Protective Operation

by Danica Winters

  Chad held up his fist, stopping her. He was already at the end of the aisle, clearing the area. Chad edged toward the front of the store. They were being jumpy, and as the song shifted to “Santa Baby,” she felt even more neurotic because of their response.

  Opening her mouth to say something to Chad, she stopped. He was nowhere in sight. She tried to laugh at herself, but as her body grew rigid, the sound came out as nothing more than a rasping wheeze. “Chad?” she called, her voice strangled.

  There was no answer.

  Had the Gray Wolves found them?

  She started to rush in Chad’s direction, but there was a loud thwack and pain screamed up from the back of her thighs as she plunged toward the ground. She turned and saw the two-by-four coming down, this time striking her in the calf as she tried to crawl away. Pain tore up her leg as the person hit her in the lower back, dropping her flat to the ground.

  “Chad!” she screamed, covering her head with her arms.

  She rolled to her right just as the board came cracking against the tile floor. The hit sent splinters careening at her face, one striking her just below her left eye.

  There was the sound of footfalls as someone ran toward her. Chad. The box of clamps fell to the ground and the metal brackets skittered around her.

  It was going to be okay.

  She tried to move and stand up, but as she did, a fiery, brutal pain pinned her to the ground.

  She rolled on her back, the action taking more strength than she thought she possessed.

  Chad was standing at her feet, with his back turned to her. Pressed against him, with a black hose wrapped around his neck, was a man. She wiped away her tears. As they struggled, she caught a glimpse of the attacker’s face. The long horse-face and bulbous nose belonged to someone she had never thought she would see again. A face she could never forget—it was her father’s chief security officer.

  She wanted to yell at Chad and tell him to stop as he pulled the hose tighter around the man’s neck. There was a pop as the hose tightened against the man’s esophagus. And, as the man struggled, he turned slightly and their eyes met. His face was red and sweaty, and his eyes bulged under the pressure of Chad’s hold.

  The man deserved to die. And yet, this could be their only opportunity to ask questions about her father and why he’d sent the man here. Did her father hire a hitman to kill her, just like he likely had killed her mother?

  The thought sickened her. And yet, she had a sinking feeling that she was probably right.

  “Chad,” she said. “Don’t kill him.”

  Chad’s hold on the tubing remained the same. “He killed the guy working here. The poor man is lying over there by the front door with a knife in his chest. And you want me to not kill this guy?”

  “I didn’t say he doesn’t deserve it.” Shaye pushed herself up to a sitting position. As she moved, the fire from her thighs rattled up and she was forced to bite back a yelp of pain. The man certainly deserved to die, but they had to play this smart. “Chad...please.”

  She was tempted to tell Chad she knew the man. But if she did, what would Chad think? He would probably hate her for bringing more trouble to his life. What if he realized that she may have just brought all of his enemies straight to them because she had needed to be closer to him?

  Even if she left now, her father knew about the Martins—and likely knew about the contract Bayural had out on their heads. She had just put everyone at risk. No wonder everyone had seemed put out by her arrival. Maybe they had known exactly what a security breach she was.

  Chad tightened his grip on the hose, and her father’s man dropped to his knees, grasping at his throat.

  “Who sent you?” Chad screamed, kicking him and loosening his grip so he could answer.

  The man looked over at her and gave her a sickening grin. He reached downward and pulled a knife from an ankle sheath.

  “Screw you,” the man said, scrambling to his feet and jabbing the knife in Chad’s direction.

  Chad picked up the piece of lumber the man had dropped to the ground. “Put down the knife,” he ordered.

  “Give me the girl and no one has to get hurt,” the man said, slashing the blade in her direction. “Shaye, do you even know what this man is dragging you into?”

  What was he talking about? She jerked as she peered over at Chad. This wasn’t the first time someone had hinted that he wasn’t the man she had assumed he was. She needed the truth from him—the complete truth and not this whisking around it that he always seemed to do.

  Chad looked over at her and then back to the man, like he was assessing for a split second whether or not he should do as the man commanded. “Tell me who sent you, and maybe I won’t kill you.”

  The man laughed, the sound rattling off the metal shelving in the store. “Whether or not you kill me, it’s not going to make a difference. Your family is going to die, but you shouldn’t make this girl die with you, as well.”

  “Chad, don’t listen to him.” Shaye moved beside him, stumbling as she tried to walk. “My father sent this man. They must’ve been following me or something, but I doubt your family is really in any danger.”

  “You know this guy?” Chad asked, pointing at him with the beam of lumber.

  She nodded, a foreboding sensation congealing within her. “He works for my father.”

  “I thought you said that you had split ways with your family. Didn’t he know you were leaving?” Chad asked.

  “I’m never going to be free of my father’s grasp. I was foolish to think that he wouldn’t have me followed.” Or kill her... But she couldn’t tell Chad about her suspicions. She put her hand on Chad’s shoulder. “Maybe it would be best if I go somewhere else. If I leave, at least you wouldn’t have to worry about my familial drama making things harder for you and your family.”

