The sound of shattering glass was accompanied by the feel of Wrath’s breath whooshing out of his lungs. He hit the ground hard. A shower of glass fell on top of him. He rolled onto his belly to cover his face, but several little slivers hit his cheeks. The stinging pain did nothing but piss him off. And when Jinx lumbered over to reach down and grab Wrath, Wrath lashed out with one boot and caught Jinx in the knee.
The bigger man went down, but Bridge just took his place. He grabbed at Wrath and tried to drag him out of the room. Wrath tangled his arms in Bridge’s legs and wrenched his ankles out from underneath him. Bridge went down on one knee. Jinx was just getting up. He managed to get hold of Wrath’s ankles. Bridge got up and grabbed the top half of Wrath. Between the two men, they carried him out of the room and down the hallway.
They were obviously going to the front of the house. The men kept Wrath suspended between them. He worked hard, bucking his body and flinging himself toward the stair railing as they descended. He was trying to knock them off balance. Anything. It didn’t work.
Jinx managed to get the front door open. Both men stepped outside with Wrath between them. They gave him a heave-ho that left Wrath’s stomach feeling as though he were on a roller coaster. Then they threw him down onto the driveway.
Wrath bounced on the pavement and hit the front tire of his car. He leaped to his feet and pointed at both men. “Do you have any idea how pissed Nash is going to be? What the fuck? You work for him. You know that. Why would you let that prick pull your strings?”
Jinx shrugged and looked at Bridge. Bridge was the one who smirked. “We’re a little tired of missing paydays because Nash is a shit businessman. Let’s just say that Stedman Hyde-Pierson knows how to pay his bills up front and on time.”
“You’re going to be sorry,” Wrath muttered. He pulled out his phone to call Nash, but the screen had been shattered in the fight. Great. He had to get back in that house and get to Tegan before something else went wrong.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tegan’s hands were shaking with the force of her anger. She could not believe her father would do something so blatantly—well, rude! She marched over to his desk and pointed straight at him. “That was uncalled for. I want Wrath with me. I trust him. I sure as hell trust him a lot more than I trust those monkeys that you’ve obviously paid off.”
Instead of an instant reaction, Stedman Hyde-Pierson gazed at her as though she were an animal in a zoo. “Of all the variables in this equation, I must say that I never expected you to be the troublesome one.”
“What equation?” Tegan demanded. “What variables? What are you talking about?”
Just then, the French doors behind her father burst open in a hail of splintered wood and glass. Tegan gaped in shock as a freakishly tall man stepped into the room. Her father jumped back into a corner of the room and proceeded to actually cower there. Tegan watched in shock as the tall man gave the entire room an obvious once-over. Then he smiled at Tegan and took two enormous strides to reach her side.
“Miss Hyde-Pierson,” the tall man said. His words were coated in a strange accent. Eastern European maybe, but nothing she was familiar with, and certainly not Russian. “If you’ll just come with me, we can dispense with all of this very annoying running about.”
Her survival instincts finally asserted themselves. Tegan yanked her arm away from the tall man. “I’m not going with you! In three seconds, this room will be filled with bodyguards and you’ll be a puddle on the floor.”
“But in two seconds, we’ll be gone.” The tall man grabbed her upper arm and squeezed so hard she whimpered in pain. Then he looked at her father. “I’m leaving you alive on purpose, and I think you know why.”
“Daddy!” Tegan begged. “Help me!”
But her father seemed paralyzed by his fear. He did nothing to help her. He did not even offer any words of encouragement. He simply stared while Tegan was dragged back out the French doors and out of the relative safety of her father’s house.
Where was Wrath? Where were the two beefcakes that supposedly worked for Mr. Nash? Shouldn’t there be someone around to help her? Tegan struggled and pulled, but the tall man didn’t even seem fazed by her wriggling. He just kept on walking toward an SUV parked at the bottom of her father’s terrace.
“You just drove into the yard?” Amidst all of this horror, Tegan was actually stuck on the absolute rudeness and presumption of it all. Who did this guy think he was?
