Treacherous Intent (14 page)

“He cares about those, too.” Liam’s blue gaze was steady on her face, not self-righteous or judgmental, but kind. He was certainly different from other Christians she’d known.

She was embarrassed at how she’d lashed out at his faith. What had he ever done to her to deserve that kind of derision? “It’s just that...you make it sound like you and God are best buds. It’s strange to me.” And why couldn’t God have been best buds with her? Was there something wrong with her? Was it because she hadn’t made good choices in her life? Was she being punished?

She sighed. What was she doing, inferring some deep theology from Liam’s innocent words?

“He is my best bud,” Liam said slowly. “It’s what it’s supposed to mean to be a Christian.”

“Not to any of the other Christians I’ve known.”

“Well, Christians aren’t perfect. If they were, they wouldn’t need God.”

That hadn’t really occurred to her. The conversation was getting uncomfortable. She made it a policy not to talk about religion with people, mostly because she didn’t want to think about religion herself. She cleared her throat. “Anyway, I think I found Joslyn’s connection to the Tumibays.”

Liam took the change in conversation in stride. “Oh?”

“I found several pictures of Lamar Garcia on social media. He posed in a few photos at a party with a guy named Daniel. But what’s interesting is that in a different photo at the same party, Daniel is posing with a girl named Faye Torres. It looks like they’re dating. Faye’s name sounded familiar, so I looked at my notes on Joslyn. Faye is Joslyn’s cousin.”

“Joslyn was dating a Bagsic and her cousin is dating a Tumibay? What are the odds of that?”

“I think that Tomas pursued Joslyn—I don’t think she actively wanted to date a gang member. Faye, on the other hand, looks like she’s been wanting to be involved with the Tumibays for a while. From what I could find on her, she looks like she attended a lot of parties with other Tumibays and flirted around before meeting Daniel.”

“Why would she want to do that?” Liam looked faintly disgusted.

Elisabeth shrugged. “Some women like the power associated with gang members. Their confidence makes them attractive.”

“Do we know that Joslyn would go to her cousin for help? What if they weren’t close?”

“They were close enough.” Elisabeth clicked back to the photo of Joslyn at her workplace. “Do you see this user who commented, Fairydust9437? That’s Faye. I saw her use it on another website. She wrote here, ‘Nice photo, Joslyn! Is that Tomas? Wow, he’s a cutie.’”

“So she knew Joslyn was dating a Bagsic. If Joslyn was betrayed by her boyfriend, I could see her jumping ship to another gang for protection, especially if her cousin had ties to it.”

“But then why didn’t Joslyn stay with Tumibays? Why are the Tumibays after her now?”

Liam’s face grew dark. “Even if she said she wanted to align herself with them, the Tumibays might be ruthless enough that they’d turn around and sell her back to the Bagsics. She could have run from them to protect herself.”

“And obviously Faye doesn’t know where Joslyn is, or they wouldn’t have needed to question me.”

“We can’t question Faye about Joslyn, either. There’s too big a risk that she’d betray us to her boyfriend’s gang.”

At that moment, Debra appeared in the doorway, her face white. “You have to do something.”

“What is it?” Liam rose to his feet. Elisabeth also stood.

Debra pointed toward the back of the house. “I was washing dishes at the sink, and I saw... I just saw two strange men sneak into the backyard.”

TEN

A
t Debra’s words, Liam’s entire body shocked to life. “Debra, go through the house and shut off the lights.” He grabbed his firearm from his laptop case.

Liam headed for the kitchen and snapped off the light. There was a window at the sink, but there was also a large window in a breakfast nook, opposite the table. He positioned himself beside the larger window and peeked out.

Dusk was falling—he hadn’t realized it was so late. However, the Christmas lights he’d noticed earlier gave off a soft glow.

Elisabeth came up behind him so silently that he didn’t realize she was there until she spoke. “Are there men out there?” She also had her gun, her body tense as she positioned herself on the other side of the window and looked out. “I don’t see them.”

“Where’s Debra?”

“I told her to take Ryan into the study and hide under the desk.”

They watched the backyard, and Liam’s eyes gradually became accustomed to the dimness. They waited, and Liam was about to give up when he suddenly saw a shadow move between two fir trees.

