Trial by Fire (7 page)

He stood in the nursery that Momma and Daddy had made up for when the grandbabies—when Addie and Landon’s babies—came, staring at the mess, at all the people wandering around.

No.

No, this wasn’t happening.

“Mate, you need to have someone look at your hands and cheek, eh? You got some burns.”

Holden glanced at Lachlan, utterly fucking confused. “Whut?”

Lachlan held his gaze with those bright blue eyes, worried as all fuck. “Burns. You need to let medical look at you.”

He shook his head. “I need to find Chloe. Did Barger bring the hound dogs yet? The dogs. The dogs, where the fuck are the dogs?”

Harry and Colorado slept under Chloe’s crib. They wouldn’t have left her. No way. No how.

“What are you on about?”

“Landon’s motherfucking dogs! They were in here with the baby!”

“Oi! You see dogs?” Lachlan shot him a look. “What kind?”

“Goldens. Big retrievers. Two. Daddy! Daddy, anyone seen Harry and Colorado? Goddamn it! Daddy? Someone fucking answer me!” Holden began to cough, his chest clenching as he fought to get a breath. “Does anyone see the dogs?”

“I don’t think so, no. And you won’t do our niece a bit of good if you go down with an infection or drown in your own lungs.” Lachlan had pure steel in his voice.

“She’s only wee, man. Tiny. Fourteen weeks old.” His legs weren’t going to hold him, they couldn’t. This was too much, too heavy.

Lachlan started walking him toward the stairs, nodding. “I know. But a change of clothes and a shower can’t hurt. You have more law types here than we can shake a stick at.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I….”

“Shh. Come on, now. Walk with me.”

His eyes burned, his chest was on fire, and he couldn’t fucking think. He was supposed to be the big brother. The responsible one. How could he let Chloe…. Someone had tried to burn down this whole ranch to get her.

Lachlan muscled him into a bathroom and began stripping him down, which should have been weird, but wasn’t. Lachlan had busted his ass tonight. The man was a cowboy to the bone.

“You hurt, man?”

“Me?” Lachlan looked at himself and chuckled. “No idea. I’ll get checked out when you do.”

“’Kay. Do they know anything new? Anything?”

“Nobody knows dick. Between the rain and the fire and the sheer number of people here, there’s nothing. They’re waiting for a ransom call.”

“Shit.” Ransom. Chloe was out there, alone and scared. His knees shook.

“Easy, mate. In the water. Gon’ join you—no ratbagging, just don’t want you falling.”

“Shit, I couldn’t even get it up for you right now.”

“I hear you.” Lachlan got naked and stepped into the water, and when Holden squinted at Lachlan, he saw wall-to-wall bruises.

“You’re tore up.” He handed Lachlan the Ivory and leaned back into the spray.

“We both are, yeah? I imagine everyone is.” Lachlan scrubbed him with quick, efficient strokes.

“Everyone but whoever took Chloe.”

“We’ll get the bastard, Holden. We will. Right now we’d be in the way.” Lachlan sounded so sure, so certain about the situation. The guy was solid as the proverbial rock.

“We will. She’s got to be scared.” Holden was. He was fucking terrified and that pissed him off. He hadn’t even gotten to spend two nights in a row with her at his house, for fuck’s sake.

“Yeah. God, I remember Ades ran away once, when she was nine. She gave us all the slip by moving from outbuilding to outbuilding on the homestead. Spent the night in an old sheepshearing shed when we hadn’t run sheep in decades. Scared her right good.” Something in Lachlan’s voice told him there was more story, but he let it go.

“Yeah. There’s so many buildings around here, man.” So many barns, outbuildings, houses. “I need to get out there and search again. I got to.”

“The sheriff has half a dozen men scouring every place.” They turned off the water, and Lachlan handed him a towel. “You need food, rest, and medical attention.”

“I need Chloe home and safe. That….” They’d trusted him with that little girl. Addie and Landon trusted him.

Lachlan drew him into a damp embrace, just holding him for a long moment, and then he backed off. “Come on. Are there clean clothes anywhere?”

“Yeah. Yeah, we got a bunch of clothes for people. You never know when someone’ll need them.”

“Thanks.”

They wrapped up in the towels, and Holden’s mom was waiting when they walked into the bedroom. “The EMTs will take you both now, Son.” She held up a hand when Holden opened his mouth. “No arguing. Go get cleared. Now.”

“We need clothes, Momma, please.”

