I jogged through the dark, my muscles aching all over again and a lump of emotion in my throat. If anything happened to Bryan, now, god, I’d never be able to live with myself.

“Is Daddy going to be OK?” Carly asked, as we ran.

“Yes, honey. He’ll be fine. Do you know anyone stronger than your daddy?”

“No,” Carly replied, pride inching into her voice.

“Exactly. Honey, he’s going to be fine. We’re just doing what he told us to do, and later, we’ll go back and find him or he’ll find us. When things are safe.”

Carly quieted, but she was a lead weight on my back. Obviously exhausted, she kept dropping in and out of sleep. One moment whimpering softly, the next awake and asking insecure questions. We’d all need counseling after tonight.

Another wave of guilt strangled me, but I refused to focus on it now. We had to keep running. Keep moving.

Marcus faced off against Bryan, yes, but the rest of his men? Who knew where they were? Or what they—

A light flashed in the dark and illuminated us again, and I stopped, immediately. Carly shifted, groaning on my back.

“Got her!” A man yelled. “I found her. Guys?!”

It’s one of them. They’ve found us.

I shifted to the left, preparing to push off and run again, but a gun cocked. “Don’t you dare move, missy. Don’t you move a muscle. Guys? Over here!”

It was one man, with a gun. One man! Surely, we could pull something off. But I couldn’t risk it with Carly on my back. Running away from him would expose her as a target, and running toward him would only end with me dead and her in danger.

“Please,” I said, quietly. “You don’t have to do this. We haven’t done anything to deserve this, all right? Please, just let us go.”

The flashlight shifted and more of our new captor’s face was revealed. Grizzled, pock-marked by old scars, and with a crooked nose. Bandana tied around his head, bisecting his forehead. He chuckled, wetly. “Honey, I’m going to get a lot of good money for turning you over.”

“I can pay you whatever you want. Please, just let me go,” I lied. “Let us go.”

“No can do, baby doll. I’m afraid your run of good luck is up. Now stay quiet,” he said, pointing a gun at me with one hand. “Where the hell are those other assholes?” That came in a mutter.

Carly was tense against my back, no longer a lead weight, but totally awake and aware and terrified.

“It’s OK,” I whispered. “We’ll be fine.” That had to be another lie, but what else was I supposed to do? Tell her that this was over?

The thug snapped his focus onto us again, growling. “You shut your dirty—”

A thump rang out, the guy’s eyes widened in shock, then dulled completely, and he fell to the dirt, dropping both the pistol and the flashlight. Its light cut out completely.

In the thug’s place, another figure loomed. It bent, grabbed the fallen pistol, cocked back an arm and chucked it off into the wilderness with a feminine grunt.

Feminine? What the—?

“What an idiot,” a familiar voice said softly. “You’d think he would’ve learned not to expose his position, but go figure. This is the best criminals have to offer nowadays?” Another light appeared, this one from a phone, and Beverly’s face did too. “There you two are. Do you know, I’ve been looking for you two for ages, now? Roman told me to wait at the car, but I figured, eh, what the hell, why not join in the fun.” She had a shotgun tucked under one arm and wore her work uniform, minus the hairnet. “What?” Beverly asked. “Why are you staring at me like that.”

“Auntie Beverly!” Carly cried.

“Hey, honey bunny. Are you ready to get the poop out of here?”

Carly actually managed a giggle. I let her down again, shaking my head. “How did you…? When did you…?”

“Now, is that really important at this point in time?” Beverly asked. “Follow me, you two. Let’s get lost before we get found, OK? Carly, honey, take my free hand. Here, Riley, you take the light.”

I accepted the phone from her and shone it ahead of us, only a short way. “Maybe we should switch this off?” I asked.

“No, I think we’ll be OK,” Bev replied, walking confidently a step ahead, holding Carly’s hand. “The cops turned up like ten minutes ago and stormed through that motel place in Redton. I figure that that asshole was a straggler. Oops.” She pressed a finger to her lips, looking down at Carly. “I’ll put a quarter in the swear jar.”

“After tonight, we’ll need a new bank account to fill with cash for all the cursing that’s gone down.” I shook my head, and tired thoughts chased through it. The cops had turned up. What did that mean? I’d been so sure that they weren’t to be trusted. “Bev, are you sure they were good cops?”

“Yes, they were the good ones. We ran into a couple of the bad ones back at the house when we found out you two had been taken,” Bev replied, conversationally. “These ones were called out by one of Bryan’s contacts. I think the cops wanted to flush out the corruption as badly as they wanted to get rid of the Crimson Riders, once and for all.”

“Oh.” What else could I say? I’d been stuck, terrified in the desert for the past however long, and now it was finally over. Or it seemed to be.

“Where’s Bryan?” Bev asked. “Is he meeting us back at the car?”

“I think so,” I said and briefly relayed what had happened, careful to keep my voice light, so Carly wouldn’t detect my concern for her father. “He’ll probably meet up with us at the car, yeah. Does he know where it is?”

“Yeah, he’s the one who parked it—ah, here we are.” Bev halted next to an SUV, and the relief that shuddered through me was nearly uncontrollable. My legs turned to jelly, and I braced myself on the hood of the car, breathing hard.