He looked down at her, his expression amused. “I’ve been hired to murder you, and you’re worried about the grass?”
He was right. She needed to be thinking about escape, not the landscaping. “Help!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help! Help me! Crazy man with a gun in the backyard!”
WRATH WAS JUST about to call Nash and bitch him out regarding Bridge’s and Jinx’s conflicting loyalties when he heard a shrill scream from the opposite side of the house. It was most definitely coming from outside, which meant he didn’t have to try and bust through the wall of Tweedledee and Tweedledum blocking his access to the house.
Tegan.
The thought that she could be in trouble gave him wings. Wrath launched into a dead sprint. He angled his trajectory right past Bridge and Jinx. The two muscle-bound former marines were poised and ready for a direct attack. When he sped right past them, they visibly flinched and then looked at each other in confusion. Moments later, Wrath heard them give chase. Fortunately, speed was not their thing.
Wrath ducked through a copse of carefully manicured trees and finally found himself in what amounted to the backyard. The grounds were expansive, but there was no way the Mercedes SUV sitting at the bottom of the hill was a lawn ornament.
Without pausing, Wrath altered his path and headed directly for the SUV. He could see the tall man trying to cram Tegan inside the vehicle. She was fighting hard, but there would be no way she could hold off the inevitable. If the tall man got her inside the vehicle, she would be at his mercy and it would be all over.
Wrath’s lungs burned from the exertion. He pushed his body past known limits as he headed toward the three small steps leading to the lower level of the outdoor terrace. He needed an advantage—something. So he stepped up and then hurled himself right at the tall man.
The tall man was still focused on getting Tegan through the back hatch of the vehicle. He did not see Wrath coming until they collided with a bone-crunching thud. Wrath careened into the man’s rangy body. The force of Wrath’s leap shoved his opponent into the rear door of the SUV. The two of them bounced hard off the unforgiving metal before crashing to the ground.
In the scuffle, Wrath felt his gun go flying out of its holster in the small of his back. The wind was knocked from his already oxygen-depleted lungs, and his face made hard contact with the ground.
The tall man got it worse. Wrath saw the man’s face bounce off the SUV’s spare tire before he went to the ground right underneath Wrath’s heavier body. That didn’t mean the fight was over. Before Wrath had even managed to shake himself back to full awareness, he felt his opponent bury a fist in his left side. The force of the blow was enough to make Wrath gasp in pain. He fought for the upper hand. Wrapping his legs around the tall man, he cradled the man’s neck in one arm and attempted to choke the breath from his lungs. He had to end this fast or risk losing everything.
ONE SECOND, TEGAN had been kicking with all her might to prevent herself from being shoved into the back of that Mercedes. The next second, her lower half was dangling out of the vehicle and the kidnapping murderer seemed to have disappeared. Then she heard a grunt and realized that Wrath had gotten here just in the nick of time.
She slid down until her toes touched the ground and she was able to stand up. Her limbs were shaky, and she felt almost lightheaded with relief. Yet when she moved around the side of the SUV to find Wrath, any sense of relief died a violent death.
The two men were pounding each other. Her almost murderer was slamming his fist
s into Wrath’s kidneys over and over again. The two men grappled on the ground, rolling around like dogs, snarling and snapping at each other. Then Wrath managed to get on top. He braced his knees on either side of the tall man’s waist and began pummeling the man’s face. It was an all-out brawl. Blood and spittle flew as Wrath smashed his fists into the man’s teeth. A cut opened above the man’s eye. It poured blood, and the coppery stench made Tegan want to retch.
Then the tall man braced his feet flat on the ground. His whole body seemed to heave up off the ground. He flung Wrath off balance. Tegan sucked in a gasp of horror as Wrath rolled to the ground. He bounced to his feet in an instant, but his face was bleeding, and he looked to be favoring that shoulder wound again.
“Who are you?” Tegan demanded as the tall man jumped up onto his own feet. “Who sent you?”