She nodded, then came to him, hugged him tight. “I love you. I’m sorry I hollered at you before.” Then she looked at Lachlan. “You too. It ain’t your fault that I’m so mad, and you and your folks are welcome. We’ll have a cookout to celebrate Chloe being found.”

He knew how much it cost her, so he just tossed Lachlan some sweats and a T-shirt, then tugged some jeans and a shirt on himself, his hands screaming at him.

“Thank you,” Lachlan said, dressing quickly. “Let’s do this so we can get back to it.”

“Yeah. Yeah, Momma, do they need our clothes, or can we wash them real quick?” He watched them CSI shows.

“I think they want everything, Son.”

He could see that, and his boots were probably ruined. He reckoned he would just put on some socks for now. When he stood there, staring at his feet, it was Lachlan who got him moving again, handing him the socks he’d clearly dropped. “Come on, you. Get those hands cleaned up and you’ll be good as gold.”

“Yeah.” He walked into the huge kitchen, the place looking like… anything but home. His folks had redone it oh, five years ago, and it was all granite and dark wood, like a magazine.

“Holden.” Myles Robichoux walked over, obviously in EMT mode and not in sports medicine mode, which was his job six months out of the year. Myles’s uniform stretched across all his chest muscles. Little size queen. They’d fooled around in high school. “Sit here at the table and let me look you over.”

“I’m fine.” He just needed to be out there looking.

“You have at least second-degree burns on your hands, and one is all purple.”

“So?” He was fixin’ to pop Myles in the face. His baby girl was missing.

“So, let me at least clean and disinfect them and bandage them before you go out into the mud again.”

Lachlan pulled out a chair and sat across from him. “How’s Maria?”

“In the hospital. She’s not young. She has a serious head injury, her humerus is cracked.”

“I’ll go see her tomorrow,” Momma said. “Anything she needs.”

“Did she remember anything yet? Anything?” He needed a clue, a direction. Something.

“Nothing yet, baby.” Momma sighed. “God, I want a cigarette.”

“No smoking,” he and Myles said it together. Momma had quit fifteen years ago.

The door opened, Ryan Jacques standing there as big as life and twelve times as welcome. Everyone stared for a second, then Sarah Jane cried out, “Son! Oh God. Son, you came!”

Ryan walked over and kissed his momma on the top of her head. “Seriously? You think I wouldn’t come? Someone point me to the motherfucker in charge. I want a sitrep. Now. And I want to know when the feds show up. They should have been here an hour ago. I got in from fucking California faster.”

Oh, thank you, Jesus.

Momma stood up, shaking. “Ryan.”

“Momma Sheffield. You sit. I love you. Let me do my job.”

“Give me a hug first. I’m so happy to see your face.” She sniffled, trying hard to keep it together.

Ryan hugged her tight, looked over her shoulder at him. “You look like shit, Pancho.”

“Kiss my ass, Lefty.”

“I will fix this. I am here until my goddaughter is home.”

“Good deal. Ow! What the hell was that?” He glared at Myles, who gave him a steady look.

“Sedative. I can hear your chest rattling. You need to sleep.”

“No. No, man. You…. Y’all, please….”

Myles shook his head. “You have an asthma attack out there and you’ll die. The smoke from the fire….”

“Your friend seems like he can get the ball rolling, Holden.” Lachlan put a hand over his, drawing his attention. “I’ll stay with you, wake you if there’s any news.”

“Uh-huh. I’m not done with you, Hugh Jackman. You got an eyebrow missing,” Myles said.

“I can live without an eyebrow,” Lachlan rumbled, sliding away from the table, looking ready to bolt.

Holden stood up and his legs didn’t work. He began to tilt, but Lachlan caught him before he could fall. Which was when Myles jabbed Lachlan with a needle too.

“Put them to bed, Ryan. Then you can go scream at cops.”

Oh, right. Myles had gone to school with Ryan too.

“I gotta…. Fuck, Ryan. Please. You gotta help me.”

“I’m on it, Holden. You sleep, and I’ll find out what the hell is going on.”

He couldn’t focus, couldn’t quite breathe.

Ryan helped Lachlan get him headed toward the bedrooms again. Lachlan felt warm, solid, and they stumbled along together.

“Ryan. I got to….”

“Holden, shut the fuck up and lay your ass down.”

“Shh.” Lachlan eased him down on the bed. “’S okay.”

“It’s not. It….” The whole world was spinning.

“Shut it.” Lachlan toppled over with him, one arm over his chest.

“Fuck you.”

