Guarding Autumn (Crimson Point Security #3)

Chapter Twenty-Two

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Rage punched through Gavin. Some asshole had grabbed Carly in a fucking chokehold and was using her as a human shield to evade the cops coming at him.

His heart and lungs felt like they were about to explode as he plunged through the panicking mass of people preventing him from getting to Carly, his gaze locked on her small figure as she flickered in and out of view through the swirling, tightly-packed crowd.

“Gav, you got him?” Ivy said in his earpiece.

“Yeah.” The fucking coward was still holding her in front of him. Carly was fighting like hell to get away from him. Gavin was going to break his face for it.

It looked like most of the violent protesters were on the run now, but the cops continued to lob more tear gas cannisters into the seething mass anyway, pushing everyone farther back. Gavin’s chest tightened as one of them detonated near Carly.

He put on a burst of speed, his thighs and arms burning as he shoved and pushed people aside, bulldozing his way to Carly, bracing for the moment the gas hit him. “Carly!” She was still fighting the guy, trying to get free.

The asshole stumbled. Went down.

Gavin was less than fifty feet from her when suddenly a guy in a gas mask grabbed her and took off in the opposite direction. “No!” Gavin shouted, his voice drowned out by the wall of noise surrounding him. His eyes began to burn suddenly, his vision blurring from the tear production.

He cursed and swiped at his eyes, squinted to try and minimize the effects of the gas, but it was useless. He lost visual on her. Fuck! “Ivy, you got her?” They couldn’t fucking lose her again. Not now, when he was so close.

“Looking for a different camera. Stand by.”

He couldn’t afford this holdup, Carly was—

“Suspect moving north, northwest. Thirty meters from you and gaining.”

Gavin’s watery gaze panned over the crowd as he struggled to focus his view. “Got him.” He locked his jaw, watched in helpless frustration as the man cut through the crowd carrying Carly.

They vanished for a moment, then appeared through a gap that opened. The man jumped behind a concrete barrier with her and disappeared from view completely.

Hot, blinding rage swept through Gavin. He flung people out of his way, grunted at every blow that rained down on him from rocks and bottles and whatever else the protesters were hurling at the cops.

After an agonizing delay, he finally made it to the thigh-high concrete barrier. In one move, he planted his palms on the top, vaulted it, and landed on both feet on the other side, prepared to chase the bastard down and pummel him.

Instead, he jerked to a stop so sudden that he stumbled and had to catch his balance. Blinking his burning, tearing eyes, he took in the scene before him. Dozens of people were taking shelter against the barrier, including the man who had taken Carly.

The stranger was lying prone as he stretched out on top of her, his arms curled protectively around her head. Literally shielding her with his own body. His gas mask was gone, replaced by a bandana over his nose and mouth that would do nothing to mitigate the gas. He squinted up at Gavin through red, swollen, and watery eyes, unmoving.

The end of Carly’s red ponytail trailed out across the pavement beneath him. “Carly!”

Her head jerked up. The gas mask hid her face, but her muffled response was clear. “Gavvy!”

Gavin lunged over, dropped to his knees as the guy sat up on his haunches to let her up, and grabbed Carly. He wrapped her up tight in his arms, crushed her to him and shut his eyes, burying his face in her hair while coughs wracked him.

Fuck. Just...holy fuck.

Her thin little arms were wrapped around his neck. He fought to get his shit together, ordered himself to calm down. “Hey, squirt.”

She hugged him harder, and his heart nearly imploded.

Mine.

The protective, primal thought triggered a rush of goosebumps all over his body, the tidal wave of relief that crashed over him so powerful it left him dizzy.

“Gav, you’re out of range, I don’t have a visual on you. Do you have her?” Ivy said.

“Yeah. I got her.” And goddamn that felt good to say. “She’s okay.”

“That’s great news. What’s the plan?”

“Gimme a minute.” He took another moment to hold her tight, then eased the pressure and shifted her in his hold. “You okay?” he asked close to her ear.

She nodded and kept clinging, little coughing spasms wracking her. She didn’t seem hurt, but the gas would be burning her like a bitch, and he wasn’t going to remove the mask to check her face for injury.

He glanced around them, taking in all the frightened people huddled behind the line of concrete, too afraid to move. And the guy who had carried Carly over here was gone.

