Ro started to rise, but instead found herself caught up against a hard chest. “Jesus, babe, don’t fucking scare me like that again. I will tan your ass until you can’t sit for a week,” Zach breathed, pressing a hard kiss to her temple.
“Are you deaf, asshole? Don’t you fucking touch her!”
Ro turned in the safety of Zach’s arms and beamed when she saw her sister, dressed in camo, armed to the teeth and ready to start shooting. Again. “It’s okay, E. They’re okay. Weapons down.”
“Then you better get your ass in here, because we’ve got a big fucking problem.” At her words, Ro noted Erica’s deathly pale face. Her sister disappeared back into the house, leaving what remained of the door open. Ronny’s shotgun had obliterated over half the wooden panel. Ro pushed away from Zach and headed toward the house.
“Whoa, sweetheart, I’m not letting you get out of arm’s reach for a long fucking time,” Zach said as he snagged her arm. “We go together.”
“This one’s dead,” Jamie called from the vicinity of the tractor. Ro didn’t need anyone to tell her that Len, who was missing most of his head, was also dead. Graham flanked her other side and they headed to the house as a unit.
“What happened?” Ro asked as they climbed the wooden stairs to the covered front porch. Erica didn’t have to answer, because Rowan caught sight of their dad. The right shoulder of his black t-shirt was shredded and blood pooled on the worn hickory floor. Erica looked up, tears streaming down her face. “Do I put pressure on it? There’s wood stuck in it.Shit. I don’t know what to do.”
Graham knelt next to her father’s unconscious body and yanked open his pack, pulling out a black plastic package. He tore it open with his teeth and extracted what looked like a white gauzy sponge. He applied the sponge directly to the wound. “Zach, give me yours and some bandages.” Zach was already digging through his bag and tearing open a similar package, which Graham pressed to the exit wound. Pads of gauze followed as Ro realized the sponges had to contain clotting agents, because the flow of blood was already slowing. Graham looked up, his dark gaze trapping Ro’s. “We need to get your dad back to Beau. ASAP.”
Ro’s heart dropped as she considered the trip back to the ranch on foot. He’d never make it. Her heart clenched to think she might’ve spoken her last words to her father.It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. And it was her fault.
“You got a doctor?” Erica demanded.
“Yeah, but he’s over a day out on foot.”
“We’ve got wheels. We’ve just been waiting for Ro to get home so we could bug out. We’re all packed and ready,” Erica said. “So let’s go.”
Graham nodded to Jamie. “Go with her, check it out, and see if you can bring the vehicle around so we can load him.”
Jamie followed Erica as she led him toward the door that opened into the garage. Ro looked to Graham, his hands still pressing the bandages against the wound, and then to Zach, who knelt beside her.
“Thank you. For coming after me. I know …” Ro’s words trailed off as Graham flashed her an intimidating look.
“Now’s neither the time nor the place. We’ll discuss it later.” He shifted his attention to Ro’s dad, effectively ending the conversation.
Zach looped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him. He whispered in her ear, “It’ll all work out, babe.” He paused before adding, “Anything you need to get out of the house before we head out? Because I don’t think you’re coming back.”
Graham had to admit that he was be impressed by the level of Mr. Callahan’s preparedness. His vehicle of choice was a 1965 Ford diesel crew-cab pick-up truck. It was plenty old enough not to use electronics that could be affected by an EMP and could also run on biodiesel. A steel topper that Mr. Callahan had hand-fabricated covered the bed of the truck. It added a ton of weight, but it provided cover for the supplies in the back and featured small gun ports that could easily slide open and shut. Graham, Zach, Ro, and Erica crammed into the front bench seat, and Jamie sat in the back, where Mr. Callahan was laid out. He tried to keep the unconscious man as still as possible as they followed Erica’s directions down every back road and two-track to make their way southwest. It would have been faster to travel the main roads, but any road worth traveling was largely impassible. Cars, which may never run again, were lined up as if stuck in a perpetual traffic jam. The dirt roads and two-tracks were bumpy, but trying to dodge the cars would be worse. Jamie had wrapped pressure bandages around Mr. Callahan’s shoulder and upper torso to keep the bleeding under control and the clotting sponges in place, but with every rut, Graham feared the bleeding would start again. He carefully hauled ass while following Erica’s uncanny sense of direction. The two-track spilled out onto a gravel road, and Graham eased off the gas and waited for Erica’s next direction.
