“Will the after-party still happen?” Haven asked after Dare and the three Ravens who’d come with him left the room. She looked from Bunny to Doc, concern plain as day on their faces. She wasn’t sure how their staying longer might change things.
“I’ll guess we’ll have to wait and see,” Doc said, his voice gruff but not unkind. He gave her a small smile as he stroked at his gray beard. “All this security might yet turn out to be unnecessary. Don’t get me wrong,” he said, gripping a coffee cup in his hand. “Taking the precautions was the right way to go—Dare’s judgment was spot-on as far as that was concerned. But if nothing happens, then the rest of the night can be business as usual.”
Bunny nodded and got up from the table. “Well, since you girls are staying for a while yet, what’s say we get you some dinner?”
Haven looked at Cora and said, “I’m not very hungry, but I guess it’s a good idea.”
“Sustenance is always a good idea,” Bunny said, her eyebrow arched in a gentle, motherly reprimand. “Gotta take care of yourself, Haven.”
Haven and Cora followed Bunny into the kitchen, where there was a veritable smorgasbord of choices. They made plates of meatballs and lasagna and sat together at the table.
They made small talk for a while, but all Haven could think about was how large and unknown the future loomed before her. When she’d no longer be Haven Randall but Kylie Jameson. Thinking of her name made her think of her namesake—Dare’s brother. “Were Dare and his brother much alike?” she asked quietly.
Bunny’s eyes went wide. “He told you about Kyle?”
The awe in her voice made goose bumps break out on Haven’s arms. Was it so unusual that Dare had talked about him? “Yeah, he did.”
The older lady’s expression went soft and affectionate. “I only got to see them together a few times when they were young because they lived so far away. But Kyle was the rabble-rouser. If there was trouble to find, he knew how to find it every time,” she said with a smile in her voice. “And Dare and Maverick would follow. Now Dare, he was always the old soul, the one who weighed the consequences, the one who listened when others talked. All of which made Kyle and Dare a good team. And I guess they probably needed that with the way their father was.”
That sounded very much like the Dare she knew today, too. Bunny’s words made Haven wish she’d been able to meet Kyle, been able to see them together.
“Wait,” Cora said, looking from Bunny to Haven. “Dare has a brother named Kyle?”
“He did,” Bunny said. “Kyle died when Dare was fifteen.”
Understanding dawned on Cora’s face, and Haven felt a little bad for not revealing sooner where she’d gotten her new name. “Oh, my God. That’s where you got it from?”
“Sshh,” Haven said, giving her friend a look. Caine had told them not to reveal their names to anyone they knew now.
“Do I want to know?” Bunny asked, giving them both a suspicious look.
Haven shook her head. “No. Well, it’s just, we can’t tell you. It’s about when we move.”
“Oh, I see,” Bunny said. “Yeah, I know how it works.” She looked down at her coffee mug for a long moment. “Haven?”
“Yeah?”
“You love him?” Bunny asked, compassion and kindness in her tone and the way she looked at Haven.
“Yeah,” Haven said, not at all ashamed to admit it. Not even to Dare’s aunt. “I do.” A knot lodged in her throat. She set her fork down on her plate. Her gaze flickered to Cora, who was looking at her with so much sympathy in her expression that it made the knot even bigger.
“Oh, hon,” Bunny said. “Maybe something can work out yet. You’d be so good for him, and he’s been alone too long.”
The words built Haven up and tore her apart at the same time. Knowing Bunny would’ve approved of them meant the world because Haven respected her so much. But Dare had been very clear the night before. He didn’t consider things safe for her here, which meant he didn’t want her to stay. Despite what they’d come so close to admitting they felt for one another last night—with both their words and their bodies.
After they finished eating, there was nothing else to do but wait. As the sun got lower in the early summer sky and the shadows stretched out over the ground, Haven wished she could be down at the track. Watching the race. Knowing what was going on.
A little after seven, the roar of the race cars’ engines made it more than clear that the races had started. It was amazing how loud it was across the almost mile distance separating the track from the clubhouse. The sound was a thrilling growl she could almost feel in her bones, and it spoke of speed and danger and maybe even a little recklessness. As it got darker, the glow of the stadium lights filled the evening sky out the front windows of the clubhouse, a beacon that let her know where Dare was. God, she hoped he was okay. She hoped everyone would be okay, because she wouldn’t be able to take it if anyone got hurt on her behalf.
