With quick maneuvers, he pushed the window up and dragged himself through, ducking and rolling. Noah landed in a defensive position on the side of her bed with his weapon drawn and eyes on the swivel.
He saw nobody. He heard no one.
He blew out, sweat dripping down his back, then cleared the master bedroom. Then the next room and the next. The bathroom was empty, and he prayed Will's room was not destroyed like this. All he wanted to find was a happy, bored little boy in a perfectly intact room.
Noah rounded the corner, but Will's room was empty. The walls were fine, but the boy was gone.
His heart sank. Footsteps coming up the stairs was the new problem. He pressed against the wall and waited. Two men, different from the ones he saw downstairs, ambled by.
Noah lunged, grabbing the first around his neck and swinging with his ankle to take the stranger to the ground.
The second man attacked, only to meet Noah's elbow. It was a direct strike to his temple, followed by a smart strike to a pressure point in his neck.
Stunned, both men lay on the ground as the first man attempted to push up. Noah tazed him and pressed his fingers into the second man's carotid artery. Five, four, three, two, one. Out. That man went limp as the first man twitched.
He searched them for their weapons. Keeping an eye out for other threats, he bound their hands and feet with plastic zip ties. A quick perusal of Teagan's linen closet revealed cloth napkins, and Noah fashioned gags for both men.
A moment later, the one he had choked out was tied to the bathroom sink and the toilet, and the other man was tied to a four-inch pipe that ran through Teagan's walk-in closet.
"Will?" he whispered.
No sign of the kid, and Noah headed downstairs, creeping for the living room.
He had seen a lot of hell over the years, but it had never been personal. Teagan was sitting in the middle of her couch with her head buried in her hands, surrounded by the stuffing from her couch. That was a hard thing to take.
She looked up, and Noah's despair turned to hope. He pressed his finger to his lips, and she gave an almost imperceptible nod.
The two men near her were in an intense argument. Noah's job got much easier. He crept close, passing Teagan and motioning for her to run out then breathing easier when she did.
Noah's right fist flew, slamming into the base of the smaller man's skull. He collapsed with one punch.
The other man lunged for his wall hatchet, but Noah was fast on the draw. The barrel of the Glock rested against the man's temple before he could reach.
"Your buddy's knocked out. The two men upstairs, immobilized. And you have the business end of my service weapon pointed against your head, asshole. You shouldn't have messed with my girl."
"I'm just the muscle, buddy. You know how this goes. Don't do anything stupid." Then his muscles jerked.
Noah didn't care about protocol or what he should do with his weapon. He didn't want a dead body hanging over Teagan's head and scaring Will when he could immobilize the man without taking his life. Instead he drilled the floor plate of his Glock into the man's temple.
"Another one bites the dust," Noah mumbled, dropping him. "Teagan, there were four of them?"
"Yes." She peeked around the corner.
"Got ‘em, then." Noah secured the downed men as he saw the first police car pull up outside the front window. He guessed he had taken more than thirty minutes. "Where's Will?"
Teagan's face fell. "What do you mean, where's Will? Where is Will?"
She spun in a circle then raced upstairs.
That wasn't what he needed. He had people tied upstairs. Noah raced after Teagan, needing to calm her down and look for her son.
Maybe Will had slipped out to look for help. They needed to check a neighbor's. At the top of the stairs, he found Teagan close to hyperventilating as she walked room to room with wide eyes, opening closet doors.
Noah wrapped Teagan against him. "He's fine. Nobody hurt you. They didn't touch him. He's a smart kid."
"Then where is he?" she cried as tears streamed down her face. "Will? Will!"
"He slipped out the door. He called the cops." Noah eased Teagan down the stairs and opened the front door, then he motioned for a police officer to get out of the car as another squad car pulled up.
For all he knew this was the entire Eagle's Ridge force, and they would have no idea what to do with this crime scene or with the mother whose son was missing.
