Page 294 of Her Reluctant Hero
“And when we find them? Then what?” Peyton asked. “They might be armed. They might hurt Gabe.”
“First of all, you’ll stay in the car,” Devlin said. “You will not get out, do you understand?”
But what if Gabe needed her? He’d been drugged, unconscious, and God knew what else they’d done to him. Still, she had no doubt Devlin would set her out on the side of the road if she disobeyed, so she said, “Of course.”
“The deputy and I will take care of the O’Douls, and bring out Cooper.”
“You see the fire and put it out,” she murmured, thinking of Gabe’s philosophy, and how easy it made a difficult job sound.
“Exactly,” Devlin muttered.
A few minutes later, they rounded a corner and moonlight glinted off the bumper of a vehicle.
A big black dually. Devlin immediately killed the engine, dropped the sedan into neutral and slid back about fifty feet.
“There,” he whispered, as if the O’Douls could hear them. He lifted the radio to his mouth— no cell service out here. “We found the truck, found a cabin. Lights on inside. Deputy Simpson and I are going in. We need back up.”
The call was acknowledged and the two men drew their guns. Quickly, Devlin reached back to flip off the interior light just as Simpson opened his door.
“Stay. Here,” he reiterated. “I don’t want to shoot you.”
“Don’t want to be shot,” she acknowledged, but dug her fingers into the back of the seat. How was she going to sit here while they went in for Gabe and she couldn’t see anything?
*****
Gabe heard the car out front and eased to the window. Kim and Kevin probably didn’t have accomplices, but Gabe didn’t want some innocent person who just happened upon the cabin to be hurt. No doubt the siblings would take action to protect themselves. He tried the window, but it was swollen shut.
One of the men who got out of the car wore a cap and crouched low. The other seemed familiar, but it was too dark to identify him. Still, they moved cautiously, and hope flared. They knew what to expect, they had to be cops.
Movement in the next room told him Kim and Kevin had heard the car too. Kim’s voice was soft but in her panic an octave higher than normal, and Gabe couldn’t make out her words.
He grabbed the mangled pillow from the bed, folded it against the window and shoved his elbow against it. The tinkle of glass hitting the front porch was louder than he expected. The men outside stilled, Kim and Kevin quieted, before Kevin’s heavy footsteps made their way toward his door.
Crap. The broken area of the window was nowhere near big enough for him to climb out, especially without more protection for his privates. He moved behind the door, wishing for a weapon, but only had surprise on his side.
He dove for the boots, tossed one through the broken window so it landed with a thump outside—maybe Kevin would think he’d gone out, giving him more of an edge of surprise.
The younger man flung open the bedroom door, face tight with rage, and Gabe used the other boot as a club, swinging it hard against the boy’s temple. The rage slackened to stunned as the kid dropped to the floor.
Stupid kid. He stepped over the boy’s body and into the living room, where Kim turned, holding a gun in front of her with both hands, pointing at him. Son of a bitch. He did not want to get shot.
He raised his hands and let the boot drop to the floor. The girl was too damn shaky with the gun.
“What are we going to do here, Kim?” he asked, infusing a calm he didn’t feel into his voice.
“Where’s Kevin?”
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “In there. You want to check, see if he’s okay? I hit him pretty hard.”
Indecision flickered across her face. “No. I need you to go back in there so I can lock you in.”
“The cops are here, Kim. They’re just outside the door. You heard them pull up.”
As he spoke, he moved toward her slowly, cautiously, a hand extended for the gun. God, she was just a kid, a crazy kid who had made a hell of a mistake. He sensed her despair, understood the trapped look in her eyes. And damn, for all he’d cursed whoever had set that fire, sympathy overruled anger. She’d screwed up and ruined her young life, hers and her brother’s. She was out of options.
“No place to run.” He kept his voice as smooth as he could as his pulse pounded. “Don’t make things any worse.”
“I didn’t want it to go this far,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.” And she turned the gun toward her own chin.
