Page 82 of Harrison Hyde and the Runaway Bride

Beckett turned to the guard. “Where is my scientist?”

“Went to get something out of the SUV, sir.”

Beckett smacked the guy upside the head with an open hand. “Idjit! Get out after her and don’t bring her back.”

“Sir!” The guard hurried out the rear exit, and Beckett went in the other direction, out of the kitchen and into the front part of the saloon, roaring for his men and leaving Harrison’s door wide open.

“Hey, wait!” Harrison followed Beckett into the barroom. The open bottle was on the hardwood, the glasses lying on their sides around it. An extinguished half-cigar rested in a glass ashtray the same color as the booze.

“Mr. Beckett,” Harrison said, “IneedCarrie, I can’t do it alone!”

“Carrie sealed her fate when she sneaked outta here.” Beckett went to a window, parted a curtain, and looked out. Harrison walked a few steps nearer, as careful as if he were approaching a coiled cobra, until he could see the three big guys walking around the parking lot in search of Carrie.

He willed her to hide someplace they’d never find her and prayed Maria was safe out of their sight. And then, right in front of his eyes, a lasso sailed out of the air and looped around one of the men. It fell to his legs then yanked itself tight. The guy’s feet were pulled right out from under him, and he was dragged across the road and into the desert by a distant rider.

“Hell and damnation, the Brands are here!” Beckett said.

He pulled out his phone, and Harrison realized he would call for more men. More killers. And Maria was out there. Hecouldn’t let him! He grabbed the bourbon bottle off the bar and smashed Jimbo Beckett over the head with it. The phone flew right out of the old man’s hand, arching through the air and landing in the filled sink.

“Son of a—” Beckett, clutching the back of his bleeding head with one hand, pulled a gun with the other, and Harrison dove over the bar, crashing down behind it.

The gun went off, and off, and off, smashing bottles in the rack behind the bar. Booze and glass rained down on Harrison as he crab walked behind the bar from one end to the other, and then he switched direction and crept back to the beginning. He peeked out around the bar. Beckett was reloading while moving toward the other end. His back was to the exit. Harrison could make it out. Maybe.

He took a breath then lunged out from behind the bar, across the floor toward the exit. It was farther than he thought.

“Why you sneaky, son-of-a-varmint?—”

Gunshots followed Harrison out the door. He ran for all he was worth, looking over his shoulder, turning fully when Beckett exploded out of the saloon, raising his gun. Harrison raised his arms defensively and closed his eyes, expecting to be shot. Then there was shouting and footsteps and shotguns cocking.

He opened his eyes. Beckett raised his hands and tossed his weapon to the ground. Harrison looked behind him to see a solid wall of armed Brands, bearing various sorts of weapons, every one of them trained on the oil man. Maria stood front and center, Ethan on her left, and her mother, Jessi, on her right.

Maria met his eyes and smiled. “He hurt you, did he?”

“Not much.” Behind the crowd of Maria’s aunts, uncles, and cousins, Willow was putting Carrie, handcuffed, into the back of her SUV. Other police vehicles were arriving on the scene, sirens wailing. All three of Beckett’s body guards were handcuffed and sitting on the ground against a boulder.

It was over.

Harrison walked toward Maria, and she smiled, lowering her shotgun.

Someone shouted, and Harrison turned instinctively as Beckett lunged at him with a big hunting knife raised over his head, yelling, “You tricked me, you no good, lyin’ son of a?—”

Maria fired.

Beckett howled, dropping the knife, and hopping on one foot, while holding the other up. There was a hole right through his boot.

Willow pushed through her family members with a pair of handcuffs and another deputy at her side. The Brands were putting their guns away, stepping aside to let law enforcement take charge. Ignoring Beckett’s howls of pain, Willow cuffed him up. “We’ll take it from here. If everyone’s okay?”

She looked at Harrison and then at Maria just as Hyram and Lily ran to him and wrapped him and Maria in their arms.

Harrison said, “I’m okay, Willow,” over his family’s heads.

“I’m way better now,” Maria said. Then her family gathered around them both, everyone clapping shoulders, exchanging handshakes and full-on hugs that hurt like hell and felt great at the same time.

Ethan brought Harrison’s hat over and put it on his head. “You dropped it out by Lone Wolf Rock,” he said.

“Thanks, Ethan.”

“You’re welcome, Harrison.”

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