“You know who sent me.” The man spat blood into the grass. “My name is Chroboski. I take care of problems.” He leered at Tegan. “And believe me, Miss Hyde-Pierson, you’re the biggest pain in the ass I’ve ever come across.”
Tegan didn’t waste brainpower feeling insulted. Wrath shifted sideways to put his body between Tegan and Chroboski. The move did not go unnoticed by the killer. He pointed his finger at Tegan, and then he spun around and took off through the trees. Before Tegan could say anything, Wrath was running after him like an Olympic sprinter.
She took one look at the two men trying to be cheetahs and opted to steal the SUV. Scrambling into the driver’s seat, she started the engine. Tegan flung the thing in gear and slammed on the gas. Turning the wheel, she bounced wildly across the lawn in search of Wrath. There was no way she was going to let that Chroboski clown get another shot at him. Not if she could help it!
WRATH WAS SO focused on Chroboski’s gangly legs eating up the ground between the Hyde-Pierson estate and the road that he nearly didn’t hear the SUV until it was on top of him.
“Get on!” Tegan shouted through the open passenger door window.
Wrath didn’t pause to even think about the fact that she was driving Chroboski’s SUV. He jumped onto the metal running board on the passenger side of the vehicle and hoped he didn’t fall off and get himself run over.
Tegan was an insane driver. Wrath was practically climbing into the vehicle to keep from taking a tumble. She steered around bushes and ran right through a few low-level retention ponds.
“This leads right up to the road.” She swung the wheel wildly to avoid a ditch. The back hatch was still open, and it kept swinging up and down with each crazy bounce. Wrath was waiting for it to fly off. “There he is!” She pointed to the gangly figure just popping up out of a low spot and lining out for the wrought iron fence that bordered the Hyde-Pierson property.
“Slow down and I’ll…” Wrath’s words were lost in the whine of the engine as she sped up. “Shit!” He gripped hard at the door when he realized her intention.
The wind whipped by Wrath’s head. It stung his eyes and made them water. His hands were sweaty on the leather interior of the door handle. He gripped harder. Chroboski was twenty yards ahead. Then ten. Then the gangly man was slammed into the hood of the SUV. He flew up and over the top. His body thump thumped across the top of the vehicle and got stuck between the roof and the hatch.
Tegan slammed on the brakes. The jolting, abrupt stop sent Chroboski tumbling head over heels back down over the front of the vehicle. Wrath jumped down. He stumbled a little before he managed to balance himself. Despite his tumble, Chroboski seemed coherent enough to reach for a weapon in a shoulder holster beneath his jacket.
Wrath started to reach for his weapon, but he’d lost it in the first scuffle. Then before his brain could even formulate a plan, the SUV lurched forward. It smacked into Chroboski again and, this time, pinned him half underneath.
A sickening crack made Wrath cringe in sympathy. Chroboski screamed. The sound lifted the hair on the back of Wrath’s neck. It was the raw cry of an animal cornered without any place to go.
Wrath made his way around the front of the vehicle. He was barely walking upright himself. His legs hurt like hell, and he was almost certain he had a concussion. He braced one hand on the SUV’s hood and placed his boot on Chroboski’s throat.
“Kill me.” Chroboski grabbed Wrath’s boot and grinned up at him like a sick cadaverous-looking fiend. “You know you want to.”
Wrath cocked his head to one side. He was finally hearing something that made him want to smile. Sirens. A whole slew of them headed right to them. Wrath offered Chroboski a cold smile. “Do you hear that?”
Chroboski’s expression soured. “Do it, you cowardly piece of shit! Finish me off. You know you want to. I was going to kill her. She’s not just a job to you. Everyone knows it. We can all see it!”
“All?” Wrath murmured. Then he glared down at Chroboski. “That’s why you’re going to live. You’re going to tell the police everything you know about all of your associates. You’ll sing like a canary or they’ll put you in a place that people like you never want to see.”
“I’m not going to a cage!” Chroboski’s shrill voice followed Wrath back to the driver’s side of the SUV.
“You can get out now,” Wrath told Tegan.
Tegan had a death grip on the steering wheel. “He might get away.”
