Since Ronan, Joel, and I wanted to see the car for ourselves, Ben, Griff, and Tristan came with us as we drove to the site where Simone had last been heard from. Griff was keeping it together, but not surprisingly, he was visibly upset. Ben was sitting with him in the third row of the SUV, quietly reassuring him that their sister would be okay. Tristan was nervously running his fingers through Piper’s and Merlin’s coats as the dogs whined in excitement. Both animals were feeding off the anxiety they sensed.

It didn’t take long to reach the little sedan. With his gun drawn, Dex was searching the foliage lining the road. He began speaking as soon as we were out of the SUV.

“No sign of the other vehicle, but Marek noticed two entry points into the woods. One here,” —he pointed at a spot just in front of the car— “and one here. Marek’s tracking them to see if they converge.” The second spot was behind the car. “There’s blood up here by her cell phone,” he added. We all followed Dex to the spot about ten feet ahead of the vehicle.

“Wait here,” I told Ben, Griff, and Tristan. When I saw a distressed Griff open his mouth to argue, I quickly added, “We just need to keep the number of people disturbing the scene to a minimum.”

Griff accepted my explanation. I hadn’t been one hundred percent forthright, though. The bottom line was that there was no reason for Griff or Ben to see Simone’s blood, if it was in fact hers.

“There’s proof of another car here,” Joel said. The man looked calm and collected, but I knew he wasn’t. His jaw was locked tight and I could see a little tremor go through his body every now and again. “Wide tires… truck or SUV probably.”

Ronan nodded, then went to look at the phone. The thing had been stepped on but whoever had tried to damage it had done a piss-poor job because all they’d managed to do was crack the screen. Of course, the phone didn’t do us much good, anyway, since Simone didn’t have it on her. Ronan carefully picked the phone up with a piece of material he took out of his pocket.

“Two entry points into the woods,” I said. “She got away.”

Ronan nodded. “And she’s got someone following her.”

“She’ll head back to the lodge,” Dex said.

“No, she won’t,” Joel cut in as we reached Tristan, Griff, and Ben.

“She’ll be looking for help,” Dex argued. “Any normal person would—”

“This is Simone Marian we’re talking about,” Joel growled. “Her entire family is up at that lodge. No way in hell she’d lead these guys back to her family.”

“Joel’s right,” Griff said. “The last thing she’d do is risk anyone getting to us.”

“She’ll be looking for help, but not at the lodge,” Joel said.

“We can’t be sure she got away from whoever was after her,” Ronan said softly. But before Griff and Joel could protest, Ronan added, “But we’re going to assume she did. Joel, you have any contacts at the local police department? We’ll need them to block all the roads leading out of the vineyard.” Joel nodded and was on his phone before Ronan even finished talking.

“There’s an access road about a quarter mile south of here. There are some old maintenance buildings we use for storage. They have phones in them. Simone knows this vineyard as well as anyone else. She’d probably head there,” Tristan said.

“That’s probably why the vehicle she stopped for is gone too, which means they’d know about the access road too. The guy or guys following her into the woods are likely trying to herd her toward that road and right to anyone else who was also in that vehicle.”

“Joel, you and Reese go with Ben and Griff and see what you can find on the access road. Tristan, Dex, and I will meet up with Marek and follow the trail from here,” Ronan said. “Dex, have everyone else hold their checkpoints in case someone is trying to use this as a diversion to get to the lodge. Update Everett’s Secret Service detail.”

Ronan lowered the phone to let both dogs sniff the thing. Piper immediately perked up and began yapping and circling excitedly. Merlin wasn’t as hyper, but when Tristan knelt down and said something to the dog, it licked his face. When Ronan gave Tristan a nod, he released the dogs and both animals took off like a shot.

I grabbed Ben’s hand and hurried us back to Joel’s SUV. I could feel how cold and sweaty Ben’s palm was, but when I looked at him he sent me a tremulous smile. “I’m okay,” he said. I quickly kissed the back of his hand, then got into the SUV. Griff and Ben got into the back and then we were flying down the road, Joel’s headlights the only light available.

“There!” Griff said. “There’s the access road.”

The SUV careened around the corner.

“The first building is about a mile up,” Griff said. His voice was heavy with fear and a quick glance over my shoulder showed that Griff and Ben were holding hands.

