The Alpha Bodyguards Books #4-6

Chapter Twenty

I dragged the girl through my front door, then paused to close and lock it and turn the lights off. Panic creeping in, I rushed her toward the bathroom in the back of the house. “Come on, come on, hurry up. I need to get my son out of his bedroom in the front of the house.”

“I’m shot.” Her voice thick with pain and attitude, she made an attempt to pick up the pace. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

I walked us into the bathroom and the first shot rang out.

“ Goddamn it .” I dumped her on the floor. “Stay!”

I ran to Nash’s room as gunfire erupted outside like fireworks. His little body curled in a fetal position, I didn’t take the time to wake him or explain. I scooped him up, blanket and all.

His eyes opened sleepily, but when he saw my face, they went wide with alarm and he struggled to get his hands free of the blanket.

“Sh, sh,” I warned, running down the hall back to the bathroom. “I’ll explain in a minute.”

His hands stilled under the blanket as I ran into the bathroom and shoved the door closed behind us.

When Nash saw the bloody woman in the bikini on the floor, his eyes about bugged out of his head.

Setting him down in the bathtub, I began to sign. Uncle Ty is out front with Preston and some men Uncle Ty works with. There are bad guys in our neighborhood, and we need to stay in here where we are safe until Uncle Ty gets rid of the bad guys.

Shoving the blanket out of the way, his hands flew through questions. Why is Uncle Ty getting rid of the bad guys? He should call the police. We should call the police to help Uncle Ty. Why are bad guys in our neighborhood? Are they going to come back after Uncle Ty gets rid of them? Will Preston get hurt? Will Uncle Ty? Who is the lady and why is there blood on her?

“Whoa,” Summer whispered, leaning against the toilet. “He’s deaf.”

“Yes, he is.” I signed back to Nash. Uncle Ty and his friends can get rid of bad guys just as well, if not better than, the police. He and Preston will be fine and so will we. This girl is Summer. She got hurt from the bad guys, and we’re helping her out because that’s what Uncle Ty and Preston do at their job working for Mr. Luna.

Nash looked between me and Summer as gunfire rained down outside and sirens sounded in the distance. Why is she named after a season?

“You’ll have to ask her that,” I told him.

Nash looked at her. Why are you named after a season?

“What’d he say?” Summer asked.

“He wants to know why you’re named after a season.”

Incredulous, Summer looked at me. “It’s Armageddon out there, there’s a bloody stranger on his bathroom floor, and that’s what he asks?”

“He’s six, and he’s practical and literal, unlike anyone you will ever meet. And he can’t hear what’s outside.” I rifled through the pile of clean, folded pajamas I kept for both me and Nash in the linen closet in the bathroom.

Summer let out a half scoff as she tried to sit up more. “Well, I don’t think I should tell a six-year-old that my mom got knocked up in summer and my name was her way of preserving her precious humping memory.”

I glared at her. “You just did.” I handed her some clothes. “He can read lips.”

“Oh shit .” For the first time since she’d woken up, she looked contrite. “Sorry.” She took the clothes.

Nash looked between us. What’s a humping memory?

“Fuck me,” I muttered, the sirens growing louder as they got closer.

Summer looked between me and Nash. “What’d he say?”

“He wants to know what a humping memory is.”

“Shit.” She chuckled, then stopped abruptly, holding her side where Talon had taken the bullet out. “I think I like your kid,” she gritted out.

Nash’s hands flew through his words. She has to pay the swear jar. Twice!

“Now what’s he saying?” The clothes on her lap, she slid back down, almost parallel with the floor.

“We have a swear jar. He said you owe it two dollars.”

Summer managed to looked surprised. “No kidding? People do that?”

“We do that. Nash does that,” I corrected.

“Nash? That’s his name? As in Nashville?”

“Yes, Nash. No to Nashville.” I grabbed a washcloth and held it under the sink. “Here.” I handed it to her. “Wipe your hands and you face, then put those clothes on.”

The gunfire abruptly stopped, and a few seconds later the sirens did too.

Summer and I looked at the bathroom door at the same time.

Her voice got quiet. “What do you think that means?”

“That you better get dressed ASAP.” I took the washcloth back from her and hastily wiped her face before tossing it in the sink and picking my tank top up off her lap. “Shirt first.” I held it out for her like I would a child or a patient I was dressing.

Wincing when she lifted her arms, she eased into the shirt. “So, um….” She glanced at her hip and her upper arm as sweat broke out across her face. “Am I going to be okay?”

I took my sweats and held them out by her bare feet. “If we get some antibiotics in you, you’ll be good as new.” As long as Talon hadn’t missed any internal bleeding or that bullet hadn’t ricocheted around her organs like a ping-pong ball.

She eased one leg into the pants. “How long will it take to heal?”

A long fucking time if there was any justice in the world. “Why are you mixed up with Julio Estevez?” Before I’d had Nash, Julio was known in the clubs for collecting girls and having after-parties at rich people’s mansions. Rumor was some of the girls were never seen again.

She gingerly pulled the other pant leg up. “It’s a long story.”

Kneeling, I washed my hands and glanced at Nash. Everything is okay, sweet boy. Just a little while longer, then you can sleep with me tonight, okay?

His brave little face serious with a grave expression beyond his years, he signed back. I’m not worried. Uncle Ty can get rid of any bad guy.

Despite the situation, I smiled. “Yes, he can.” I took Nash’s hand and squeezed it.

“What he’d say?”

The silence outside making me nervous, I stared at the bathroom door. “He said my brother can handle any bad guy.”

“Looks like your boyfriend can too.”

“Boyfriend?” I stupidly asked.

