“Holy shit,” one of the sheriff’s deputies gasped. “He’s not alone in there. Look!”
From behind Knox, a frail woman in soiled, tattered clothing stepped forward. Another followed. Then another, her arm sheltering the thin shoulders of a crying preteen girl. More females emerged, one by one, all of them looking haggard and abused.
The most recent victims of the Parrishes’ sick ring of terror.
“Knox.” Leni sucked in a stunned breath. Then she ran to him.
He caught her in a brief embrace, then took her hand in his. They walked out together, leading the group of traumatized survivors.
“Hold your fire,” one of the law officers commanded. “Let them all come out.”
The unit obeyed . . . all except Amos.
On a mad bellow, he raised his weapon and squeezed the trigger.
A rapid stream of bullets tore across the distance—only to collide with the unseen barrier of Leni’s gift.
She wrapped the whole group in her shield. Knox and herself, the terrified women and girls who had already endured more than anyone should have to bear.
Amos’s spent rounds dropped to the snow like metal raindrops.
And in that next instant, he dangled aloft in the vise of Knox’s fist.
“You did know,” Knox growled as he held the sheriff two inches off the ground. “You’ve been part of this for decades, along with your father before you. You helped the Parrishes bring their victims over the border. You took your cut out of the flesh of innocents.”
“Lies!” Amos wailed. “It’s all lies!”
“Ask any of those females if it’s a lie,” Knox snarled. “Who else was in on this with you?”
“Knox,” Leni said, glancing around her at the near dozen women who watched in silence. A few of them had lifted their fingers to point at two of Amos’s fellow officers.
They pointed at Amos too, united in their condemnation.
While one of the deputies ordered some of the men to apprehend the pair who’d been identified, Leni’s pride surged.
She wasn’t only proud of her incredible mate and his actions which had saved so many lives tonight, but for the resilience she saw in the faces of the women and girls who were getting their first taste of freedom, of triumph, over such an unspeakable suffering.
It would take time, but they were alive. They were going to be okay.
Thanks to Knox, they all would be.
A pair of big officers strode over to Amos with grave purpose. The one in charge nodded in approval, clapping Knox’s shoulder in acknowledgment. “We’ll take it from here.”
Knox let go of Amos, turning him over to his colleagues who immediately slapped their former commander into handcuffs and led him away.
Only then did Leni let go of the cry that was trapped in her throat. Then she strode forward, into her mate’s open arms.
CHAPTER 30
Knox pressed a kiss to the top of Leni’s head as the unit from the sheriff’s department wrapped up at the scene.
Amos Barstow had been put into the backseat of a squad car along with the two other officers implicated in his crimes. Also nearby, a pair of ambulances had arrived a few minutes earlier to look after the women and girls who’d been freed from their imprisonment inside a cage the Parrishes had constructed under the floor of the lumberyard outbuilding. Now the group of survivors were seated inside the heat of the vehicles, wrapped in blankets and being tended by a team of paramedics.
Standing next to Knox, Leni was wrapped in a blanket too, holding Riley inside the warmth with her.
One of the emergency medical staff came over to check on them. The male attendant had already given Riley a snack and some water. Now, his concern was on Knox. “You’re sure there’s nothing we can do for you, sir? Sounds like you took on some heavy fire tonight.”
“I’m fine,” Knox replied.
