not.
And there were several more injured.
Daniel and Gunnar had been beaten to bloody pulps out there—before taking bullets to the upper chest. It was a miracle both of them were still alive right now. And Heather…damn it, that woman just couldn’t catch a break lately.
It was Dom’s job to find the sons of bitches who had escaped. Preliminary reports were that at least three men, including the doctor who had created OPJ to begin with, were still at large.
Dom took that last very seriously.
The man next to him was his best option at getting started. “Give me the rundown. Fast. I have some hunting to do.”
“Likewise. Grundenman is mine.”
Miguel was practically vibrating with impatience. He was watching a woman nearby. Heather’s oldest sister. Interesting. Why had Heather’s sister been out there on scene tonight?
Strange coincidence that it would be Bonnie out there when her brother-in-law Timothy Grundenman was one of the men they were after now. The brother-in-law that had somehow miraculously gotten away—right before Bonnie and some of her family had made it inside the crime scene.
There was a lot of dark shit circling around that family lately.
And once again, there were Colesons around everywhere when the shit hit the fan.
Just like with Hope and Heather and Wilson before.
There had been one of Heather and Hope’s sisters in that parking lot that night—plus two of their nieces.
Coincidence most likely? Well, Dom just didn’t know. He wasn’t ruling anything out.
Dom didn’t believe in coincidences like that.
Not for one minute. Something to do with Heather had led them here.
He just needed to dig deeper. That woman could very well be the key to everything.
And she probably didn’t even know it. Word was that Grundenman Junior had made it very clear Heather had almost caught them a few times before.
Heather and her best pal Miggy, anyway.
Dom studied the eldest Coleson sister now.
Bonnie was a beautiful woman. A very beautiful woman, even though it was more graceful and understated than Heather’s in your face sex appeal. But they resembled each other, those two. Greatly.
There were rumors Bonnie knew more than what she was saying. About a lot of things in Finley Creek. Dom had always been a suspicious man. For good reason. He never believed rumors, but he was good at following leads with that information.
He still hadn’t figured out Bonita Coleson. Not yet.
The woman was as complicated, as fascinating, and as secretive as her younger sisters.
Now, she was just scared. For Heather. Hell, so was Dom.
Heather had been airlifted out of this rich swanky neighborhood five minutes after Dom had arrived. She hadn’t looked so great. Bonnie was speaking to Charlie Fields now.
“How are the Colesons involved?” Heather’s own brother-in-law and his son had been responsible for the abduction of Heather Coleson and Powell Barratt just a little over a week ago.
Powell’s parents’ house was the crime scene now.
It was all connected to that damned OPJ—the brother-in-law was suspected of creating OPJ in the first place.
Connections. There were connections to things he had seen recently tickling his damned brain.
“Trey Grundenman forced his way inside the Barratts’ home a little over ninety minutes ago,” Miguel said, practically prowling in place.
“He and at least six other men, though they weren’t all inside at the same time.
A few took off before I even got here. APB already out on them now.
They were moving that damned drug from the house across the road.
Powell Barratt’s most recent property acquisition.
They’ve been playing cat-and-mouse with Powell for years.
Using foreclosures as hiding grounds for the drugs, protected by the gates and probably the security team in this damned place, until she bought all those foreclosures up in the last year and sent them scrambling.
It was why she was targeted for that abduction last month.
They didn’t want her getting in their business.
Literally. She and Heather stumbled right into them.
The damned abduction wasn’t planned at all. ”
He knew what drug the other man meant. OPJ was a designer drug that had originated in Finley Creek several years earlier. At the hospital where Dom’s father and step-mother both worked. Where the nurse he watched now had been abducted.
Once again…a Coleson had been involved—or targeted. Bonnie and her daughter had been targeted—along with two nieces she hadn’t even known existed. Interesting coincidence, that.
Gunnar Erickson, one of Dom’s closest friends on the planet, had been trying to discover the men behind it for almost as long. He’d been lifted out on the same chopper as Heather. Daniel McKellen had been taken out of Hughes Heights in an ambulance before the chopper had even landed.
They’d just connected that hospital to the men responsible for that drug again.
Through a Coleson.
Gunnar had been on that same air flight as Heather Coleson. He’d taken two to the chest.
“How in the hell did Heather get involved?” He would admit it—Dom wasn’t certain he understood that woman one bit.
There was something about Heather Coleson that got beneath a man’s skin.
Caused him to lose all sense of rational thought.
Hell, rumor was she’d even driven Steve Wilson mad.
Well, Dom didn’t believe that: Wilson was pure evil.
Heather hadn’t caused shit—it was all on Wilson. “Her family?”
A damned dangerous woman. Very, very dangerous.
He’d kill for her in a heartbeat, too. Dom wouldn’t deny it to himself. There was something about her that inspired loyalty.
She’d been through utter hell in the last four years—all at Steve Wilson and his cronies’ hands.
Madison had been very clear what Wilson had confessed that night when he’d abducted her and Hope.
Dom didn’t know Heather’s condition now.
But it hadn’t been good. The word hypovolemic had been mentioned.
Hell, Heather was a single mother of two very young daughters. The idea she might not pull through sickened him.
“The younger Grundenman ordered Powell to call Heather. To draw her out. Apparently, Heather got too close four years ago to their operation. On a drug case she was kicked off of damned fast.” And Miguel’s fury was hard to miss.
Of course it was, he and Heather Coleson had been close friends for years.
“He intended to take her out tonight to keep her from putting things together, apparently. Guy was a dumbass, reckless. And responsible for creating that damned drug in the first place.”
