that, at least. Trust me, Cassie.'
'I do.' She reached for Connor's hand. 'We do.'
'Make it quick.' He put a hand on the screen door, scanned quickly before stepping out. 'We've got roadblocks,' he began. 'Helicopters are on the way. Odds are we'll have him before nightfall. How many at the inn?'
'No one. We have a family coming in tonight, but—'
'I'll take care of it. Just don't—'
When the shot rang out, it was so sudden, so shocking, Cassie could do nothing but gasp. Devin collapsed at her feet.
'Hi, honey.' Joe walked forward, a grin on his face, a gun in his hand. 'I'm home.'
She did the only thing she could do. She shoved the children behind her and faced him.
She saw the changes in him. His face was thinner, harder, as his body was. There was a scar beside and beneath his right eye, puckered and white. But the eyes themselves were the same. Brutal.
'I'll go with you, Joe.' She knew Devin was breathing, but there was blood on his temple where the bullet had streaked. He needed help, an ambulance. The only way to save him and her children was to surrender herself. 'I'll go wherever you want. Just don't hurt my babies.'
'I'll do whatever I want with your brats, bitch. And you'll do just what I tell you.' He looked down at Devin, sneered. 'Not so tough now, is he? I should have aimed better.' He squinted, laughed. 'Got a little problem with the eye, but I'll do a lot better close up.'
As if in a dream, she saw his face, saw the gun lower. The cold came over her, the cold and the knowledge that this had happened before. Only then it had been a young, wounded soldier and a woman too weak, too frightened, to save him.
'No!' She screamed, threw herself over Devin's body. 'He's hurt!' She knew those words were useless, and struggled to find others. 'If you kill him, Joe, and they catch you, you'll never get out again. Do you know what happens when you kill a police officer? It isn't worth it. I said I'd go with you.'
'You stay there, I'll just shoot through you. Then, maybe...' He smiled again, shifted his gun toward Connor.
'Stay away from my babies!' Like a woman possessed, she lunged, threw herself at him with a fire and fury that nearly knocked him over. Even when he hit her, she clung like a burr. Then Connor was on him, pummeling, shouting.
Joe swatted him off like a fly.
'I'll teach you manners, you little brat.' Before he could strike out with the butt of the gun, he heard the sound of sirens. 'Later,' he said as Connor scrambled to his feet. 'I'll be back for you later.' He had am arm around Cassie's throat, choking her, the gun to her temple.
His only escape, he saw, was the woods. 'I'll kill her!' he shouted to anyone who could hear. 'Anyone comes after me, she's dead!'
He dragged her away, trampling flowers.
On the ground, Emma squeezed Devin's hand. 'Please wake up. Please wake up.'
Connor crawled to him as Rafe and a deputy rushed around the house. 'He shot him, he shot him and he took Mama!'
Grim-faced, Rafe bent over his brother. 'It's not as bad as it looks.' It helped to say it. He pulled a bandana out of his pocket and stanched the blood. 'He's coming around,' he murmured, and relief washed through him in a flood as Devin stirred. 'Connor, go in and call an ambulance. Hurry.'
'No.' Devin's eyes fluttered open. He batted his brother's hand away. 'I'm okay. Cassie—'
'You're shot, you idiot.' But even as Rafe tried to hold him down, Devin was fighting his way up.
His vision wavered, grayed. A short stream of oaths helped steady it again. 'Where'd he take her?'
'To the woods.' Connor bit his lip. 'He took her into the woods. He was hurting her. I tried to stop him.'
'Take care of your sister,' Devin ordered. 'I want men posted around the woods. Notify Jared, tell him to get back to the cabin. He might go there. You stay with these kids,' he ordered his deputy. 'Get them inside.'
'I'm going in with you,' Rafe stated.
'You can go in.' Eyes cold, Devin drew his weapon. 'But he's mine.'
Cassie did whatever she could to slow him down now that he was away from her children and Devin. She would not be a silent victim again. She scratched, she bit, she kicked.
'Forgot who's boss, didn't you? Thought you could lock me up in a cage and forget who was in charge.' Cursing her, he shoved the gun into his waistband, so that he could use both hands to drag her. 'I'm going to have a good time reminding you.'
'They'll find you. They'll catch you and lock you up for good this time.'
'Maybe they'll catch me, maybe they won't.' He stumbled along, hauling her after him and losing his direction in his fury. He hated these damn woods, the MacKade woods. 'I've had a lot of time to think about this. I know just what we're going to do. We're going to get us a car. That's what we're going to do.'
He cursed the fact that he'd had to leave the one he'd already stolen behind.
'I've got friends,' he muttered. 'I've got plenty of friends who'll help me out.'
'You've got no one. You never did. Devin'll come after you, Joe, and he'll never stop.'
'He's lying on his back and bleeding to death.'
'He'll never stop,' she said again. 'Nothing you do to me will come close to what he'll do to you.'
'Got something going with him, don't you?' Joe stopped, breathless, and dragged her head back by the hair. He thought he heard voices in his head, voices saying the words just before he did. 'You whore. I own you. Don't you forget it. I own you. Till death do us part.'
'You're a miserable, drunken bully.' Defiance bolted through her like lightning. 'You don't own anything, not even yourself. You're pathetic.' She barely winced when he yanked mercilessly on her hair. 'The only thing you can beat is something weaker than you. Go ahead, Joe, hit me. It's the only thing you know how to do. But this time, damn you to hell, you're in for a fight.'
He released her hair, using that hand to knock her sprawling on the path. The pain only energized her. Eyes hot and deadly, she got to her feet, her fists clenched.
He stepped forward, and she braced, ready, even eager, to defend herself.
'If you touch her, if you breathe on her, I'll put a hole in you.'
Slowly Joe turned. Devin was less than three yards back on the path, his weapon drawn and aimed. Rafe MacKade was behind him. As his eyes darted in search of an escape, Shane stepped out of the trees. And Jared moved up the path behind Cassie.
'Drop the gun, Dolin, take it out slow and drop it, or I'll kill you.'
'You're plenty brave, MacKade.' Joe wet his lips as he took the gun out with two fingers, stooped to set it on the ground. When you've got four guns on me, and your brothers standing by.'
'Kick it this way.'
'Yeah, a real hero, long as it's not one-to-one.' Joe gave the gun a shove with his foot. 'You've been helping yourself to my wife, haven't you?'
'You don't have a wife.' Devin turned, handed his gun to Rafe. 'Stay back,' he demanded, then skimmed a glance over his other brothers. 'All of you.' He looked at Cassie briefly, saw the bruises already forming. And felt hatred wash through him. 'Get to the cabin, Cassie. Savannah will take you back to the kids.'
'You don't have to do this.'
'Oh, yeah. I do.' And he smiled. 'Let's go, Joe. It's been a long time coming.'
'What's to stop one of your brothers from shooting me in the back once I beat you to a pulp, Mac-Kade?'
'Nothing.' Now the smile turned feral. 'This is the last shot you're going to get at me, though, you yellow son of a bitch. So make it good.'
Joe shouted ferociously as he lunged. All Devin had to do was pivot and pump upward with a fist to send Joe reeling back.
'Tougher when it's somebody near your own size, isn't it?' Devin taunted. 'Tougher when it's not a woman, or a little boy. Come on, you bastard. Try again.'
Blood spilling from his lip, Joe came at him like a bull. The woods cracked with the sound of bare knuckle against bone, of men grunting. Cassie forced herself not to cover her face with her hands.
