Callie pushed out against the bonds that held her hands together. Unfortunately, those suckers weren’t moving. The SUV she’d been shoved into drove through the night. Every second took her farther away from Nate and Zane. The metal from the handcuffs was cold against her skin as she tried to twist her wrists. That jerk Leander had put the cuffs on tightly around them. They bit into her skin. He hadn’t been willing to take any chances that she would be able to get away.

“You send the text?” Leander hands were tight on the steering wheel, his anger easy to see.

“Yeah.” As Worthington said the words, there was a ping from his phone that let him know he had a text. “Well, that was fast. Looks like old Nathan is anxious about the girl. He says he’ll meet us wherever we choose, and he’ll bring Hollister with him. Maybe it wasn’t all for nothing.”

A low grumble came from Leander’s throat. “I don’t like it. I still think we should have taken Hollister out from a distance.”

“We don’t have that option now. That nosy bitch back there ruined everything. We can’t be sure Wright won’t go ahead and call the director. I’m sure he wrote the numbers down. He normally wouldn’t give them to the boss over the phone, but he might if he thought someone would get there first. We have to have that money now because there’s no way Wright hasn’t told someone.”

“Damn it. How did this get so fucked up? I’m not ready to run.”

Worthington slapped his hand on the dashboard. “It’s fucked up because you talk too loud, asshole. And because Wright’s an idiot. I thought he would be easy to turn. He lost everything. He needs the fucking money.”

“He needs Zane more,” Callie said. They had thought they could turn Nathan Wright? They didn’t know him at all.

There was an irritated huff from the front seat. Even in the gloom of the car, she could see Leander’s hands tighten on the steering wheel. “Yeah, well, I never suspected those two were getting it on. I don’t like to think about that. It’s disgusting.”

“They certainly are not, though there would be absolutely nothing wrong with it.” The intolerance of some people constantly shocked her. “Both Zane and Nathan have a relationship with me. They are just very close friends.”

“I’ll say,” Worthington snickered. “Look, sweetheart, I don’t care about your perverted sex life.”

Callie heard an offended squeak come out of her mouth. She wasn’t sure why she was arguing the point with them. Maybe because it was easier than thinking about how they would kill her. There was no way they let her live. “It is not perverted. It is beautiful and loving. Maybe the reason you think everything is perverted is that you haven’t dealt with your own sexuality. A good therapist could help with that.”

Worthington leaned over. “Do you have anything we could use as a gag?”

She closed her mouth.

“Better,” Worthington muttered.

He pulled out a gun and checked the chamber. She wished she’d paid more attention when Rye, Max, and Stef had taken her shooting. She knew her way around a rifle but not a handgun. If she’d paid them half a mind, she’d know what kind of gun they were going to kill her with.

She was surprised at how much she genuinely hated the two men sitting in front of her. Hate wasn’t something she’d truly felt before, but it was a fire inside her now. They had ruined what could have been a perfect day. Nate loved her. Zane loved her. They were willing to give this crazy life a go. Her heart clenched. She could be pregnant even now. She could have the life she always wanted, but she’d been an idiot. She should never have been alone when she knew people were after her men. What had she been thinking? She’d thought the only danger came from the bikers, but now she could see that these men had been the real snakes all along.

Zane hadn’t screwed up. Zane had been betrayed.

“You outed Zane.” For some reason she needed to say the words out loud, needed them to know she understood how evil they were.

“And you’re Nancy Drew,” Leander replied. “Yeah, we gave up Zane. Nate was supposed to be gone that day. He’d told his handler he was working a deal out of Laredo, but he stayed in El Paso that day and fucked up everything. Ellis was going to pay us a million dollars for giving up the narc.”

Worthington’s laugh was like the cackle of a hyena. “Maybe we should thank Wright for screwing up that deal. Now we’re getting twenty million instead of a measly one, and we don’t have to worry about Ellis double-crossing us. What’s he going to do from his prison cell?”

The car swerved suddenly, and she was tossed to the side. She narrowly avoided hitting her head on the side of the door. Twisting her body up, she tried to look out the window. Where were they? Her eyes adjusted to the low light, and she could see aspens and evergreens. The car was moving at an angle. They were going up the mountain. Given the amount of time they had been traveling, there was exactly one mountain they could be scaling. She knew it well. Max and Rye lived here. Mel lived on this mountain. She knew this place like the back of her hand. Was she going to die here?

