Close Range Christmas Read online

  But Grandma Pauline waved him on. “Liza, you go with him. Then if the coast is clear you tell everyone fighting those fires to come home. The horses are safe—let the rest burn. Get all those boys inside. Now. If he’s out there lurking about, we all need to be together. Things and even houses can be replaced. People can’t.” Grandma gave Brady and Liza a stern stare. “Now.”

  Sarah struggled to sit up. “I should help. I should—”

  “Sorry. Your one and only job is labor,” Brady offered. “You sit tight. Let us handle things.” He and Liza rushed out the way they’d rushed in.

  “He’s out there. He has to be out there.” Sarah sagged back onto the couch. She was going to hyperventilate if she didn’t calm down. She focused on her breathing. “Anth is out there. He could pick them off. He could—”

  “There’s all sorts of things he could,” Grandma Pauline agreed. “There’s also all sorts of things your family can do to thwart him. We’ll have Liza bring them all back home, and Brady will get what he can to help you have a safe delivery. We’re survivors, Sarah Knight. Don’t you forget that.”

  Sarah swallowed and tried to nod, keeping her hand in Grandma’s. Survivors. Yes. All of them were. Fighters, like she’d told Cecilia the other night. Things might be scary, they might look grim, but they’d all faced those things before.

  And won. Survived. Lived and continued to love.

  Yes, it would be okay. It would have to be okay. Even if everything burned. Even if Brady had to be the one to deliver her baby. They would survive. All of them.

  With a pop, the lights went out. Grandma Pauline’s hand squeezed hers. “It’s all right, girl,” she whispered.

  But Brady hadn’t returned and Sarah knew it definitely was not all right.

  Especially when she felt the warm, wet trickle of her water breaking.

  * * *

  “SO, WHAT IS IT you want?” Dev managed to ask, though his teeth were chattering so hard it was a wonder he got any words out.

  “We have an opportunity. You and me. The chance to do what Ace never could.” Anth spoke in much the same way Dev remembered Ace speaking. With a calm, determined fervor. If you didn’t know better, it was easy to get swept away in.

  Too bad Dev knew much, much better. “L-live normal, s-sane lives?”

  Anth snorted. “No. That ship sailed. That’s the kind of thing my mother tried to give me.” He scoffed. “Who wants normal? She tried to convince me to settle for so much less than I deserve. I had to hurt her. I had to show her. I was born for so much more. So were you, Dev.”

  For someone who wanted to do what Ace never could, he sure sounded a lot like their father. Still, Dev couldn’t make sense of being singled out. “Why me?”

  “Well, for starters, you realized being beholden to law and order was beneath you.”

  Dev opened his mouth to argue with Anth. His law enforcement career had ended because of the physical limitations of his body, thanks to Ace. But one thing Dev had learned in dealing with Ace: don’t try to reason with an insane person.

  If he played along he could see what Anth might divulge. If Anth was here, he was far away from the family. If Dev could keep Anth right here, they weren’t just safe, they had a chance to end this.

  “I had hoped showing you what monsters your brothers were would change the tide, but you remained stubborn about it. You continued to protect them. You saw their crimes. Always protecting them, and for what?”

  Dev wasn’t sure how to answer. Anth was no more sane than Ace had been. It was almost exactly like talking to his father. He’d feel more sympathy for Anth if he hadn’t talked about being made for more than his mother wanted to give him.

  In Dev’s experience, when someone tried to give you the escape hatch, you took it. You were grateful for them. Dev hadn’t been grateful enough for Grandma and Jamison—dousing too much of it in self-loathing.

  But he’d wanted them. Always what they could give, even when he didn’t believe he deserved it.

  He knew better now. That part of his life was over. He had to find a way to end this with Anth—once and for all.

  “Well, y-you c-certainly b-beat us. Though we’re still alive, so I’m not sure what the point of those s-sentences was.”

  “I couldn’t kill them,” Anth said, as if that was obvious. “That would have turned you against me. Eventually, they’ll have to get what’s coming to them, but we’ll make that decision together. We’ll do it together. You do see how wrong they were. How many horrible things they’ve done. Don’t you?”

