35
Linc came awake with a start as his shoulder was shaken. There was someone looming over him. He let out a shout and shoved himself up out of bed, ready to defend Marisol.
Tiger.
Tiger had found her.
The person moved back and turned on the light, right as Marisol cried out in fear. Linc dove forward, on the attack, just managing to bring himself to a stop as he saw who was there.
“Fuck! Zander! What the hell! What are you doing in here? It’s the fucking middle of the night!”
“I’m well aware,” Zander replied calmly. The big man had his arms crossed over his chest. He stared over at Marisol then back to him. “I believe Marisol is scared.”
“Jesus, of course she’s fucking scared.” Linc stormed back to Marisol, who was clutching the sheet to her chest. She was only wearing a see-through nightgown. Her breath was coming in sharp pants and it was easy to see she was on the verge of a panic attack.
He leaned in, kneeling on the bed to cup her face. “It’s okay, baby. Just breathe. Breathe in, hold, one, two, three then out, one, two, three. Good girl. And again. For God’s sake, Zander, have you ever heard or calling or knocking?”
“It’s the middle of the night. I didn’t think you’d answer.”
“Because we were asleep. Good girl. Just breathe.”
“I thought it was T-tiger,” she managed to say.
“If it was, Linc would likely be dead,” Zander told her.
“Oh God,” she moaned.
“Zander! Shit! Shut up. You’re scaring her.”
“I didn’t mean to scare her,” Zander said awkwardly. “I was trying not to scare her.”
“By breaking in?”
“You have no security on your cabin.”
“The door was locked.”
Zander snorted. “It was nothing I couldn’t easily get through. You need an alarm. Sensors. Cameras.”
“I’ll get on that tomorrow. It will keep out undesirables.” He glared at Zander over his shoulder.
The other man nodded, but showed no sign that he understood that Linc was referring to him. “Better late than never.”
“You okay, Mari-girl?” Linc asked her gently.
“Yes, I think so.” Her color was coming back. “Why is Zander in our bedroom in the middle of the night?”
“Because I have Tiger. And your aunt. I thought you might want to help me decide what to do with them.”
The words danced around in her head. She tried to grasp them, make sense of them but they kept spinning away.
I have Tiger.
Your aunt.
Decide what to do with them.
Linc filled her vision. He gave her a concerned look. “Mari? Marisol, look at me. Good girl. It’s okay. You’re okay.”
She moved her gaze to Zander but Linc gently grasped hold of her chin. “Eyes on mine, teeny. Just listen to me for a moment. You don’t have to deal with this.”
“D-deal with this?”
Deal with what, exactly?
“If it’s what you want, I’ll make the decisions that need to be made.”
“We will,” Zander said with a grunt.
Linc turned to look at him, his shoulders tense. But when he looked back at her, his face was gentle. “It’s okay, Mari-girl. Let me take over and deal with it all.”
She could give it all to him. What a relief. But at the same time . . . maybe she needed some closure. Maybe she just needed to go see her aunt. To see Tiger.
“What are you planning on doing with them? What do you mean, you have them?” She looked at Zander and this time Linc let her.
“We captured them.” Zander gave her a satisfied look.
“You kidnapped them?”
“Nah. Actually, yeah, that’s exactly what we did.”
“Jesus, Zander, what the hell were you thinking?” Linc asked.
“I was thinking that Tiger and his men were involved in a scuffle with Markovich’s men and that gave me the cover I needed to grab an injured Tiger and bring him back to where we’ve been staying to have a bit of a chat. And some of my guys were watching her aunt’s place. Saw the bitch packing up a car to run, so they took her. Now we have both of them. All you have to do is decide whether you want to see them before we take care of them.”
“Take care of them?” she whispered.
Zander didn’t answer. She looked to Linc who was scowling at Zander. “You can’t murder them,” she told Zander.
Zander raised his eyebrows. “I can’t let them go. Not only are they not good people, but they know my guys and I took them. They’ll come for us.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want them to go free. But I don’t want any blood on any of our hands.”
“I got no problem getting rid of them, pipsqueak,” Zander told her, crossing his arms over his chest. But she didn’t care if he did. This was blood he’d spill for her and she couldn’t have that on her conscience.
“I . . .” Her mind thought it all through. “That task force has evidence my aunt, right? They have enough to arrest her, they’re just waiting. But maybe we should deliver her to them. Where is Saber?”
“Done a runner. Doubt he’ll come back for her. So yeah, might be an idea to land her in their laps.” Zander didn’t ask who the task force was, so she guessed he already knew about them.
“Shit, Saber got away?” Linc asked.
Zander nodded. “He’ll hide away somewhere, regroup. Don’t know if he’ll come back here, though. Markovich’s men ripped his men apart. It was fucking carnage.”
“Where did this take place? Does Ed know?” Linc asked.
“I don’t work for the sheriff. But guessing he’ll know by now. It was out of town, the place where the Devil’s Sinners have been staying. Markovich’s men snuck in on them. Markovich will be pissed I got to Tiger. Someone must have alerted Saber and Rosalind. Sent them running. He took off on his bike and we missed him, but she was busy trying to stuff shit into her car.”
Typical Rosalind.
“I want to see her,” she said firmly.
Linc turned to her. “Sure, baby?”
“Yes, not him. I never want to see him again.” She shuddered. “But I want to see her before we hand her over. I want to know if she ever cared about me.”
“Why would you care about that?” Zander asked.
“She’s the only family I have left,” Marisol said.
“No, baby, she isn’t,” Linc told her. “We’re your family now. Me and everyone on this ranch.”
She blinked back tears then nodded. “Then I just want to see her for closure. Please.”
“We can make that happen,” Zander said.
“It’s safe?” Linc asked.
“Of course.” Zander looked affronted. “What about Tiger? Want me to get rid of him?”
“Why don’t you hand him back to Markovich?” Linc asked. “Seems only fair.”
Zander thought about it then nodded. “Yeah. I’ve got everything I want from him. Come on then. I don’t have all night. And you really need to put some clothes on.”