Chapter Twelve
His hip was hurting, but it wasn’t because of his old injury.
Liam opened his eyes.
The bed was different. Too big, too soft. He smelled lavender. He felt warm. Light moved across the room.
It was the TV, still on but muted. A cartoon dancing across the screen.
Liam hadn’t been sleeping all that much during the last week. He’d be the first to admit that. However, he hadn’t realized how tired he’d actually been. He couldn’t deny it now though. One second he’d been talking to Blake about their show, and the next?
Liam realized why his hip felt different.
Clem was pressed against his side, wrapped tightly in her blanket and fast asleep. Just as he had been moments before.
He had fallen asleep slightly sitting up.
At Blake’s house.
In her bed.
And she wasn’t there next to him anymore.
The spot on the other side of Clem was empty. Adrenaline surged as worry took over all his senses.
That surge turned into an all-out flood when he realized he’d not simply woken up on his own. Movement at the side of the bed came at him quick.
Liam reached one arm out above Clem and the other at the person in motion. His hand wrapped around the person’s forearm.
It didn’t stop that person from moving though. Instead, they brought their face merely inches from his.
“Keep quiet.”
The only light in the room was coming from the TV, but it was more than enough to see the green eyes of Blake Bennet.
It was easier to see the worry in them. In her.
She was still in the shorts and T-shirt she’d worn to bed.
Her hair was down and wild. Her skin was warm and slightly slick with sweat.
She lowered herself even closer to him. She angled her chin so her lips were almost against his ear.
“There’re two men outside,” she whispered. “One has a gun. I can’t tell about the other.”
That did it.
Liam let go of Blake and eased himself off the bed as she backed up.
“What are they doing?” He kept his voice low and palmed his cell phone off the nightstand.
He internally cursed every decision he had made up until now that meant he didn’t have his service weapon on him.
It was shut away tight in his truck’s lockbox.
He hadn’t intended to stay long at Blake’s, certainly not fall asleep there.
Thankfully, Blake had an answer to that problem. She took that wrist and pulled him along to the closet. It was a small walk-in but big enough to hold a safe. She flipped on the light and went right to it.
“I got up for a glass of water and noticed them at the side yard. They were standing in the tree line,” she hurried to say. “I can’t tell who they are, but it feels like they’re waiting. There’s no car outside either, so I don’t know where they came from. Take this and go look for yourself.”
There was only one gun inside. It was a pistol. She handed it to him. Liam grabbed the ammo that had been kept separately. He assembled the weapon.
“You can see them if you look outside the kitchen window.”
Liam wasn’t slow when speed was needed. He made it to the kitchen by the grace of memory and a few motion sensor nightlights plugged into outlets turning on along the way. The light over the stove was at his side. He could see the men clearly from the window.
Just as Blake described, there were two of them standing at the edge of the yard, the tree line just behind them.
They were dressed casually, shirts and jeans, and tennis shoes.
One had a dark hat on, the other a gun in the hand hanging at his side.
They were too far away for Liam to make out their faces, but even if he had, there was no person in the world who had a reason to be at Blake’s home in the late hours of the night, armed with a gun at that.
Liam did some quick mental math. Instead of calling the sheriff’s department, he called someone closer.
It was just after two in the morning, but Price answered on the third ring.
Liam didn’t waste a second. He forwent any kind of greeting and dove right in.
“I’m at Blake’s house and there are two men standing outside.
One is armed, I can’t tell about the other.
We put my truck in the garage earlier so the neighbors wouldn’t see.
Lola’s car is in there too. Blake’s is in the driveway.
Me, Blake, Lola, and the kids are in here. We have only one gun between us.”
After the first statement, the sound of movement had come through from the other side of the call.
“Did you call dispatch yet?” Price asked. Based on the noise Liam assumed he was dressing.
“No. You’re closer and I’m thinking we might need help sooner rather than—”
The two men outside turned in tandem toward the trees. Liam watched as a third person stepped out into the open. There was a gun at his hip.
“A third guy just showed up. He has a gun.” One of the original two men pointed toward the house. Liam’s gut was all-out growling. “Can you call the department on another phone? I want to stay on the line with you.”
Price wasn’t playing around. His usual casual tone had been hardened into absolute focus.
“I’ll use Winnie’s. I’m putting you in my pocket on speaker.”
The sound of movement let Liam know the man was doing just that. He too followed suit. Liam slid his cell phone into his breast pocket. He didn’t want to break the line of sight he had on the three men, but their situation had just changed drastically.
Who were they?
Why were they here?
Their body language wasn’t aggressive. It was like they were waiting for something. Or someone.
Blake was on the same wavelength.
“What are they waiting for?” she whispered.
No sooner had the question came out, than an answer followed.
It wasn’t at all what they wanted.
A sound echoed from the back of the house. Metal clinking. Cracking? Had they been asleep, it might not have woken them, but now it was like a gunshot in the night.
Blake’s hand slid around his forearm.
“That’s the back door,” she breathed out. “Someone’s trying to come in.”
Those words would be the last before the chaos of the next several minutes, but before his legs got ahead of him, Liam glanced back through the kitchen window. The men were no longer standing around chatting. All three were looking at the house now.
Liam realized it then.
They weren’t waiting to cause trouble. They were waiting for someone else to start it.
PRESSURE MADE DIAMONDS.
Blake didn’t talk about or even think about her mother all that often, but her telling Blake this while growing up had firmly stuck into place.
