Page 18

T he ranch’s kitchen seemed like the only place in the world that wasn’t spinning out of control.

Honor stepped through the doorway, trailing behind Gray. The soft glow of the lights over the space and in the center of a big wooden table grounded her in ways she hadn’t expected.

Willow already had the kettle going, a whisper in the background. For one moment, everything stilled inside Honor. The sharp edges of fear dulled despite the fact they were waiting for the hourglass to run out.

One hour until she could text Sully and find out how to get her sister back.

Gray led her to one of the wooden chairs and saw her settled before he crossed the kitchen to an open shelf stacked with mugs. He shifted a few around and finally chose two.

She watched him, the way his broad shoulders moved, his long, callused fingers setting tea bags into the cups and draping the strings over the sides. He didn’t speak. None of the Malones did. The silence was thick but not empty, each of them deep in thought. She could almost hear the gears of the minds of every member of Black Heart Security as they thought ahead and examined the crime from all angles.

Gray glanced at his phone and pocketed it once more.

The kettle let out a low whistle. Before it grew shrill, Willow switched off the burner and carried the pot over to the mugs Gray had prepared.

She poured the hot water into them. They stood shoulder to shoulder, their relationship as close as she and Felicity’s. Her throat tightened.

Willow twisted her head and looked at the wall clock. It was old, with a group of butterflies circling the face in place of numbers. The piece seemed both out of place in the ranch house’s modern touches, yet as at home as the array of mugs on the shelf.

When Gray carried their tea to the table and set one down in front of Honor, she wrapped both hands around the cup, grateful for the warmth in her chilled body. One by one, the family all gathered in the kitchen as if they knew there was strength in numbers.

In family.

They all grabbed their drinks of choice. Colt had a bottled water, Carson coffee and Oaks an energy drink, while Willow also had tea.

Colt set his phone on the table and swiped a finger across the screen. The time flashed up in harsh relief. Forty-eight more minutes to go.

How was she ever going to survive this cruel waiting game?

As Honor brought her tea to her lips and took a sip, the earthy flavors grounded her. It felt like something to grab on to when everything else cracked.

She lowered the mug and whispered, “Thank you.”

Gray gave her solemn nod. “It’ll help.”

She didn’t know if he meant the tea or the stillness in the room or getting away from the images of Felicity being dragged off by Sully. After a few minutes of quiet, one by one, the guys began to move around the space.

Colt got up and grabbed an apple from a basket on the counter. He took out a pocketknife and began slicing it into neat segments. Carson rummaged in a cupboard full of snacks and brought a bag of sunflower seeds back to the table, where he stuffed his cheek full and sat munching them. Oaks fixed himself a sandwich piled high with deli meat and cheese.

She noted how each one glanced at their phone screens, the wall clock or their wristwatch, checking the time that seemed to be ticking by so slowly.

Willow sat back in her seat, sipping in silence and watching her brothers scarf down their food with a calm, sisterly expression.

Suddenly Honor realized what was happening. The shift in the room was a shift in mindset. They were coiling close, circling the wagons, prepared to defend one of their own.

They considered her—and by extension, Felicity—family.

Finally, Willow let out a shaky breath. When she turned her gaze to Honor, her eyes were stormy with tears. “I’m so sorry, Honor.”

She blinked at her new friend. Reaching across the table, she rested her hand on the back of Willow’s. She couldn’t believe she was comforting her. But it felt right.

“I’m sorry this happened to your sister. Did you ever suspect your ex was capable of doing something like this?”

She shook her head and retracted her hand to wrap it around her warm mug. “I’m just so glad to have all of you supporting me. I couldn’t do any of this alone.”

Willow jumped up to throw her arms around Honor. For a moment, she didn’t know how to react. The hug was so unexpected—yet so welcome right this minute—that she wrapped her arms around Willow and held on tight.

Her chest ached, but not from the squeeze. Then the tears began to flow. Up until this point, Honor had released a few furious tears and an angry one or two, but she hadn’t truly cracked. Now, clinging tight to Gray’s sister, she faced all her fears, all the fierce rage thundering through her like a freight train, and let the tears fall.

A tissue box appeared in her peripheral vision, and she plucked a few out for herself and Willow did the same. The sound of their sniffles filled the room. Honor mopped her eyes and stole a look at Gray.

She expected to find distress on his face, but instead she saw only the glow of love in his eyes. The rest of the guys seemed fine with the outburst, which made her wonder if they’d dealt with similar moments with their significant others. She wanted to meet them all—the entire Malone group. And spend much more time with the veterans.

