Chapter 14
“Here, connect this,” Zane says, thrusting a cord at me.
We have been in this barn for about five hours, setting everything up. It took so long to get it out of the basement, but I think they have the right idea doing it in the barn. The explosion will be bigger, and it is a good reason to get Ralston close. After all, he will be coming to collect cows.
That’s what we’re going to use to lure him in: the promise of all the remaining cows being sold to him. A good amount of money to run through the books. It will get him here, I have no doubt about it. It’s a solid plan, and I can only pray nothing goes wrong.
For right now, though, we need to focus on this.
There are wires and cables everywhere, but Zane moves around them effortlessly, like he has done this a million times before. His phone keeps buzzing, so he keeps tossing it into piles of insulation to ignore it, only to dig it out a minute later when he inevitably needs to check something.
I snap a connector onto the relay and motion to him. “Where does this go?”
He takes it without arguing, opens up a metal case, and screws it in. “You’re good at this, you know that?”
“At following instructions?” I dust my hands off on my jeans. “Yeah, I’ve always been amazing at obedience.”
Zane snorts.
I’m untangling a knot in what looks like three yards of copper wire when the barn door creaks open. Sunlight flares in, followed by the silhouettes of Nia and Mera, both carrying brown paper bags and laughing about something.
“My God, look at the mess you two have made,” Nia calls as she drops the bags on a hay bale, hands on her hips. “Here.” She rifles for a sandwich and tosses it my way without waiting for me to answer.
Then she throws one to Zane, who takes it very appreciatively.
Mera looks around, eyes wide. “This is terrifying. I’m not even going to ask how you know how to do this.”
Zane winks at her.
We all sit and eat, and I have never been more grateful for a sandwich in my entire life.
I’m starving.
We are halfway through when more trucks pull up, and the barn fills quickly.
Wolfe, Knox, Talon, and Sable all walk in.
Sable has a heap of water bottles, and the other guys are all carrying boxes full of things for Zane.
I don’t look at Knox. I keep my eyes on the sandwich in my lap, hyper-aware of the way his boots sound on the concrete.
“Got a surprise for you,” Wolfe says.
I look up, meeting his gaze. “Me?”
“Yeah, you, darlin’.”
I’m confused, but the confusion doesn’t last long because Mera does a happy clap, and then I follow her eyes to the barn door where there is a man standing, grinning at me.
I know that face. I have grown up with that face.
Prison has changed him, sure, but it’s still the same brother who has been with me through thick and thin.
For a moment, I can’t breathe. My brother is here. Out. “Ruger?” I ask, voice cracking.
He smiles, slow and familiar. “Hey, kid.”
I toss my sandwich so fast and then I run, with everything I am, and wrap my arms around his neck. My vision blurs, and my hands shake, and I ugly sob right into his shoulder, not caring who sees or what anyone thinks.
“Wolfe said he could do it, but I was honestly so unsure if that was true or not,” I manage, fists still tangled in my brother’s jacket.
Ruger chuckles. “Well, I didn’t either, but before I knew it, I was being shipped out of that place and wondering what the fuck was going on. Saw my lawyer, and then I was free. Just like that.”
I let go, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. “You’re really here. You’re out. I thought you were going to die in there.”
He holds me at arm’s length, looking me up and down. “You look like hell, kid.”
I chuckle through my sniffles. “Well, you look...” I step back, taking him in. “Muscled?”
“Been working out, nothing else to do in there.”
His face is still covered in cuts and greenish bruises, but otherwise, he looks just the same. The same dark hair, messy on his head, the same stark blue eyes and crooked grin. He’s taller, broader, but otherwise just the same.
My lip trembles again. “I missed you. So bad.”
“Missed you more, kid.”
We’re twins, but he has called me kid for as long as I can remember.
I have always loved it. I break away from Ruger, then walk straight over and hug Wolfe, surprising us both.
“Thank you,” I whisper, meaning it more than I’ve ever meant anything.
I can feel him tense, then his arms come around me and squeeze back, just for a second before he lets go and clears his throat.
“Anytime, darlin’. Now get outta here, we’ll finish this. You’ve got some catchin’ up to do.”
I flash Mera and Nia the biggest grin, then hug Sable before taking Ruger’s hand and leading him out.
I catch Knox’s expression as I pass him, but he isn’t looking at me; he’s looking at Ruger. The two give each other a nod, one I don’t fully understand.
I don’t care to, either.
Right now, I just want to spend time with my brother.
Life just hasn’t been the same without him.
“WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE to be free?” I ask Ruger, taking a sip of my beer as we sit on the porch, overlooking the paddocks.
“Free,” he chuckles.
I laugh.
We have been talking for hours about what it was like in prison, how he coped, and what has been happening out there. He is all filled in on the situation with Ralston, and that, of course, leaves me with one question that I am too scared to ask.
“I know you probably don’t want to talk about it, but I have to know, why did Harper get involved with Ralston?”
