Page 48 of Easton’s Claim

This is a really shitty plan. The kind that could get him killed.

He had no choice but to go through with it, however.

Greg kept his breathing shallow in an effort to spare his cracked ribs as he crouched down and knelt in the underbrush of the heavy woods at the far west side of the Colebrook property. Gallant stood a few feet behind him with a 9 mm Beretta aimed at his back, and two of his goons stood off to either side. They all wore NVGs to help them see in the growing darkness.

Everything hurt, inside and out. He’d pissed blood this morning, right after receiving the beating and the kidney shots that had gotten him to agree to do this. Even during his worst days in the Army, nothing had been this bad.

“How far away is the shed?” Gallant asked him.

He let out a slow, painful breath before answering. “Through the woods and across the pasture. Few hundred yards maybe.” In his condition, that was going to feel like a few miles and he dreaded each and every step he’d have to take. He was better trained than the others.

A small part of him wanted to run, to risk getting shot in the back and just take off into the forest. He knew the area. Knew how to hide and evade someone tracking him. He also knew it would be suicide. At his prime, he might have been able to do it. The pain would slow him too much, and he was weak. They’d either catch him or shoot him before he’d made it five steps.

It had been months since he’d had a hit of anything stronger than coffee, and man, what he wouldn’t give for the chance at oblivion right now.

At this point, he’d decided that death might be a blessing. But if he died it would leave Piper in serious danger. That was the only reason he stayed put. He had to pull this off, find what he’d stolen from Gallant, and hope it was enough. After that, he didn’t care what happened to him. Just as long as Piper didn’t suffer any more for his sins.

He’d been a shitty person, and an even shittier husband. He’d allowed the addiction to take over his life and transform him into someone even he hadn’t recognized. Half-assed attempts at getting clean over the past few years had done nothing to clean him up.

He’d thought his rock bottom moment was when Piper had left him. He’d come home one day to find the house empty, all her clothes and belongings gone. No note, not even a text to tell him. She’d finally up and left him as she’d been threatening to do for the last two years of their marriage, leaving the signed separation papers on the kitchen counter for him to find.

On the one hand while he didn’t blame her for that, it had still crushed him. He’d wound up going on a week-long bender. Didn’t remember anything after that third hit, until he’d woken up in the hospital with the doctors telling him he was lucky to be alive.

This rock bottom was so much worse. His actions had not only endangered his life, but now Piper’s as well. He had to fix this. Protect her however he could. He owed her that much.

“Dawson says there are four trucks and an SUV out front of the house,” Gallant said to him in a quiet voice. He gave the makes and models. “Know who they belong to?”

“No.” This was fucking insane. Old man Colebrook would be there, along with Easton and whoever else was staying at the house.

Gallant and his men hadn’t been trained by the military. They had no discipline, and worse, were unpredictable because they had nothing to lose and Gallant had made it clear he was willing to kill whoever he had to in order to recoup his lost goods.

“Get moving,” Gallant ordered, gesturing impatiently with the pistol.

“What if it’s not even there?” he asked, trying one last time to make Gallant call this off.

“Then we’ll take Piper and convince her to remember where the furniture is. Nowmove, asshole.”

The things they would do to Piper made Greg’s blood run cold. He had to keep her safe. God knew he’d failed her in every other way; he couldn’t fail her now.

Chapter Sixteen

“So I see subtlety still isn’t one of your strong points,” Piper joked to Easton as they headed through the barn hand-in-hand, torn between annoyance and laughter.

“Well now you don’t have to feel shy about us anymore.” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it, as if that made it all better.

“You’re lucky I’m so into you, otherwise I’d be really pissed right now.”

He stopped and turned to face her, the overhead lights in the barn illuminating the strong planes of his face as he looked down at her. Several horses were in the stalls, mostly expectant mothers. One stomped its hoof against the floor and another snorted out a long breath.

“Guess that means I dodged another bullet,” he murmured, and lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was slow at first, tender, then harder. Possessive.

When he raised his head a minute later, she was dazed and breathless. He studied her eyes, and a satisfied grin curved his lips. “And now I know how to make up with you when you’re mad at me.”

She snickered at his self-satisfied expression. “As long as you don’t take advantage of it or make it a habit, I’m okay with that.”

“That’s fair. Now let’s go get you some clothes.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Although I find the thought of you running around the cabin naked pretty appealing.”

“Ha, no. You wish. Pervert.” She’d die of embarrassment if Mr. C or anyone else happened to catch sight of her as she darted from room to room.

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