  “Yeah. I mean, I didn’t at first.” Dev tried to think of what Anth would want to hear. “But your notes were...convincing. I was just confused since you didn’t kill them.”

  “We can. We will. Together. That’s what I have to offer you, Devin. A partnership. Building the thing Ace never could. True freedom. True power.”

  Dev racked his brain for something to say. Some way to agree with Anth, but this was so insane he didn’t know how to even pretend to be that out of touch. He tried to think back to his childhood, those fuzzy memories he’d tried to push so far away they never surfaced.

  When Ace had raged, what had Jamison done? Played the part. Puffed him up. Made the conversation about Ace, not one of his disappointments or escaped sons.

  Dev wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his hands up and down his coat sleeves, trying to create some warmth. “Y-you’ve certainly shown you’re as s-smart as he was. Smarter,” Dev quickly amended.

  “It’s amazing how easy it is to set traps when you plan for years. Ace taught me that, but I took it farther. I always took what he taught me farther. He could never get the cops on his side. Me? I befriend one underpaid cop, tell him what he wants to hear for years, then it’s easy to get him to look the other way with a simple down payment.”

  Dev’s stomach curdled. He’d certainly considered the fact Anth had had time to plan. And in that planning had been able to do things like plant the bomb and pin a note to Rachel’s coat without them knowing how. Palming a key at some point when they weren’t as diligent, knowing their patterns and where one could hide to be close but no one knew.

  But paying off a cop—one who worked with his brothers—to look the other way. Dev hadn’t even considered that once.

  “Now things are about to start really going down. So let’s cut to the chase. I’m giving you the chance, Dev. To see the error of your brothers’ ways. I’m the true brother. I saved your life. And you’re a true brother, because you didn’t tell them about me. You passed the test. Now it’s time to start over. I got rid of Ace—”

  “Y-you... Ace died in prison.”

  “You don’t think I arranged that? You don’t think I arranged all of it. Convinced Ace to go after your brothers. Encouraged him to swim in that psychosis. Ace was flawed. Too obsessed with himself, with you all.” Anth sneered. “He cared more about size and numbers and being a god than actually acting out his vengeance. He didn’t understand that the weak had to be eradicated. The disloyal had to be cut out, root and all. I learned. He kept me isolated. Alone. And I learned the power in being small.”

  “There’s power in family too. In working together. Isn’t that what you’re proposing? Us? Family?”

  “It has to be the right family. Your brothers failed the tests, Devin. They care more about law and order and themselves. But you. You care about the right things. That’s why we have to start over. Stay small. Just you and me. You can thank me now, Dev.”

  Dev tried to work through all that, but decided in the end to just push it away. To just go along with whatever Anth said until they were close enough he could knock that gun out of his hands.

  “Thanks,” Dev managed, though admittedly it didn’t sound very sincere.

  “Do you understand what I’ve showed you? Do you understand what we can build? Not the Sons of the B
adlands. We aren’t sons. We’re power. And power over many corrupts. Ace should have kept us small. He should have focused on family alone. Instead he had delusions of grandeur. We won’t do that. Our kingdom will be small, but it will be mighty. And it will be built on our blood alone.”

  “Our?”

  “You’re righteous, Devin. Or at least, you have the potential. To keep our bloodline pure. To keep our group strong. We have to start all over. It’s taken me years to disband the Sons, to undermine their power and influence. Kind of funny how North Star helped me do that.”

  Dev’s vision was dimming. It was too cold and he was wet. He’d inhaled a lot of smoke despite his best efforts. But he had to stay awake. Stay alive. He couldn’t let the elements take him any more than he could let Anth win.

  “Now, we’ll take over the power vacuum and truly succeed. If you can prove your loyalty. These past few weeks have made me wonder. You’ve stood by your brothers. Will you stand by me instead?”

  “I kept your secret. You’re right about that. But I have a quiet life here.” Dev tried to think of what words would get through to Anth, but he didn’t think there were any. No combination of truth or lies. He couldn’t outtalk someone who thought the way Anth did.