  “You don’t have to go back and be your father’s prisoner. Not on my watch,” Chad said. “If we kill this man right now, no one would be the wiser.” He pointed up at the ceiling, where the white drop-down tiles were conspicuously missing any black, round eyes-in-the-sky cameras.

  Just because they weren’t being recorded didn’t mean that someone in this little town wouldn’t figure out that they had killed someone. And even if someone didn’t figure it out, she would still know the truth.

  On the other hand, this man had attacked her. If he’d been willing to harm her in order to do her father’s bidding, what was going to stop him from killing her if they let him go?

  “I am under direct orders to take you back to Algeria, no matter what.” The man kept his knife raised, like a silvery rendition of her father’s pointed finger. He would always be there, standing over her shoulder, commanding even if he wasn’t present.

  “You’re only to take me back, nothing more?” she asked.

  The man smiled again, his teeth stained dark brown, thanks to his many years of drinking black tea and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. “As long as you behave yourself, everything should go fine.”

  “What does my father have planned for me upon my return?” she asked.

  “Your father has plans, I’m sure.” The man sneered at her, making chills run down her spine.

  “Do you want to go back?” Chad asked with a sweet softness to his voice. He almost sounded like he was pleading, asking her to stay, without saying those words.

  All of her wanted to stay with Chad. And yet, they were nothing more than friends.

  If she stayed, things would only get more complicated.

  She should’ve known. Nothing in their lives had ever been simple. No matter who was after them, or what evil was lurking.

  She shook her head as she looked at Chad. “I don’t trust him.”

  “Your father or this man?” Chad asked.

  “Both.”

  Before she had the chance to tell him to
stop, Chad swung the two-by-four, hitting the side of the man’s head with a sickening thump. He hit the ground and blood oozed from the dent in his temple. Chad hit him again, this time a few inches to the right. There was a crunch, and she was sure his skull was fractured—likely beyond repair.

  Part of her wanted to tell Chad to stop, and yet she knew that, given the right circumstances, this man would stop at nothing to kill her.

  As Chad hit the man again and again, she finally reached over and touched his arm. “He’s gone. And we need to go, too. If someone finds us here, we’re going to go to jail.”

  He dropped the board and turned away from the man, but she noticed his hands were shaking. He had saved her life by taking another.

  She would have to return the favor.

  Chapter Six

  She had already been through so much, and then this had to happen. Chad was glad he had killed the bastard.

  As he drove, he looked over at her. She was pale and her hair was disheveled, but she didn’t bother to right it and neither did he. Simply being shaken up wasn’t even the start of it. From the way her face seemed to have momentarily aged and her eyes had darkened, she looked terrorized.

  “Are you okay? Do I need to take you to the hospital? A hit like that to the back of the legs can cause clots, could move straight into your lungs. Dead in an instant.”

  Shut up, Chad, he told himself. I need to work on making her feel better. Not worse. And seriously, telling her she could die? What in the actual hell is wrong with me?

  Shaye didn’t answer, instead she turned her face away.

  She thinks I’m stupid, too.

  “I told Zoey that we are going to need a cleanup crew in the hardware store. She already sent someone out.” He tried to sound reassuring, like he was talking about someone taking out the trash and not disposing of a dead body.

  “You can’t tell me that no one is going to report a murder. What about the guy who worked there?” she asked, her voice tired and drawn.

  “He’ll stay where he is. No one needs to know who the assailant was. We should be in the clear.” He nodded like it was the perfect plan.

  She finally looked his way and gave him a disbelieving look. “If I’ve learned any lesson, too well as of late, it’s that nothing ever goes according to plan.”

  He couldn’t help the chortle that escaped him. She had that right. “Yeah, but in this town, with my cousin as one of the few deputies, I think if we were forced to let him in on everything that was going on...well, Wyatt might see things our way.”

  “He may not entirely be on my side after what I did to him,” she said with a guilty smile.

  “Don’t worry. I can get him to forgive you. He’s family,” Chad said. But as he spoke, he wasn’t entirely sure if Wyatt would come to their rescue or not.

  “And what about Kash? He seemed hell-bent on revenge.”

  He twitched. He had forgotten about Kash. “Well, yeah, Deputy Calvert may be a bit of a hassle, but even he won’t be able to trace this one back to us.” He paused. “And besides, I think he has a bit of a thing for you. It may be our saving grace.”

  A hint of redness rose up in her cheeks. “He has no interest in me.”

  And yet, from the way her body responded to the sound of Kash’s name and the mention of his potential interest, her naivety seemed dishonest.

  Until now, he wasn’t entirely sure what was going on between them, and unfortunately, he had gotten his answer. A strange sensation of jealousy penetrated his shell as he drove the truck toward Missoula.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, her hand gripping the truck’s door as if she was one step away from opening it, then tucking and rolling out onto the highway.

  “It’s okay,” he said, reaching over and touching her thigh. “I just need to go and buy a water heater.”

  She seemed to relax under his touch, surprising him.