Her chest hurt. She’d been so close to what she wanted. She’d almost had a life with both of them. When Nate had stood up in the middle of town hall tonight and declared himself, she thought her heart would burst. He’d stood up for her in front of everyone who mattered to her. Everyone in town knew that Callie Sheppard was loved and loved well. She’d sat by Zane in that meeting and watched Nate on the stage, and for the first time in her adult life, she hadn’t felt alone. She’d been a part of something. She had a family of her own.

God, she couldn’t die now.

“This better work.” Leander’s voice was slightly shaky. He twisted the steering wheel, trying to adjust to the winding road. “If he calls it in and we don’t get that fucking cash, we’re screwed. They’ll be looking for us.”

“Will you stop whining? I have the password.” Worthington bit the words out of his mouth. The two were starting to snap at each other like irritated alligators. “All we need is the actual account number and we’re golden. You might not be ready for this, but I am. It’s going to be fine.”

“If the Barbarians don’t catch us. If the director doesn’t set the dogs on us. I wish we’d done this before Ellis ordered the hit on Hollister.” Leander’s voice was tense and tight. He seemed more on the edge than his partner in crime.

“Yeah, well if he hadn’t, we still wouldn’t know where the damn account number was. We would still be working like idiots. I’m glad the bastard got anxious.”

“Yeah, it’s great that every asshole with a twelve gauge will be on the lookout for us. Once they find out Hollister is dead and the money is gone, they’ll be gunning for us.”

She’d known that these men intended to kill Zane if they got their hands on him, but her heart skipped a couple of beats at the verbal acknowledgment of their plan. She couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that Zane might die. A vision of his big, beautiful body lying still on the ground swamped her senses, and she couldn’t stop the small sob that choked out of her throat. The men in the front seat didn’t seem to notice her distress.

“We’ll be on a plane to Shanghai before anyone knows what happened. No one even knows Sonny is dead yet. The last I heard, Ellis thinks he’s the turncoat. He put out a hit on him. Ellis thinks his own right-hand man turned on him and is planning this heist.”

Leander’s hand came out, and they shared an obnoxious high-five. “Damn straight he thinks that. It’s what we told him. We didn’t mention that we killed the asshole ourselves, but only after he gave up the password. It’s too bad Ellis is such a paranoid bastard. If he’d given Sonny the account number, we’d be free and clear by now, but no, he has to hide the account number in a tat. Who thinks to do that?”

Worthington shrugged. “Hey, it worked for the dude. He hid twenty million dollars right under the nose of the DEA. Our own agent walked around with the evidence on his chest for years. I kind of admire the guy.”

There was a long sigh. Leander’s head shook. “Why fucking China? Couldn’t we go to a country where they speak English?”

She knew the answer to that one. “China doesn’t extradite jerks like you back to the U.S.”

Worthington turned and winked at her. “The bitch is right. Even if Wright has already told the director what we’ve done, it won’t matter. We’ll get to China, buy a couple of new identities, and in a few years, no one will recognize us and we can enjoy our cash. Follow my lead, and we’ll be fine.” His hand moved down below the seat. He shifted as though he was shoving something into his pants. The gun. He nodded. “Turn here. The place Wright talked about in his report is right up the road.”

The report? There was only one report he would have sent to these men. He would have documented everything that had happened in the last few days. There were only three places Nate might have mentioned in a report about the attempts on Zane’s life. There was the biker bar, their cabin, and the campsite Mel had discovered. She’d typed up the report for him. He’d taken careful note of the longitude and latitude of the campsite. It had to be where they were going.

She closed her eyes as the car turned, visualizing the land around Mel’s cabin. It was thick with aspens and firs, but there were several places that were clear. The campsite was one of the places with a bit of clear land. It was why Mel had designated it a potential landing zone. If it was a normal night, Mel would be on patrol. All she would have to do was find a way to let him know where she was, and Mel would take care of things. Despite his status as the town kook, Mel had spent time in the military, and he was beyond competent with a gun in his hands. She would pit Mel against these two any day of the week.

Unfortunately, Mel had been at the town hall. That plan was a no-go. He was likely still there, talking to Stella or discussing the coming invasion with Nell. She was on her own until Nate and Zane showed up and walked straight into an ambush. She was sure the treasonous agents had promised to exchange her for Zane, but she was also sure they didn’t intend to leave any witnesses. Worthington and Leander would kill them all. It was up to her to keep that from happening.

She had to find a way to save her men.

