“Mrs. Peacock…in the bedroom…with the revolver,” Rowe said in his ear, and Royce laughed as he hugged his mom’s frail body against his. Her tears were soaking his shirt, and she was shaking so hard, but he was just grateful that she was safe back in his arms.
“Shhh…Mom…it’s okay. You’re safe. We’re both safe.” He repeated it over and over again as her sobbing started to slow. He needed to get her to a hospital or somewhere…maybe even Dr. Frost could look her over. She had to be malnourished and dehydrated. Definitely needed her meds again.
“Oh, Royce. I’m so sorry. I never wanted this for you. Wanted you to be happy, find love.” Her voice broke on a sob. “Now you’re going to jail.”
“Tell your mother you’re not going to jail,” Rowe said firmly. “At least you won’t if you get your ass out of there now.”
“Rowe?”
“Noah and I’ve got clean up. We were never here. This was a drug deal gone wrong.”
“But…”
“Your uncle had extra, local guests staying in the house. Fortuitous, eh? You’re taking your mom directly to Snow. The doc is going to look her over and decide whether she needs to be admitted to the hospital. We’ve got this covered.”
Royce closed his eyes against the burning from unshed tears. He didn’t know how he’d gotten so lucky to have such friends. When he’d stepped onto the property, he had been sure that he’d be spending the rest of his life in jail, and he’d come to terms with that future.
“It’s going to be fine, Mom. I promise.” He gave her another squeeze before putting enough space between them to help her walk across the hall and down the stairs. Garrett and Sven met them along the way. Both men looked like they were in one piece.
“House is clear, but we should get going before one of the neighbors decides to call in the gunshots,” Garrett said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. He eyed Garrett closely, worried about what he’d see. Taking lives—even bad ones—wasn’t easy. But his friend merely smiled broadly at him, his gaze darting from his mother to Royce. He got it, then. They spent a lot of time protecting people who weren’t always so squeaky clean, and there were a lot of hours and days where nothing happened. They could never be sure if they were making a difference, if they actually helped someone.
Tonight, despite the bodies and bullets, they’d done something good.
“Let’s get you to the doc so he can stitch you up,” Sven added.
“Stitched up?” Cathy’s head popped up, and she showed her first spark of strength. “Were you hurt, honey?”
“Just a little scratch,” he quickly said while glaring over his mother’s head at Sven. The large blond man quickly covered his mouth to hide his smile, while Garrett chuckled behind him. “We’re going to see a friend who can take care of us both.”
They were walking again toward the front door when he felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket. Wincing, he reached back with his injured arm and pulled it out to see Marc’s name flash across the screen.
For a heartbeat, he considered trying to bridge the gap between them. Corbin was dead along with his evil son. But the rest of the Karras family could come after him. Between that and Marc’s heart, Royce was still a danger to Marc’s life.
He almost wished Corbin had shot him. The pain slicing through his chest was stealing his breath away. He couldn’t keep Marc.
Then it hit him. Marc wouldn’t be calling him unless something was wrong. He knew they were rescuing his mother tonight. Dominic would have given him at least a rough estimate of when Royce was unreachable. He clicked his phone, lifted it to his ear and anything he would have said locked in his throat, Marc already talking.
“What did you do to Dominic?” Marc demanded, his angry voice coming through clearly on the phone, but it sounded distant, like he was holding the phone away from his face.
“He’s fine!” snapped another voice. It took Royce a second to recognize Richard. It was higher and shakier than he’d ever heard it before.
“Where is he? What did you do?”
“I just gave him a laxative. He’ll be fine in a few hours. Now get moving,” Richard ordered.
“You don’t need a gun!”
“The gun is to make sure that you do exactly as I say. Now let’s go before any more of your bodyguards come trotting through here.”
Royce’s heart stopped beating for a second and then slammed hard into his chest. Oh fuck!
They’d trusted the wrong sibling.Chapter Twenty-TwoMarc fought the urge to check the screen on his phone. Had the call to Royce gone through? He kept the cell as close to his leg as possible to block the light, but it meant that he couldn’t tell if Royce had answered, or if it had simply gone straight to voice mail. It would be just his luck that Royce ignored his call. The man who owned his heart had made it painfully clear over the past several days that the happiness they’d enjoyed was over, and that Royce was all too ready to move on.