by Gayle, E. M.
Houston nodded and followed him from the room and down the hall, now littered with bodies.
"She okay?" Axel questioned.
"No. They fucking drugged her. She’s got marks all over her arms." He didn't have to ask her to know anything. He'd seen it all run across her face in a matter of seconds. They were too late. The damage to her had been done and his actions made it worse.
Not that he regretted gutting that asshole for a second. Walking into that room and seeing him on top of Izzy trying to get his dick out was one of the two worst things he’d ever seen in his life. At least this time he was able to make someone pay.
He only hoped the club found a way to make it better for her after he left. His heart squeezed. He didn't want to leave her.
Even if she found a way to forgive him for what happened in that room, there'd be no forgiveness for what he was about to do.
Tires squealed outside just as they cleared the front door.
Axel threw open the van door. "Get her in."
Houston lifted her from his chest and placed her in the seat as gently as he could, however, her arms remained firmly locked around his neck.
“Look at me, babe.”
She shook her head, the wet skin of her cheek brushing his jaw.
“Look at me, Isabella.”
Her head jerked up at his use of her full name. “You know who I am, don’t you?”
He nodded.
“And you still came for me?” Some of the fear from her eyes slid away as her face softened.
“I did what I had to. Don’t make that out to be more than it is.” He hardened his jaw and his voice. “I don’t tolerate innocent women getting hurt.”
“You saved me,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Seriously, babe. This isn’t what you think. I’m no knight and I sure as fuck don’t have shiny armor.” He was trying to harden his heart, but the glassy look of unshed tears in her eyes was about to undo him. “I got you out. Now we gotta move on.”
The subtle jerk of her body and release of her hands on him made his stomach clench. The thought of hurting her now made him angry all over again. But he had to do this or she might cling to something not worth clinging to.
“Axel here is going to take care of you. You can trust him.”
A little more alert, her eyes narrowed. “Where will you be?”
“Gone.”
Her mouth dropped open. “What do you mean gone?”
Houston stretched his neck and paused before he spoke something that would lead her on.
“It means my job here is done. Now I move on to the next one.”
Her eyes widened to the size of quarters and her fingers curled into fists. He half expected her to take a swing at him.
“We’ve got to go now,” Axel said, reminding them both they were not yet out of danger. He started to slide the door closed when her hand grabbed the metal and blocked it open.
“What kind of asshole rescues me from hell only to dump me with strangers? Where are they taking me?”
“Somewhere safe. That’s all you need to know. Now unless you want us all to die tonight, sit down and shut up, princess.” He was being harsh, but it felt necessary. It didn’t matter that it twisted his gut like a vise to do it. The sooner she forgot about him the better.
“You’re so right about the rescuing knight bullshit,” she hissed.
Houston barked out a vicious laugh. “At least I’m honest, right? And I honestly hope you’ll understand one day that I did what I did because it was the only thing I could do. Now be a good little girl and quiet down.”
He didn’t care how much of a cliche it sounded like because if looks could kill hers certainly would. She settled in her seat and faced forward, apparently done talking. Good. He couldn’t take much more without hauling her out of the van and stealing her away.
Axel began sliding the door closed, but Izzy had one more parting shot.
Without looking at him, she spoke to the seat in front of her. “You didn’t save me. You were too late.”
Houston lunged forward to grab her and the door shut in his face.
Axel grabbed him and tackled him to the ground as the tires spun and peeled away.
“Get off me,” he bellowed.
“Let her go. You know you have to. She’s damaged goods.”
He shoved Axel off him and stood. “You think I give a shit about that? She deserves better than this.”
“Maybe so. But you made a deal and you will live up to your end of it. You want her pining after you the whole time, unable to recover?”
He stared at the back of the van quickly disappearing down the long road. “No.”
“Then let her go. I promise the club will take care of her.”
He turned on Axel. “No one touches her.”
“I’m sick and tired of your shitty assumptions about the club.”
He grabbed Axel’s shirt and yanked him close. “No one. You got me?”
“Yeah, I got you.”
“Good, then let me go and get the fuck out of here before reinforcements get here.”
He released Axel and shoved him back a couple of steps. He was right. They couldn’t linger without risking another confrontation.
But there was a coldness seeping into his chest and it had nothing to do with the weather. The hairs at the nape of his neck itched. His instincts were rebelling. But he gave his word and that word was all he had left.
That. And the memory of a week with a woman who no longer existed...
“Oh shit! I’ve got so—he—.”
