51. Cody

FIFTY-ONE

Ezra came running back up the road just as I was lumbering out the front door. His gun slack at his side and regret on his face. "He got away."

Rage boiled my blood, and I gritted my teeth against the agony as I stumbled down the porch steps.

Worry cut into Ezra's brow as he ran my direction, and he shouted, "Just sit, man. I called for backup. An ambulance will be here in five."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," I said as I shuffled down the walkway, leaving a trail of blood behind me as I went.

The shot that had struck the outside of my thigh had saturated my sweats, and I had my hand pressed to the one that had hit low on the left side of my abdomen.

"Fuck, Cody, you need to sit." Ezra tried to stop me when he got to me, panic whirring around him, and I shrugged him off as I headed toward my truck.

"Have to get to them."

"We're going to, I promise you, but we need to get you taken care of first."

I spun on this guy who was more a brother than a friend, my hand flying out to his shoulder. I squeezed it in emphasis. "Don't ask me not to fight for them, Ezra. You were in this exact position not that long ago, and there was not a goddamn thing in this world that could have stopped you from going after Savannah. From protecting her. Don't ask me not to do the same."

"But you've been shot. Were almost killed yesterday. You can't?—"

"I might be bleeding, Ezra, but they're the blood in my veins. They're the ones who've made me whole. And if something happens to one of them? That's what would be the end of me. That's what would destroy me."

Ezra's exhale was heavy, his nod slight as he came to acceptance. "Fine, but I'm driving, and you're staying in the truck and going to let me do my job."

I didn't take the time to argue with him, I just hobbled as fast as I fucking could to his SUV and slipped into the front passenger's seat just as he was hopping into the driver's. But it was Lolly yanking at the back handle that had him pausing.

"Lolly," I breathed. "Fuck. Go back inside."

"Open the door, both of you. Those are my girls, too. And I won't sit idle until we have them back."

Ezra looked at me in reluctance, and I winced, every inch of me on fire, and I gritted through the words, "There isn't any use arguing with her. She's as stubborn as they come. And we need to go. Now."

Ezra unlocked the door, and Lolly was shouting as she hopped in, "Get to Wagner Ranch. There's no chance my son isn't involved in this."

Ezra tore out of the neighborhood with his lights flashing, on his radio giving instruction for any deputies in the area to be on the lookout for the black SUV that had been peeling up the street when he'd rushed out to try to stop the intruder.

To proceed with caution as it held a four-year-old little girl who'd been abducted.

My guts twisted in a vicious knot as he gave her description.

Maddie.

Maddie.

And Hailey.

Felt like I was being asphyxiated as we traveled. Oxygen ceasing to exist. That aching knot in my gut promising they had her, too.

The hour it took to travel to the deep woods outside of Langmire where the ranch was located was the longest hour of my entire fuckin' life.

Time moving as slow as the gnarled hands of the clock imprinted on my chest.

Frozen, that moment that had marked me burning like a bitch.

The moment I'd believed I'd started living on borrowed time. Sure that one day the mistakes of that summer were going to catch up to me.

They finally had.

But I'd had no idea how twisted and entwined those circumstances were going to be.

When we finally made it to the turnoff, Ezra took the right onto the long, single-lane road at a clip, wheels skidding and peeling out as he hit the dirt. He punched the gas hard as soon as we'd righted, the engine roaring, and another police cruiser came flying in right behind us.

"Please be here, please be here." The words barely made it from my muttering lips, praying to God that we were in time. That they hadn't already taken off with the two of them. That I wasn't too late.

Because I didn't know this motherfucker Pruitt's intentions. Didn't know how Douglas Wagner could have been so callous that he'd send some assassin-clad villain to kidnap his own granddaughter.

Didn't know anything but the truth that I would chase them to the ends of the earth. I wouldn't stop until they were safe in my arms. Until Pruitt and Douglas had gone down, even if it meant I went down with them.

"They will be there," Lolly said from the back. Her angst roiled in the cab, a deep-seated grief that spiraled and shook.

"They're going to be okay," I grunted, not sure exactly who I was promising.

"Fuck." A low roll of dubiety dropped from Ezra's lips when an SUV came into view, coming at us from the opposite direction.

Flying fast and kicking up a storm of dust behind them.

A black bullet speeding our direction.

"Is it the same one you saw taking off from Hailey's?" I could barely squeeze the question from between my lips.

"Yup," Ezra said.

The asshole didn't slow as the lights and sirens came at him.

He accelerated.

Dread and disbelief whipped through my insides as this monster gave way to a dangerous game of chicken.

"Hold on," Ezra ordered, his voice calm, but I could feel the tension radiate from his pores as he slammed on his brakes and cut hard to the right. Our SUV skidded, dust flying and the cab jostling. My heart vibrated a manic beat as we came to a quick stop sitting sideways across the road, fully blocking it from the SUV that was still barreling our way.

The cruiser behind us did the same, though they went left. The two vehicles came to a rest completely obstructing the road and shoulders, trees rising up high on each side to create a full blockade.

There was nowhere for them to go.

My eyes were wide as they just kept coming.

No care for the lives that were hinged inside that metal box. No care for themselves. No care for us.