“There are people out there,” Elisabeth whispered. “I’ll call 9-1-1. I didn’t want to do it earlier in case it was a false alarm.”

She grabbed the phone in the kitchen and made the call. Liam only listened with half an ear as he scanned the backyard for any more movement. Switching off all the house lights must have alerted the intruders because they weren’t making any moves toward the house.

Elisabeth came back to the window. “We only have to hold them off until the police arrive.”

“Brady’s house is on the edge of Geyserville, so if there aren’t any cruisers nearby, it might take some time.”

“Does the house have a security alarm? Maybe if we set it, the noise will scare them off.”

Liam shook his head. His brother hadn’t gotten around to getting an alarm system yet.

“How do you want to do this?” she asked.

“If I was going to approach the house, I could use the trees as cover until I reached the edge of the patio, then make a run for the side door. Or I could run across the lawn to the other side, then take cover in the bushes, which would hide me almost all the way to the sliding glass door at that corner of the house.”

“So we wait to see what they do? How many are there?”

“As far as I can tell, only two. If they split up, I’ll take the sliding glass door, you take the side door. It’s in the laundry room.” The laundry room had several spaces where a small figure could hide in wait. He wouldn’t fit in those places, but she could.

She nodded. Then she holstered her gun. “We shouldn’t use our firearms.”

Because of the danger of stray bullets for Debra and Ryan. He grabbed one of Debra’s kitchen knives and she took a cast-iron skillet.

They waited, watching the backyard. The minutes ticked by. Each one felt like an hour. Liam forced his heart rate to slow, become steady. Finally, they saw one man dart across the exposed area of the lawn while a shadow moved between the trees toward the side door. They were splitting up.

Liam hurried to the living room, avoiding the windows so the men outside wouldn’t see him. Hopefully he could take care of the man there quickly so he could help Elisabeth with the other one.

Or maybe
she’d
take care of her attacker first and come to
Liam’s
rescue. He wished he’d seen her when she’d fought Lamar Garcia at the gas station, but he’d heard her describe breaking his arm when the police officer took her statement.

He hid in the shadows of the living room, with a clear view of the sliding glass door, but unseen from outside. He didn’t have long to wait before a man’s figure appeared. He studied the glass door, then laid something on the ground—his gun. He grabbed the door handle and gave a powerful jerk. The first time didn’t work, since the sliding glass door was relatively new and tight in the frame, but his second attempt lifted the door off the track so that he could drag it open.

He was still unarmed.

Liam rushed forward and tackled him, hurtling them both out onto the flagstone patio. They hit the stone with a jaw-clacking thud, and he lost his knife.

The man lashed out at Liam. He was quick and wiry. Liam blocked an elbow to his head and managed a solid blow to the man’s torso that made his attacker pause.

Liam rose onto his knees and rained a hail of punches to the man’s head. He blocked the first few, but then his defense started to sag as Liam’s attacks connected with his head.

And then suddenly a heavy body crashed into him, sending Liam flying sideways. His head bounced hard off the flagstones, making stars explode in his vision.

There was a third man.

The weight across his torso and legs indicated a man who was heavier than Liam, but the attacker was also slower. Liam kicked out with a leg and connected with the man’s thigh, then rolled away, trying to still his spinning head. The third man grabbed at his legs, holding him on the ground. Liam struggled and tried to kick again, but the man’s meaty hands held him fast.

So he crunched up into a sitting position and swung at the man’s unprotected head. He couldn’t see well in the dimness, but his fists landed on a fleshy cheek, an ear, his nose, and smashed into the man’s mouth. The man let go of Liam and rolled away.

Liam sprang to his feet, but froze when a voice said, “Hold it right there.”

The smaller man held his gun pointed at Liam. He recognized him now as Lamar Garcia, the man from the gas station, in the leather jacket and with the fishhook scar on his face. However, Liam didn’t recognize the larger man, who got clumsily to his feet. He was a mountain of a man, with wide shoulders, beefy arms and a barrel torso.

“You said it was only the woman and the baby home,” the larger man said to his partner, his voice deep and sulky with accusation.