She wanted to bring Felicity here and let her experience the big, warm Malone family too.

Willow stood to pour herself more tea, glancing at the wall clock for the tenth time. Suddenly, a hard knock reverberated through the entire house.

The room stilled. Grew silent. Instinctively tense.

Gray straightened in his seat. She watched him reach along his spine to the sidearm she saw him tuck there before they left the office. Colt and Oaks traded a look in silent communication.

Gray shot her a glance. “Stay here. Willow?”

“I’ll stay with her.”

The men were quick and stealthy as they left the kitchen. Colt lingered by the kitchen door, his broad back to her and Willow as if daring anyone to get to them.

Honor’s imagination took flight. It could be the cops. Or someone from town who wanted to report new information.

Or her ex.

The low male voices carrying from the front of the house made her adrenaline spike, and she forced her breaths to come slow and steady. Her body screamed that everything was all wrong and she had no business sitting here enjoying tea and a family connection while they waited.

A moment later, Colt stepped aside, and a tall man wearing a cowboy hat and dirt-streaked clothes filled the doorway.

Willow bolted to her feet like she knew something Honor didn’t.

“Dutch. Is Maisie still laboring?”

Honor looked between the pair, picking up the thrum of concern within their gazes.

The man they called Dutch had attended Honor’s jewelry-making session. She hadn’t spoken to him much, but she did notice how his stare seemed to cling to Willow’s every move.

The woman crossed the room in long strides. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“We could use a smaller pair of hands to move the calf’s forelegs so it can be birthed.”

Willow was already hustling to the doorway. She paused to toss a look at Honor.

“Go,” Honor urged her. “I’m fine.”

She gave her a single nod, her plump lips set in a thin line.

In a blink, Willow was gone. But Dutch lingered. In a low voice, he addressed Colt. “I heard what happened to the sister.”

Honor’s stomach clenched.

“If this gets ugly, I’ve got rifles and I’ve still got my nerve. You just say the word. If you need backup, I’m in. And so are a few of the others on the Black Heart.”

A pang of emotion pierced her heart as she realized she didn’t just have Gray now, and his family too, but she had somehow gained the support of men who barely knew her, and didn’t know her sister at all.

This was what true family was about.

Dutch swung to give Honor a dip of his head. She felt her eyes swim with fresh tears. Then the man was gone too, on Willow’s trail, to pull that calf.

When Gray and his brothers returned to the kitchen, silence crashed over them again.

Then Colt gave a low chuckle. “I knew we kept Dutch around for a reason. And to think the man didn’t speak a word up until a few months ago.”

Honor sat up straighter in surprise. Gray saw her reaction and rested a hand on her spine, another anchor in this tempest. She touched her phone on the table next to her tea in order to check the time.

When she saw that only forty minutes had passed since she last spoke to Sully, an exasperated sigh gusted out of her.

Carson spread his hands on the table and leaned forward, making eye contact with his brothers and finally Honor. “Let’s go over the plan.”

While her heart juddered around in her chest like a jackhammer, the security team went over the plan. Everyone was assigned their role.

Everyone was prepared.

Gray checked the time. As if setting off a chain reaction, Colt looked at the wall clock, Oaks’s gaze flicked to his watch and Carson touched his phone to bring up the time again.

Fifty-one minutes had now passed. Not nearly enough time, and yet the prospect of what was to come filled Honor with cold dread.

Cups of half-drunk tea and coffee and empty plastic bottles littered the table along with a few sandwich crumbs on an empty plate.

She gripped her fingers so tightly together that her knuckles whitened. She could almost feel every second throbbing by.

Then Gray glanced at his phone for the last time.

He caught the lock of hair that tumbled across her cheek and stroked his fingers down the length in the way he was so fond of doing. “It’s time, Honor. Text him.”

When she picked up her phone, her hands didn’t shake.

“Let’s get my sister back.” Her thumbs moved over the screen in a text to the bastard who wasn’t going to steal another second of happiness from her sister, from the Malones…or from her.

* * * * *

Honor knew what Gray was going to say even before he turned to her. The determined set of his jaw and intense expression in his stormy gray eyes told her exactly what he was thinking.

She started to shake her head, but he cut across her.

“You’re staying here. I’ll be back soon with Felicity.”

She stiffened, his words like a slap. “Like hell I am. I’m going with you.”

He exhaled sharply, raking a hand through his hair. “Honor—”

“No.” The word expelled with more force. She shook her head, and heat rose in her chest. “I’m not just going to sit here and wait while you go in there alone. That’s my sister, Gray.”