The car stopped. The full moon lit the night. In the distance, she could see a set of caves Mel used to store some stuff she hoped Nate never found out about. Mel liked to be prepared, and some of those preparations involved a lot of firearms. He’d prepped for the aliens, but she would use those weapons against her captors. She had to find a way to get to those caves.

She breathed deeply, willing herself to be calm. Her hands shook behind her back as the agents got out of the car and slammed the front doors shut. She turned quickly when she realized the door to her left was opening.

“All right, sweetheart. Let’s get this over with,” Worthington said.

As hard as she could, she kicked the door open. It hit Worthington squarely in the gut, and he went down with a shout. She only had seconds before they would be on her. Callie scrambled out of the car and ran for the tree line. There was a shout behind her and a loud pop. She stumbled as something hit her shoulder. It felt like her skin was on fire. Through her tears, she got to her feet, unwilling to stay down. No matter what pain she felt, she had to keep moving. She had to survive or her men wouldn’t either.

“Damn it, we need her alive for now.”

Callie made it to the trees and was enveloped by the forest.

 

* * * *

 

Zane watched as Nate opened the locker containing the Bliss County Sheriff’s Department’s armory. He already had a Sig Sauer in a holster at the small of his back. Nate handed him a rifle and another handgun, this one a Glock. Zane checked each weapon carefully and forced himself to go slow, to be precise. What he wanted to do was grab whatever was handy and run as fast as he could to bash in two fuckers’ brains and save his wife.

God, those assholes had Callie. What had they already done to her? Was she scared? Of course, she was scared. She was probably terrified. Did she understand they would do anything to save her? Panic threatened to swamp him, threatening to overcome every possible good decision he could make.

“Calm down, Zane. It’s going to be all right.” Nate’s voice was even and sure as he passed Stefan Talbot a rifle.

Nate’s eyes were as steady as his hands. His presence calmed Zane considerably. He’d never known anyone as calm under pressure as Nathan Wright. Despite Nate’s former ambitions to move up at the DEA, Zane had always known Nate’s true calling. He had been born to protect, to stand as a bulwark against violence. It was in Nate’s blood, and nothing could change that.

The small sheriff’s department was full of concerned townsfolk. The gleeful chaos that seemed to follow the citizens of Bliss had been replaced with a somber force of will. Zane looked around the room. The Harper twins were busy checking the rifles they had selected. Teeny was dividing her attention between Marie and Logan, both of whom seemed to be preparing for some form of all-out warfare.

Rachel Harper walked up to Nate with Jen Waters in tow.

“I can use a shotgun or a rifle.” Rachel had pulled her strawberry-blonde hair into a tight ponytail.

“I’ve never actually shot anything, but I can learn really fast.” Mascara tracked down Jen’s face. She’d been crying from the moment she realized her friend was missing.

He saw Stef’s eyes widen at the statement. Zane quickly stepped between them. The last thing he needed was Stef to start yelling at Callie’s friend. Zane wasn’t sure what was going on between those two, but it was intense. It also had no place here. “Jen, why don’t you stay here and monitor the phone? We need someone to coordinate from here.”

She shook her head. “No, she’s my closest friend. Stella can answer the phone.”

“Not a chance, pet.” Stefan’s voice was a silky threat. “If you think for one minute that I will allow you to walk into an ambush, you don’t know me at all.”

She turned to face him, her hands on her hips and stubborn will stamped on her face. “You don’t own me, Stef. Hell, you don’t even like me. I don’t have to listen to a word you say. You want me to leave you alone? Well, I promise I won’t make a fool of myself over Stefan Talbot ever again. And you can’t tell me what to do.”

“No, but I can.” Nate stepped up. He nodded at the Harper twins. Max moved behind his wife while Rye strode to the single holding cell. He opened it and held the door wide. “Stef, if you would like to join Max and Rye, I believe there is plenty of room.”

Rachel Harper gasped as her husband picked her up and started carrying her across the room toward the cell. She also proved she knew a whole lot of curse words.

“No way you’re going with us, baby. You can yell all you like and call me every kind of name, but I’m keeping you safe. And I won’t even try to blame the baby. I wouldn’t let you do this whether or not you were pregnant,” Max said as Rachel squirmed in his arms.

“Damn you, Max.” She turned her head to take in Rye. “And you, too. Fine. I’ll stay here. You don’t have to lock me up.”

“Yeah, I believe that one, Rach.” Rye’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. “You would form your own group and cause all kinds of trouble. In you go.”

