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. “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.”
Nate’s eyes narrowed. “I’d watch my tone, Zane, or you might find yourself in the cell with the women.”
“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?”
Frustration made Zane’s 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. “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. If you deviate from the plan, Logan is going to take you out.”
“Umm, boss?” Logan’s voice sounded reedy and thin.
“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. “You can’t do this, Nate. You have to give me up.”
“So they can kill you and Callie? Not going to happen. Zane, 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 Nate, 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. I managed to get exactly one Kevlar vest out of the Chamber of Commerce. 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, Logan, 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.
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 liked 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 just 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.”
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.”
“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. 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.
Stef leaned forward. “She’s alive, Zane. She’ll be alive at the end of this. She’s no fainting flower. She was born in these mountains, too. If she had any chance to run, I promise she’s hiding right now. She’s tough.”
“God, I hope not.” He and Nate said the same words at the same time. And Zane knew they were thinking the very 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 Zane 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 very 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.