Page 56 of Never Quiet

Chapter Twelve

Their arrival in the Keys the following morning was nothing like Amanda’s previous trips.

She barely spoke at all throughout the trip. She sent a text to Harrison and Morgan while they waited to board their flight.

That thing we talked about? We need to put it in motion.

There were men from Shawn and Gunner’s company waiting when they landed in Miami. A three-vehicle caravan escorted them to Gunner’s house and her other family waited outside.

Davis stood with them. He looked more serious than she’d ever seen him. She was surprised to see Erick as well.

Plastering a smile on her face, Amanda greeted an exuberant Sterling who had no idea what was happening. “Look at you. How tall you’ve gotten!”

She hugged him and he leaned back to hold her face. “You’re prettier every time I see you.”

“You’re a flatterer and I can hardly take it.”

She kissed his cheek and stood, watching as their bags were unloaded and everyone else was quickly escorted inside.

Amanda waited beside one of the SUVs with several armed men around her. Noel was still in the car with Rick. They were talking rapidly. She tapped lightly on the glass.

The moment her aunt turned her head, she knew it was worse than she thought. She backed away from the door and Noel got out and stood close. Rick came around to stand near Amanda as well.

“Let’s go inside.”

The way the couple touched her back and guarded her as they walked up the driveway to the front door was intense and focused, no movement wasted. They were no longer her aunt and uncle. They were soldiers on a dangerous mission.

Amanda was the mission.

Once they were inside, Noel said, “Jan and Terrance, I need you to keep an eye on Sterling and Heather. The rest of us need to talk to Amanda.”

Dakota guided everyone through the house to their office. Amanda stood in the center as Rick and Noel, Gunner and Dakota, Chaz and Shawn, her parents, Davis, and Erick entered and took up positions around the room.

Closing the door, Dakota flipped a switch and nodded at Noel.

After a long moment, Noel looked up and exhaled roughly. “When all this started, we shed a lot of blood, blew a lot of stuff up, and lost some really bad people hundreds of millions in cash and prizes. The bounty on you was removed and I truly hoped we had made our motherfucking point, Amanda.”

Rick added quietly, “The shooting at the gallery – they weren’t after Harper. Noel was the target.” Amanda’s eyes felt too big for her face. “The people who want you, they know they’ll never be able to touch you as long as she’s breathing. The moment they tried to kill her, we knew they’d conveniently forgotten our lesson.”

“Why did you take me back to Colorado?” Amanda asked them. “If you weren’t sure, why?”

Noel held Amanda’s shoulders. “Our family was spinning out, honey. They were worried about you day and night. Zoe was pregnant and starting to experience complications brought on by stress. Twice, Bill thought Mom would give herself a heart attack, she was so upset. Then they attacked the gallery based on a tip from Jessica that you were stashed there. She knew you weren’t but wanted Mom dead to shake me. It worked.”

“You were spread too thin…” Amanda guessed.

“Exactly. I was trying to cover everyone from a distance while I destroyed their business operations with Rick. I went for one more huge target to express my displeasure and we obliterated a hundred-million-dollar drug facility in a single night.”

“They took down the bounty.”

“Yes. I talked to everyone in Colorado, Florida, and Washington. Then I took a calculated risk. We put permanent teams on every member of our blood family, Amanda. Hayden stationed more people in the Keys to act as backup for the people you care so much about, who’d helped us hide you, protect you.”

“All of this…four years of this?”

“I wanted you safe. I wanted our family safe.”

“At what cost, Noel?” she asked.

“Whatever the fuck it takes,” she replied.

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