I mentally considered the distance and about three quarters of a mile from our destination, I said to Joel, “Turn off the lights.”

He killed the headlights and slowed down considerably.

“What are you doing?” Griff practically yelled. “We need to get there!”

“Griff, we need to use any element of surprise we have,” Joel explained. “If they see us coming and happen to have Simone, she becomes a completely different kind of pawn.”

“She’ll be okay, Griff,” Ben assured his brother. “Joel and Reese know what they’re doing.”

“Fuck,” Griff whispered as he ran his fingers through his hair.

As we got closer to the mile mark, Joel slowed down even more so that the sounds of the tires scratching over the gravel wouldn’t be as obvious.

“There,” I said when I saw a flash of light just ahead of us and to the right of the access road. Joel stopped the car.

“Is it her? Do they have her?” Griff asked.

“Too hard to tell,” I said. To Joel I said, “You have an extra gun?”

He nodded and pulled a small revolver from his ankle holster. He handed it to me and I, in turn, handed it to Griff. “You stay here—”

Griff opened his mouth to protest, but Ben squeezed his hand hard and cut him off. “Tell us what to do, Reese,” he encouraged.

I was so proud of his trust in that moment that I just wanted to kiss him silly.

“You two stay here and lock the doors. Griff, get into my seat when I’m out, and Ben, get behind the steering wheel. No matter what, you two stay in this car, do you hear me?”

Both men nodded.

I took out my phone and typed a text message into it, then showed it to both men. I’d typed the word, “Now” but hadn’t pressed send. The message was meant to go to Griff’s phone.

“If you get this message from me, Ben, you throw the headlights on, hit the gas hard and ram the back of their car with this one. It may be the only way of stopping them from making a getaway with Simone.”

“I, uh, am not a good driver,” Ben said.

I smiled. “Even better.” I leaned between the seats and gave him the kiss I’d wanted to. “Make sure to put your seatbelts on. And if anyone takes a shot at you, you guys get down, understand?”

Ben nodded. “Be careful,” he whispered as he released me.

“You too.”

With that, Joel and I got out of the car and quietly closed the doors. The SUV teetered a little as Ben and Griff got in the front seats, but I ignored everything except my surroundings. My eyes adjusted quickly, and I focused on the dim light a few hundred feet ahead of us. I could just make out the shape of a large vehicle sitting outside what was probably the line cabin. I also caught a scent of cigarette smoke on the wind.

I’d smelled that same scent on the Vitole fucker when he and I had been fighting in the warehouse after he’d hurt Ben.

Which meant the Iron Man guy was pursuing Simone.

I motioned to Joel, who nodded and moved to the opposite side of the access road so he’d be able to flank the guy from that side. It was a painstakingly slow process, but as we got closer, I could hear the asshole talking, presumably on his cellphone.

“Yeah, we’ll have her in a minute, boss. This family’s like the fucking Brady Bunch… all lovey dovey and shit. No way they’re going to choose the guy and his kid sister over their own daughter. We’ll have the memo inside of twenty-four hours. We’ll also know who the kid, the girl, and their father told about it.”

So the assholes were planning to use Simone to trade for Ben and Georgie, who they assumed had whatever memo Kirk had come across in that storage unit. My fingers itched with the urge to wrap them around the Italian’s thick neck.

The man said his goodbyes to whoever he was talking to, then hung up and took a drag on his cigarette. I was only about a hundred feet from him, but the asshole was leaning against a tree, so I couldn’t get a good view of him without giving away my own presence.

I suddenly heard dogs barking, which caused Vitole to straighten and lift his gun. There were several separate, distinctive sounds of underbrush moving in the distance. The dogs continued to yap excitedly, and I knew that meant they’d found Simone’s trail.

“Yasov?” Vitole yelled. “You have her?”

Vitole didn’t receive an answer. Several beats passed, then Simone came stumbling out of the underbrush about fifty feet from Vitole’s location. When he went to aim his gun at the breathless young woman, I made my move.

“Put your hands up, girl,” Vitole snarled.

Simone did as he said, just as the second guy cleared the brush. He lunged at Simone, who kicked out at him and caught him just to the right of his groin.