Ruger goes silent, staring out, his eyes fixed on a cow in the paddock lazily grazing.
The air is thick between us as I hold my breath, waiting for the answer.
Ruger drags a hand across his chin, thumb braced against his jaw.
“I got mixed up with some real bad people. Like other-level bad. Guys who buy you for what you can do and throw you out when you can’t pay up.
” He shakes his head the tiniest bit. “I didn’t know who else to go to.
Harper was the only one who ever really tried to save me from myself. ”
I nod, because it makes sense. Out of the three of us, Harper was always the one who ran toward the fire and shielded everyone else from the burn. We all grew up together. We were close. The best of friends.
“I had a debt,” he continues. His voice is so flat and factual I know he’s doing it for me, sanding down the worst parts so it won’t hurt as bad.
“Not just money. Product. I was running for these assholes up near the border. Got in too deep and I owed a lot of money. They were threatening my life and everyone I loved. I told Harper because I didn’t know what else to do.
I was scared they’d come after you, that they’d take you as leverage.
” He rubs a knuckle over his lower lip, staring out at the dark.
“She told me she’d handle it. And she did. She fucking did.”
Harper was working for Ralston to protect my brother?
It’s like a punch to the stomach.
“She went to Ralston?” I whisper.
“Yeah,” Ruger sighs. “She made a deal. Said she’d work for him, earn enough to pay off my debt.
He was always onto Uncle about this place, about the farm, about his cattle.
It didn’t take much to convince him.” He looks at me.
“She took it in her stride, handled it like a boss, but eventually, I tried to pull her out, but she wouldn’t listen.
She said she liked the way it made her feel—useful, needed.
The power, money, I don’t know. She started running for him almost every week. More and more, until she barely slept.”
“She could have told me,” I say, voice small. “I would have—”
He cuts me off, gentle but firm. “You were making a life for yourself, Cal. She was protecting you. Same as always.”
The bitterness inside me knots into something I can’t even name. “So what happened?”
Ruger exhales. “We tried to quit. I told Ralston I was done, that Harper was done too. He didn’t like that, not even a little.
Next thing I know, I’m in cuffs, set up for a drop I didn’t even make, and Harper.
..” He doesn’t finish. He just looks at me, the rest of the story hanging in the air like the warning before a tornado touches down.
“She died.”
He nods once, jaw twitching. “I got the news two days after I got arrested. They said accident, but I know it wasn’t. Ralston doesn’t leave loose ends.”
I hold my breath. “You think Ralston had her killed?”
“I fucking know it.”
We always were suspicious of Harper’s accident, but to think he actually took her life because she didn’t want to work for him anymore makes my skin prickle. Was Harper murdered? I reach over and take Ruger’s hand, squeezing it.
“So Knox set you up, but he didn’t know you were trying to get out? He thought you were the one keeping her in there.”
Ruger nods. “Yeah, can’t blame him. She went real weird, was obsessing, not sleeping, always sneaking around. I don’t know what happened, but it changed her and he assumed it had something to do with me. He wasn’t wrong, he just wasn’t on the right path.”
“He still set you up for something you didn’t do,” I mutter under my breath. “He could have fucking spoken to you, to her...”
“He did, Cal. We wouldn’t tell him a damn thing.”
I go silent, wanting to argue, but not knowing exactly how when my argument feels empty.
“He didn’t do it to hurt me, Cal. He did it because he had to. All these guys, the club, they live in this world where you have to pick your own family, even if it means crushing someone else’s.” He sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “He is the reason I’m out right now.”
I blink. “What?”
Ruger nods, staring straight ahead. “He was the one who made a deal. They’ve been after him for information on a drug ring for years now, and he told them he would give it to them if they let me out. They agreed. He signed his safety over to give me back to you.”
I gasp, the words washing over me and making my insides twist.
“Why would he do that?” I whisper, my throat tight.
“The man clearly loves you, no other reason he would risk that much.”
Love?
He thinks Knox loves me.
Does Knox love me?
Tears burn under my eyelids.
Rats aren’t taken kindly to in Knox’s world, and if someone finds out he handed over information, his life is on the line. He knows that, better than anyone, and yet he still did it. He did it so he could right his wrongs, he did it to prove I matter.
I have forgotten how to breathe.
Ruger squeezes my hand, bringing me back to reality.
“Don’t be mad at him too long, sis. I made my bed, I made my choices, and I had to live with them. Knox was protecting what he loved, can’t fault him for that. Besides, I like knowing the lengths he’d go to for those he cares about, especially if that person is my sister.”
“He wasn’t going to tell me...”
“Yeah, he was, you just never gave him the chance. Think he was scared of how you were making him feel. Give him the chance, Callie, trust me, love like that only comes around once, if you’re lucky.”
I hang my head. “He already had it with Harper.”
Ruger snorts. “Trust me, that was nothing on the way he feels for you. Ask him, you might just be surprised.”
Do I dare?
Should I?
Dammit.
I should.