“I have to go to the bathroom,” one of the boys whined from the back of the bus, and Paige silently agreed with him. They’d been inside an old barn for over an hour, and she’d been crossing her legs for the past fifteen minutes, trying not to pee her pants. She hadn’t wanted to ask if she could get off the bus and step into one of the stalls to make use of a corner to relieve herself, but she was going to have to soon.

Nicole had made the second call at gunpoint and given the police chief the location for the money to be dropped. Minutes later, the third creep, named Eddie, who’d been driving the Cadi earlier, left in the vehicle to retrieve the ransom, after Ty had repeated several warnings about watching out for an ambush at the drop site. That left just Ty and his buddy, Derek, outside the bus.

Sunlight poured through openings where several boards were missing in the roof and a loft window. Nicole had said earlier she knew what abandoned farm they were on, but she hadn’t been able to think of a clue to give to the police to help them locate the hostages. Her one attempt at giving more information than she was supposed to had resulted in getting her head yanked back by her hair and a gun thrust into her face, while her terrified daughter and the others had looked on. Now, she sat with Joey on her lap and waited for whatever was going to happen next. Ari was tucked under one of Paige’s arms while Brooke hung on her other one. The little girl was sucking her thumb and would freeze anytime her sister’s boyfriend yelled anything or came back on the bus.

The other children were huddled together in the seats throughout the bus. Clem was looking paler and diaphoretic, and kept rubbing his sternum. He’d started getting sharp chest pains about ten minutes after they’d arrived at the barn, but the three punks had been unsympathetic. Melanie was doing her best to keep both her husband and students calm. Paige and Nicole had joined her in taking turns walking to the back of the bus and checking on the children every few minutes. Some were sitting in silence, with dried tear tracks on their cheeks. Others were talking softly to each other, and a few had fallen into a restless sleep after having an adrenaline crash.

Paige and Nicole had done their best to find some sort of weapon they could use but resources were limited on the bus. Ty and his friends had taken their cell phones and those that any of the kids had. The only thing the women had on hand was a small pocket knife on Nicole’s keychain, that’d been overlooked by their kidnappers. And small was an understatement. While it was sharp, it wouldn’t cause enough damage to someone unless she shoved it in their eye. However, Nicole kept it handy just in case.

“I have to go to the bathroom too,” another student, this time a little girl, cried.

Soon the others would start whining and crying and that might piss off their captors. Paige had to prevent that from happening. Patting both Ari’s and Brooke’s arms, she stood and reassured them. “I’ll be right back.”

She moved to the front and slowly descended the steps, her heart pounding in her chest. When she reached the bottom step, she stopped and cleared her throat. “Excuse me.”

Derek and Ty brought their guns up from where they’d been standing a few feet away. The latter snarled. “What?”

“W-We need to go to the bathroom, especially the children. If they pee in their pants, it’s going to smell, and they’ll really start crying.”

Ty waved his hands around. “Do you see a bathroom in here, you fucking cunt? Go sit down.”

She stood her ground. “Please. I’m trying to keep them from getting on your nerves and that’s what’s going to happen if you don’t let them go. I can take them into those stalls over there, one or two at a time, and they can pee on the floor. They’ll be a lot quieter if they’re comfortable.”

Seconds passed as he just glared at Paige.

Derek broke the silence. “Let ’em go, Ty. They can’t escape, and it’ll keep ’em quiet. I don’t want to listen to a bunch of brats whining.”

There was another moment’s hesitation, before he strode over to the stalls she’d pointed to, looked in one of them, then came back. “Fine. No more than two at a time. Make it fast then get the brats back on the bus and tell them to keep their traps shut.”

“Thank you.” She turned and hurried back up the stairs. “Okay, kids. I’m going to take two of you at a time to go to the bathroom. Try to hang on until I get to you. Ari, Brooke, come with me.”

