I heard and saw this as I was maneuvering my way around my friend to get to the door of Nicole’s covered porch. I sprinted across the open field that was between my house and Nicole’s. My only goal right now was to get to my girls.
I vaguely realized that my friends were running behind me as I kept up my sprint all the way to the doors of my barn. I didn’t pause when I hit the concrete because Sierra was in my sights. She was whole and healthy, sitting there on top of the storm shelter with a gun in her lap. She looked completely shocked to see me screeching to a halt in front of her.
“Are you okay?” I gasped as I bent and put my hands on my knees, trying in vain to catch my breath. “Did she hurt you?”
“She didn’t hurt me, really,” Sierra admitted. “She just slapped me once and then pulled me around a little bit by the arm. I don’t know if she hurt the girls.’
“Let me get in there,” I told her, reaching for her hand to pull her up.
“No,” Sierra shook her head and pulled her hand back. “See if that bitch is dead. If she isn’t, call an ambulance and we’ll wait until she’s gone before the girls come up. If she is, take off her head and set her body on fire to make sure there’s no chance of her coming back somehow.”
I worried because Sierra’s face was slack and pale, her eyes showing absolutely no emotion.
“Oh, she’s dead,” Kale said from behind me. “All kinds of dead.”
“Then cut her head off and burn the body,” Sierra ordered him. “She tried to take one of our daughters and God knows what she would have done to our other one. And she was ranting that they have her baby down there, so I don’t even know what that’s about.”
“Honey, dead is dead,” I told her gently. “There’s no coming back from getting trampled by an out of control horse.”
“The horse shouldn’t be in trouble for killing her, Rowdy,” Sierra pleaded. “Make sure she doesn’t get put down for it, okay? I made her do it. I threw her in there knowing what would happen.”
“The horse won’t be punished for it, baby,” I reached out and took the gun from her and handed it to Kale. “Hop up and let me get to the girls.”
“Cops are on their way,” I heard Hank say from behind us. “I called Nicole and Shannon, too. I think Sierra is in shock.”
“The girls can’t come up until the body is gone and everything is cleaned up. I don’t want that crazy bitch to taint their sanctuary any more than she already has.”
“Okay, I hear you, honey,” I told Sierra. “That makes sense.”
“Talk to her,” Grunt told me as he handed me the radio that I had dropped on the porch before I took off running.
“Leia, sweetheart?”
“Daddy? What’s going on? We can hear you out there! I tried to push open the door but it won’t move!” Leia said frantically. “Help me get out!”
“Not yet, sweetheart. Give us just a minute to get things settled up here. We don’t want you to come out yet.”
“Well, can one of you come down here?” Lexi wailed through the radio. “Or at least get this goddamn baby out of here? He’s making my teeth hurt with his screaming.”
I heard the men behind me laugh.
“Now she knows how I feel when the two of them get going,” I joked to the adults around me without pressing down the button on the radio for the girls to hear. I felt better when Sierra chuckled at my joke. “If this wasn’t such a traumatic event, I’d remind her of what she just said the next time they get all screamy.”
“Get the baby out and put Sierra in,” Kale told me. “I’ll take care of the little one and the big ones will feel better when they see your faces.”
Sierra moved off the top of the shelter and stood beside me as Hank opened the big metal door. We heard the baby screaming first and then I saw both of our daughters staring up at us with their eyes wide. Sierra was the first one down the ladder and she took the baby from Lexi and handed her up to Kale’s waiting hands. I went down the ladder next and grabbed all three of my girls up into my arms as I took my first deep breath in what felt like hours.
◆◆◆
“There’s an Amber Alert out on that baby. She was kidnapped from her grandparents’ home in Plainview earlier today. A woman busted in with a gun and pistol-whipped the old man. The grandma was in the backroom when she heard the commotion, so she’s not hurt.” Nick Cardenas, a police officer who was also one of my brothers in the Texas Knights, told our group. “The parents are on their way here to get the baby and I’m sure they’d like to meet your girls to thank them.”
The baby in question was silent in Kale’s arms as he fed her a bottle of formula the paramedics had given him while they checked her over. Luckily, she was just hungry and uncomfortable.
The police had found the car Beverly had driven to town. The stolen vehicle was in a ditch about half a mile from our house. There wasn’t a car seat or baby supplies in the car, but they were sure that it was Beverly’s because her purse and some other things were still in the passenger seat.
“She stole the car, kidnapped some random baby, and then showed up at your house claiming that the baby belonged to the two of you. She was going to ride off into the sunset with her new baby, her
