Christmas Justice (Carder Texas Connections #7)(54)

He’d taken every precaution he could, because he wanted to survive. He wanted to see if what he’d experienced with Laurel was real. It felt real—almost too good to be true, which made Garrett distrust it all the more—but, oh, how he wanted it to be real.

He’d never thought he could love anyone again, not after his heart had been destroyed when he’d lost Lisa and Ella, but Laurel had put her faith in him, despite the doubts that had to have raced through her mind more than once since they’d met.

They hadn’t known each other long, but Garrett had been dead inside long enough to know what he felt. He had two very good reasons to make it out of this op alive.

He glanced at his watch. One minute before the agreed-upon time.

Garrett slammed the door on the vehicle and walked up the concrete sidewalk. When he reached the familiar front porch he hesitated. He might never come out. And he hadn’t told Laurel how he felt. He’d tried to show her, but he hadn’t been able to say the words. If he died tonight, he didn’t want the words haunting her, but right now he wished he’d said something. He prayed she knew how special she was, how much she deserved to be loved with all a man’s heart and soul.

He wanted her to know what was between them meant something more than two people seeking comfort. She truly was an amazing woman, and he wanted to see her again. He wanted to tell her he loved her.

Garrett pressed his finger on the doorbell.

The front door slowly opened. His shoulders tightened. Silence greeted him from the house. He stepped inside. Behind the door, tears streaming down her face, Laurel McCallister had let him in.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Garrett reached out to her, but Laurel stepped back.

“I invited her.”

Garrett turned around.

“Fiona?”

Fiona Wylde. James’s lover. A woman he knew well. Strike that. Based on the gun she had drawn on him, Fiona was a woman he’d thought he knew well.

“You’re a difficult man to kill.” She nodded at a man standing in the shadows. “Disarm him, Léon.”

A man gave a quick nod. He walked over to Garrett, patted him down and removed the Beretta from his back, the knife from his ankle holster and the small pistol hidden within his boot.

Léon met Garrett’s gaze and patted his other boot, right over where a second knife was hidden. What the hell?

“Cuff him and bring them both downstairs. We’ll have a family reunion.”

Garrett slid a glance over at Laurel. “Damn it. Why are you here?” She was supposed to be safe, with Daniel, with CTC.

“I found a microdot Ivy left. It contains proof of your innocence and my father’s, too,” she said, her gaze resigned. “I called Fiona thinking she’d help us.”

“Oh, darlings, after tonight, you’ll never have to worry again.” Fiona led them down to the basement. She hit a code in a panel on the concrete wall. A door to a small room opened up.

James McCallister sat slumped over in a chair, his arms and legs tied in place. He couldn’t lift his head.

Garrett saw the flicker of James’s eyes, but his clothes were in tatters, his face bruised. Burns smoldered his pants.

“Dad,” Laurel shouted.

“Aunt Laurel?” Molly’s cries sounded from behind a door. “Let me out! Please, let me out!”

“Tie them to the chairs,” Fiona ordered. “We end this today.”

Léon shoved Garrett toward a steel chair and pushed down on his head, indicating for him to sit. The man took nylon rope and secured his hands and feet. A second man did the same to Laurel.

“Why do this, Fiona?” Garrett asked, clenching his muscles against the ropes. He needed room to work if he was going to escape and get Laurel, Molly and James to safety.

“I’m not having a reveal-my-inner-motivations conversation with you, Garrett, because there are none. I’ll make it simple. I did it for the money. A lot of money.”

“He’s secure,” Léon said. “What about the little girl in the closet?”

“Leave her.”

Fiona stalked up the stairs, then whirled around. “I don’t want any evidence left behind. Everyone in that room is dead or missing. They aren’t to be found.” She paused. “And, Léon, this is why I smuggled you into the country. Those explosives should take the house down. Get it down so it’s too hot to find even a fragment of bone.”

“Where’s your loyalty?” Laurel shouted. “To my father, if no one else. He loved you.”

“Ah, love and loyalty. How quaint. Almost as heartwarming as Léon’s amusing use of handcuffs.” Fiona looked down from her perch on the stairs. Her eyes hardened. “Haven’t you learned there is no loyalty? The powerful feed off the powerful. And heroes die for nothing. The only thing you have is yourself and your needs. You should have remembered that, Laurel.”

Léon and his friend followed Fiona up the stairs. The door closed behind them.

Garrett palmed the key that Léon had placed in his hand. Twisting his wrists, he maneuvered free of the handcuffs, then pulled out of his other boot the knife...the one Léon had left.

Laurel stared at him. “How?”

“Daniel’s inside guy. We don’t have much time.”