“Hey, are you all right?” Bev asked, as she opened the back door of the car, guided Carly into it.

“Yes, I’m just glad this is over. Do you have any water, Bev? Carly’s thirsty. And so am I.”

“Shoot, one sec.” Bev trundled around to the front of the car, opened it and rummaged around in the glove box. “Bingo! I’ve got a bottle.”

“Give it to Carly,” I said, licking my dry lips. “I’ll be fine a while longer.”

Bev handed it through to the back, where Carly opened it and glugged down some. “Here, Riley,” she said, “I’ve still got some left.”

I took a few sips, then handed it back. Who knew how long we’d have to wait for Bryan out here? The fact that it’d been this long already made my skin crawl. What if he was in trouble? What if Marcus had shot him or overpowered him somehow? Bryan was definitely the bigger man, but Marcus had numbers, and I didn’t buy that the guy we’d just run into was the last one out searching for us in the desert.

“I can’t do this,” I muttered, pacing back and forth beside the SUV, my jelly legs forgotten now. “I can’t.”

“What are you talking about?” Beverly asked.

“Your brother. I need to go find him. OK? You guys, you stay here and I’ll be back soon. I have to find him and make sure he’s –” A single shot rang out in the night, and I jumped, nearly out of my skin. Carly’s eyes went round, and she scrambled back a little. “Stay here,” I said. “Both of you. I’ll be back. I’m taking the phone with me.” I gestured to Bev’s phone, then dragged my nearly flat one out of my pocket. “Take this. Um, it’s on low battery, but you can use it.”

“Riley, don’t—”

“I have to, OK?” I faced my friend. “I have to. I have to go find him.”

“He’ll be fine. He’s a big boy. Trust me, Bryan can handle himself in situations like this. I can’t just let you go out on your own in the dark. What if there are more of them out there? Or you run into a damn coral snake or something?”

“It’s a chance I have to take. I love—I have to.” I hurried over to Carly, planted a kiss on her sweaty, dirt-streaked forehead. “I’ll be back soon. Stay with your auntie, and do whatever she says, OK? Lock the doors. I’ll be back soon.” I had to say it twice, perhaps, to convince myself.

“Riley—”

I waved to Bev before she could try stop me again and sprinted out into the desert. My legs were so done, my lungs tired, that the sprint slowed to a jog within the first few steps. I slowed, listening for any noise, praying that I could find Bryan.

I kept walking, arcing in the direction we’d come from, past the passed-out biker again, my heart leaping as another shot was fired.

Bryan, please be safe. Please.

More time passed, and I stumbled on. Finally, two figures emerged from the night, the horizon already coloring pale with the coming dawn. One of them was Clint, the same guy who’d cut Carly and I free from our bindings, and the other was Marcus, cuffed, and on the ground, whining as if he’d just been struck.

“Where’s Bryan?” I asked, stepping forward, in line with the large rock we’d hid behind earlier.

A groan sounded to my left.

I spun toward it and shuddered a gasp. Bryan was on the ground, bleeding heavily from one arm, staring up at the stars, his eyes unfocused.

I dropped down beside him, bringing his head into my lap. “I’m here,” I said. “I’m here.”

“Riley.” A small smile. “This must be a very good dream. Or maybe I’m dead.”

“No!” Tears threatened, pricking the corners of my eyes. “No, you’re not dead. You’re not dead. You’re not going to die.”

“Saying it more than once won’t make it true,” he replied, chuckling. “I’m tired, damn. I think I should get some sleep.”

“No, no, no, don’t close your eyes, Bryan.” I looked up at Clint. “I need an ambulance. He needs one, please.”

“It’s already on its way,” Clint replied. “I called it in. Just hang in there, and keep him awake. I’ve got to get this asshole back to my cruiser, all right. Stay here, and I’ll be back soon with help. They won’t find him otherwise.”

I ground my teeth against the complaint on the tip of my tongue. Nodded instead of spilling my fears all over again. I looked back down at Bryan, and fear jolted through me—his eyes were closed. I tapped his cheek lightly.

His eyelids fluttered open again, revealing those sharp blue eyes. “I’m just tired, baby,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. Is Carly safe?”

“She’s safe. She’s with Bev.”

“Good. You should go too. Might be more of those assholes around.”

“I won’t leave you,” I said, and shifted him slightly. “Bryan, I’ve got to put pressure on the bullet wound. Where is it?”

He didn’t reply, his eyes drifting shut again.

I set his head down gently, then moved toward his torso. I ripped open his shirt, and my skin prickled at the sight of the blood slicking his chest. I searched around for anything that I could use to stop the bleeding but opted to place pressure on the wound with my fingers. There was nothing else I could do. I’d lost my shirt, and I wasn’t strong enough to tear off a strip of his.

Bryan hissed and opened his eyes again. “Jesus, OK, I’m awake. Fuck.”

“I’m stopping the bleeding.”

He managed a wry grin. “Have I mentioned how beautiful you are when you play nurse?”

“Shush, shush,” I replied, “You’re already losing enough blood as it is.”

A light flashed nearby, and the sounds of chatter and shouts rang out. “Over here!” I yelled, still keeping the pressure on, ignoring the wetness and the terror clawing up my throat. “Over here! Help!”