They weren't more than fifty yards back when the fucker finally slammed on his brakes, skidding hard and coming to a screeching standstill about forty feet away. Both front doors flew open at the same time as Ezra was out on his feet, using his door as a shield with his gun propped in the opening between it and the windshield.

"Hands up!" Ezra shouted.

Douglas stepped out of the passenger's side, and he did lift a hand, only that hand wielded a gun. Brent, the motherfucking ranch manager who'd gotten me trapped, stepped out from the driver's side, holding up what was likely the same gun he'd shot me with earlier.

"How could he?" Lolly croaked from the backseat. "Shameful. Wrong."

"Toss the guns to the side and get onto your stomachs on the ground," Ezra shouted.

"I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to accommodate that," Douglas called back, his voice firm and confident, like he was in control and Ezra was subject to his command. "We have a plane we need to catch."

Fucker had gotten so used to getting away with this bullshit for so long that he held no fear.

But the bastard should be very, very afraid.

"You don't, and I shoot," Ezra called back in warning.

I could see the two officers from the cruiser behind me were also out of their cars, crouched and angled, ready to fire.

The back door suddenly opened and Pruitt slid out, dragging Hailey with him. He had her back to his chest and a gun was pressed to her temple.

My lungs fucking collapsed.

I could hear her whimpering. Crying as she flailed in the barbarity of his arms. Those eyes that were the color of the river so wide.

Bottomless and toiling with terror.

A blister of fury snapped across my skin, the blood boiling in my veins overflowing, bubbling out from the bullet holes the monster had left in my body.

Hands shaking, I pulled out the handgun I'd grabbed from the small gun safe I'd stowed in my duffle under the bed when I'd gone into Hailey's room to get my boots.

I'd known all the way to my guts that I was going to need it.

I'd known it was going to come to this because I sure as hell wasn't going to allow Ezra to be the one to stand in the line of fire for me.

Not when he had three kids and another baby on the way.

Cranking open the door, I stepped out. A swell of lightheadedness nearly dropped me to my knees. I'd lost more blood than I'd thought.

Or maybe it was just the blinding rage that made it that I couldn't see straight.

I could see the gasp rip out of Hailey when she saw me.

Energy slashed through the air.

The connection thrumming.

Her relief and my desperation.

Pruitt frowned in surprise and loathing.

Yeah, I'm not dead yet, motherfucker.

Ezra's shouts filled the air. "Do not get out of the truck, Cody! Stay inside!"

But I wouldn't sit there and do nothing.

I'd made a lot of promises in my life.

Ones to my father.

Ones to my mother.

But the one I'd made Hailey blared.

A siren in my soul.

I wouldn't let him hurt her or Maddie.

I angled up to the front of the SUV just as Brent edged to the side of the door, douchebag aiming at me. I popped off a shot in his direction before he got the chance. Scum toppled to the ground like the pile of shit he was.

It was enough of a surprise to make Pruitt let his guard down for one second, and Hailey, that fucking brave, amazing girl, took the opportunity to ram her elbow into his gut. A jolt of pain burst from his mouth just as she broke out of his hold, and she turned to fight him while Ezra started yelling, "Get on the ground! Get on the ground!"

It was the trigger that sparked the chaos.

Pruitt began to fire, as did Douglas, and Ezra and the other officers were shouting. Shots sounded from every direction.

Smoke and dust billowed, and urgency pushed me out around Ezra's SUV.

Sweat slicked my skin, fear pounding my bones to dust.

But it wasn't fear for myself.

It was for the two girls who deserved a magical life. Every moment and every hour and every good thing this life might have to offer.

"Get down, Cody!" I heard Ezra shouting it, but I couldn't take it in.

Douglas curled into a ball at the side of the SUV, his hands going to the back of his head like that was going to protect it, and I kept moving toward Pruitt who was reaching down to grab a fistful of Hailey's hair to drag her back to standing.

He stalled when he felt me coming, and he lifted his gun, spitting, "I warned you to stay out of our business."

A figure suddenly stepped out of the woods behind him. Lolly barefoot and wrapped in her floral robe.

Dread covered me like I'd fallen through the cracks of a frozen lake. What the hell did she think she was doing?

"It's already over, Pruitt. You might as well give up now because there's not a chance you get my granddaughter. I won't allow either of you to destroy her. She won't live like me and her mother had to."

She was holding a rock in her left hand.

"Now step away from my granddaughter."

When he started to whirl her direction at her voice, she swung it, clipping him in the side.

"Lolly!" I shouted it, a warning, a plea, and I started running that way. But I couldn't make it to her before Pruitt spat, "You stupid bitch."

Then a single gunshot rang out.

It was loud, penetrating the air in a cloud of obliterating darkness. A total eclipse. A hollow echo that reverberated through the heavens just as the woman dropped to the ground.

A toppling of color and life and belief.

Hailey screamed from where she was on her hands and knees. Screamed and screamed as she started to crawl for her. "Oh my God, Lolly! No, Lolly!"

Pruitt started to turn back around to get to Hailey when two more shots rang out. One from Ezra and one from another officer.

Pruitt jolted backward as each penetrated his chest, and the gun slipped from his hand as his body hit the ground right next to Lolly.

Gathering the last strength that I had, I stumbled forward. I made it to my knees behind Hailey the second she made it to her grandmother.

And I wrapped my arms around her as she began to weep.