“Hello”—Matty’s hands landed on his hips—“have you met my husband? I have a PhD in compromise.” Ruben started to chuckle when a sudden loud boom filled the air and the front window shattered, glass blowing everywhere. Ruben’s eyes instantly went to Ma and Alani, just in time to see Asa sweep them both down to the floor.
Ruben grabbed Matty and hit the floor. He could see the rest of his family crouching down as well. “What the hell was that?” Ruben shouted. “Is someone shooting at us again?” Sheriff Riley scooted over to look out the broken front window then shook his head. “Someone blew up my car.” Ruben’s eyebrows shot up. “Someone blew up your car?” The sheriff nodded.
“Why?”
“Why don’t we go find out?” Sheriff Riley pulled the gun on his hip out of its holster and started crawling toward the back door. “Da, can you get to your shotgun?”
“Yep.” Da started moving toward the hallway closet.
“Yancy, are you armed?” the sheriff asked as he stopped next to the man.
Yancy nodded and pulled his own gun out, checking the magazine then slapping it back in place. “I’m good to go.” Yancy started moving toward the back of the house.
“Get Ma and the baby somewhere safe, somewhere that has no windows that can be shot out.”
Ruben nodded.
“The rest of you stay out of sight and watch for any movement.” Sheriff Riley handed over a small earpiece to Lachlan. “Stay on this frequency. If you see anything, let me know. Otherwise, keep the line clear. And someone call for backup.” Sheriff Riley started to crawl away then stopped. He grabbed Seamus by his collar and pulled him in for the fiercest, most passionate and desperate kiss Ruben had ever seen. Seamus’s eyes were huge by the time the sheriff let him go.
Sheriff Riley rubbed his thumb across Seamus’s kiss-swollen lips then looked into his green eyes. “We’ll be talking when I get back.” Seamus nodded.
Without another word, the sheriff moved away. A moment later, Ruben heard the back door clank softly as it closed. Ruben just sat there and stared at Seamus.
There was a lot more going on there than he knew about. The sheriff had practically peeled the paint off the walls with that kiss.
And Seamus just seemed dazed. Of course, he had a huge smile on his face, so it couldn’t all be bad.
“Okay, let’s get going,” Ruben said as he pushed Matty toward the stairs. “Those of you that can move, move!” Once Matty had started up the stairs, Ruben crawled over to where Asa was covering Ma and Alani. Surprisingly, Alani was still asleep. Ruben wasn’t too thrilled knowing Alani could sleep through explosions and gunshots because of experience with them but jumped at loud voices. He’d rather she was screaming her head off because of the unexpected noise.
“Hey, Ma, how are you doing?”
“Someone shot out my windows, son.” Ma’s nostrils flared as she sat up. “If I ever find out who it was, he is going to wish he had never messed with this family. My ma gave me those lace curtains before I left Ireland. They can’t be replaced.” Ruben took Alani out of Ma’s arms and tucked her into his chest.
“I’m sorry about that, Ma. I wish there was something I could do.”
“There is, son.” Ma pointed toward the stairs. “Get that baby somewhere safe. She’s much more important than my curtains.” When Asa nodded to him, letting Ruben know he would take care of Ma, Ruben crawled away until he reached the stairs. Then he jumped to his feet and raced up the stairs. The upstairs hallway was the only place in the house that didn’t have any windows. It seemed like the safe place to be at the moment.
Ruben handed Alani off to Matty then crept into his bedroom. He couldn’t leave Elijah in there alone. Ruben wasn’t surprised when he found Elijah was sitting up in bed, looking around in confusion.
“What happened?”
“You need to get dressed, baby,” Ruben said as he scooped the man’s clothes up off the floor. “And hurry. Someone blew up the sheriff’s car.”
“What?” Elijah shouted as he scrambled off the bed as fast as he could and started getting dressed. “Is anyone hurt?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. The sheriff and Yancy snuck out the back door to see if they can find anyone. Everyone else is inside the house. The sheriff wants us to hole up here in the house, someplace where we can’t be shot at.”
Elijah’s eyebrows shot up. “They’re shooting at us?”
Elijah wanted to scream in aggravation. When would it ever stop?
Ruben’s biological mother was no longer just trying to get custody of Alani, which Elijah could have fought in court. She was trying to kill them all. She was nuts.
