Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📗

are even clues in this thing. Maybe it gives us the opportunity to work through it before he can do anything.”

“And if we can’t?” Liza demanded. She glared up at Dev, but tears were tracking down her cheeks.

“Liza...” Jamison said, sounding wounded.

“We stick together,” Brady said firmly. “We protect each other. It got us through last year. It’ll get us through this.”

“If there are clues here, and we can figure them out, we can be ready for him. Not just keep Jamison safe, but take Anth down. He’s giving us the opportunity to win. He’s giving us a fair fight.”

“None of this is fair,” Liza said, pushing away from the table. “I need some air,” she muttered, then slammed out of the kitchen.

Jamison closed his eyes, then rubbed his hands over his face. Sarah gave him a pat on the shoulder.

“I’ll go sit with her.”

He nodded grimly. Once both women were gone, Jamison slowly turned back to them. For a few seconds, all six of them stood in the kitchen in utter silence.

Dev had promised himself he’d fight for his child, but now his brother had been specifically singled out. He didn’t need any realizations to know what to do now.

“It’s one of six. Which means we have six chances—six chances not just to fight Anth, but to take him down. He’s taking us one by one. And warning us. There’s something to this...performance. Some code or something—like Ace had.”

“Good. Another Ace to fight,” Brady said disgustedly.

“Who knows if he’s the only one?” Tucker added.

“He’s the only one,” Dev replied. “There’s no way Ace could have kept multiple children a secret. He certainly wouldn’t have time to warp all of them.”

“You hope,” Brady said.

“This is it. I’m sure of it. Our last ghost to fight.”

“How can you be sure of it?” Jamison asked, his gaze still on the door Liza had gone out of.

“Nothing else adds up,” Dev said. “Maybe Ace was crazy. Maybe the Sons are evil. But the numbers always add up. Anth is our last hurdle. The North Star group has mostly disbanded the Sons. All those federal raids left them with next to no resources, loyalty or power. If there was anyone else to come after us, Anth would have recruited them. We would have heard Sons rumblings. But no, they’ve been thrown in jail or they ran. All that’s left is Anth, and us. So we just have to figure out what he’s trying to tell us and beat him at his own game.”

“If we can stay alive,” Jamison muttered.

“The Sons haven’t beaten us yet, Jamison. I don’t intend for that to change, do you?” Dev demanded.

Gage chuckled. “He sounded just like you, J.” Gage gave a mock shiver. “Downright creepy.”

Jamison frowned at Gage, but his expression had changed. The hurt and worry over Liza were still there, but that battle light was back. He looked down at the paper. “What kind of clues could there be?”

“Let’s read it again—line by line—and go from there.” Dev took an empty seat and waited for Jamison to take the other one. He looked at each of his brothers, sitting around Grandma Pauline’s table. They’d been here before—too many times to count.

This would be the last time. Dev was determined. “We’ll beat him. We have to.” There were too many lives at stake not to.

Chapter Eight

Sarah wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Liza so visibly distraught, and Liza had not had an easy life. She’d been in danger for most of it. So it was beyond concerning she’d been so visibly upset—even if she had every right to be.

She was sitting on the back step. Cash sitting in front of her, wagging his tail as if waiting for a game of fetch. It was only then Sarah realized there was a mangy ball at Liza’s feet.

Sarah moved to sit next to Liza on the back porch step, but it was a narrow step and would have been a tight fit even if she didn’t have a giant belly impeding her way.

“For heaven’s sake, don’t sit here,” Liza said, wiping her face with her sleeve. She popped to her feet. “You don’t need to cheer me up.”

“I’m not here to cheer you up. I’m just here to hold your hand. Also to throw that poor dog a ball since you won’t.”

Liza rolled her eyes, but she bent down and picked up the ball. She heaved it with impressive power, and Cash took off like a bullet.

She turned to face Sarah, eyes puffy and face blotchy.

Sarah’s heart twisted. She’d never seen Liza like this. “This isn’t like you, Liza. You’re usually more angry than...”

“A whiny, crying mess?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to use those words.”

Liza smirked, but it died quickly. She looked out over the horizon. It was cold, but there wasn’t much of a wind today, so it was bearable in her heavy sweaters. Especially standing here in the midday sun.

Cash brought back the ball and Liza hurled it again.

“We really thought it was over, you know? That’s the part I just can’t... Our fathers are dead. The Sons are rubble. I shouldn’t still have to be afraid.”

“Does the fear ever really go away? Jamison is a sheriff’s deputy. We both know that an illness can come in and take someone away. I think fear is just a part of loving.”

Liza seemed to mull that over, but then she shook her head. “I don’t think normal people have to fear the way we do.”

“Maybe not, but I can’t... We survived last year. Threat after threat and we worked together and survived and kept everyone safe. We weren’t unscathed, but we’re all together. I can’t believe we won’t be able to do that again.”

Liza sighed heavily. “It’s not that I don’t think we can survive. It’s not even the fear exactly. I...” She kicked at the short railing. “We’d started the whole process to adopt.”

“Oh, Liza.”

“But we can hardly bring kids home with death threats nailed to the door.” She shook