The next two minutes were filled with questions that erased the possibility that Will had called them and was at a neighbor's. Noah couldn't imagine how Teagan felt. Her tears never stopped.
Four men were arrested, led out of the house, and Teagan refused to look at her ex-husband as he offered a halfhearted apology on the way out the door.
Time seemed at a standstill. Noah didn't know what to do-
"No! I'm not leaving. Are you out of your mind?" Teagan snarled at the newest detective to enter her house.
He'd been advised to give them space since he was part of their investigation, but now his woman was attacked. He came closer and put his arm around her. He kissed the top of her head, giving her as much comfort as he could with a squeeze. Not that it would do a lot of good.
"They want me to go to the police station. I'm not leaving."
"If she's not ready, she's not ready," Noah said.
The detective and Teagan argued, and Teagan didn't need Noah to stick up for her. Noah paced the length of the foyer.
Where would he have gone? He pinched the bridge of his nose-and froze.
A cold shiver of hope slid over his shoulders, and Noah crouched down, running his fingers along the baseboard.
Click.
The hiding place under the staircase, the coolest place Bella had ever seen, clicked as a secret panel opened. Noah got on his hands and knees and crawled into the small, dark space under the staircase. He scooted over darkened flashlights and dolls, blocks and books, until he reached the farthest corner where the stairs met the first floor. Ducked and wrapped into a little ball was a very scared five-year-old who hid in his secret spot where he believed no one could ever find him.
"Noah?" Will asked quietly.
The only light in the crawlspace was that flooding the room from the now-open secret door. Will had locked himself in and hadn't turned on the flashlight.
Noah put a hand on his back, and Will shook. "It's me, and everything is fine."
"Are you sure?" he finally whispered.
"Yeah, buddy, I'm sure. Your mom's in the hall. The police are here, and everything is fine."
Quick as a flash of lightning, Will launched into Noah's arms and curled himself around his chest, pressing his wet cheeks and T-shirt close, shivering despite the heat. "Mom said stay where it's safe and don't come out."
Noah rubbed Will's back. "It's safe now. Everything's okay. I've got you now."
"Thank you." Will sniffed. "For saving me."
Oh, kid. He eased to where there was more room and pulled Will into his lap to hug him. "I think you have it backward, little man. If you hadn't told Bella what was going on, I couldn't have come help. I need to thank you."
"I couldn't wait any longer." Teagan crawled into the space under the stairs. "I'm coming in."
"The more the merrier." Will wasn't ready to move yet, and this was where he needed to be.
Will clung tight. "I love you, Noah."
Definitely where he needed to be. "I love you too, kid."
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The table was decorated with Bella and Will's handmade Thanksgiving Day crafts. Multicolored marshmallows topped the sweet potato casserole, and the broccolini served as the focal point of conversation with the kids. Skinny broccoli. Tree broccoli. Pencil broccoli. They'd renamed broccolini. This was the first Thanksgiving where Noah had found himself at the head of the table and staring at his future.
Almost.
"It's perfect!" Teagan lifted the golden turkey off his counter and groaned as she shuffled to the table. "And heavy!"
He jumped up, pushed the chair back, and stepped to her. Swiftly he lessened her load and transferred the platter to the table. "You outdid yourself." He took her hand and hugged her toward his chest. "Thank you."
He gave her a quick squeeze and a kiss on the back of her head that made Will and Bella giggle, then Teagan sat at the far end of the table.
Now, this was his future.
They settled at the table, and Teagan smiled. "Before we dig in, should we tell them?"
Noah leaned back as though considering. "I don't know. I think we should torture them until dessert."
"No! No! No!" Bella and Will cried.
He laughed. "Well, as happy as I am to have Teagan and Will staying with us while their house is fixed, we decided to ask the both of you to help us find a house that is ours."
Teagan beamed. "One that we're going to pick out together."
"The four of us?" Bella squealed.