Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (best free ebook reader .txt) 📕

our group strong. We have to start all over. It’s taken me years to disband the Sons, to undermine their power and influence. Kind of funny how North Star helped me do that.”

Dev’s vision was dimming. It was too cold and he was wet. He’d inhaled a lot of smoke despite his best efforts. But he had to stay awake. Stay alive. He couldn’t let the elements take him any more than he could let Anth win.

“Now, we’ll take over the power vacuum and truly succeed. If you can prove your loyalty. These past few weeks have made me wonder. You’ve stood by your brothers. Will you stand by me instead?”

“I kept your secret. You’re right about that. But I have a quiet life here.” Dev tried to think of what words would get through to Anth, but he didn’t think there were any. No combination of truth or lies. He couldn’t outtalk someone who thought the way Anth did.

“You were made for more, Devin. I think deep down you know that. Don’t you know that? Ace was left to die. Through his miraculous—”

“Spare m-me Ace’s origin s-story,” Dev grumbled. He started to move, in the hopes he could stand. But the gun in Anth’s hand went from pointing at the ground to pointing at Dev’s heart.

“His origin story is ours. He failed. But we? We can succeed. Based on his foundation. Better. I know he tested the six of you like he tested me. We were made in his image, but better. We can be better, Dev.”

“I’m going to stand up or I’m going to pass out and freeze to death right here.”

Anth tsked. “No, I don’t think so. Stay seated.” He seemed to test the aim of the gun, holding it one way and then another, but always pointed at Dev. “How about this? A test. You pass, you can stand and move on to the next step. You fail? Well...”

Dev didn’t think that’d end too well for him, but what other choice was there? If he could stand up, he could lunge for Anth. He could maybe get the gun. Sitting here in the snow he couldn’t do a damn thing. “All right.”

“Who’s the father of Sarah’s baby?”

Anth didn’t shoot, but the pain that cracked through Dev felt like a shot. “What do you care about that for?” he rasped.

“It’s a test, Devin. All you have to do is tell me the truth.”

It was impossible to tell what Anth knew. What he didn’t. Did he care about Sarah’s pregnancy because he knew the baby was Dev’s? Even if he’d had Ace killed, even if he viewed Ace with contempt, clearly he was Ace’s son—warped in all the ways Ace had been.

The more terrifying thought was he cared because Anth knew he was related to Sarah. Dev couldn’t give this imbalanced psychopath the truth. But a lie might get Dev killed.

“Pretty simple question, Dev. The truth. Or your life.”

“I told everyone I was the father, yes.” If Anth had been watching them, paying attention, he might know that. He clearly knew something, didn’t he?

But he couldn’t really know that Dev and Sarah had slept together nine months ago. There was no way he’d been at Cecilia and Brady’s wedding and actually seen it.

“But?”

Dev took a shaky breath, hugging himself against the bitter cold. “But it isn’t true. I’m not the father.”

“You just decided to pretend to be?”

Dev couldn’t tell if Anth sounded skeptical or interested, so he just...talked. Spewed whatever he could think of to say. “She needed a partner. Someone to help her out. I care about her, so I stepped up.” God, he hoped admitting he cared about Sarah didn’t make her more of a target. If he could convince Anth of this, he could get Anth away. Promise to join whatever insane group Anth had made up. Pretend to care about some cult.

Whatever it took to get Anth far away from here.

Anth sighed heavily. Then he raised his gun. “You fail the test, Dev. I know you’re the father. You don’t think I was at Brady and Cecilia’s wedding? Watching. Waiting. Figuring. See, that’s the difference between Ace and me. He was patient enough for revenge, but he wasn’t smart enough to make it matter. To build something from revenge.”

Dev fought a wave of nausea—whether from the fire and possible hypothermia or the fact Anth had been there. Watching. On what should have been Brady and Cecilia’s day with nothing of Ace’s to touch them.

But it had touched them all.

“It’s a shame you couldn’t be honest, because I can’t abide liars in our new beginning. But you’re not my only chance here. You’re not the only one with my blood.” Without warning, he pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting Dev with a blast of fire and pain in his gut.

He fell to the ground on a howl of pain. It waved over him, black and all encompassing, but he couldn’t let it win. He had to keep Sarah safe.

But Anth had already begun to walk away. Toward the house. Toward Sarah. “Sarah and I will build our kingdom,” he said, loud enough to echo through the dark night around them.

“She’ll kill you first,” Dev managed to grind out, but Anth was already too far away. Whistling as he strode for the house.

Chapter Eighteen

Sarah heard whistling and in that moment she was more terrified than she’d been this whole time. She’d face labor with no help if someone wasn’t out there...whistling.

“Grandma—”

“Shh.”

Sarah felt something being pressed into her hand. The handle of the rifle Grandma had gotten when everyone had run out to fight the fire.

“Hide it,” she whispered. Then she let go of Sarah’s other hand. Sarah couldn’t see, but she could hear the sound of Grandma Pauline getting to her feet. “I’ve got a flashlight right over there in the curio cabinet. You sit tight.”

Sarah didn’t want to sit tight. She didn’t want to let Grandma Pauline go, and she damn sure didn’t want