The ear piece he’d all but forced all of them to wear for this mission crackled in his ear with Zook’s broken voice. The brother’s name was actually Bazooka and he’d immediately understood why. Not only did his obsession and care for their armory border on the OCD, he also had a fondness for the large artillery that could blow shit up.
“Come again.”
“This building out back. It ain’t a garage and it ain’t empty. It’s a fucking bunkhouse and there are women in here.”
“Are you shitting me right now, Zook?” Axel asked over the comm. “Half the team and the van are already gone. It’s just you, me and Houston still out here.”
“Call em back. These kind of look like the girls we been looking for. Fuck—”
The comm crackled again for a second and then went silent. Shit. This mission had officially gone sideways.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Axel jumped off his bike and took off in the direction of the building they’d assumed was just a garage. Although just in case, he’d assigned Zook, Beast and Rainman to check it out and keep eyes on the perimeter of both buildings before they’d gone in the main house.
Beast and Rainman had ultimately helped secure the main building and then left to escort the van and this was the first they were hearing from Zook about any other people other than guards.
“Tel. I need an update.” He spoke into his mic as he followed Axel to the back of the house. “How long do we have?”
“Radar shows heat signatures of at least eight men converging on your position. This piece of equipment isn’t top of the line though, so it could be more. And you’ve got maybe three to four minutes, tops.”
Dammit. That was not enough time.
“Get that van back here now,” Axel growled over the connection.
“On it, boss,” Tel replied.
“I don’t think that’s a goo—"
“Hawkeye, shut up for once and do your thing. We need you to buy us some time. Can you do that?”
“For sure if I had some NVGs.” He didn’t much care for Axel ignoring his opinion, but he was right about one thing. They didn’t have time to argue.
“Well, we don’t have that fancy night vision shit so you gotta do this the old-fashioned way.”
He resisted a last second sarcastic response and peeled away from the front of the garage. It was his job once again to provide critical cover for the front line tro
ops. Instead of going in with Zook and Axel, he headed for the rocky embankment to the left.
That small incline and bulky rocks would provide him cover from the approaching targets as well as the vantage point to pick those fuckers off. He would have preferred the roof, but he didn’t have time to change course. If they were bringing Izzy into the middle of this nightmare then he’d damn well find a way to get the job done and quickly.
“Van’s almost to you.” Before Tel could finish his sentence he heard the roar of the van’s engine as he settled into position. With his stomach churning about Izzy, he forced his mind to focus on his rifle and the long-range scope and stand he fished from his backpack. He couldn’t think about Izzy right now.
While the bite of her anger had come through the drugs loud and clear, he had to believe making this deal was the best thing he could have done. He preferred her pissed and alive over the alternative.
He wedged his rifle into the perfect spot between two boulders and stretched out on his stomach. The conditions and prep for this were far from perfect, but he’d dealt with these kinds of contingencies for years. No mission ever went exactly as planned.
Although the deep darkness surrounding this property was as much the enemy as the soldiers approaching, giving him more worry than usual. In the other version of his life, he at least had the vast amount of equipment necessary to control situations as they arose. Unlike this wild west bullshit.
“This is it. They’re coming in thirty degrees northwest of your position at the edge of the trees. You should start seeing them any second.”
“I’m in position,” he answered, taking a deep even breath to ease his focus.
“We’re bringing them out now. Counting on you to cover us, Hawkeye.”
He took another slow deep breath and focused his eyes in the direction Tel had given him. The moon shone barely at a quarter of its strength so he didn’t have much help in that area. That gave him no choice but to rely on the intel and his instincts. The latter of which had been itching at him for hours.
He detected movement in his peripheral and he switched direction momentarily to ensure it was friendly. Satisfied when he saw Axel emerge from the garage with a female in his arms, he returned his gaze to the trees in the distance and blocked out a similar image of Izzy in his.
If not for that quick change of focus, he might have missed them as two enemy combatants emerged from hiding several degrees west of where he’d originally been looking. He took another deep breath, this one quicker, and squeezed the trigger. As soon as the bullet cleared the chamber he repositioned and did it again.
The two lead men hit the ground one right after the other. That was great, but his element of surprise was over and the rest of the men started firing. Even at their distance, they had a better than good chance of taking out some of their men before they could finish loading the women.
Houston flipped the switch on his rifle and began firing in short automatic bursts. His intention to give the impression that they were being ambushed seemed to work as the rest of the men took cover.