“What’s the plan?”
Ruben’s eyebrow arched as he turned to look at him. Under any other circumstance, he would have found it endearing. Right now, it just made him want to growl in frustration. He knew what Ruben was going to say before he opened his mouth.
“I am not an invalid, Ruben.”
“Close enough.”
Elijah’s eyes narrowed. “Do you really think I am just going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs while someone tries to take my family from me?”
“No, you’re going to hide right along with me and the rest of this family.”
Oh. Well, that was different. Elijah didn’t like the idea of hiding from anyone. He hated bullies with a passion, especially after what had happened to Thomas. But protecting his family was more important, and if hiding them from whoever was trying to kill them was what was needed, that’s what he would do.
“I wish I had a gun.”
Ruben’s head tilted. “You know how to shoot a gun?”
“I was in the service at one time, Ruben. And I wasn’t a grunt.”
“Really.” Ruben walked over to his closet, confusing the crap out of Elijah. He thought they were supposed to be hiding. Ruben rifled around inside the closet for a moment then came out with a black box in his hand. He held it out to Elijah. “Mahra gave these to me. I was saving them for Alani’s twenty-first birthday, in case she wanted them.”
Elijah cocked an eyebrow, curiosity eating away at him as he opened the box. He gaped, his jaw dropping. “Do you know what these are?” he asked as he carefully pulled one of the two matching guns out of the box and checked to see if it was loaded. It wasn’t, but there were four empty magazines in the box along with a box of ammo.
“Yep, they’re Desert Eagle .44 Magnums.”
“Shit.”
Ruben chuckled and grabbed one of the magazines. He opened the box of ammo and started loading it. Elijah blinked in astonishment as he watched. Ruben was loading the magazine like he did it every day of his life.
“Is there something you need to tell me, baby?” Elijah asked as he started loading his own magazine.
“We got shot at, a lot. We’re really not supposed to have guns when we’re doing relief work, but once Alani got here, Mahra wanted to make sure we were protected.” Ruben shrugged. “It didn’t seem to do Mahra much good. We left the damn things back at camp the day she got shot.”
“I’m sorry that Mahra died, but you never would have been able to live with yourself if you killed someone, Ruben.” Elijah knew it deep down in his bones. He, on the other hand, had no problem shooting anyone that tried to hurt his family.
Once the magazines were loaded, Elijah loaded the guns. He handed one to Ruben, just in case, and took the other one for himself.
“Don’t use this unless you absolutely have to. And when this is over, we need to talk about a gun safe for the new house. I don’t want Alani getting hurt.”
Ruben smiled. “Yes, dear.”
“Come on,” Elijah said as he started for the door to the hallway, “I want to see my daughter.” Elijah stepped out into the hallway then froze. Something wasn’t right. “Where is everyone?”
“Hiding?”
“Hiding where?”
Elijah heard a muffled noise at the end of the hallway. He hurried down to the door leading to the linen closet and eased it open. Matty sat inside on the floor, Alani cradled in his arms. His eyes were wild, filled with fear. Elijah swore under his breath and reached down to help him up, but Matty shook his head rapidly and pointed.
“I want my grandbaby.”
Elijah swallowed hard and turned to see Janice standing at the top of the stairs, a gun in her hand. It was pointed right at Ruben, who stood between Elijah and Janice.
Well, damn!
Elijah held his gun in one hand and placed the other one on Ruben’s waist. He quickly scanned the hallway for an escape, but there wasn’t one. The linen closet was at the end of the hallway. It was a straight shot from Janice to them. If he moved, she would see Matty and Alani huddled on the floor.
“Give her to me.”
Ruben started to shake his head until Elijah squeezed him.
Arguing with a madwoman with a gun was not a good idea. They needed to figure a way out of this. Elijah used his foot to push at Matty, trying to get him to move to one side of the linen closet. He needed Matty and Alani out of the line of fire.
When he felt Matty pat his leg, he started pushing on Ruben’s back, slowly urging him forward. They needed to make it to another doorway, someplace that he could push Ruben into and get him out of the line of fire.
“Look, if it’s the money,” Ruben said, “you can have it. I’ll sign anything you want.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that?” Janice sneered. “Your father warned me about you, about the things you would do to try and trick me. I won’t fall for it.”