“He’s pinned under the vehicle,” Wrath said quietly. “You’re safe now, Tegan. It’s over.”
She looked at him with such a horrible expression of fear and hopelessness. “Is it? Because, right now, I feel like it will never be over.”
Wrath tugged her from the SUV’s driver’s seat just as the police cars rolled up. They converged on the scene like something from a movie, and Wrath could not help but wonder if Tegan was right to be worried.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tegan could not stop shaking. The officers had taken her and Wrath back to her father’s house, but she refused to go inside. Wrath stood beside her. He was like a human guard dog. Anyone who tried to get near her to ask questions or to suggest for the millionth time that she go inside was turned away without a word and told that Miss Hyde-Pierson was not giving statements right now.
Mr. Nash had finally shown up. He had two more agents in tow, and they were currently having a powwow with the two beefcakes who were obviously on her father’s payroll.
“Wrath!” Mr. Nash was waving him over.
Wrath stubbornly shook his head. His arms were folded across his chest, and he pointed one index finger at Mr. Nash before pointing it a second time at the strip of grass right beside his boots. The meaning was obvious.
“You’re being an ass!” Mr. Nash snarled as he and the two beefcakes walked over.
Tegan could not help but cower behind Wrath as the other two men approached. She didn’t trust them and could not believe that Mr. Nash would after they had shown their loyalty to be so torn.
“You think I’m an ass?” Wrath snorted. He pointed to the beefcakes. “Ask Bridge and Jinx why they obeyed Stedman Hyde-Pierson and forcibly removed me from my position with Tegan? They”—he emphatically indicated the beefcakes—“are the reason that Chroboski took her! They left her and Stedman unattended in that office. It was like someone fucking planned it!”
Bridge looked at Jinx. “If it was planned, it wasn’t by us.”
“No, it was in spite of you!” Wrath shot back. “You followed orders you knew were bullshit. You didn’t consult Nash. You didn’t even give me the fucking courtesy of letting me walk outside the room to tell me what the hell was going on.” Wrath turned to Nash. “I don’t trust these assholes anymore. I didn’t really trust them before, but it’s obvious that they’re getting paid by Stedman to be his lapdogs.”
Tegan’s gut twisted as Bridge and Jinx stepped forward as though they intended to give Wrath another beating. She grabbed onto Wrath’s arm and held tight. She wasn’t going to let them touch him. She was tired of being everyone’s pawn!
“Stop it!” Tegan said hoarsely. She pointed to Mr
. Nash. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we can all see that my father isn’t on the up and up. I know you suspect that. I suspect it myself. But I am done being at the mercy of my father’s decisions.”
Tegan looked up and realized that her father had arrived on scene just in time to hear her announcement. She stuck her chin out and forced herself to get some backbone. Unless she wanted to let someone like Stedman Hyde-Pierson call the shots for the rest of her life, she needed to take a stand and mean it. That meant not letting Wrath fight all of her battles.
She stepped out from behind Wrath’s broad back and stood beside him. She took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. When he squeezed back, she felt as if he’d given her a whole helping of his courage. She could do this.
“Young lady, you don’t know what you’re doing.” Her father looked down his nose at her. “You’re young and you’re foolish. I’ll forgive it today, but I’m done letting you get by with this rebellious behavior.”
“I’m twenty-four years old,” Tegan retorted. “I’m not your young lady and you don’t get to run my life. I don’t need your money. I don’t need your connections or your company.” Tegan pressed her lips together. She would never forget how he stood there and just let a man take her away, without lifting a finger. “You would have let me be slaughtered without batting an eye rather than risk your own neck,” Tegan said fervently. “I know what kind of man you are. You are a coward, and I don’t want you in my life anymore.”
Stedman waved at Mr. Nash. “Is this what hiring you has done for me? Listen to her! That’s your employee that’s rotted her brain!”
“Actually,” Mr. Nash said in a tone filled with amusement. “Since Ms. Hyde-Pierson works for me, I don’t think she’s your concern any longer.”
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