Stef moved quickly. Jen was in a fireman’s hold over his shoulder before she could protest. She kicked and tried to scratch at his back, but she was in the cell when Rye Harper closed the door.

“I won’t ever forgive you, Stef. You have no right to make this choice for me,” she said through her tears. Rachel had her hands on the younger woman’s shoulders.

“Yes, well, at least you’ll be alive to hate me.” Stef’s eyes were hollow as he turned on Zane. “Is it you they want?”

Why hadn’t they just taken him? Why had they taken Callie? God, if he’d known that was the choice, he would have turned himself over. “Yes.”

Stef’s mouth tightened, and he nodded sharply. “You’re the bait then.”

“I’m not the fucking bait,” Zane said with savage intent. They needed to understand that he wasn’t playing games. He wasn’t taking the chance that something could go wrong. There was only one way to play this. “Once we find these assholes, I’m giving myself up, and you guys are getting Callie the hell out of there.”

“I thought we knew where they were.” Rye Harper was pointedly ignoring his wife’s killer stare. “Didn’t Nate get a text or something?”

Zane’s attention swiftly focused on Nate. “He didn’t get anything or he would have told me.”

The words came out as a threat, and Zane meant them that way.

He knew in an instant that Nate was hiding something. His face had gone flat. Nate was an excellent poker player, but Zane had known him long enough to call his bluff. “You better spit it out now, man. If you know something and you’re holding out on me, we’re going to have trouble.”

Nate’s eyes narrowed. “I’d watch my tone, Zane, or you might find yourself in the cell with the women.”

That was not happening. “I’d like to see you try. You want to explain why you’re holding out on me?”

“What would you have done if I had given you the coordinates of the place where we’re supposed to meet with Worthington and Leander?” Nate asked.

Frustration made his fists clench. “I sure as fuck wouldn’t be sitting here. I would have gone there, and Callie would be out and safe by now.”

“No, you would have gone charging in, and both you and Callie would be dead.” Nate took the hat off his head and pulled out a Kevlar vest. He tossed it to Zane. “Put it on.”

Zane let the damn thing hit the floor with a thud. “Tell me where she is.”

Nate picked up the vest, his eyes steely as he held it out. “Put the fucking thing on or I’ll Taser you and handle this myself. If you want to have anything to do with this mission, you will put the vest on and you will follow my every order. I’m in charge here. If you deviate from the plan, Logan is going to take you out.”

“Umm, boss?” Logan’s voice sounded reedy and thin. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Don’t worry, Nate. If he steps out of line, Max, Rye, and I will take care of it.” Stefan held the rifle like a man who knew what he was doing. “I’ll make sure I don’t actually kill him.”

Zane’s chest felt heavy. He stared at the man who had been his partner for most of his life. How could he not understand what was at stake here? “You can’t do this, Nate. You have to give me up.”

Nate reached out, putting a hand on his shoulder. “So they can kill you and Callie? Not going to happen. Leave this to me. I know I let you down before, but I won’t this time. I promise. I won’t lose you, and I certainly won’t lose our wife.”

The words made his heart seize. Their wife. They didn’t need a piece of paper to make her theirs. He didn’t need some marriage certificate to know that Callie was his. She’d given herself to him when she said “I love you.” She couldn’t take herself back, and there was no way in hell he was going to allow some assholes to take her away from them.

His eyes held Nate’s, and Zane suddenly realized the real intimacy of this threesome he found himself in. It wasn’t about the sex. It wasn’t about getting her in between them. It was so much more. It was about sharing this life with Callie and Nate. It was about having another person who knew what it was like to love Callie. He could rely on Nate. Nate loved Callie, and in a completely nonsexual tough-guy way, Nate loved him, too.

Damn, Nathan Wright was his hero. Why hadn’t he seen that before?

He picked up the vest and fitted it over his head. He tried to close the straps around the waist. They locked together, but just barely.

“Damn big bastard. Who thought we should get such a fucking small vest?” Nate asked no one in particular. He walked around Zane, shaking his head at the fit.

“It’s a large.” Rye Harper shrugged as though apologizing. “And I had to fight for that one. This is Bliss, not the DEA. We don’t have a ton of money set aside for law enforcement. I managed to get exactly one Kevlar vest out of the chamber of commerce, and I had to win at dominoes to get it. I was surprised because I think Hiram cheats. We’ve always known that if the shit hit the fan, Logan was going down.”

Logan snorted. “I ain’t going down. The shit hits the fan, and I’m hiding behind Momma number two.” He shrugged. “I might be a man, but I’m not stupid.”