“I swear, I don’t want the money.”
Elijah’s heart ached when he heard the pleading in Ruben’s voice.
It had to be horrible to be facing his mother at the end of a gun.
“I don’t believe you!” Janice screamed. “Give me the baby!” Elijah’s heart slammed into his throat when Janice jerked the gun higher.
“Her name is Alani.”
“I don’t fucking care what her name is,” Janice shouted. “Give her to me.”
Ruben’s head suddenly tilted to one side. Elijah almost groaned.
“You really don’t care, do you? She’s just a way for you to get father’s money. You could care less what her name is or what she looks like.”
“That’s my fucking money!” Janice snapped. “I worked for it for over thirty years. I put up with you and your brother and your father. I put up with that stupid church and all of those devoted followers fawning all over your father. The late, great Reverend McCallister.” Janice suddenly laughed hysterically. “If only they knew the truth. He was a bastard, and I hated the ground he walked on. I’d spit on his grave if I thought I could get away with it.” Elijah blinked in surprise. Well, that was interesting.
“I thought you loved him,” Ruben said. “You did everything he said.”
“Only because I had to. I hated him, and he knew it. He held that money over my head every day of my life.” Janice slapped her hand against her chest. “That was my money. It was my money before we were married, but he convinced me to sign it over on our wedding night, and then I learned what a bastard he really was, but by then it was too late.”
“Then why did you stay?”
“Because I wanted my money.”
“So you put us through hell because of money?” Elijah closed his eyes for a brief moment. Ruben sounded so heartbroken. And he could hear Matty quietly sniffling behind him.
This needed to end before Janice destroyed her two sons, and maybe the rest of the Blaecleah family as well.
“I’m a lawyer,” Elijah said as he started to edge his way out from behind Ruben, keeping his gun hidden behind him. “I can draw up whatever papers you want giving you complete control over Reverend McCallister’s trust fund. You don’t need Alani to have the money.”
“You think it’s that easy?” Janice started waving her hand in the air. Elijah prayed the gun in her hand didn’t accidently go off during her rant. “Arthur put provisions in the will that only those raising Alani could have access to her trust fund. You can’t sign a damn thing over to me, so shut the hell up.”
“You know, for someone that has lived as the wife of a reverend for the last thirty years, you have quite the dirty mouth.” Elijah’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he recognized Ma’s voice and saw her come up behind Janice, waving a frying pan in her hand. He just knew Janice was going to shoot Ma, and he couldn’t allow that.
“Ma!” Ruben shouted. “No!”
Elijah pushed Ruben out of the way and tore down the hallway.
He reached Janice just as she raised the gun to shoot Ma. Without even thinking about it, Elijah raised the gun in his hand, pointed it at Janice, and pulled the trigger.
Janice screamed and went down, but not before Ma beaned her over the head with her cast-iron frying pan. She didn’t move after that.
Ma kicked the unmoving woman in the side. “I don’t allow swearing in my house.”
Elijah leaned over and drew in several deep breaths as fear and relief swept through his entire body. He felt a hand smooth down his back and glanced up to see Ruben standing next to him. Elijah scanned him from head to toe. He seemed unharmed, physically at least. Emotionally, he had to be a wreck.
Elijah squatted down next to Janice and searched for a pulse. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not when he found one. Apparently, he had just nicked her, but she was sure to have a whammy of a headache when she woke up.
“Ma, could you call an ambulance?”
“If I must.”
Elijah chuckled as he watched Ma walk back down the stairs, her frying pan in hand. He glanced up at Ruben. “Baby, I need something to tie her up and both of the pillow cases off the bed.” Ruben’s lips were white from being pressed together, but he nodded and ran into the bedroom. He was back a moment later with the pillowcases and a robe tie. It wasn’t rope, but it would do.
Elijah ejected the magazine from his gun, checked to make sure no bullets were in the chamber, and then put the safety on. He grabbed the pillowcase and dropped his gun into it. The police would want it, and it didn’t need anyone’s fingerprints but his. He laid the gun on the floor then did the same to Janice’s gun.
He carefully rolled Janice over onto her stomach and tied her hands behind her back. For good measure and because he didn’t trust the woman, he also tied her feet together with his belt then rolled her back over.