Page 75 of Her Loving Hero

Ben put it on speaker before handing it over, continuing to berate his younger sibling.

“Enough already,” Wyatt said. “You keep asking questions, but never give him a chance to answer.”

“Luke, this is Wyatt. Is Kyle okay?”

“We’re both fine. We just needed to get away from Dad. After finding out what he did to you, I was going to make sure he went down. I wanted his ass in prison, hopefully the same place he used to be a guard. They hate that.” Luke’s laugh was brutal.

“So, what did you do?” Ben asked.

“I sent in a second report, only this time to the sheriff’s department instead of the police department. He must not have ever found out about the first one, based on how batshit crazy he went when he found out about this one.”

“Define batshit crazy,” Wyatt asked calmly.

“Said the only way this report could die down, was for me to die down. He had an unholy gleam in his eye. I ran out to my car and he followed with a bat and slammed the shit out of my windshield. Ergo, batshit crazy.”

“And Kyle? How’d you get him out of there?” Wyatt asked.

“I picked him up from school. I figured now was the time for us to use our escape hatch. Now if you can just wire us some money, they have a Western Union here, we can take a bus to San Diego.”

“Do you have your I.D.’s to fly?” Wyatt asked.

He heard some talking. “I do, but Kyle’s is at home.”

Wyatt turned to Emily who was walking back into the Batcave. “Emily can you check flight times to-”

“Say the word and I’ll book the flight into South Bend tonight; it will get you there tomorrow morning. My thumb is over the flight.”

God Bless this woman.

“Book it.”

“I’ll also wire you some money so that you can find a place to stay near there. Someplace safe and clean,” Wyatt said.

“You’ll be arriving at six-thirty in the morning,” she said.

“Perfect.”

* * *

Wyatt was feelinga whole hell of a lot better walking through the South Bend International Airport then when he had limped through it all injured to go back years ago. This time he would be leaving with his brothers.

Emily was missing her calling at the bookstore, she was a Wunderkind as a travel agent. She’d gotten the boys into a nice hotel, paid for the Uber from her phone for them, arranged for his car rental, and the three of them were slotted to fly back in three hours.

Easy.

Breezy.

When he got to the lobby of the econo-lodge, he stopped dead in his tracks. Then Kyle shot forward and about knocked him over with a hug.

“I used to call you Wy Wy.”

The kid was tall and gangly, but he hugged with the strength of a polar bear. Luke held back and casually sauntered over. Typical teenager. Probably used off-color pick-up lines to woo women too. Then he grinned at Wyatt, and he knew that his kid brother was far cooler than the Brant’s of the world.

Wyatt held out his remaining arm, and Luke slipped in, and then Wyatt had his boys in his arms. He had to force himself not to cry.

“Let’s get you out of here,” he finally whispered.

“We’re going to the house?” Kyle asked nervously.