Suddenly Gunny rushed into the kitchen through the back door. “Get ready to move. Now,” he said in a voice that was all business.
Haven looked to Cora as she rose from the table. “What’s happened?”
“I don’t have the details,” he said, gesturing to her and Cora to get moving. “But Dare will be here in five to get you.”
Maybe Caine was back with the documentation they needed? Haven took a step toward the mess hall door, but then turned and threw her arms around Bunny. “In case I don’t see you, I just wanted to say that I’ll never forget you, Bunny. Thank you so much for everything.”
“The feeling is entirely mutual, honey,” Bunny said as she wrapped her thin arms around Haven’s back. “You take care of yourself and each other.” Bunny hugged Cora next.
And then Gunny hustled them through the mess hall and into the front lounge, where Jeb and Bandit were waiting.
“What’s happening?” Haven asked again. “Is Caine back?” But the guys just shook their heads and kept their gazes trained out the windows. Not knowing made Haven about ten times more anxious than if they’d just tell her.
Headlights swung into the parking lot and zoomed in on the front windows, the sound of tires crunching on gravel reaching her ears despite the roar of the races. The minute the truck came to a hard stop, the men were shepherding them outside and toward it, even as Dare hopped out of the driver’s seat. He left his door hanging open as he rushed up the porch steps, where a small crowd had formed. Haven waited near the passenger door, wanting—no, needing—to hear what was going on.
“Randall and his men are here somewhere,” Dare told Doc. “I can’t spare enough people to secure this location, so I’m taking the women down to the control room and bringing the men back down to the track. We need all the bodies we can get down there.”
He’s here?
She grasped the edge of the door for support as the world spun around her. The reality of that statement was like a punch to the gut. He was here. So close. And maybe closing in.
Cora slid off the passenger seat and put her arm around Haven’s shoulders. “I hope they kill him,” she said. “I hope they kill them all.” Never in their whole friendship had Haven heard such anger and hatred in her best friend’s voice. Not that she disagreed with the sentiment. Not even a little.
“Count me in,” Doc said, jogging down the steps toward the other Ravens who were climbing into the bed of Dare’s truck. Bear followed suit.
“I’ll lock up and head home,” Bunny said. “Go. Do what you have to do.” She placed a quick peck on Dare’s cheek.
“Okay,” Dare said, squeezing his aunt’s shoulder. He returned to the truck and called out, “Jeb, stay here until Bunny’s gone and then come down.”
“You got it,” Jeb said, hopping back down from the truck’s bed.
Cora and Haven got in and shut the door as Dare climbed in through the other door, his expression filled with so much cold anger that it sharpened the angles on his already harsh face. He jerked the truck into reverse.
“How do you know he’s here?” Haven asked, bracing her feet against the floorboard to keep herself steady on the large bench seat as the truck lurched.
Dare met her gaze for a brief moment, and there was so much emotion in the flash of his dark eyes that it made her heart race. “The sheriff found your father’s and two of his crew’s cars parked in a commuter lot off I-70. Traffic camera near that exit reveals they came into town late last night. Which has given them an entire day to get into place, and they’ve done it using vehicles we didn’t know to fucking look for.” His words absolutely seethed.
“Oh, God,” Haven said. Her gaze darted from the trees along the side of the road to the lights radiating from farther down the mountain. With all that lead time, her father could be lurking anywhere, everywhere.
Dare’s hand landed on her thigh. “We’ll get through this,” he said.
She grasped his hand tight in hers. “I know.” She believed him. She had to, because the alternatives were totally unacceptable, which led her brain to unhelpfully conjure up all the possible worst-case scenarios—and made her consider what she’d be willing to do if any of them actually happened.
THE CONTROL ROOM was a long, narrow space with white-painted cinder-block walls, a big safe built into one of them, and two desks that had been pushed together to create a makeshift security station. Joker and Blake sat before a series of monitors that had her father’s guys’ photographs and cars taped in front of them, but the Ravens were only paying one of the screens much attention—the feed from the camera trained on the two open box office windows.
