Forever Freed Page 5

“Why are you asking him?” Reagan asked, offended.

  “Because he’s the one who looks ready to faint,” Matt said, rushing over to his brother and sister-in-law.

  “One minute,” Aniyah gleefully called out.

  “For what?” Matt asked, looking to his wife for answers.

  “Reagan might be pregnant. We’re waiting on the test.” His wife, the love of his life, came to lean against him. No wonder he got the text. He wrapped his arm around his wife and held her tight to him, kissing the top of her head. Riley would be thrilled for Reagan, all the while feeling the pain of not having their own child. They’d been trying for years and had had no luck. Then to have her sister be pregnant without even trying? That just might break Riley’s heart because he knew it was breaking his. He wasn’t mad at Carter and Reagan. He was happy for them. But he couldn’t help the envy that crept up on him.

  “Let’s see if there’s a bun in the oven!” Aniyah rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

  Lacing his fingers with his wife’s, Carter and Reagan entered the bathroom. A moment later, they walked out smiling. Carter’s face was now flushed, but he still looked stunned.

  “We’re having a baby!” Reagan cried out as she made a leap to hug Riley.

  Matt let go of his wife’s hand and saw the tears in her eyes she was barely keeping in check. “Congratulations!” Riley said, holding her sister tight.

  All of a sudden, Carter swayed and grabbed the stair railing. “I have to tell Cy he’s going to be a grandpa. I’m a dead man. My baby will never know their father.”

  Reagan stepped back from Riley, her face now one of worry. “Dad’s going to lose it. Maybe we need to tell Mom first so she can hide all his guns.”

  “I get why this is an emergency call,” Matt said with a chuckle. His father-in-law was beyond overprotective. Cy was still telling himself Matt and Riley weren’t having sex even though they’d been married for quite a while.

  “No, that’s not the emergency,” Riley said as she reached into her purse and handed a picture to him. “This is.”

  “Why do you have a picture of an alien?” Matt asked, looking down at it.

  “That alien is your son or daughter.”

  Reagan and Aniyah screamed and hugged Riley as Matt just stared at the picture. A baby. His baby? After all this time, was it really true?

  “This is yours?” Matt finally said when Carter tried to shake his hand.

  Riley laughed at him and shook her head. “It’s ours.”

  “No twins? Is there a second one hiding?” Matt asked as reality slowly sank in.

  Riley smiled up at him. “Just one perfect twelve-week-old baby.”

  “Both of us pregnant at the same time. I can’t believe it!” Reagan said as the emergency really hit Matt—Cy was going to crack.

  He and Carter looked at each other with panic in their eyes.

  “I’ll get the bourbon,” Carter said before trying to steady himself.

  “I’ll get you my spare gun,” Aniyah said under her breath.

  6

  “Jackson!” The simultaneous greeting erupted from the crowd at the Blossom Café as he entered the restaurant back in Keeneston. He’d missed the place, and he’d missed his friends and family. He was back for two nights before driving to South Carolina for some much-needed down time.

  “Hey, Mom.” He smiled down at his mother, Paige Davies Parker, as she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.

  “Good to have you back,” his father, Cole Parker, said as he shook Jackson’s hand and thumped his back before prying Paige’s arms from Jackson’s waist so that Grandma Marcy could hug him.

  His brother, sister, and the rest of his family soon surrounded Jackson. It felt so good being home again talking, joking, and laughing. He was filled in on what his little nephew was doing, the gossip around town, and talked to his uncles about how well their training center was going. He even found out that Keeneston’s first fire station would be completed within the next couple of months.

  There was the clicking sound of a glass and Jackson looked up to see Riley and Reagan stand up at the back of the café with their husbands on each side of them. Walker, Aiden, Dylan, and Father Ben moved to stand near them. Two on each side as well as Sophie and Abby standing slightly in front of the group, but off to the side. Jackson saw Sophie pull something from her purse and he was pretty sure Abby was holding zip ties. What on earth was going on?