“I checked the garage,” Garcia snapped. “They must have parked somewhere else.”

But the advantage of surprise hadn’t done Liam much good. How long before the police arrived? Liam had thought they’d want to capture him and ask him questions, but the man held the gun at him, face tense. He looked as if he was going to shoot. Would he risk the neighbors hearing the gunshot?

Liam stared down the barrel of the gun. The man was close; he wouldn’t miss. And then Liam felt a wave of peace wash over him. The situation was in God’s hands, not his.

He exhaled slowly, and somehow knew he would be okay.

“Freeze!” It was Elisabeth’s voice.

Liam turned and saw her coming from around the side of the house. Her hair was wild around her head, but her hands were steady as she aimed her firearm at the two men. “Drop the gun.” She must have taken out the other attacker.

“Drop yours or I’ll shoot him,” Garcia said, his hand steady as he held his gun.

There was a wavering in her determined face.

“Don’t think about me,” Liam told her. “Just don’t let them get away.”

And then he heard it—the faint wail of a police siren.

“Drop the gun,” Elisabeth repeated.

This time, it was Garcia who wavered.

“Come on!” a man’s voice shouted behind Elisabeth, and she spun around. The man she had taken out at the side door must have come to, because he staggered around the corner, but he yelped and jumped back when he saw Elisabeth pointing her gun at him.

“Let’s go,” the big man said to Garcia.

“The police aren’t here yet. She’s right there—”

“We have to go or the car’ll be trapped in the driveway.” The large man turned and ran around the side of the house, heading toward the front. Elisabeth’s attacker followed him.

Garcia shot Liam an angry, frustrated look, then he also turned and ran.

Liam raced after him.

Garcia turned and fired back a wild gunshot. Liam ducked and swerved, taking cover behind the corner of the house. He peeked around before pursuing the men.

He saw headlights swing across the front of the house, illuminating the trees that lined the driveway. The police already? But there were no flashing lights and he could still hear the sirens at a distance.

And then he realized.
Brady.

He hadn’t told Brady not to come home.

“Brady!” His shout scraped against his throat.

“Hey!” It was his brother’s voice.

Liam turned the corner of the house in time to see Brady throw himself at Garcia as he ran past. The two flew farther down the driveway, rolling on the ground, and Liam saw the man’s gun go flying.

Brady had been a wrestler in high school, and recently he’d been going to the mixed martial arts gym with Liam. He grappled with the man with powerful arms and landed a few punches to the man’s side.

Liam had almost reached them when Garcia slashed out and Brady jerked backward with a cry. The faint light glinted gray off the blade of a knife.

“Brady!” Liam ran to where his brother lay curled on the ground. He spared only a glance for Garcia as he fled into the gang’s getaway car.

The sirens were coming closer, but they wouldn’t arrive before the men had exited Brady’s long driveway.

Liam knelt in front of his brother. Seconds later, Elisabeth appeared at his side.

“Brady, are you all right?”

Brady grimaced and rolled toward him. The pale sleeve of his button-down shirt was soaked with a wet, warm patch, dark and running from his shoulder to his elbow.

Blood.

* * *

Liam applied pressure to the knife wound on his brother’s shoulder with shaking hands. It had been one thing to have a gun pointed directly at him; it was another thing entirely to watch Brady bleed all over his driveway.

The strange peace he’d felt only moments ago, when the man had aimed the gun at him, had completely deserted him now. He would do everything he could to stop these men, to prevent something like this from happening again.

The police came up the driveway, sirens screaming. As an officer walked toward them, the front door opened and Debra ran out of the house with Ryan in her arms. “Help us! Help!” The officer went to intercept her.

“Call the paramedic!” Liam shouted.

A second officer nodded and spoke into his radio.

His brother’s eyes were open but bright with pain, stress lines visible along the side of his mouth.

Liam forced himself to speak with a teasing tone. “You’re such a wimp.”

Brady grimaced, but then he smiled. “I’ve had worse. Remember the time Shaun dared me to climb on that tractor and I fell and gashed open my leg?”

Liam winced. “I can’t believe we were ever that stupid.”

When the paramedics arrived, they worked on Brady while Liam and Elisabeth gave their statements to the officers.