“Have a seat,” Dare said to Haven and Cora, nodding to some chairs lined against the wall opposite the screens. At least she’d know more of what was going on from here.
“Marz is working on setting up a fourth camera,” Joker said, turning in his seat. “On the main concourse hallway.”
“Good,” Dare said. “Because what we need right now is an eye on faces, not cars.”
Joker nodded. “Can’t believe these fuckers might’ve been here all along.”
“Tell me about it,” Dare bit out. He headed for the door, and just when Haven was sure he was going to leave without saying anything to her—after all, he had much bigger things to worry about—he looked back over his shoulder. And then he reversed directions, crossed the room to her, and leaned down until he was planting a long, deep kiss on her mouth. “Stay here. I’ll be back. And don’t worry.” He kissed her on the forehead and rose, the movement revealing the holstered gun under his arm. It was one of two holsters she’d watched him put on this morning in her room, and it helped a little to know he was well armed as she watched him leave.
Cora took her hand but stayed uncharacteristically quiet.
Which was how Haven knew it was time to really worry. “It’s gonna be okay,” she found herself saying, as much for Cora as for herself.
A little while later, a new set of images flickered through one of the monitors, replacing the view of the mostly quiet driveway entrance.
“Now we’re talking,” Joker said.
“Maybe we can help,” Haven said, moving to stand behind the men. Blake gave her a nod and a small smile over his shoulder.
Cora followed. “We’ll probably recognize them even quicker than you.”
“Help yourself,” Joker said, keeping his gaze fixed on the screens. “The more eyes, the better.”
Since the ticket windows in the room next door were quieter now that the races had started, Haven mostly trained her vision on the busier concourse feed, where people were coming and going to get food or go to the bathroom or buy souvenirs. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to see her father’s face among the crowd or not, but God, how she wanted this to be over.
So many people. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. And it made her heart absolutely thunder in her chest, because God only knew what her father was willing to do to get her back.
The screen providing the view of the ticket windows revealed that it had finally gotten dark outside. The races went on and on, the sounds of the roaring engines so much louder down here, drowning out even much of the cheering of the crowd and calls of the announcers. Combined with the way she’d been focusing on the video feed for more than an hour now, Haven was starting to get a throbbing headache behind her eyes. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered until they found her father—or he found her. At least she was safe here, in this windowless room that could’ve doubled as a bunker.
She’d no more had that thought than Blake froze, and then his right hand smacked Joker in the chest while his other pointed at the ticket window screen.
Haven gasped. Her father walked into the camera’s view, gun drawn, and began a muted conversation with the Raven at the window. Two of his men stood behind him, guns also pointed inside. At the Ravens.
Cora clutched Haven’s arm as the two men in front of them bolted from their seats, drew their weapons, and gathered on either side of the door that led out to the other room. Suddenly, her father’s voice came through the walkie-talkies sitting on the desks, drawing the men’s gazes as they debated the best way to approach the situation.
“I know you have her,” her father drawled, eyes and gun fixed on a Raven she didn’t know. “Want to know how I know?” It was a rhetorical question, of course. Her father liked nothing more than grandstanding and putting on a good show like the asshole that he was. He tossed something on the counter. What the heck? Haven walked toward the screen. Was that . . . a cookie?
All of a sudden the room sucked in on her. It is. Does that mean . . . please say that doesn’t mean—
“You see, I paid a little visit up the mountain and found these. And since my daughter has cooked her whole life for me, I know her fucking food. So now that we’ve established that you assholes have what belongs to me, let’s talk about how I’m going to incentivize you to give it back.” His Southern accent was thick and strong, much thicker than hers had ever been.
It. He hadn’t said her, but it. God, she hated him. She hated him so much that she could’ve strangled him with her bare hands and not felt an ounce of guilt.
He pulled out his phone and angled it toward the men, who visibly braced in the video feed.
“Why isn’t someone taking him out?” Blake whispered.
And then her father angled the phone at the camera above him, allowing Haven to see something that nearly made her wretch.
Bunny. Duct tape over her mouth. Her cheekbone split and bleeding. Oh, God!
“I figure y’all probably like this little old lady, since one of you died defending her, but if I don’t have my daughter back within one hour, she dies, too.”