If anything was hard or tiring or brought on waves of stress, it was a necessary part of life.
In fact, it was almost a good luck of sorts.
Without pressure, there would be no diamonds after all.
That had been a soothing saying for Blake as a kid because it had made the most sense. It wasn’t a promise of a stress-free life or a guarantee that life would always go the way you wanted it to. It was practical. It was an if-and-when situation. Not a what-if situation.
When life became hard, endure.
Not if life became hard.
That’s how you became a diamond.
That saying, however, lost some of its shine when their mother left the family behind. Apparently, Blake’s mom could be a diamond. Just not with them.
Years and years had passed since the Bennet matriarch had gone her own way, and yet Blake had found that out of everything she learned—good and bad—from her mother, this sentiment was the loudest. The second the back door started breaking, Blake heard her mother’s words as if she were standing next to her.
“Pressure makes diamonds, Blakey. All you have to do is endure the squirmy parts first.”
There were four people in the house who absolutely couldn’t get hurt.
Bruce, Clem, Lola and Liam.
But one of those took the lead quick. It made Blake’s heart skip a little beat.
“Get the kids,” Liam said, words and movements hurrying. “We don’t know how many are coming in. Hide until backup gets here.”
He was already moving, gun raised and ready.
For a split second Blake was torn. She wasn’t used to taking the back seat in situations like this.
She was the one who ran in, gun raised and ready to take on the trouble.
Then again, she wasn’t in her old life. She was in charge of protecting two little ones. From the known and unknown.
And she had no idea how many armed men were coming.
Endure the squirmy parts first, she thought.
Then all thoughts went on autopilot.
Liam outstepped her, pinpoint focus on the back of the house and the continued sound of someone trying to get the door open. He was a wall of strength and grit. Blake wouldn’t have known that ten minutes prior, he was fast asleep with a four-year-old had she not seen it herself.
He didn’t even have shoes on at the moment.
Yet somehow that made him more intimidating. A man in his home, ready to defend it.
Blake’s gaze left him as she went to the bedroom with the most vulnerable Bennet first.
The hallway had four rooms branching off from it before it forked to the right for the guest bathroom and laundry room.
The back door was past the last room. Liam disappeared around the corner, the hallway sensor light flashing on low as he went.
It was the only source of light as Blake went into the kids’ room.
When things became more settled Blake, planned on giving Clem and Bruce their own room but for now, she shut the door behind her, sidestepped Clem’s stuffed animals, the bottom of her twin-sized bed, and a cluster of Barbies on the floor until she was at Bruce’s crib.
His zoo-print onesie had always made Blake’s heart feel warm, but seeing it now, the low light from the rocket-shaped lamp in the corner making most of the room visible, and Blake’s stomach went to ice.
Why were the men here?
“Endure the squirmy parts.” Blake’s mother’s words sounded in her head again.
Blake went to work.
She started to reach for Bruce but bumped the baby monitor mounted to the crib. It gave her an idea. She kept her voice low, hoped the sound machine would keep her muffled enough to keep the boy asleep, and leaned close to the speaker.
“Lola. Lola.” Blake reached into the crib. Bruce didn’t startle at her touch. She got straight to the point. “Lola. Men with guns are here. Liam’s at the back door. Be quiet and go to my room.”
It was dramatic but urgent. Lola was a light sleeper, so hopefully that would get her going.
Bruce, thankfully, wasn’t as easy to wake. Blake had him against her with minimal noise coming from him. She knew that wouldn’t last long the more she moved.
Blake walked past the Barbie pile and opened the door as slowly as she could. Movement opposite her almost pulled out a yell in reflex. The same must have been true for Lola. Her eyes were wide as she finished opening her bedroom door all the way.
Bless the woman’s speed.
She was still clutching the receiving end of the baby monitor, but she understood her assignment.
Blake nodded toward the primary bedroom to her right.
A heavy thud sounded from her left.
There was no time to investigate.
Lola was quick and quiet as they went to the bedroom at the opposite end of the hallway. As soon as they cleared the doorway, she had the door shut and locked.
“The bathroom,” Blake whispered. Another locked door between them and the intruder would make her feel better. Plus the room only had one window, and it didn’t open.
Sounds from the hallway became louder. If there had been an element of surprise on Liam’s behalf, it was undoubtedly gone.
Neither woman commented on the escalation.
They were focused. Lola took Bruce, and Blake scooped up Clem.
As soon as all four were in the bathroom, Blake started moving.
She took the blanket she had grabbed from the bed and threw it in the garden tub.
Clem went in next. She started to stir. Lola put a hand on her stomach and started patting, Bruce was still asleep against her shoulder.
The motion-sensor light next to the vanity cast shadows over Lola’s face. She was terrified.
Blake hated it.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to give out the facts.
“There were three men outside near the trees,” she whispered. “Liam called in backup, but then someone started coming in the back door. At least two of the three outside were armed.”
Lola had, as far as Blake knew, never been in a violent situation like this. She didn’t own a gun, she had never been in a fight, and the most chaos she had endured had to do with the children she was currently guarding.
But now, she was a diamond.
Her voice was even as she asked a practical question.
“Do we have guns?”
Blake shook her head.
“Liam has the only one in the house.”
Fate was interesting.
No sooner than she answered, the house was rocked by a sound that Blake had hoped never to hear.
A gunshot.
After that, no one stayed quiet.