“Time to get out now,” he warned. “They won’t stay still for long.”
“Gotta get three more out before we can leave.” Axel shouted. “Need at least two more minutes.”
Two minutes might as well have been a lifetime when it came to gunfire. The men down range were still firing at the van and more than one had hit it. For the first time in a long time, Houston wanted to be on the front line of this bullshit. These people had messed with the wrong person and he wanted to hammer that message into their thick fucking skulls until they exploded.
After several more rounds of rapid fire, he switched back to single rounds. He needed precision if he had any hope of picking them off before they encroached further on the van’s position.
Visibility had gone to shit in the chaos of gunfire, screaming from some of the women and—what the fuck?
“Is that smoke?” he asked over the comm.
“Yeah. I’m burning this shit hole to the ground and using the smoke as cover. We’re coming out with the last of them so you need to get ready to go.” Axel’s red hot rage vibrated into his ear and he shuddered to think what they’d found in that building to get him this enraged.
“Copy that.” He focused in on his sights one last time and slow squeezed the trigger until one of the enemy walked into his smoky vision. The gun popped and he pulled back without confirming the kill.
He had no doubt he’d hit the target, but as Axel shoved the last woman into the back of the van and slammed the door behind her, he scrambled to shove his gear back into his bag so he too could get the hell out of here.
“Get the fuck out of now, Hawkeye. We need to regroup and update JD on this clusterfuck. This shit ain’t over.”
The van peeled out of the drive as the club traded gunfire with the enemy guards. Unfortunately, his bike was in their direct path and he would have to either leave it behind or shoot his way out of here.
He pulled his KelTec pistol with its 30 round magazine out of his holster and backed away from his position. He was not leaving that bike behind. No fucking way. He’d just gotten her back and the idea that these fuckers would destroy her was unacceptable. He’d rather kill every one of them first.
A picture of Izzy angry as hell despite the glassy eyes and swollen needle marks in her arms sitting in the van flooded his mind. If he never got back to her what would happen? He’d promised to leave the moment she was safe. That moment had arrived.
Yet he couldn’t shake the facts. She still needed him. Hell, he still needed her. Who did he think he was kidding? He’d locked onto her the moment he saw her. But it was the glimpse into the woman behind the wedding dress that had dug its claws deep.
He had to see her again. Tonight. Nothing short of her complete and total safety would satisfy the possessiveness that beat inside his chest like a living breathing thing. He had to make sure she understood he wasn’t leaving by choice and that he would come back to her. This wasn’t over.
Even if his honor demanded he live up to his agreement…
He already had too much blood on his hands. Innocent blood. The only way to keep that in check was to protect Izzy no matter the cost. If that protection meant that he temporarily left her in the care of the club, she’d have to understand. He’d make sure she did. Then he could complete the club’s God forsaken mission and his.
“Not so fast, biker scum.”
A normal person probably would have frozen at this point. Not him. He’d had ten years of training and experience with situations just like this. These were the do or die moments in every dangerous situation. He had no plans to be captured and he had no plans to die.
At the same time he turned his body to see his would be attacker, he lifted his pistol in line with his hip and fired. Blood spattered across his face and arms as the bullet landed dead center in the guard’s chest two feet in front of him.
For a second he stood there, his eyes staring down at him wide with shock, before his body crumpled and he fell to his knees. The gun locked in his hand also dropped to the ground and Houston lunged to grab it just in case.
Only he couldn’t move. Something heavy sat on his chest and pinned him to the ground. He also couldn’t take a breath. As his lungs labored for air, he tried to swat at whatever had him trapped. His arms flailed to his side as if they couldn’t figure out how to operate.
Worse yet, his vision had begun to darken with black spots dancing in front of them.
Shit.
This was bad.
“Axel.” His voice croaked on his name. “Is Izzy safe?”
“Jesus, man. What do you think? I got everyone out but her? Don’t be a dick and get your ass back to the compound.”
A modicum of relief eased the agonizing pressure in his chest by a fraction. “Can’t.”
“Why the fuck—”
“I’ve been hit. Took a bullet to the che—” His head lolled to the side, his e
yes sliding shut as the blackness engulfed him.
* * *
Thank you for reading SAVAGE PROTECTOR the first book in the OUTLAW JUSTICE trilogy.
Houston and Izzy’s epic story continues in RECKLESS PAWN (available for preorder now) and concludes in RUTHLESS REDEMPTION also available for preorder.
CLICK HERE to read more about
RECKLESS PAWN
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