  “We have an announcement,” Riley said as the café quieted down. She looked to her sister and gave a little nod before turning to their husbands and taking an 8 x 10 photo from each of them.

  Riley and Reagan looked at each other and then together they turned the photos as they said, “We’re pregnant!”

  “Is that an alien?” Jackson’s younger cousin, Landon, whispered.

  Still, everyone heard him because the café had collectively sucked in a breath and looked at the soon-to-be grandparents. Soon-to-be Grandma Gemma had a hand to her mouth in surprise but it was Cy everyone had their eyes on. Now the bodyguards made sense. Cy took a step forward as Dylan and Aiden also took a step forward. Cy’s eyes were wild as he froze five feet from the pictures looking back and forth at the two little alien babies.

  “Those who bet on twins have lost,” Jackson heard Poppy whisper in surprise as people groaned at their lost bet.

  “Dad?” Riley asked.

  “Are you okay?” Reagan asked.

  “My babies are having babies,” Cy said slowly as a single tear rolled down his cheek. Jackson could swear he heard it splatter on the floor, the café was so quiet. Then suddenly his head snapped up as his eyes narrowed at Matt and Carter. “What are you two doing letting them stand? Get them a chair! Get them a pillow to prop their feet up on. I swear by all that is holy, if you don’t carry my daughters everywhere, I will kill you! And chocolate! You get them chocolate or whatever else they need. And if you don’t . . .”

  “You’ll kill us,” Matt and Carter said together as they shared a smile before stepping forward and hugging Cy.

  “Knock that off and get them a chair,” Cy said, but Jackson was pretty sure he saw another tear as Gemma was flat-out bawling as she hugged her girls.

  “You chose a good time to come home,” Greer said as she stepped up next to him.

  “You’re not going to say you’re pregnant, are you?” Jackson asked his little sister.

  “Hell, no. I need a man for that. Or at least sperm. I was going to tell you I met your boss.”

  “Don’t put sperm and my boss anywhere near each other, even in a sentence. Why were you meeting him?” Jackson said, turning is full attention to his sister.

  “FBI HRT wants me as a sniper.”

  “Didn’t you just join the FBI, like, yesterday?”

  Greer rolled her hazel eyes at him. Jackson was the only Davies grandson who didn’t have the Davies hazel eyes. Instead, he had his father’s silvery eyes. “It wasn’t yesterday and apparently I am proving myself. So, what is it like?”

  “You’d be the only woman.”

  Greer shrugged. “Nothing new there.”

  “What else are you being offered?”

  “Anything I want. Apparently, I’m a hot commodity. I’m being recruited by everyone after doing the tour with SWAT in New York City.”

  “What other offers do you have?” Jackson asked, impressed with his sister.

  “Anything with three letters and every military branch.”

  “What do you want to do with your talent?” Jackson asked. Greer was the best shot in Keeneston. She was cool under pressure and it was no wonder everyone wanted her. Greer didn’t make mistakes.

  “I want to save people.”

  “Then it’s worth meeting with him. But you have to accept that you won’t be able to save them all. And by the time we get called in, the shit has already hit the fan. We are not there to negotiate. We’re there to storm the barricade and take the hostage-takers out,” Jackson to
ld his sister.

  “Thanks,” Greer told him as she leaned against him and bumped his hip with hers.

  “Hey, Jackson,” his cousin Sydney said, approaching him with her husband, Deacon. “I heard you’re heading to Shadows Landing.”

  “Yes. The Bell family told Harper they knew I needed some time off. They have a cottage they’re going to open as part of their bed-and-breakfast and offered to let me stay there.”

  “How did you work that out? I thought they weren’t ready to open.” Syd asked.

  “Suze Bell said it‘ll be a dry run to see how they can incorporate the cottage into the main house. See if Timmons could handle it or if they needed to hire someone else. They also want to make sure it’s comfortable and if there it anything they need to add.”

  “Sounds relaxing. You need it after your tour."

  Jackson reached out to Sydney to take baby Donovan from her arms. He then reached over to Deacon to take the timid little baby girl, Brynn. “How is this sweetheart doing?” he asked as he looked down into Brynn’s blue eyes.

