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

“No, but listen. Why wouldn’t you guys be targets too? Why wouldn’t he come after Liza, Nina or Felicity? You? Even Rachel was involved because of Duke, which had nothing to do with Ace, even if it did connect to the Sons.”

“I don’t know.” Cecilia’s eyebrows drew together. “Well, technically someone shot at Liza.”

“Shot at, not killed. Regardless, the letter referencing that was to Jamison, not to Liza.” Sarah grabbed Cecilia’s arm. “What if it’s not about Ace?”

“How could it not be about Ace?”

“I don’t know.” But it made more sense. Liza, Nina and Felicity had had specific run-ins with Ace. Cecilia had been involved with his protégé being hurt. The women should be more involved, but Anth was focused solely on the brothers.

Of course, they were the actual relations to him. Was it about blood? Brotherhood?

“The notes all say treason. I thought it had to do with leaving the Sons, but is it something more? Something...personal? Beyond Ace, I mean.”

Cecilia took some time to think that over. “Well, we don’t know how Anth was raised. Ace was in the Sons, but by all accounts Anth wasn’t there. Nor was his mother there.”

“Our mother.” She’d had to explain her blood connection in the barn this afternoon, and she could feel the pity from all her sisters. That her parents hadn’t been bad people and were now dead. That she was connected by blood to someone terrorizing them.

Cecilia smiled sadly. “I know that’s...”

Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know what it is. I haven’t had time to work it out really.” She rubbed her belly, hoping her baby never had to have complicated feelings about their parentage. “But you’re right. He wasn’t with his parents that we know of. Until after the Wyatts were all out of the Sons.”

“It’s possible he was there in the few years Liza was out, but it seems unlikely.”

“Still, he was with Ace when Dev tried to arrest him. So, wherever he was, he knew Ace. He was working with Ace. Even if he did help Dev, he’s connected to Ace.”

“Maybe the betrayal is a deeper familial sense. Maybe he’s not blaming them for Ace, but they didn’t come for him. They didn’t help him. They all got out, but he... We don’t know what he did, but maybe it was terrible.”

“But he made Dev promise not to tell anyone about him,” Sarah pointed out, though she thought there had to be something to this line of reasoning. Something about family and connections. Not just Ace. It had to be more. Or the brothers wouldn’t be singled out the way they were.

Cecilia sighed deeply. “I wish I thought all these mental circles would get us somewhere, but I think we just have to wait. Wait for him to make a mistake and hope...” Cecilia didn’t finish her sentence and shook her head.

Sarah got the feeling she was worried about Brady being next to get a letter. About him being the next target. Even though no one had been hurt yet, anyone could have been by the bomb. Anyone could have been shot. It seemed a bit of blind luck that they were all still intact.

Still, it was disturbing to see Cecilia, of all people, look so...worried and helpless.

“You’re a fighter,” Sarah said, hoping to see some of Cecilia’s usual stubborn surety.

“We’re all fighters. But even fighters get tired.” Her hands briefly touched her stomach and Sarah’s eyes went wide. She wouldn’t have thought anything of it if she hadn’t spent the past nine months touching her stomach, just like that.

Cecilia’s cheeks turned red.

“Are you...”

“I don’t know for sure yet,” Cecilia hissed, looking around the room to see if anyone was paying attention to them. No one seemed to be. “Don’t say anything.”

Sarah’s eyes welled with tears. She couldn’t help it. She’d have her son soon, Nina would follow in a few months, and then Cecilia. And they’d all be cousins and...

“Stop that right now,” Cecilia said, pointing her finger in Sarah’s face. “We are being terrorized. No crying over potentially happy things.”

“But that’s exactly when you should cry over such things. Bad doesn’t blot out the good, Cee.”

“No, no it doesn’t.” Cecilia took Sarah’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “But I’d sure like to be done with the bad.”

“We will be.” They had to find a way. Not just for her baby, but for all their kids. For all of them. For family.

DEV COULDN’T REMEMBER a time he’d been this revved and this exhausted at the same time. Two days had passed without a letter for anyone. No more dead bodies. No more attacks. Just tension and stress and so many questions he didn’t have the answer to.

Sarah had floated her theory that whatever was going on had less to do about Ace’s death and more about family in general, but Dev still didn’t know how to wrap his head around that.

His brothers had never had any interaction with Anth—hadn’t even known about his existence. Dev had only interacted with Anth once, and under the promise he’d never let anyone know about him.

Three days of nothing didn’t make the obsessing over it any easier. In fact, it made it more frustrating. He couldn’t shut off his mind. He could only think. Not one of his favorite places to be—and he couldn’t do what he usually did when that happened—bury himself in the ranch.

No, there were people around constantly. He didn’t even get his own room to sleep in what with the crowded house. Every night he went into his own room after Sarah had fallen asleep in his bed and slept on the floor.

But Sarah wasn’t asleep tonight like she should be. She was all cuddled up in his bed, but sitting up, leaning against the headboard.

Something heavy shifted in his chest. A dream realized. Except Sarah was not his dream. He’d never let himself dream about a future because he’d been adamant there wouldn’t be one.

Wasn’t that the best