“What happened next?” Paxley asked.
“I ran back into the store, but when I tried to leave, Jarrad came in. I fought him off but by that time, Mr. Anderson had arrived, and he hit me. I woke up in the trunk of a car, and when the car stopped and the trunk opened, I again tried to fight,smashed Jarrad in the face with a lug wrench, but Jarrad threw me to the ground and kicked me twice, and that’s when I hurt my ribs.”
Anger rolled through Eastern’s veins like fire. If the son of a bitch wasn’t already dead, he’d kill him a second time.
Sadie sighed. “We were up here, and they were talking about where they were going to leave my body. I was on Jarrad’s shoulder when I grabbed the gun from his holster and shot him. I also shot Mr. Anderson. Did he…is he dead?”
Eastern’s jaw clenched. “He’s alive.” Not that he’d be upset if the guy died.
The air rushed from her lungs. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“You didn’t kill anyone, honey,” he confirmed.
“I ran and hid, and Jace found me just before you came,” she finished.
Eastern’s gaze shifted to his youngest brother, who stood talking to other officers. He was so fucking grateful to him. He had no idea what Jace had been doing in the forest tonight, especially when no one had even known he was back in town yet, but he didn’t care. If he hadn’t been here, things might have ended very differently.
“Thank you, Miss Sandler.” Paxley glanced at him and pulled out her phone. “Here are photos of the barn on Morris’s land.”
Eastern took the cell from her fingers, the muscles in his forearms tightening at the images. There were large distillery machines and bottles and containers everywhere. How long had they been doing this? Their setup looked well established—and huge. So big that they couldn’t have just been selling at their shop. Did they distribute to other liquor stores in the state?
That was a question for another day. “Thanks for all your work on this, Pax. I need to get Sadie home now.”
She nodded, and just as she walked away, paramedics came off the trail pushing a stretcher with a body bag on it.
Jarrad. His father had already been taken to the hospital while the paramedic looked over Sadie.
Carefully, he lifted Sadie into his arms and carried her to the car. When she was comfortable in the front seat, he stood to find Kayden and Jace behind him, both with grim expressions on their faces.
“She okay?” Kayden asked.
“She will be. A cut on her forehead and we’ll get her ribs x-rayed tomorrow.”
Jace crossed his arms over his chest. “What happened to our safe little town? There were never any murders or kidnappings when I lived here.”
“No shit,” Kayden said under his breath. “There’s been too much going on lately.”
“Well, lucky I’m here to get everything back on track.” Jace grinned.
Of course their baby brotherwouldjoke at a time like this. “What were you doing out there?”
“Checking out my new workplace.” His gaze moved over the dark landscape, and by the look on his brother’s face, Eastern was certain there was more to it than that. Jace liked to come off as the carefree one, but he was deeper than he let people realize.
“Thank you,” Eastern said firmly. “Both of you.”
Jace dipped his head, and Kayden clenched his shoulder. “Get her home, Eastern.”
Sadie lay on her side,eyes open, watching Eastern as he slept. She’d slept for an hour or so, but now she was wide awake, everything that had happened tonight…hell, the last couplenights…playing over in her mind like a bad movie she couldn’t get out of her head.
She’d shot people tonight. Almost been shot herself. And yesterday, she and Avery had been kidnapped.
Yep, she probably wasn’t going to get any more sleep tonight.
Quietly, she rolled to her other side, gritting her teeth to stop the groan from the pain of her ribs. She’d heard fractured ribs hurt, but she’d never thought they would hurtthismuch. Not that she knew for certain they were fractured, but with the amount of pain she was in, even after taking medication, they had to be, didn’t they?
She carefully climbed out of bed, relieved when she didn’t wake Eastern. The poor guy must be so exhausted. There’d been lines under his eyes all night, and the stress…God, there’d been so much lately.
She padded into the kitchen and grabbed some more pain medication and water. As she swallowed the pills, her gaze moved over the shadows in the backyard. It was strange how these huge life events could happen and leave you feeling completely changed, while everything around you remained the same. And she would be forever changed, but she also felt immensely grateful to be living in a town with people she loved. Who worked so hard to protect her.