  “There is no way in the world that I’m going to step another foot into a hardware store.” Her hand slackened on the door. “I’ve already relived enough of The Equalizer to last me a lifetime.”

  He laughed out loud. “Okay, that was a good movie.”

  “A movie that I didn’t think I was ever going to re-create in my actual life.” She smirked.

  “You have no idea. I was like one step away from grabbing a chainsaw and going all Denzel Washington on that guy’s ass.”

  “Ha.” She snorted. “Yeah right, Denzel. And, I have to say that if you moved here to have a quiet life, like he did in the movie, then you are failing miserably.”

  He shrugged. Failure was the word of the hour.

  “I know, it’s bad...” He laughed. “Over the last few months Zoey’s been on me about reducing my kill-rate.”

  Shaye’s mouth dropped open. “You have to be kidding me.”

  He laughed. “What if I’m not? What if the man you have befriended is the biggest badass ever?”

  “Wow,” she said, shaking her head at his complete nonsense. “Apparently adrenaline kicks your ego into high gear.”

  He flexed his arm. He wasn’t exactly jacked right now, but there was a bit of burliness to his arms. Even if she wasn’t completely impressed with his physique, he hoped he had her attention.

  She laughed at him, the sound high and almost free of the tension that bounced between them in the car.

  “Wow, you are the most ridiculous man I have ever met. Has anyone ever told you that?” she teased.

  “I’ll take that. I would much rather be ridiculous than anything else. At least I won’t die of boredom anytime soon.” He put his hand down on her leg and she moved slightly closer to him. “You know who might?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Kash Calvert,” he said with a wry grin. “From what I hear, that man is about as much fun as a walrus on an iceberg.”

  She frowned. “A walrus on an iceberg? That’s one I’ve never heard before. Is that really the best you can come up with?” she mocked.

  “Hey, now,” he said, glad she was feeling good enough to tease him in retaliation. “I kick asses, I’m not a wordsmith.”

  Her sparkling laugh returned. “You didn’t need to tell me that!”

  He gave her knee a squeeze, silently thanking the Fates for the change in their moods. It felt so good moving back into the friendship that he knew was at the core of their relationship.

  She reached into her purse, took out her phone and clicked on a few buttons.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, trying to peek while keeping his eyes on the road.

  She smiled. “I’m ordering a water heater and I just hired someone to install it. Hello, Home Depot.” She hit another button with a flourish. “They’ll be at your place tomorrow morning to handle everything.”

  He opened his mouth to protest. She couldn’t have thought putting their address in connection with her name was a good idea. He gulped back his assumptions. “You didn’t really just do that, did you?”

  She frowned. “Come on now,” she said, showing him the confirmation of their appointment on her phone. “It is a gift. And we both know you’re going to need a professional, even with the internet’s help.” She stuffed her phone in her pocket. “And besides, if I’m staying at your place, I think getting your family a new water heater as a thank you is the least I can do.”

  Before he went into full panic mode, he took a breath. “Um, you didn’t tell them to deliver it to our house, or give them our address, did you?”

  She gave him a look like she wasn’t following his logic. “How else are they going to do the install?”

  “And you used your name and credit card number?” he asked, his voice a nervous growl.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but then stopped and a tiny squeak escaped her. She threw her hands over her mouth and the color that had just returned to her features
disappeared. “Oh.”

  He pulled his truck over to the side of the road and took out his phone. He dialed Zoey.

  They had all agreed to stay at the ranch and face whatever came their way, but there was no way that they were going to survive this faux pas without a major fight. They had no choice—he and his family would have to leave the ranch.

  “Oh, Chad, I’m so sorry.” She spoke from the spaces between her fingers. “I wasn’t thinking. I just thought I’d do something nice, and...” She choked on her tears as a few twisted down her cheek. “I... I’ll cancel.”

  He waved her off. No matter what she did now, it didn’t matter.

  Zoey answered his call. “Another dead guy?”

  “No. But we are going to have to hole up for a bit. Get everything you need out of the ranch house.”

  Zoey sighed. “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” he said, afraid that if he told Zoey about what Shaye had done that Zoey would take it out on her. “Our location may have been compromised. Is Anya there with Mindy?”

  “Yeah,” Zoey said. In the background he could hear her heavy footsteps, as though she was running through their house.

  “Get them out—take them and Sarge over to Dunrovin. And you’re going to need to pull our entire team to the ranch for backup.”

  The footfalls came to a stop, as though Zoey had stopped in order to think about the idea. “It will take a bit of work to pull them in from around the globe—and they’re all working on contracts.”

  Their STEALTH team was currently strewn around the world, providing security for their clients. It was silly to think that using them for their personal security team was even an option. Sure, they could pull a few, but with so many people pointing in their direction now, that wasn’t really an option. Their only choice was to leave.

  Damn. He had really started to like living in one place for more than a month. Montana’s state motto was The Last Best Place, which, for Chad, was the truth. The mountains that huddled around their small town and abutted the ranch were his fortress, his safety net.