“And you are my world.” The words came out raw, almost guttural, and they stopped her cold.

Gray’s hands came to rest on her arms, firm but not rough, his thumbs brushing over the thin fabric of her jacket. His eyes burned into hers, dark with something too deep, too real, for her to argue against. “I can’t do what I need to do if I’m worried about you.” His voice cracked, just slightly, and he pulled in a sharp breath, steadying himself. “I love you, Honor. I can’t lose you.”

Her throat tightened.

“I get it,” she whispered, the fight draining out of her in painful waves.

Gray cupped her face, his callused fingers warm against her skin. “He’s not violent, but that doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous. He’s still desperate. And desperate men do stupid things.”

Honor nodded. “Okay. But he needs what’s inside the van. Or what we hope is still in the van, if I didn’t make all the diamonds into jewelry.”

She looked down at the ring still circling his ring finger. The wire she’d wrapped in haste fit him like…well, like it was made for him. In the center, the clear precious stone—or cheap glass gem?—glimmered in the light of the front porch where they stood.

Seeing the ring on Gray’s masculine finger made her heart soar with love.

She stole a look at his face. She was getting her way on this.

“So what if I stay in the van? I’ll keep the doors locked, stay out of sight.”

He hesitated, conflict clear in his eyes. Finally, he exhaled through his nose, his grip on her tightening for just a second before he let her go.

“Fine.” He reached for his waistband and withdrew his weapon. He placed it in her hand. “But you keep this on you. Always.”

Honor rolled her eyes, but her insides jittered at the thought of packing heat. “I probably won’t need it.”

Gray’s expression darkened. “Let’s hope you don’t.”

“We researched him,” she reminded him. “He’s never been violent.”

“He’s never had his entire world fall apart before, either,” Gray countered. “Don’t worry about who he was, Honor. Worry about who he is now.”

She swallowed hard and nodded.

He got behind the wheel of her van. Colt took shotgun, and Gray instructed Honor to get in the back.

He needed every bit of focus he could get. She didn’t want to distract him from what he was doing. Getting her sister back safe and whole was the only thing that was important right now.

That and getting the Malone men home in once piece.

They zoomed through the night to meet Sully for the trade—a sister for a bunch of diamonds. There was no amount of diamonds on the planet worth Felicity’s life.

Honor gripped the edge of the built-in bed that took up the back of the van. Funny how earlier this evening, she and Gray were right here, in each other’s arms.

The faint glow of the lights on the dashboard illuminated Gray’s profile, carving the hard angles into shapes of ice. The rugged set of his jaw and the line bracketing his hard lips exposed the warrior inside him.

But he was far more than a fighter and a protector. He was so many things that she couldn’t put names on all of Gray Malone’s traits. He was a brother, a comrade to all those who had gone down with that ship in a tragedy that haunted not only Gray and the families of those people, but the entire country following the aftermath.

He was a friend and supporter to the men in the veterans program. A teddy bear with those ladies at the bookstore when he took her workshop. And the perfect boyfriend at the festival.

As far as lovers went, Gray was the best she ever had. And the man more than commanded her body.

He owned her heart.

The pit in her stomach increased with every mile they drove. Sully told them to meet them in a town thirty miles from Willowbrook. In terms of city driving, it was a long way, but in mountain country, the miles sped by. Before she knew it, Colt held out a small black object to her.

“Put this in your ear. It will link you to us.”

She gulped and pinched the small device between her thumb and forefinger. When she fixed it in her ear, she heard the metallic ping of connection.

“Alpha Team ready to roll.”

She jolted at the sound of Carson’s voice.

Colt’s came next, in stereo from the front seat and into her ear. “Who said you’re Alpha Team? I’m pretty sure that’s me and Gray.”

Gray didn’t respond. He stared straight ahead, attention fused to the road and his mind far away from the banter that took place over the next few minutes between the brothers.

The guys spoke in low murmurs, sharing everything about the abandoned building where the tracker showed Felicity’s phone was. Meanwhile, she, Colt and Gray were en route to meet Sully, following the directions he’d given her over text.

From what they surmised from maps, the places were one and the same. Which sparked relief through Honor’s very soul. But at the same time, it filled her with alarm. The idea of her sister being caught in the middle of…

What? She couldn’t begin to guess at the fight that was coming.

She would do things a lot differently if she were in charge of this exchange. She would drive right up and dump every last bead on the ground in exchange for Felicity. But the guys knew what they were doing, and she had to trust their plan.

As the street sign came into view, her heart clenched like a fist closed around it.

“One minute out,” Colt informed the other team.

