Hard Brake (Wilkins Brothers Book 2)

Chapter 13

CAMILA

I keep checking the time on the alarm clock and the minutes are moving slower than a snail’s pace. I don’t understand what is taking Gruff so long to get back here and I’m freaking out not knowing what is going on. Anna is asleep in the bed next to me, she ended up crying herself to sleep after Jasper and Nico came barreling into the house earlier and told us what was going on. I didn’t want to believe him, but I knew deep down inside that our time was up. Miguel had found us and he was going to force us back to New Mexico with him.

For the last two hours, we had been sequestered to one of the guest bedrooms in Jetson and Georgia’s house. Jasper is in the room with us, Jetson “on guard” in the front of the house. I know for a fact that he’s carrying a handgun, even though he didn’t make a big deal of it. Jetson slipped it to him earlier. 

“Mom?” Nico reached for my hand and I gave it a little squeeze.

“Hey, it’s all good, okay? Gruff is taking care of it.”

“Do you think the police are going to arrest me?”

I quickly look at Jasper who raises his eyebrow and then back to my son, pulling him into my arms and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “No, baby. They aren’t going to take you anywhere, I promise. We just need to wait for Gruff to come back and then we can figure out what our next plan is.”

“Do you think he saw me?”

“We don’t even know if that was your dad, Nico. Jasper just warned Gruff to be on the safe side. You’re safe. I promise you are.”

Jasper’s phone buzzed and he looked down at it before jumping to his feet. “He’s here, he said they all left twenty minutes ago, but he didn’t want to come over here right away just in case.”

I heard some noise coming from the house and then I heard Gruff’s voice as he was pounding on the door, “Jasper! Open the door now!”

Jasper quickly unlocks the door and Gruff doesn’t wait for him to open it, he pushes the door open and practically knocks Jasper over on his way to me. He paused for just a second in front of me because I flung my arms around his neck and he wrapped his around me in a tight squeeze. I was finally free to let my emotions go, crying into Gruff’s body as he held me and tried to soothe me. “It’s okay, Camila, everything is okay, I’m right here.”

“Was it him? Was it Miguel?”

“Yeah, he was with the sheriff and asking questions about the car. He’s gone though and I waited a good twenty minutes before closing up the shop and then I drive around before coming here, just in case.”

With all the ruckus, Anna began to wake up from her nap. I moved away from Gruff and went to my daughter again. Gruff slung his arm around Nico and brought him in for his own hug. “I’m so sorry, Gruff. I am so sorry for dragging you into this mess.”

He reached out and cupped my cheek with his hand, “I don’t you to stop apologizing for this shit. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you guys found your way to me so I could help.” He glanced over his shoulder to his brother, “Can you take them to the living room? Hattie and mom are getting dinner ready. I need to talk to Camila.”

“Yeah, come on kids, let’s go see if we can bug Georgia into giving us a pre-dinner snack.” Neither of them was quick to follow Jasper, but they eventually did. Nico took Anna’s hand and walked with her, forever her protector as well. Once the door shut behind them, Gruff let out a long groan and ran his hands through his beard, a beard that I’m pretty sure had turned grayer in the last week we’ve been in his life.