The Alpha Bodyguards Books #4-6

Chapter Forty-One

F or almost two hours C ollins had been breaking the speed limit and diligently silent as his gaze made a continuous three-point sweep between the road in front of us, his rearview mirror and his side mirror.

I was almost lulled into a false sense of security when his cell rang and he answered it through the SUV’s speaker.

“Collins.”

“Heads up.” André Luna’s voice filled the cabin. “You’ve got two in the SUV on your tail.”

“I know,” Collins answered. “I’m five minutes out from Christensen’s, and they’re holding steady.”

“Then they’re waiting to see where you land,” Ty cut in. “That’s the only reason they haven’t made a move yet. That or they can’t get in touch with their boss.”

My heart leapt, and I almost wept at the sound of his voice.

“Target down?” Collins asked.

Ty started to speak, but André cut in. “Unsecure line.”

“Copy that,” Collins responded. “Approaching destination. Report later.” He started to hang up.

“Wait,” Ty cut in. “She okay?”

Collins looked at me in the rearview mirror and raised an eyebrow.

Oh God. I wanted to speak to him more than I wanted my next breath, but he was the one who’d said nothing could come of us. He’d said he didn’t do repeats. Yes, he’d gone after Dante, and if his cryptic statement was any indication, he’d gotten to him. I owed him a debt I could never repay. I owed him my life. But I just couldn’t bring myself to answer him.

I shook my head at Collins.

“She’s good,” Collins answered for me.

“Am I on speaker?” Ty asked.

Collins hesitated. “Yes.”

“Ludeviene,” Ty clipped. “Answer me. You okay?”

Tears welled and my heart hurt. I wasn’t okay. I may never be okay again. And part of that was because of him, because of his stupid, stupid , devastating smile. And the simple fact that he didn’t coddle the rich girl he’d found tied and gagged and bleeding. He’d given her a gun and told her to drive a boat to her own freedom if she had too. Then he’d tossed her in the ocean and trusted her to get herself to safety.

No one had ever trusted me to take care of myself.

Not even my parents.

I’d had to beg to move out of their house after I’d graduated college.

“Ludeviene,” Ty snapped.

Startled out of my thoughts, I flinched, but then I turned toward the window and pulled my feet up.

“ Goddamn it ,” Ty cursed. “Collins, is she speaking at all?”

“Affirmative,” Collins answered, slowing the SUV down. “Tail right on my six. Hanging up.” He no sooner ended the call than the Escalade was rear-ended.

Letting out a frightened gasp, I grabbed the seat belt across my chest. “What was that?”

“Hang tight.” Collins took a corner too sharp then floored it as he dialed using the car’s Bluetooth.

A man with an accent answered on the first ring. “Ja.”

“Coming in hot,” Collins warned.

“We are ready.” The accented man hung up.

“Here we go,” Collins said almost to himself as he took another tight turn onto a gravel road lined with tall seagrapes.

The SUV was rammed from behind again, and my head whipped forward.

“Hold on,” Collins said calmly as he gunned the heavy engine.

We were rear-ended a third time, and I cried out in both fear and pain as the seat belt cut into my chest. “What are they doing?” We were on a one-lane road with vegetation so thick on either side of us, there was nowhere to go.

Collins glanced in the rearview mirror. “Making their only play. Hold on, they’re coming in again.”

He no sooner said the words and they crashed into us again, but this time, Collins didn’t floor it. He let his foot off the gas and I panicked.

“Don’t slow down!”

Reserved, calm, giving equal attention to his rearview mirror and the darkened lane ahead of us, he spoke slowly. “Wait… waaaaait.”

A turn in the road appeared.

Then all of a sudden, he spoke in a rushed clip, “Hang on!” Yanking the wheel at the same time he made the turn, he gave the engine gas.

The giant SUV was thrown into a tight arc, gravel kicked up, and floodlights burst the night into artificial brightness like a sports stadium.

Collins slammed on the brakes as we spun in a complete one-eighty. Then he threw it in reverse and gunned it, backing us into an open garage. His gun drawn, he threw his door open and aimed at the vehicle that’d been chasing us. As it came to a skidding halt, the tattooed bodyguard from the club stepped out of the shadows with a rifle, and a third man appeared from the opposite side of the gravel driveway.

Taller than any man I’d ever seen and as big as a Viking, the third man casually walked toward the SUV that’d followed us. With an impossibly large shotgun slung over his shoulder, he didn’t even pause when the driver opened his window and aimed at him.

“Don’t come another step closer, motherfucker,” the driver warned the third man.

A man in the passenger seat aimed his gun at the tattooed bodyguard. “Give us the girl.”

I shrunk in my seat.

The Viking-sized man stopped a foot from the SUV. “You are trespassing.” His deep voice rumbled with an accent. “Leave or I will shoot you.”

“Give us the girl,” the man in the passenger seat repeated.

“Last chance,” the Viking-sized man warned.

The man in the passenger seat raised his voice. “I said—”

The tattooed bodyguard fired two shots.

My body jerked, blood splatter covered the inside of the SUV, Collins holstered his gun, Viking opened the driver door and a body fell to the gravel.

The tattooed man slung his rifle to his back by a shoulder strap and opened the passenger door. “Neutralized,” he announced, pulling the dead man from the passenger side out of the vehicle and letting him fall to the ground.

The Viking-sized man glanced at Collins. “Take the female and leave.”

“Copy that.” Collins got back behind the wheel and closed the door. Slow and careful, he pulled the Escalade out of the garage, drove around the mess in front of us and headed down the same single, canopied lane we’d come in on.

I found my voice. “Is it over?”

“Is it ever?” he countered.