Marie smacked her child upside the head and told him to watch his language. Nate shook his head and started giving orders. Stella would man the phones and wait for the backup Nate had already called for. Marie and Laura Niles would guard the station house in case some of the jerks Ellis had set on him showed up again. Logan, the Harper twins, and Stef would head out with him and Nate.

They took their small armory and split into two vehicles—Nate, Zane, and Stef in the Bronco and the rest in Max Harper’s truck. They were splitting up in order to try to come at Leander and Worthington from two different sides. They would attempt to give the men nowhere to run. Of course it also meant Callie would be stuck in the middle if the bullets started flying.

Zane’s stomach roiled. He’d never gotten used to the adrenaline rush of a dangerous situation. Though he’d been good at his job, he’d never enjoyed it. He’d never liked the danger, the anticipation of a fight. He knew he looked like a bruiser to the outside world, but deep down he wanted some fucking peace.

Nate, on the hand, was born for this. His hands were steady on the wheel as he turned out of town and toward the mountain that dominated the landscape.

“You want to tell me where we’re going now?”

“Are you going to behave?” Only the tightness of the words gave away the fact that Nate was tense.

“Yeah. I’ll follow orders. I promise.” This was Nate’s op. He was going to trust his partner and not make trouble for him. Nate loved Callie. He wouldn’t put her in more danger than he needed to.

Nate turned his head slightly, as though studying him for deception. “You better. Worthington sent me a text with coordinates about a half an hour ago. It’s a place up the mountain on Mel’s land. I tried to find him, but he’d disappeared. It would be nice if the man would carry a damn cell phone.”

“He’s never going to do that. Mel isn’t a great believer in technology. I’m sure he’s off somewhere patrolling. It’s what he does at night. Be careful about who you shoot at. I wouldn’t want Mel to get caught in this. There’s a clearing about a quarter of a mile from Mel’s cabin. It’s isolated, but those city boys didn’t think about the fact that there are several great sniper perches. Laura was right about those two. They are dumbasses.” Stefan Talbot wasn’t hiding his tension. He was like a well-dressed, highly coiled rattlesnake waiting to pounce. “We need time though. Max, Rye, and Logan are going to have to ditch the truck at the base of the mountain, or Leander and Worthington will know they’re coming. It’s not an easy climb.”

“Do they need gear?” Nate asked.

“Max and Rye? Hell, no,” Stef replied. “They were born in these mountains. They’ll be there. They just need a couple of minutes.”

“I don’t know if we’ll have that,” Zane muttered under his breath. His knee bounced nervously, an unconscious show of anxiety.

Stef leaned forward. “She’s alive, Zane. She’ll be alive at the end of this. She’s no delicate flower. She was born in these mountains, too. If she had any chance to run, I promise she’s hiding right now. She knows the woods. She’s tough.”

“God, I hope she’s not running around in the woods.” Nate said.

They were thinking the same thing. They wanted her waiting patiently to be rescued. They wanted her to play it safe and let them take the chances.

There was absolutely no way in hell she would do that. She would take the first chance she got, and he had to hope she was lucky enough not to get hurt.

His hand tightened on the gun in his lap. The weight and feel was comforting. There was a real chance one of them wouldn’t come out of it. If it had to be that way, then Zane hoped to hell it was him. Nate thought he was being self-sacrificing. Hell, he was being selfish. He didn’t want to live without them. He couldn’t even stand the thought of a world that didn’t include Nate and Callie. He would rather die than live with the hole in his soul. But before anything happened, he needed to do something.

“Nate, I want us to be okay about what happened to me. It wasn’t your fault. I know that. I’ve always known that.”

Nate’s jaw clenched. He swallowed before he replied. “I should have known something was wrong. I should have done something then and there.”

“You did. You went for help. You saved me. I’m alive because you got the team and came back for me. If you’d tried to save me on your own, we would both be dead.”

Nate didn’t look at him. His eyes were focused on the road. “You were only there because you followed me.”

“Yeah, I followed you,” he replied. “You didn’t make me sign up. I wanted to go. I was there because I believed in you, and you didn’t let me down. You did your job and got Ellis off the street. Now it’s time to finish it, and then we can move on to the good part of our lives.”

Nate nodded shortly and turned the car up the long dirt road. “We finish this tonight.”

The car got quiet. Zane firmly intended to finish it. Nate might be honor bound to try to take Worthington and Leander in, but Zane was under no such oaths.

He was going to kill them.