The two girls stood warily and took Paige’s outstretched hands. She kept her body between them and the two men as she hurried them over to the old horse stalls. Pointing to two corners, she said, “Go squat and urinate over there. Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone come in while you’re going.” She didn’t know if either punk was a pedophile, and didn’t want to find out, but there was no way she’d let either of them watch the children while they were exposed.

It took a few moments for the girls to relax enough to do their business after they’d pulled down their shorts and squatted, but soon they were done, and Paige hurried them back onto the bus. Two by two, she escorted the children to the makeshift restroom and then back again. After the first couple of times, Ty and Derek ignored them. They went back to checking the doors and looking out any opening they could find in the dilapidated barn. On the third trip, Paige ducked her head into the stall next to the one the children were using and spotted a pitchfork within reach. She quickly moved back when she heard one of the kidnappers approaching, then continued escorting her charges. Once they were all taken care of, Paige would watch the stall’s doorway if Nicole and Melanie needed to go, then have one of them stand guard while she relieved herself.

Paige was just about to head back to the bus with the last, lone boy, when, from the other side of the barn, Ty shouted, “Derek! Someone’s out there! It’s the fucking cops!”

“Shit! How’d they find us?”

Temporary relief flashed through Paige, but she knew they weren’t out of danger yet. Pushing the little boy back into the stall she reached into the other one and grabbed the pitchfork. When Derek ran from the front of the barn, past what had once been a tack room, his gun was up, looking for a target. Paige didn’t hesitate, thrusting the large, pointed tool forward as hard as she could, catching him in the gut. He froze in confusion, then disbelief, before glancing down while stumbling backward. Paige let go of the handle as he fell to the floor, bleeding from his deep wounds.

In shock, Paige stepped back a few steps, her hand over her wide-open mouth. The little boy moved from the stall to her side, staring at the dying man, with bulging eyes.

“You bitch!” Ty had rounded the front of the bus and stopped in front of the vehicle’s door. Rage covered his face as he raised his gun hand.

Paige had nowhere to go. All she knew was she had to protect the boy next to her. Pivoting, she shoved him as far as possible, so he’d be out of the line of fire. There was a violent boom and a brutal force slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. Her breath left her lungs with a whoosh and pain exploded in her head. The last thing she heard before her world went black was screaming.

Shane paced back and forth in the ICU waiting room, trying hard not to punch a wall in front of everyone. It’d been four hours since Paige had been airlifted, unconscious, to St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City, the closest facility needed for her head injury. The cops had also gotten a second helicopter to transport Clem for what had turned out to be a heart attack. The man was stable in the CCU with his wife and children by his side.

The children, Nicole, and Melanie had been driven back into town, where they’d been greeted by a crowd of relieved and grateful parents. Once they had Arianna safely in their arms again, Shane and Tuck had buckled her in Shane’s truck and made a beeline for the hospital, an hour away. Their little girl had fallen asleep after only ten minutes on the road. Seth was holding down the fort at the ranch where the Triple-R employees were anxiously waiting for news on Paige.

Hank, Nicole, and their three children had driven to Garden City as well. Nicole said she needed to be there for her new friend after everything they’d gone through, but she couldn’t let Joey out of her sight just yet. Hank thought it was best to keep his entire family together until everyone calmed down.

Also in the waiting room were Lane, Lila, Gavin, Betty Lou, and a few of Shane and Tuck’s other friends. Tuck’s parents were on a plane from Arizona to Kansas, despite their son’s insistence they stay out west. Paige was important to Tuck, Shane, Ari, and Lila, so therefore, she was important to Zach and Emily Jones. Gavin had offered to go to the airport and pick them up when they arrived, and Shane had thanked him—it was one less thing he had to deal with right now.

He glanced around the room. They weren’t the only family waiting for a doctor to tell them how their loved one was doing, but they did have the most people supporting them. Ari had fallen back to sleep on Lila’s lap as she spoke in low whispers with Gavin. Lane had his head in his hands, and, surprisingly, Lou was sitting next to him, rubbing his back with her hand in moral support. The man had been blaming himself for Paige’s condition, and no amount of reassurance from Tucker, Shane, and Nicole had eased his perceived guilt.