Gavin scanned the vicinity. This spot was better than being in the middle of the crush, but it still wasn’t safe enough. He needed to get her inside the security of the conference center until this was over. And that meant battling his way back the way he’d come while carrying her.

Tris hopped the barricade with Decker. “Hey.” The two of them came to stand guard over them, breathing hard, eyes red and streaming. “She okay?” Tris asked, wiping an eye with his shoulder.

Gavin stroked a hand over the top of her head. “Think so.” Physically, hopefully fine once the gas wore off. Emotionally and mentally, likely not. God, what she’d been through today.

“We can’t stay here with her,” Decker said, glancing around in concern. “Still way too unstable.”

“I know.” He eased Carly away from him.

Tris knelt down to smile at her. “Hey, Carls. How are you, kid?”

Carly flung her arms around his neck in answer. While Tris cradled her, Gavin quickly ripped off his dress shirt and removed his Kevlar vest beneath it, leaving him in only a white T-shirt.

“Just gonna put this on you to protect you more, okay squirt?” He slid it over her head and the gas mask, did up the Velcro straps as tight as they could go, but it still hung off her little frame.

She sat still as a doll, her fear palpable. “Do we have to go back through there?”

“It’s not safe here, sweetheart. We’re going to take you to the conference center where your mom is waiting for you. And this time you’ve got all of us to look after you.”

“That’s right,” Tris said with a reassuring smile, giving her ponytail a gentle tug. “All three of us as your very own personal security detail. People pay us big bucks for that kind of protection, but for you we’ll do it for free.”

Gavin tapped his earpiece, mentally gearing up for this next part of the mission. “Ivy, we’re taking Carly to the conference center. Can you get us help?” The three of them gave her a decent level of protection, but law enforcement might be able to make the return trip a lot easier if they knew they were coming.

“On it.”

He checked the vest one last time, giving the Velcro tabs another tug. It was way too big but better than nothing, and would at least protect her torso and internal organs if anything hit her. He would protect her head with his arms. “You ready?”

Carly hesitated a second, but nodded. He bent and scooped her up, pushing to his feet with Tris’s help. “Just close your eyes and hold on, we’ll have you inside with your mom in no time,” he told her, bringing her to his chest and urging her legs around his waist.

She immediately locked her ankles at the small of his back and wound her arms around his neck, burrowing in close. His heart squeezed painfully. Sweet baby. “All right, let’s get outta here.”

He slid over the barrier, kept his back to the crowd as he edged his way along the perimeter. His brothers stayed glued to him, Deck out front like a human icebreaker slicing a path through the mob, and Tris protecting his right side.

A few bottles and rocks pelted them. Gavin angled his body to shield Carly more, set his jaw as they slammed into his unprotected side. But he’d take the pain gladly as long as Carly was safe. He would protect her with his last breath.

She didn’t move, didn’t lessen the grip of her arms and legs and kept the gas mask buried in the crook of his neck while he carried her. “It’s okay,” he told her, pain streaking along his ribs.

“Feds know your situation,” Ivy said. “They’ve alerted the riot squad and will look for you.”

Good. “Copy. Cops know we’re coming,” he told his brothers.

“Almost to them,” Decker called out. “Thirty meters.”

Gavin caught something flying at him in his watery peripheral vision an instant before it slammed into his ribs. He grunted, sucked in a breath as pain streaked along his side, hunching over Carly more. Mother fucker .

“Cops are coming to us,” Tris announced.

Thank Christ.

Twenty seconds later, a wall of tactical officers surrounded them, forming a protective canopy with their shields. Their moving shelter escorted them as far as the first security barrier, more projectiles bouncing off their shields.

Gavin was sweating and sucking in air by the time they finally reached the heavily guarded entrance to the conference center, his side throbbing from the deep bruise forming there.

Callum and Ryder were waiting for them at the doors, armed with bottles of water. Gavin staggered past them and carried his precious bundle inside with a profound sense of relief and gratitude that she was safe now and the worst was over.

The moment the doors closed behind them his adrenaline level ebbed.

“It’s all over,” he told Carly, pausing to remove the gas mask from her face. When those red-rimmed green eyes startlingly like his own focused on him, he gave her a reassuring smile, his throat tight. “Hey, squirt.”

Safe. This was his baby girl, and she was safe.

“ Carly !”

They both looked up. Autumn was racing toward them down the wide corridor, blond hair streaming behind her, her face a tortured mix of emotions as she ran straight for their daughter.