  “You were made for more, Devin. I think deep down you know that. Don’t you know that? Ace was left to die. Through his miraculous—”

  “Spare m-me Ace’s origin s-story,” Dev grumbled. He started to move, in the hopes he could stand. But the gun in Anth’s hand went from pointing at the ground to pointing at Dev’s heart.

  “His origin story is ours. He failed. But we? We can succeed. Based on his foundation. Better. I know he tested the six of you like he tested me. We were made in his image, but better. We can be better, Dev.”

  “I’m going to stand up or I’m going to pass out and freeze to death right here.”

  Anth tsked. “No, I don’t think so. Stay seated.” He seemed to test the aim of the gun, holding it one way and then another, but always pointed at Dev. “How about this? A test. You pass, you can stand and move on to the next step. You fail? Well...”

  Dev didn’t think that’d end too well for him, but what other choice was there? If he could stand up, he could lunge for Anth. He could maybe get the gun. Sitting here in the snow he couldn’t do a damn thing. “All right.”

  “Who’s the father of Sarah’s baby?”

  Anth didn’t shoot, but the pain that cracked through Dev felt like a shot. “What do you care about that for?” he rasped.

  “It’s a test, Devin. All you have to do is tell me the truth.”

  It was impossible to tell what Anth knew. What he didn’t. Did he care about Sarah’s pregnancy because he knew the baby was Dev’s? Even if he’d had Ace killed, even if he viewed Ace with contempt, clearly he was Ace’s son—warped in all the ways Ace had been.

  The more terrifying thought was he cared because Anth knew he was related to Sarah. Dev couldn’t give this imbalanced psychopath the truth. But a lie might get Dev killed.

  “Pretty simple question, Dev. The truth. Or your life.”

  “I told everyone I was the father, yes.” If Anth had been watching them, paying attention, he might know that. He clearly knew something, didn’t he?

  But he couldn’t really know that Dev and Sarah had slept together nine months ago. There was no way he’d been at Cecilia and Brady’s wedding and actually seen it.

  “But?”

  Dev took a shaky breath, hugging himself against the bitter cold. “But it isn’t true. I’m not the father.”

  “You just decided to pretend to be?”

  Dev couldn’t tell if Anth sounded skeptical or interested, so he just...talked. Spewed whatever he could think of to say. “She needed a partner. Someone to help her out. I care about her, so I stepped up.” God, he hoped admitting he cared about Sarah didn’t make her more of a target. If he could convince Anth of this, he could get Anth away. Promise to join whatever insane group Anth had made up. Pretend to care about some cult.

  Whatever it took to get Anth far away from here.

  Anth sighed heavily. Then he raised his gun. “You fail the test, Dev. I know you’re the father. You don’t think I was at Brady and Cecilia’s wedding? Watching. Waiting. Figuring. See, that’s the difference between Ace and me. He was patient enough for revenge, but he wasn’t smart enough to make it matter. To build something from revenge.”

  Dev fought a wave of nausea—whether from the fire and possible hypothermia or the fact Anth had been there. Watching. On what should have been Brady and Cecilia’s day with nothing of Ace’s to touch them.

  But it had touched them all.

  “It’s a shame you couldn’t be honest, because I can’t abide liars in our new beginning. But you’re not my only chance here. You’re not the only one with my blood.” Without warning, he pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting Dev with a blast of fire and pain in his gut.

  He fell to the ground on a howl of pain. It waved over him, black and all encompassing, but he couldn’t let it win. He had to keep Sarah safe.

  But Anth had already begun to walk away. Toward the house. Toward Sarah. “Sarah and I will build our kingdom,” he said, loud enough to echo through the dark night around them.

  “She’ll kill you first,” Dev managed to grind out, but Anth was already too far away. Whistling as he strode for the house.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sarah heard whistling and in that moment she was more terrified than she’d been this whole time. She’d face labor with no help if someone wasn’t out there...whistling.

  “Grandma—”

  “Shh.”