From what Shane had learned, all hell had broken loose when one of the kidnappers had spotted the cops advancing on the barn. Unfortunately, it was a risk they’d had to take because there’d been very few places to conceal themselves as they approached. Lane and another officer had managed to silently climb through a paneless window in an old tack room, moments before the alarm had been raised. Before either man could get out the door, Paige had stabbed one of the hostage takers with a fucking pitchfork, of all things. Although he wished she hadn’t needed to do it, he was damn proud of her. The bastard had died on the barn floor before medical help could arrive.

But after she’d eliminated the one guy, the other had appeared and pointed his gun at Paige. Not thinking of herself, she’d tried to protect the young boy who’d been standing next to her. Unable to shoot because of the kids and adults on the bus, directly behind the threat, Lane had done the only other thing he could think of. He’d tackled Paige to the ground. When the gun had gone off, the bullet had lodged into an upright beam, right behind where Paige had been standing. Unfortunately, as Lane landed on top of her, she’d hit her head hard against the floor and been knocked out. In the meantime, one of the cops, who’d come in through a backdoor they’d kicked in, had shot and killed the suspect before he could fire his weapon a second time.

The third kidnapper had been arrested at the money drop-off point. According to him, the whole plot was a Ty Eldredge’s idea after he’d overheard Brooke talking about the field trip a few days earlier while Brenna had been babysitting her. The three men had staked out the school. Once they were certain of the bus’s route to its destination, they’d taken a dirt-road shortcut and came out ahead of it. After that, it was just a matter of positioning their car, waiting in the ditch, and hoping the bus driver would stop to check on the “disabled” vehicle.

None of the children had been harmed, but many of them would probably need to talk about what happened with counselors. The school was already arranging to have some come in and speak with them as a group to see if any needed some one-on-one counseling.

Hopefully, when Paige woke up, Lane would come to realize he’d saved her life, even though he’d hurt her in the process. Shane didn’t blame him and didn’t want his friend blaming himself either.

When Paige woke up . . . He had to keep thinking that way. Under no circumstances was he going to think “if” instead of “when.” They’d just found her. She was supposed to spend many long years loving and being loved by Shane, Tuck, and Ari. They couldn’t lose her.

On his next pass across the room, a woman in a white lab coat walked in. “Paige Merritt’s family?”

“Here.” Shane rushed over. “How is she?”

“I’m Doctor Dobrynski from Neurology. Are you her husband?”

“Fiancé,” he replied since he and Tuck were going to put a ring on her finger soon. They’d been talking about it this morning after she’d driven Arianna to school for the field trip. “This is all the family she has; her parents are gone. Is she awake?”

The doctor shook her head, but at least she didn’t look grim about it. “As you know, she took a hard hit to the side of her head. It’s an injury we often see with football players. We did a CT-scan and there’s some moderate swelling and minor bruising on the right side of her brain. The left side is okay. As of right now, there's no evidence of any clots, so we don't need to operate, but we’ll see how the next few hours go. She’s still unconscious but breathing on her own, and we’re monitoring her closely.”

“When will she wake up?” Shane’s mind was going in fifty directions at once trying to absorb everything he’d just been told.

“I’m sorry, I can’t answer that. It’s an injury I’ve seen in people who never lost consciousness and in others who were in comas for several weeks.”

“But she will wake up, right?” Tuck asked desperately.

The doctor hedged, clearly looking for the right words of comfort which didn’t offer false hope that Paige waking up was a surety. “We’ll have to wait and see. I wish I could give you a better answer than that, but I can’t.” She scanned the faces of those standing in front of her, and smiled at Arianna who was in Lila’s arms, resting her head on her aunt’s shoulder. “Someone looks like she needs a good night’s sleep. There’s nothing we can do but wait right now, so why don’t you all go home and get some rest. I promise we’ll call you if there’s any change.”

