Page 65 of Bravo

“I can’t go. I don’t know where I’m going. I have nothing.” Panic sets in as the adrenaline surges once more.

Brietta grips my face with her hands. “Kennedy. Listen to me. You are going to climb out of that window, and you are going to make it. I will buy you time. Okay?”

I nod, even though I’m still not entirely sure what I’m even agreeing to. Everyone I know is gone. Where am I supposed to go? Who am I supposed to trust?

“Good.” She retrieves the firearm she set on the nightstand and stands.

The front door opens. “He did a number on this place,” a man says.

“Go,” Brietta orders as she tugs the curtains farther out of my way.

“Bodies here!” someone calls out. “Looks like the brat’s roommates’ parents.”

I climb up onto the nightstand. My leg is just barely swinging over the jagged edges of what’s left of the window when someone tries the handle.

“I think someone’s still breathing in here.” The man laughs, and the door splinters. Brietta shoves me the rest of the way out of the window, and the glass rips my forearm open. I stiflea cry as I hit the bushes then bounce up and start running as gunshots ring out behind me.

CHAPTER 22

BRADYN

“They chased me for a few miles. I managed to make it into a small town, and a veterinarian found me in the alley behind his clinic. He stitched me up and saved my life. I stayed there until they tracked me down the first time.”

Tears stream down her face, and it takes everything in me to remain where I am and not rush to her.

I have to treat this like any other case, though, and its facts first, emotions second.

It has to be. Especially where she’s concerned. I’m already too close as it is.

“As soon as I knew they were onto me, I took off, not wanting to risk Cillian’s life. I moved every two weeks after that. Never staying in one place long enough for them to find me.”

“Until you came to my ranch.”

She nods. “I never meant to put you or your family at risk. It was Cillian who told me about Pine Creek. I never thought they’d track me down there. It’s too small, too off the map. I was so tired of running.” She closes her eyes, and more tears slip free. “It was the first place I felt safe. Like I could breathe.”

“Because of who we are?”

“That’s part of it,” she admits. “I didn’t find out until I was in town that you and your brothers were prior service—or that you ran your own company. Once I knew that, I assumed the security would be top-notch, and if someone came?—”

“We could defend ourselves.”

Her gaze darkens. “It’s horrible. I know. I shouldn’t have stayed. I shouldn’t have risked it.”

“It’s not far off,” I reply coldly. “Except for the fact that we have other employees with no training, as well as my mother, who has never even held a gun.”

Her expression is full of remorse. “I’m so sorry, Bradyn. I was so angry at Olivia for dragging me into this. I imagine you hate me for doing the same to you. But please know I never meant to bring any danger to your door. Please know that.”

“What’s done is done. But we need to get back to the ranch.”

She goes rigid. “I can’t go back.”

“We have to.”

“I can’t. He’s already looked for me there. He’ll come back. You need to go now. Leave me here, and I can disappear. You don’t need to be involved.”

“I’m already involved,” I tell her. “The security there is great, and if I’m going to protect you while we figure out just what’s going on and how to stop it, then that’s the best place to do it.”

“I got out,” she insists. “Without you seeing. Someone got into my place without you seeing too, right? That’s why you thought I tossed it?”

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