Defiance: A House Divided (The Defending Home Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

cover the hole left by the pickup. From the inside, they added additional two-by-fours to brace and strengthen the repair work. Strong as it might be, it would never stop another truck from crashing into the house. That project would come later, once the current business with Randy and Hugh Reid was over and done with.
    But with every second that passed, Dale grew more and more impatient, more and more nervous. He saw himself hopping into his pickup and racing into town, armed to the teeth, on a one-way mission to take down as many of them as he could before he was finally stopped. Somewhere his brother was being held and perhaps even tortured. There was nothing Dale could do about that and the knowledge was driving him nuts.
    Just then, Colton called from the second floor. The pickup was back. Dale sprinted up the stairs two at a time and raced into the front bedroom. The others were already there and Dale struggled to see what was happening. Would they leave a note of their own designed to open the negotiations or would they simply drop Shane off as a sign of goodwill?
    “Oh, my God,” Sandy said, the nails of her right hand digging into the window sill.
    The truck was about even with the property when Dale saw what looked like a department store mannequin set on fire and kicked out the back of the truck. It rolled several times, thudding against one of the barbed-wire posts, black and orange flames licking several feet into the air.
    Nicole’s hands were clasped over her open mouth, shuttering a horrific scream trapped deep inside. Colton rattled off a handful of futile shots at the fleeing vehicle from the AR. Almost hypnotically, Dale’s gaze swiveled back to the fence post, itself on fire, before he understood that what he was seeing. Horrifying as it was, this was no dream, nor was it a department store mannequin the cartel had tossed from the bed of that pickup.
    It was his brother Shane’s dead body.

Chapter 7
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    D ale raced from the house, fire extinguisher in hand, leaping instinctively over the remaining booby traps as he raced toward the flaming mass that was once Shane. He doused the fire, searching immediately for any semblance of life. His brother’s body was naked, every corner of flesh blackened. In many parts, the skin, sprinkled with copious amounts of fine white powder from the extinguisher, had melted into an amorphous mass.
    Nicole was running toward them when Dale held up a hand, telling her to stay away. When she didn’t comply, Zach and Colton grabbed her by the arms and held her back as she shrieked in frustration and anguish. This was no way to see your loved one, especially for the last time.
    “Get her out of here,” Dale shouted, scooping up his brother’s still-sizzling body. When they’d managed to coax Nicole back to the house, Dale carried Shane to the garage. Sandy and Ann cleared a work bench where Dale could set his brother’s body down. Thin tendrils of smoke rose from the blackened flesh. The sleeves of Dale’s shirt were speckled with strips of his brother’s skin, but he didn’t care. There was no longer any doubt that his brother was dead.
    “Can you wash and prep him for burial?” he asked Ann, his voice quiet, toneless.
    Colton came up behind him, looking somber and still clearly in a state of shock. “I’ll start digging a hole, I guess.”
    “Thank you,” Dale said, almost robotically. Mercifully, the full weight of what had just happened hadn’t sunk in yet. That would come later. He entered the house, went up to his bedroom and grabbed his pistol and shotgun as well as his Remington. Somewhere nearby he could hear Nicole sobbing uncontrollably. In the span of a few hours she’d lost her husband and was at risk of losing her father too.
    Dale came back through the garage as Ann and Sandy were beginning the grim task of cleaning Shane’s body. He stopped briefly to glance down at what had once been his brother’s handsome face and