Miguel abruptly turned. And followed Bonnie. “Acardi, I’m heading out now. You can ride along if you want. I’m taking Bonnie to Heather. Heather needs her family with her now.”
It wasn’t a question. Neither man thought it was. Dom just nodded. He wanted to be at the hospital himself, damn it. Gunnar, Heather, Daniel. They were his friends, too. And Miguel had answers he needed.
Plus, Dom wasn’t interested in fighting with Miguel tonight.
Very few people told Miguel Rodriguez what to do.
Dom wasn’t stupid enough to even start—especially when the other man was as pissed as he obviously was.
The man stood well over six-seven or -eight and outweighed Dom’s two-eighty by a good sixty pounds.
He was big, mean and intimidating—and used to being in charge. And very, very angry tonight.
He was right more often than he was wrong. Dom would follow Miguel Rodriguez into war, if he had to. And more than that—Miguel was one of the few that he trusted at his own back now, too.
Miguel looked at him. “We’ll talk. At the hospital. Once I know Bonnie is safe with the rest of Heather’s family.”
“Just tell me this. Powell called Heather. Heather came. Found Gunnar?” He needed a simple timeline here. It would be a place to start.
“Yes. Found Gunnar outside. I arrived a few minutes later. Heather went in. Got Melissa Barratt out through the rear door. Then Gunnar and I went in. We neutralized the threats. In the process Heather and Gunnar were wounded.”
“And Daniel?”
“Outside the main perimeter. I didn’t see him.
But Heather’s nieces found him outside where Grundenman’s associates had dragged him.
He’d been shot and beaten—before Heather and I arrived, and when Gunnar sustained his first GSW.
The Colesons were following us in case medical help was needed.
They were able to do first aid and keep Daniel alive until the ambulances arrived.
They found the bodyguards assigned to Powell, as well.
One was dead. They rendered aid. They were able to stabilize the other bodyguard.
The rest of Heather’s family called out the cavalry—while Hope worked a command post. That’s what I have now.
We’ll discuss details of Grundenman after Bonnie is safe at the hospital. She needs to be with Heather now.”
Dom didn’t argue. He just waited until Miguel was lifting Bonnie into the large truck Miguel had parked two streets over.
Miguel was incredibly protective over all of Heather’s family.
Dom wasn’t going to be stupid and piss Miguel off over the Colesons.
But Dom was going to catch a ride to that hospital right now.
He asked Bonnie a few questions on the drive to the hospital, but it was obvious she was preoccupied.
She’d raised Heather from the age of twelve or thirteen, he thought.
And the woman had been through utter hell herself since October, when Dr. Gregory Eastman had abducted her and her teenage daughter.
Dom didn’t push. Now wasn’t the time.
He would be pushing Miguel when they were alone.
Dom had questions. He was going to get the answers. One way or another. But first, he needed to know how Daniel and Gunnar—and Heather—were doing now.
And what kind of shit storm was going down tonight.
He needed witness statements. Dom needed to know what had happened out there.
Maybe for once they could finally get more than the two steps ahead four steps back they had been engaging in since what had happened with the mayor of Finley Creek a few years ago.
Everything had seemed to be building since that asshole Dennis Lee Arnold, a city councilman, had tried to kill the mayor’s woman—and had nearly succeeded in killing the deputy mayor.
Dom had been studying the angles for whatever in the hell was going on in Finley Creek ever since.
He almost felt like he was getting closer lately. He looked at the people roaming around the hospital waiting room. He was looking for a certain woman in the mix. He wouldn’t feel right until he found her. Dom wanted to make sure the little shrew was safe.
He knew she’d show up somewhere. She was on the clock—he knew her schedule as well as he knew his own. And these were her friends, too. Madison was going to be freaking, even if she’d never let that show.
It took him a moment, but he finally saw her on the edge of the crowd. That was enough—now he could focus on what he really had to do. He turned to the man at his left. MacNamara had an extremely harassed look on his face, and a snickering blond woman behind him. “What happened?”
He listened as the other man gave the rundown.
“Hell, I was eight blocks away and didn’t know a damned thing was going on.
Lake was with me. We were putting together bookshelves for the wifey while those two hot ladies puttered in the den with the kiddies.
All of this was going down—and I was being all domesticated. I could have helped out.”
Dom just grunted. He didn’t doubt that. MacNamara was lured away by Heather’s family—to tell Jake exactly what had happened. All at once. There were beautiful women everywhere. And every last one of them was talking—at once. To Jake. Calling him by name and demanding his attention.
Dom was not wading into the middle of that mess. He just wasn’t.
Dom just listened to what the women were saying—trying to piece together some sort of a timeline.
To find a place to start. They still had people on scene now.
He thought Dodson was coordinating that part of things—with Miller and Naylor to help.
Someone would have to get back out there.
Lake couldn’t fully take responsibility for this one—not with his wife’s damned family involved.
Somehow. Lake’s wife was a Coleson by biology, even if she hadn’t known that until very recently.
It was time to get the answers.
Dom checked the crowd one more time—there she was.
Madison was with two of her lab techs, giving them instructions.
She was safe. Dom turned to the man at the door—the head of security here at FCGH.
“You text me the minute Madison tries to leave this building. I want to know where she is at, at all times. And I don’t trust the rest of them to tell me. ”
His dad nodded, hesitated for a moment. “Stay safe out there, son. Watch your back. And make sure you come home to your family for Sunday dinner, understand?”
Understood.
Dom was going to do his best to do just that.
He headed to the door, aware of a certain woman’s light brown eyes on him as he walked by. He looked at her. Saw the fear and worry in her face. It damned near destroyed him.