“Thanks, Doctor,” Shane replied. “Is it all right if some of us stay? Can we see her?”

“Yes, certainly. I’ll let the nurses know. They’ll be able to let two people in at the top of the hour for only a few minutes, but, I’m sorry, the little girl can’t go in.”

“I understand. Thank you.” When the physician left the room, Shane turned to the group. “Y’all can head home. I’ll call if there’s any news.”

As the others began to collect their things, Nicole stepped forward, glancing between Tuck and Shane. “If you both want to stay, we can take Arianna home with us. The girls will probably sleep better together tonight.”

Tuck cleared his throat. “Um . . . thanks, but I’m going to take Ari home. I think she should sleep in her own bed tonight.”

Shane’s eyes narrowed. Those had been the most words Tuck had strung together in hours. He’d barely said a word to anyone since they’d gotten into the truck to drive into the city, and even then, it’d only been to answer a direct question with the shortest possible response.

“Then I can take her back to your place and stay with her,” Lila volunteered. “You stay here with Shane.”

“Thanks, sis, but I’ll take her home.”

Putting a hand on his husband’s arm to get his attention, Shane tilted his head toward the door. “Let’s talk outside for a minute.”

He could see it was the last thing his husband wanted to do, but fuck that. Shane strode out the door once Tuck nodded his acquiescence. But when they reached the hallway, there were a few people standing around. A quick check of the other doors revealed one was a linen room. Grabbing Tuck’s arm, Shane dragged him inside the small space and shut the door behind them.

“What, Shane?”

He shoved Tuck against a tall linen cart and got right up into his face. “Don’t do it. Don’t you dare fucking do it. You’re shutting down. I’ve seen it before, and, damn it, I’m not going to let you do it again.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Are you serious?” Shane asked incredulously. “You have to fucking ask? You shut down when Sarah died, Tuck. Hell, you started shutting down before she died. And it was okay. I could deal with it. We both dealt with her dying in different ways. I came to terms with it before you did, and that’s okay.” He grasped the back of Tuck’s neck and touched their foreheads together. “It’s okay. But now . . . I can’t do it alone this time, babe. I can’t be strong for everyone on my own. I need you out there. In private, you can break down, you can ask me to fuck you into oblivion, hell, you can even use me as a punching bag. But out there, with Paige, with everyone else, I need your help. I’m not strong enough this time. We could have lost both Paige and Ari today. I’m barely holding on by a thread here. I want to go ballistic and beat the hell out of those two dead punks and the one that’s sitting in jail. I don’t want to think about a world without Paige in it. I can’t. If we lose her . . .”

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he choked on the words he couldn’t say. Tuck cupped his jaw and kissed him hard. It was then Shane realized he wasn’t the only one crying. Tongues danced as each man tried to soothe and draw strength from the other. Their five o’clock shadows rasped together.

A noise in the hall had them pulling apart but not letting go. Tuck’s thumbs brushed away Shane’s tears. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize I was pulling away from you. You’re right, we can’t lose her.”

“We won’t. We’ll both be here when she wakes up—and she will wake up. Let Nicole take Ari home with her and stay with me. Please. Ari will be fine there, and if she needs to talk to us, Nicole can get us on the phone. Tomorrow, I think it’s important she goes to school to meet with the counselors and be with her friends. One of us will drive back and take her. You can do it if you want, then bring back a change of clothes for me. We’ll take turns going back and forth. You know Lila, Seth, and Nic will help any way they can. But we need to do this together.”

“We will.” He brushed his lips against Shane’s once more. “I promise we will. And when Paige wakes up, we’ll take her home and put a ring on her damn finger and spend the rest of our very long lives with her.”

Shane wanted that more than anything and was thrilled Tuck was back on the same page.