Page 53 of Moon's Promise

“What’s your name?” Knox asked.

“Cielle.”

“Benie, can you hear me?” Knox shouted out.

Benie remained silent.

“Either Benie’s dead or he’s not answering; which is it, Cielle?”

When Cielle didn’t reply, Moon assumed the fucker was still alive. Knox did, too.

“Benie, you’re surrounded. There are only two ways this is going to end. Either you can come out with your hands up, or you’re going to die along with the rest of the men with you.”

“Go fuck yourself!”

A shout was then heard from inside the house.

“You try to come in here, you’ll set this whole mountain on fire. I bet you don’t want to be responsible for killing two women, and one of them pregnant, either!”

Knox gave a harsh bark of laughter. “You bet wrong, motherfucker. They’re nothing but collateral damage to me. Their deaths are going to be on your conscience, not mine. You think I’m going to lose sleep over some pissants polluting my town? Fuck no! The only reason I’m giving you a fucking chance to save yourself is because I left the camera on in my vehicle. If I hadn’t, you’d already be dead. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not alone anymore, you stupid fucker, so come out, or the next thing you’re going to feel is your body being blasted to hell.”

Did he just see the midwife give Knox a reproachful glare? If he were Knox, he would have …

Moon took a steadying breath. Why did that woman get under his skin so fucking badly?

“We’re coming out!” Benie yelled out. “Rob, Miller, come out!”

Moon and the brothers stayed in hiding until all the men came out, and one of the women.

“Is that all of you?” Knox roared.

“Yeah!”

“Where’s the other woman?”

“She’s in the bedroom. Eryn’s in too bad of a shape to come out,” Cielle spoke up. “You might need to call an ambulance now that she doesn’t have to protect that son of a bitch.” The woman disdainfully glared at the body lying beside Knox’s Bronco.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Moon saw Larissa use the Bronco door to lift herself to her feet. She then hobbled over to the other vehicle and pulled out a crutch.

He was amazed as she navigated herself around the men and rocks to reach the porch. Then, seeing what she was about to do, Moon rushed toward her, managing to block her path before she went in the door.

“You can’t go in there until it’s checked out.”

Determined, she didn’t back away. “I’m going inside to check on Eryn. Get out of my way.”

“Give me a couple of minutes.” He tried to get her to think rationally instead of with her heart.

“I don’t know what condition she’s in; a couple of minutes might be all she has, so move!”

Moon didn’t bother arguing with her.

“Rider!” he called out.

Rider stepped forward to lift her away from the door. When she would have tried to rush forward, Rider blocked her.

“Stay here until Moon comes back.”

Moon didn’t wait to hear Larissa’s answer. Going room to room, he checked the large, two-story house out.

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