  “She’s settled in quite well. And growing like a weed. Per the adoption agreement with Daughters of Elizabeth, we fostered and then went through re-evaluation. Last month we finalized the adoption,” Sydney told him. She’d managed to make the tiniest ponytail sticking straight up in the middle of Brynn’s head, giving her the look of a unicorn with a massive bow.

  Jackson looked over at baby Van, as they all called him, and winked at him. “You’ll have to take good care of your little sister.”

  Van reached up and grabbed Jackson’s hair and laughed.

  Greer rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, Brynn. I’ll teach you how to make boys cry.”

  “Talking babies?”

  “Mo-o-om,” Jackson and Greer groaned in unison as their mother joined them.

  “But you look so good holding babies, Jackson.”

  “Did you see these?” Dylan asked, coming forward with his phone.

  “Oh my gosh. That’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.” Paige put her hand over her mouth and looked dreamily at Jackson.

  “What are you showing my mother?” Jackson asked his cousin threateningly.

  Dylan’s smirk grew as he turned the phone around.

  Greer laughed and shook her head. “You make a pretty princess. I have to agree with Mom. You’ll make a great dad.”

  “Where did you get these?” Jackson asked Dylan as he saw the picture of him playing dress-up with Gladys. In the picture, Gladys’s face had been blurred out.

  “I have my sources,” Dylan said as he gave a cocky little smile.

  “Oh yeah?” Jackson smirked back. “Hey, Ahmed. How do you feel about becoming a grandpa?” Jackson yelled across the room at Dylan’s badass father-in-law.

  All that could be heard in the instant silence was the sound of the safety on a gun being flicked off and then Ahmed was staring at Dylan. “Run,” he whispered, though it seemed to echo through the room. Abby, Dylan’s wife, rolled her eyes at her dad while her mom, Bridget, got the same dreamy look that Jackson’s mom had.

  “You’ll pay for this,” Dylan threatened. “But it was worth it, princess.” And then he took off with Ahmed right behind him.

  “Should you go after them?” Jackson’s mom asked Abby.

  She shook her head. “Nah, they’re just bonding. If Dad actually wanted Dylan dead, he’d be dead. I’d never know it had happened and I would never find his body. I take solace in these little public displays of affection between them.”

  “I thought you, Ryan, and Dad were bad. Geez, I’m going to go hug Dad and Ryan now.” Greer looked a little shocked and headed off across the room.

  “You did look good as a princess.” Abby winked before going to talk her mom off the baby ledge.

  Gosh, it was good to be home.

  7

  Evie stood frozen by the bar in Shadows Landing. The television showed that the branch of an international bank had been attacked in Billings, Montana. There were no suspects and no motive known, but Evie knew in her bones that it was her brother. It was too much of a coincidence that she left Billings days ago and then a bombing happened there.

  Security footage came on the screen of a man walking down the street in a ski mask. No one paid him any attention. It was that cold early on a Montana morning that it wasn’t out of place. What made Evie go cold and begin to shake was the backpack the man was wearing. That backpack had been thrown into the bank and the second he cleared the building, it exploded. Glass cracked and shot out of the doors and windows as flames and smoke poured out. People on the street were flung backward and some leapt behind cars or fell flat to the ground while they covered their heads. Seven people were dead inside and thirteen were injured from either the blast in the bank or from secondary wounds caused by flying glass.

  The backpack the man had been wearing had been Evie’s Christmas gift to her stepbrother. It wasn’t an unusual backpack. It was sold at a big box store, but she knew the second she saw it that it was Jon. They’d advanced in the past days from burning bottles to bombs in backpacks. She remembered what she heard. Corporations, banks, police, politicians . . . they were all targets.

  She couldn’t prove it, but she knew her stepbrother was after her. They were following the leads from the few times she’d checked on social media. He was tracking her down and wreaking havoc along the way. Evie wasn’t safe anywhere. What was worse was Jon wasn’t just hurting her. He was hurting complete innocents along the way.