“Boys, boys. Rest. I’ll deal with the feds. I got this.” Ryan touched the back of his bandaged hands. “Christ, Pancho. What the fuck, huh?”

“Someone’s got Landon’s baby girl, and she’s gonna be scared.”

“Yeah, but I was a hero once upon a time, Pancho. I swear, I’m here to help.”

“Still a hero.” That much he knew.

“Yeah, not so much with that.”

Holden would’ve kept arguing, but there was nothing—nothing that could have kept the darkness from crashing in.

LACHLAN
woke up completely disoriented, his head spinning, his mouth like quick-dry cement. What the bloody hell was going on?

He tried to sit up, but someone was holding him down, warm and snoring.

He shook his head, trying to figure out where he’d crashed, because he’d obviously tied one on.

Chloe. He sat bolt upright, clocking Holden on the chin with his elbow.

Holden sat up too, eyes rolling like a fractious horse’s. “What the fuck?”

“What time is it?” He had no idea how much bloody time had passed, and he needed to call his dad and see if he’d gotten ahold of Dez.

“What?” He could see when Holden remembered, and then it didn’t matter because the man started running, tripping over the bedding and hitting the floor on his still-bandaged hands. “Did y’all hear anything? I’m going to kill Myles!”

“Now, Son.” Mr. Brandon was the one to answer, and Lachlan followed Holden out into the hall. “Myles was doing what was best for you.”

“What the fuck is happening? Does anyone know anything?”

“Ryan can fill you in, Son. Momma went to see Maria.”

“Fill me in?
Ryan
!” That man could scream like a banshee. “Goddamn Jacques, you get your ass in here!”

The big guy who’d showed up—was it the night before? Whenever he and Holden had been tranqued like rogue water buffalo, at any rate. He poked his head into the hallway.

“Don’t you beller at me, Holden Sheffield. Get up off your ass and come get some food. I’ll give you the rundown.”

“Fuck you, you bleeding asshole. Where the fuck is Chloe?” Holden got to his feet and charged.

Lachlan stared, because Ryan caught Holden easily, turning him in a flash, arm across his chest.

“Stop,” Ryan murmured. “Running around like a chicken with its head cut off does no good.”

“Who’s got her, man? Who takes a baby right out of her fucking house?”

Lachlan turned his head, because the raw agony in Holden’s face was too much to bear. God, he’d been ready to sweep right in and take that baby away. Now he knew who she belonged with. As soon as they got her back.

Ryan sighed. “The feds are assuming it’s an inside job, and I have to agree. There’s been no ransom demand yet, but shit has been hitting the fan left and right, and from the scale of their diversion, I would say this was no organized kidnapper.”

“Inside… you mean one of my people?”

Holden’s words were furious, but Mr. Brandon just stood there, this news not, well, news to him.

“Well, which of these hooligans aren’t accounted for?” If one of these… pieces of garbage had Ades’s baby.

“Hard to tell,” Ryan said.

“What the fuck do you know, then?” Lachlan snarled. Truth was he was burnt, hungry, and scared to death, and was going on mad as a cut snake. He’d had enough. “Round up all the asshole hanger-arounds here and count them.”

They could do it with cattle; surely these Yanks could do it with cowboys.

“They’re not assholes!” Holden snapped. “Is there anyone in the air? Cops? Mickey and Sharon have a little plane.”

Ryan held up a hand, then leveled a hard glare at Lachlan. “You must be the Australian uncle, so I’m going to cut you a little slack since you’re not from around here, but you’re not helping. Not one bit.”

God knew if Lachlan wasn’t strong-willed he’d probably cower under that glare. Good thing he wasn’t a giant bloody galah. He stared back.

Ryan’s mouth tightened. “The search is extensive, Holden, starting with the employees and working out. Everyone is being checked out. And accounted for.”

“She’s fourteen weeks old. She’s just a….” Holden stopped and turned back toward him, toward the bedroom. “Where are my boots?”

“Your momma took them to get them cleaned, Son.” Mr. Brandon had been standing there like a statue. “I’ll drive you back to your place to get another pair.”

“No.” Holden stormed off, heading right out to the yard in his stocking feet where he whistled, loud and hard. The black Arabian mix, Pepper, seemed to fly across the pasture, clearing the paddock fence with a leap. As soon as she stopped, the tiny little fuck was on her back, streaking away like the hounds of hell were nipping at them.

“Fuck a duck!”

Ryan shook his head, blinking once. “Guess he’s gonna blow the cobwebs out. Anyone else want coffee?”