“Not again, you little bitch,” Yasov snarled. The distraction worked to my advantage because Vitole didn’t see me coming. He yelped when my body crashed into his. His gun sailed through the air as we hit the ground hard. I hit the guy with as much power as I could, then went for his kidneys with multiple jabs. He was a big fucker and knew how to fight. As we rolled around in the brush, I heard Simone screaming then the sound of tires spinning on gravel.

“Simone, down!” Joel yelled just as the barking sounds changed to deep snarls. Yasov yelped, presumably from Piper or Merlin or both dogs attacking him, then there were several gunshots. The sound of metal hitting metal had my heart in my throat, even as I battled it out with Vitole. I managed to head butt him, which gave me enough of an advantage to land a blow to his cheek, then his jaw. His head snapped back, and he went limp when his head struck the log from a fallen tree.

“Ben!” I called, because I knew, just knew, that the metal sound had been Joel’s SUV slamming into the bad guys’ car.

I tried to get to my feet, but Vitole had managed to land a blow to my temple that was causing my head to spin.

“Here!” Ben yelled. “We’re here, Reese.” I looked up in time to see him stumbling toward me. He dropped to his knees in front of me.

“Are you hurt?” I asked as I grabbed him.

He shook his head. “No, no, we’re okay. We weren’t going that fast when I hit the guy.”

“Guy?”

“Yeah, we, uh, saw another guy getting out of the car and he was pointing his gun so I just hit the gas. He, uh, kind of went flying. I, um, think I might have broken his leg.”

“Good,” I said. “Simone?”

“She’s okay. Dex is with her.”

“Yes, good, he needs to make sure she’s okay.”

“Uh, no, I think he’s making sure she doesn’t hurt the guy too badly,” Ben said with a small smile.

At that, I turned and saw that Griff and Marek were trying desperately to hold Joel back while Simone kicked and cursed up a storm at the Yasov character who was lying on the ground, one hand pressed to his opposite shoulder where Joel’s bullet had hit him. Dex was standing just behind Simone with a broad grin on his face as the petite woman laid into the huge man at her feet. Piper was happily circling Simone and Griff as Merlin went to Tristan, who was standing a dozen feet away. The dog dropped down and appeared to roll onto his back in search of a belly rub.

“How dare you fuck with my family!” Simone screeched at the man while her little canvas sneakers took aim wherever they could find purchase. “Do you have any idea what that man wants to do to you? Do you?” Her finger pointed toward Joel, but her anger stayed laser-focused on the perp.

“Simone!” Joel cried, finally pulling free of the guys holding him back. “Baby, please.”

“I’m okay,” she said before throwing herself into his arms. I wasn’t sure if the move was for comfort or to keep him from killing the guy. I kind of thought it was more likely the latter.

“We found blood!” Joel said, trying to pull far enough away from her to check her out for injuries.

“Yeah,” Simone said. “Because I bloodied his fucking nose with that hand jab thing you taught me. Asshole.”

After making sure she was okay, he set her back by Griff and went at the guy on the ground with a snarl.

“She’s pregnant, you piece of shit!” Before he could murder the man, Marek was able to get to him and pull him back. The rest of us stood there, stunned at the revelation.

After watching Griff pull his sister into an embrace, Ben turned to me. “Reese, are you okay?” he asked as he put his arm around my back to help me stand.

“I’m good,” I said as I climbed to my feet, then turned him so I could pull him into my arms. “Better than good, actually,” I added as the relief coursed through me.

Ben clung to me. My eyes fell on the damaged SUV. “Babe, can I ask you something?”

Ben nodded against my chest. His body was shaking as the adrenaline rush began to ease.

“Do you even know how to drive?”

“Does Grand Theft Auto count?”

“No,” I said with a laugh.

“Then no, not so much.”

“But you drove my rental car the night you went to the warehouse.”

Ben looked sheepish. “I guess you didn’t see the dings in the front bumper? Or along the trunk? Or by that one tire…”

I chuckled and leaned down to kiss him. “Okay, well, you did good then, all things considered. But when you’re ready to learn for real, maybe ask your brother for lessons.”

Ben began to laugh and hugged me hard. “That’s fine, but I only have one question… Which brother?”

I smiled at that.

Which brother indeed.