“Shit. I don’t know which way we should go,” Erica said, craning her head right and left before studying the compass bobbing on the dash. “Chances are there are more cars if we head west down this road, but I don’t like the idea of going east because we’ll end up backtracking.” She looked to Graham, chewing her lip. “Ideas, big man?”
The corners of Graham’s mouth twitched. Little Rambo Girl, as Jamie had taken to calling her, was one-of-a-kind.Just like her sister.Graham shut the thought down as soon as it entered his head. He reminded himself that she’d walked out on them, and it didn’t fucking matter if she was one-of-a-kind or one-in-a-million. She’d made her choice. Although, watching her clutch her sister’s hand and shoot worried looks at her father, he was starting to see things more clearly. You don’t back a desperate woman into a corner and expect her not to react. Graham couldn’t help but think about the night his mother had walked out of their shitty motel room in Cincinnati. He wished she’d had a more compelling reason than just looking for her next fix. Hell, Graham wished she’d thought her son was a compelling reason to stay. The old bitterness was unshakeable. And Zach wondered why Graham had never been in a hurry to find a long-term woman to tuck into bed between them. He pushed the thought aside and focused on the task at hand. “We need to make time. Let’s head west and take our chances. We can’t be too far from the ranch.”
Erica’s expression was determined as she nodded, reaching for the map on the dash. “Show me again exactly where we’re headed. I’ll get us there.”
Ro forced herself to release the death grip she had on Erica’s hand. It was like her subconscious was telling her not to let go or else she might lose her sister forever. They’d finally made it. Travis swung one of the main gates open as they approached. As soon as they were in range Zach had radioed the command post to advise Ty of the situation. Graham increased the speed as they headed toward the steel walls that had meant both safety and captivity to Ro. Right now, those walls looked like her father’s salvation … and maybe, her future? The possibility was hard to believe given that Graham had barely spoken a word to her since he, Zach, and Jamie had shown up in all of their commando-glory to take down Len and Ronny in her dad’s driveway. A section of the steel wall slid open revealing the compound that Ro had snuck out of only the morning before. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
Ty had promised that Beau would be ready and waiting. Ro hoped like hell that the ornery bastard would be able to help her dad. He’d woken a few times during the ride, which hadn’t been nearly as long as Ro feared. Even with the painfully slow pace, it had only taken a little over an hour.
Graham drove straight through the center of the compound and pulled up along the front of the clinic. Beau was standing in the doorway, hands already gloved. Jonah stood next to him holding a backboard. Erica and Graham shoved open the front doors of the cab, and they all climbed out. Erica opened the rear passenger side door and waved Jonah over. Jamie, Graham, and Jonah worked seamlessly as Beau directed them to move her dad into the clinic. When Ro tried to follow, Zach stopped her at the door.
“You should wait out here. Your sister, too. You need to let Beau work and not get in his way.”
Ro pushed against Zach’s outstretched arm. “I need to be in there.”
Jamie was dragging a screeching Erica from the clinic. “Let me go! You can’t keep me out.”
Jamie closed the clinic door with his free hand, leaving Jonah, Beau, and Graham inside.
“He’ll be fine. They’ve got it covered. Just give them some space,” Jamie said.
Ro hoped he was right, because she really, really needed her dad to be okay. The alternative was unacceptable. Every girl needed her daddy when the world fell apart. Especially since the last time she’d seen him, she’d been distracted, worrying about work and counting down the hours until she could safely sneak away to put out all the fires that had sprung up in her absence.And where had that gotten her?Ro tamped down the resentment. She needed to let it go. But it was hard when she looked at what she’d sacrificed for the sake of her ambition: time with her family, the people who mattered.