Before either Nally or Jude could answer, Nick’s shout sounded from the far corner of the house. “I see him! He’s running toward the forge!”
“Let’s move!” the lead officer shouted to his men.
The policemen all jumped into action, and the Hawthorne family, including Nally and Jude, moved with them.
TWENTY
Jude’s entire head throbbed,not just his nose. His body ached from being slammed to the floor, especially since not all of the bruises from his tumble in Scotland had healed fully. He felt like shit and really just wanted to call an ambulance so he could be taken somewhere with top-rate painkillers, but he wasn’t about to leave Nally’s side when Quentin was so close to justice.
“We’re going to need you all to stand back,” Officer Sparks, the officer in charge of the operation told the family as the combined force of policemen and Hawthornes descended on the cluster of workshops that had existed on the estate since medieval times and which were used for Hawthorne House’s yearly medieval faire in summers. “Let the professionals handle this.”
Officer Sparks had a point. When the entire Hawthorne family stood together, they formed a small army. Everyone was there, from Robert and Janice to Rhys and Early, and all the way through the ranks of cousins and couples, ending with Nally and Jude, the youngest of the bohemian brood.
Jude wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Even if he did feel like hell frosted over.
“Come out with your hands where we can see them, Mr. Quentin,” Officer Sparks called out, raising his gun and pointing it at the forge.
Jude hadn’t ever seen a gun in person in his life, and based on the feeling seeing it now gave him, he hoped he never saw one again. The fact that Officer Sparks was armed at all said they were in a worst-case scenario. He clutched Nally’s hand tightly and pressed his shoulder into Nally’s. He didn’t care how codependent they were or what anyone thought about them, Nally was his strength, and right now, he needed all the strength he could get.
“The forge is surrounded,” Officer Sparks called out again as his men circled around to seal off the outbuilding from all sides. “Come out quietly and we’ll talk. Let’s get this situation sorted.”
Jude humphed. “Why not invite the bastard to tea while they’re at it?”
Nally shushed him, then whispered, “He’s more likely to give up if everyone remains calm.”
Jude sent him a doubtful, sideways look. Nally always was an optimist. Aside from the fact that they’d just established that the two of them were so much alike that they caused disasters instead of thinking calmly, he knew he would never have the patience Nally did.
As it turned out, he was more right than Nally in that particular situation.
“We’re moving forward now,” Officer Sparks said loudly, giving Quentin a warning about what was to come.
Whatever doubt Jude had about whether Quentin was in the forge at all was laid to rest when a dark shadow moved by the far end of the forge itself. Jude felt Nally catch his breath, and a moment later, Quentin attempted to make a run for it. Hedarted out the back corner of the forge, looking like he would run straight in the direction of the small woods that blocked the workshops from the meadow.
He didn’t make it more than a handful of yards. Quentin hadn’t counted on the forge being surrounded, or on the number of officers who were there to deal with him. He tried to dodge between two of the uniformed men, nearly broke free of one, but was tackled by the other. And despite the family being told to stay back, Nick had rushed in to help the officer who tackled Quentin to the ground. The man was built like the blacksmith he was, and as far as Jude could tell, his muscle helped.
“Nally, help me!” Quentin’s muffled cries sounded over the family’s sighs of relief and quickly barked orders from Officer Sparks. “Nally, they don’t understand! Tell them we’re together!”
“I recommend that you stand back and don’t answer the man, Mr. Hawthorne,” Officer Sparks told Nally before moving forward.
“I don’t want anything to do with him,” Nally said, his voice hollow and haunted.
The air seemed to settle, like the danger had passed. The policemen all circled around Quentin at the far end of the forge, then wrenched him to his feet. Jude could just barely see Quentin’s hands cuffed behind his back.
“Let’s get you two out of here,” Ryan said, gesturing for Jude and Nally to head back up to the house.
“Oh my Goddess, it’s the man who was here yesterday,” Janice cried out when Quentin was walked past the family group. Quentin glanced toward her and scowled. Janice burst into tears. “Oh, my baby. Nally, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
Jude had to step out of the way as Nally’s mum threw her arms around him and wept on his shoulder.
“It’s okay, Mum,” Nally insisted, his voice rough, as they all continued to walk back toward the house. “We’re all okay, and it looks like Quentin will be brought to justice.”
They made it up to the house and the public parking lot, where someone had opened the gates so the police cars could drive right up to the path. A pair of officers were looking over one of the cars that remained in the lot, and as they arrived at the path, another officer came out of the house with Quentin’s black bag.
“It looks like he was planning a lot more than to talk things through,” that officer said, looking grim.
Jude turned away as the man pulled something out of the bag with his gloved hands to show Officer Sparks. Whatever it was, several of the Hawthornes around him gasped or exclaimed wordlessly.
“There’s evidence in his car as well,” a different officer reported. “It definitely looks like he had violence in mind.”