“Aw, fuck,” Joker bit out. “That’s why right there. She’s his lifeline as long as he’s on the property. Dare’s not going to let them take Randall out until we know where they’ve got her.”
Head spinning, floor falling out from underneath her feet, Haven walked toward the door. Oh, God, someone had died. And her father had Bunny. This was all her fault. “I have to go.”
Joker caught her from behind and tugged her back, his voice harsh in her ear. “Not a fucking chance.”
“He has Bunny,” she said.
Joker slapped a meaty palm over her mouth. “Sshh. And he’s not getting you. Now, can I let you go?”
Defeated, Haven nodded, and she stumbled toward Cora, whose face had gone pale white.
“And in case that’s not enough incentive,” her father’s voice came through the radio, “you should know that my men are set up throughout the building, ready to take people out on my command. Let’s say every ten minutes that pass without my having her back, I give the order and someone random dies. A mom, a dad, a kid, another old lady. Hell, even a driver. That could get real fucking interesting.”
“Oh, God,” Cora whispered shakily. Haven was too stunned by the magnitude of what her father was willing to do to speak.
“That’s fucking bullshit,” the Raven said.
“Think so?” A flash of light on the screen coincided with a loud bang in the room next door.
“Fuck,” Blake said, dropping to his knees so he could peer around the lowest part of the door frame. “Fuck, Meat’s down. He fucking shot him,” he whispered loudly over his shoulder.
Now all three guns were trained on the remaining Raven at the ticket window. “Now that we’ve established that I mean what I say, you have ten minutes to either leave my daughter somewhere out in the open, where I can claim her and leave without any trouble. Your old lady will be left unharmed on the property before we go. Or I pick my next victim.” He looked over his shoulder at Stuart Harring, one of her father’s right-hand men. “Which car you like?”
The guy looked to the side, as if considering. “Eh, the number five car,” Stuart said.
Her father spoke into his cell. “If you don’t hear from me, take the driver of the number five car out in ten minutes. Set your timer.” He pressed a button and started backing away. “We clear? Deliver the message to whoever you have to.”
And then they disappeared from the screen and the walkie-talkies went momentarily silent before all hell broke loose.
Blake and Joker did a quick check around the door and then dashed to where a big guy was laid out on the floor, blood pooling around him.
“Meat, you with me, man? Hold on,” Joker said as he started pulling at the guy’s clothes, baring his bloody chest. From where she and Cora hovered in the doorway to the control room, Haven couldn’t see exactly where the entry wound was.
“Calling nine-one-one,” the man still sitting in his chair at the window said in a shaking, thin voice.
“Good,” Joker said. “Blake, get on the horn and make sure Dare heard all that.”
“He should’ve,” the guy dialing an ambulance said. “I had the Send button pressed almost the whole time.”
“It was good thinking,” Joker said, pressing his hands over the wound. Meat’s back arched, which Haven was going to take as a positive sign.
“I’ve got a gunshot victim at the Green Valley Race Track,” the Raven said into his cell. “We need an ambulance . . .” He continued relating what happened and answering questions.
“Shit,” Blake said, kneeling beside Meat. “Who do you think was killed defending Bunny?”
Haven’s mind raced. “Oh, God. Jeb. Jeb stayed with her when we left.”
“What?” Blake said, blanching. Haven had gotten to know the pair of them well enough to know they were good friends. “Jeb? Are you sure?”
A sob caught in her throat. “Dare asked him to stay until Bunny left.”
“Oh, no,” Cora said, silent tears spilling from her eyes. “Jeb. I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Why isn’t anyone coming to see what the fuck happened here?” Blake asked.
Joker shook his head. “We don’t know what they’re dealing with out there. How many men Randall has. Where they even are. It’s not like our guys can just stroll through the halls now. Now take your shirt off for me so I can use it here.”
As if from a distance, Haven watched the men work to save Meat’s life, Joker’s words echoing in her ears. What was Dare dealing with out there? Was he safe?
Suddenly, those worst-case scenarios Haven had thought about on the ride down there didn’t seem like she’d imagined quite bad enough. Which meant she needed to decide how many people she was going to allow to be sacrificed so that she might stay free.