  “Evie,” Harper said, her voice full of worry. “What’s the matter? Are you sick?”

  Evie forced herself to look away from the television and look at her boss. Harper Faulkner gave off a badass vibe, but deep down she was very kind. Evie had only been there less than a week and she already knew that.

  “I’m fine. I just saw the news and feel so bad for all the people and their families.”

  Harper looked grim as she glanced up at the television. “I hate it too. Makes me grateful to live in Shadows Landing. We protect our own here and those cowards behind this bombing would never get the chance to hurt someone. Gator would feed them to Bubba. Or if my cousins from Keeneston were here, they’d take care of them.”

  “Your cousins? The ones I met at the wedding the other night?” Evie asked as she tried to feel better about being there. No one would post on that social media page that they’d seen her, would they?

  “Yup. A good number of them are in law enforcement or military. My cousin Ryan is the head of the Lexington FBI office and his younger brother, Jackson, is with the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. Then their little sister, Greer, is probably joining with the FBI. She hasn’t come out and said it yet, but she was recruited by every organization out there. She’s one hell of a sniper. You met them all at the wedding. Well, except for Jackson. He’s been overseas, but he’s coming to Shadows Landing for vacation soon.” Harper pulled up some pictures from the wedding and showed her. “That’s Ryan, his wife, Sienna, and their son, Ash. Then that’s his sister, Greer.”

  “I remember them. They were very nice. They didn’t seem suspicious like other law enforcement I’ve met.”

  Harper laughed as she put away her phone. “Like Sheriff Fox?”

  Evie nodded. The sheriff here seemed suspicious of everyone, including her, and she didn’t feel safe confiding in him about her brother.

  “Granger is actually a really good guy. Anyway, I’ll introduce you to Jackson when he gets here.” Harper placed some papers in front of Evie. “So, I kinda messed up and my accountant will have a conniption fit if I don’t get these to him today. Here are your tax forms. Could you fill them out for me?”

  Evie looked down at the forms. They wanted her name and address and social security number. “You’ll be a contract employee so you’ll need to handle your part of the taxes. Is that okay?”

  “Sure,” Evie said, her mouth going dry.

  “Great. Just put them on my desk when you’re done.
I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. I have to go see my cousin Trent.” Harper smiled as she tapped the bar twice with her fingers and then headed out.

  Evie looked down at the papers. Harper hadn’t asked for a driver’s license or her social security card. She hated doing it, but when she reached the part for her address, she listed the bar as her permanent address and then she mixed up the first three numbers of her social security number. Maybe then she could claim it was an honest mistake if she was ever caught lying. Also, the first three numbers told people where you were born, so by swapping them it made it harder for her to be traced.

  With shaking hands and a heavy heart, she placed the documents on Harper’s desk. She hated lying, but she was left with no choice. She had to stay hidden until she could convince someone to listen to her about her brother.

  That night Evie went up the back stairs to the small apartment above the bar. She sat down and pulled out her cell phone. She stared at it, debating whether she should call the FBI again. They hadn’t believed her the last time she did. Instead, she curled up, still clutching her phone, and cried. She wasn’t responsible for those deaths, but she still felt guilty. She’d tried to warn them. Why wouldn’t anyone listen to her?

  * * *

  Two days later, Evie headed to the bar. When she opened the door, she saw Harper staring up at the television. Evie’s heart sunk and her stomach almost revolted as she saw the images on the screen.

  A bomb had hit the visitors’ center at a military base in Colorado. Someone had left a backpack in the gift shop. Men, women, and children had been killed. It had been family weekend at the base.

  Evie sank into a chair as Harper looked at her. “This is horrible. Twenty-six dead so far.”

  “Do they know who did it?” Evie asked as a sickening feeling fell over her.

  “No details yet.”

  Evie didn’t need details. She knew it was her stepbrother. Jon was looking for her and attacking people along the way. She knew that base. She’d passed that base on her drive to New Mexico and had gotten something to eat at the fast-food place nearby. She’d done this. She’d made them a target just by being there.