  Sarah felt something being pressed into her hand. The handle of the rifle Grandma had gotten when everyone had run out to fight the fire.

  “Hide it,” she whispered. Then she let go of Sarah’s other hand. Sarah couldn’t see, but she could hear the sound of Grandma Pauline getting to her feet. “I’ve got a flashlight right over there in the curio cabinet. You sit tight.”

  Sarah didn’t want to sit tight. She didn’t want to let Grandma Pauline go, and she damn sure didn’t want someone to be whistling somewhere in the house. And what about Nina and Cecilia upstairs? Would they sit tight? Protect the girls?

  Please. Please, stay up there.

  The whistling grew closer and closer, and the room stayed utterly dark. Sarah thought she heard the sound of a drawer being pulled open, but still no flashlight light came on.

  The whistling stopped and Sarah held her breath, finger curling around the trigger of the gun even though she had it hidden under the blanket she was lying under.

  Then she heard a crack, followed by the sickening thump of a body hitting the floor.

  “Stupid old woman. I hope that killed her.”

  Terror froze her completely still for far too long. She wanted to scream, but her breath was frozen along with the rest of her. Until her body betrayed her with a violent contraction. She groaned and thrashed against the pain, tears leaking out of her eyes. Grandma Pauline.

  “Hope that killed her” didn’t mean she was dead yet, though.

  She heard footsteps above.

  “Just a warning,” the man’s voice yelled loudly enough to be heard upstairs. “If anyone comes down those steps, I’ll shoot them.”

  A light switched on, blinding Sarah and causing her to closer her eyes and flinch away.

  “What’s this? The baby is coming right now? Well, that does mess with my plans. I’ll have to think about that,” the man’s voice said.

  Sarah slowly opened her eyes against the steady beam of light coming from a flashlight pointed way too close to her face. She couldn’t make out the man holding it. “Where are Brady and Liza?” she managed to rasp. He hadn’t killed Grandma Pauline, though he likely had a gun. Maybe he’d missed them too.

 
But Brady hadn’t come back.

  “Those two. Who cares about them?”

  “I do. I do.” Tears leaked out of her eyes, but she tried to blink them away. Tried to focus. She had to focus on surviving this.

  “Well, it’s none of your business, but I haven’t killed anyone tonight. Yet. Well, maybe.”

  “I heard gunshots. I heard...” Maybe. Oh God.

  “Morons shot at me in the pitch black. I could have been any one of their loved ones. With all that haphazard shooting it was easy enough to turn course and come up behind them. A few quick blows to the head, and some rope, and they won’t be a problem for us for a while. Do you know how well I can see in the dark? It’s something of a talent I developed. You see, your mother tried to secret you away. Tried to give you light. But I was given nothing but darkness. Isolation in a little shed. I learned to do what needed to be done. To do what Ace could never do.”

  So he knew. Knew they shared a mother. Knew...everything. “Grandma Pauline. You—”

  “Just knocked her in the head too. I didn’t kill her. If she dies it’s her own fault. I need you to understand that, Sarah. I’m not the bad guy here.”

  She wanted to laugh, but she was too afraid. Anth was not an average bad guy bent on pain and suffering. He was quite literally insane. Just like Ace had been.

  Isolation in a little shed? Had Ace tortured him too? But he hadn’t had Grandma Pauline or an older brother to save him. To tell him the truth about the good the world had to offer.

  “Now, is this any way to talk to your brother for the first time, Sarah? I’ve been waiting to meet you. I’ve been looking forward to it.”

  Sarah didn’t know what to say. She had her hand around the gun under the blanket, but she’d have to raise it and point it at him. He’d be able to fight her off before she did any of those things, especially if a contraction got in her way.

  “I... I just found out about you.”

  “Ah. So your adopted family was full of liars.” He laid the flashlight on the table next to her. It illuminated him and her heart twisted at how much he looked like a Wyatt. Dark hair, tall and broad-shouldered. But instead of the hazel eyes, he had blue eyes. Like hers. But there was no spark of life or warmth in those eyes. Only the fervor of someone who’d had a break with reality.