Still, Gray didn’t speak. His heavy silence was starting to worry Honor. She ached to reach between the front seats and touch his shoulder. But she was afraid to shatter the concentration he needed to complete this mission.

He parked the van off to the side, in a ring of black shadow where light from a few streetlights didn’t reach.

No one moved to get out, and nobody left the building.

“No movement on the drop point,” came one brother’s update into her ear.

For the first time in endless minutes, Gray turned his head and looked at Colt. Whatever the unspoken communication between them, she knew there was a reason they weren’t letting her in on it.

“Stay in the van. And lock the doors,” he grated out to her.

She sucked in a shaky breath and said nothing. In seconds, the guys had slipped silently out of the van and closed the doors without even a soft click. She lost sight of them immediately as they became part of the deep shadow.

All remained quiet in her ear.

She sat there so long, she thought she might start screaming.

Her hand twitched toward the door handle. Before she thought about it, she gently pried it open. The door barely popped open a crack, but then her mind caught up to what she’d done.

Stay here. Gray’s words pounded through her mind.

She pulled the door shut immediately.

The next words made her jump.

“We’ve got eyes on Felicity. No sign of him.”

A soft cry rushed up her throat, but she cut it off before it could escape. Plastering both hands over her mouth, she breathed through her nose. Relief made her head spin.

Her sister was alive.

Honor leaned forward in her seat, her hands balling into fists in her lap.

Come on, come on…

She stared at the building’s door, waiting for the moment Gray and Colt would emerge with Felicity safe between them. Any second now.

Then her door was wrenched open.

A rough hand grabbed her, yanking her out of the van before she could scream.

The night air hit her like a splash of cold water, but all she could feel was the iron grip crushing her arm. The shock lasted only a second before the scent of sweat and blood filled her nose.

Her ex.

Honor’s breath was trapped in her throat as she took him in—his face was battered, one eye swollen shut, dried blood crusted on his temple. His lip was split, and his clothes were torn, dirtied with sweat and something darker.

Someone had beaten him. Brutally.

But his grip on her was still strong.

“You,” he snarled, dragging her forward.

Honor stumbled, trying to twist free, but he only tightened his hold, his fingers biting into her arm in five bruising moons.

“This is all your fault,” he seethed. His face contorted with rage, his breath hot against her cheek. “You took off. You left me with nothing. And now my partner’s pissed because he doesn’t have his diamonds.”

Honor’s stomach plummeted.

His partner. One they hadn’t accounted for.

“He’s the one who did this to you, didn’t he?” Her voice was a rough rasp. Would Gray even hear her through the comms?

Then she realized—the device had fallen out of her ear when Sully ripped her out of the van.

She was on her own.

Her ex’s face twisted, and then—hard and fast—he shoved her.

Honor stumbled back, barely catching herself before she hit the ground.

“I had a deal,” he snapped, pacing like a caged animal. “I was supposed to walk away from this with enough to disappear. But then you ruined everything. And now he thinks I screwed him over.”

Her pulse pounded in her ears.

They had assumed he wasn’t violent. That he wasn’t a real threat. But looking at him now, she realized how wrong they had been.

He was desperate.

And Gray’s words echoed in her head. Desperate men do stupid things.

“Let me go.” It was a painful effort to keep her voice steady.

He laughed, cold and bitter. “So you can run back to your new boyfriend? So you can tell him how pathetic I am?”

Another shove. This time, Honor slammed into the side of the van, her breath knocked out of her lungs.

Where was Gray? His brothers?

Sully dug his fingers into her arm in another bruising grip as he spun her toward him. “Give me those diamonds!”

“Let me go and I will!”

But he wasn’t thinking straight. The wild roll of his eyes was like that of a ruthless beast, beyond coherent thought.

He yanked her arm, whipping her around until her head snapped.

Her fingers itched toward her waistband.

She didn’t know him anymore. Didn’t know what he was capable of.

And she wasn’t risking it.

Before he could shove her again, she pulled the gun from her holster and fired.

The shot rang out, sharp and deafening in the still night.

A howl of pain split the air.

Her ex staggered back, clutching his leg where blood was already seeping through his jeans.

Honor’s hands shook, but she didn’t lower the gun.

His face contorted in shock and rage. “You—”

She cut him off. “I don’t know you anymore.” Her voice was steady now, lined with a steel she didn’t know she had inside her. “And I’m not taking chances.”

Chaos erupted. Shouts exploded through the quiet area.

“Gunfire! Who fired?”

“Honor? Honor? Are you all right?”

Boots drummed on the ground.

Gray.