“The hot inked guy. The one who saved me at the festival.” She glanced at my left hand. “No ring on either of your fingers, I figured you two weren’t married.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” And he’d brought this shit to my house. I got that he thought the girl was dead and he didn’t know who she was or that she was chipped. I knew he’d never intentionally put me or Nash in harm’s way, but I was pissed. Irrationally pissed, and it only amped up every time I looked at the blonde. Bloody or not, working for Julio Estevez or running from him, she was everything I wasn’t—kidless, young, blonde, huge tits, and the flat stomach of a woman who’d never had kids. I hated her.

She scoffed, then winced in pain. “He sure looks at you like you belong to him.”

“Whatever.”

Nash tugged the back of my shirt.

I turned to look at him.

What are you talking about? Is Uncle Ty coming for us?

I smoothed his soft brown curls and smiled at him. “She thought Preston was my boyfriend.” I switched to ASL. I was correcting her. And yes, Uncle Ty will be here soon. Don’t worry.

Why isn’t Preston your boyfriend?

I laughed, but it held no humor. I don’t have time for a boyfriend, sweet boy. And Preston is not looking to be anyone’s boyfriend. At least, I didn’t think he was. But what did I know? He could have a different girlfriend for every night of the week for all I knew.

A hard knock sounded on the door. “Merc, open up. It’s me.”

My heart jumped, and I pushed to my feet, rushing to unlock the door. “What happened? Is everyone okay?”

Ty pushed the door the rest of the way open. “We’re fine, but we’re relocating.”

Preston, with a black eye forming, stood to Ty’s left, and Thomas stood to his right. The three huge men took up my whole hallway.

“What do you mean, relocating?” I didn’t want to go anywhere. This was my home.

Preston stared at me, Thomas looked at the blonde, but neither said shit.

I raised an eyebrow at my brother. “Ty?”

Almost imperceptible, Ty shook his head once. Stepping over the girl, he reached for Nash and picked him up. “Pack a bag, Merc. I’ll get Nash’s things. You’re going with Preston. Summer’s going with the kid.” He stepped back over the girl and into the hall. Without another word, he strode to Nash’s bedroom.

Thomas pushed past Preston. “Miss Amherst, you’re coming with me.”

Looking alarmed, the girl’s gaze cut from Preston to Thomas. “Why you?”

Thomas’s smile lit up his face. “Guess I won the Summer Amherst lottery.” He reached for her.

“Great.” Dripping sarcasm, she shoved his hand away. “I can get up.” Putting her feet under her with no little effort, she struggled to stand.

Feeling more than bitchy, I didn’t tell her to be careful of her stitches.

Holding on to the sink, she wavered. “Where are we going?”

“And that’s as far as you’re walking.” An arm under her legs, one behind her back, Thomas effortlessly picked her up.

Panting through the pain of being jostled, she didn’t protest, but she asked again, “Where are you taking me?”

“Luna and Associates until everything cools down.” Thomas turned sideways to walk through the bathroom door.

With surprising strength for someone who’d been shot twice, she grabbed the doorframe, but Thomas had already stepped in the hall and she was forced to let go. “That’s the personal security firm my dad uses. I can’t go there. André Luna will tell my dad.”

As if it were choreographed, André Luna himself appeared in my hallway with another man behind him who was big enough to be a damn Viking. “You’re right, chica. I will tell him.” His hand resting on a gun in a holster at his belt, he tipped his chin. “Or you can tell me exactly what’s going on while Talon removes your tracking device.”

Talon came up behind André and the Viking-sized man with his medical kit. “I heard my name.” The scent of gunpowder mixing with the scent of beach and coconuts I’d smelled on him earlier, Talon pushed past everyone and waltzed into my bathroom. “Bring her back and set her on the toilet, Tripod.”

“Tripod?” I stupidly asked.

Talon smiled as he set his kit on the sink and opened it. “Yep. Kid wasn’t workin’ for him. He’s now Tripod. It’s more fittin’. But since I’m a gentleman, I’m not gonna elaborate on that particular nickname.” With a wink and a chuckle, he looked past me to where Thomas, aka Tripod, was still holding Summer in the hall. “Hurry it up. Time’s a wastin’.”

Pressed against the wall of my own damn bathroom as more men than I’d ever had in my house congregated, I couldn’t stop myself. I looked at Thomas’s junk as he pushed past me and brought Summer back in the bathroom.

Jesus Christ. “Tripod,” I muttered. Fitting was right.

Talon laughed, and Preston stared at me hard as Thomas set Summer on the toilet. To my credit, I saw her eyes stray too.

All business, André Luna looked at me and tipped his chin toward the hall. “A word?”

Stepping around the testosterone in my bathroom, I walked into the equally testosterone-fueled hallway. Preston moved behind me, and the Viking-sized man somehow managed to eye me up and down without moving a muscle.

André looked down at me with sincerity, or sympathy. I couldn’t tell which. “I apologize for the events that have unfolded here tonight, but at this point in time, it’s not safe for you and your son to remain here.”

Aware of Preston at my back, irrationally mad that he had a black eye forming when I wanted to give him one myself, I crossed my arms and glared at André. “You’re apologizing?”

André nodded once. “Yes, ma’am, I am.”

My mouth opened and shit came out. “I’m being kicked out of my own house, again, because I’m ground zero for some bad guy shit, again , and here you are, standing right in the thick of it next to me, AGAIN, because your company and your men are always involved in bad shit. ” Inhaling only to get more vitriol out, I kept going. “So tell me why my brother, or Preston for that matter, should keep working for you and continue to put me and my son and themselves in danger?”

A hand landed on my shoulder.

I shrugged Preston off. I wasn’t done. Not even close. “Answer me that, Mr. Luna.”

His tone placating, his eyes sympathetic, he lowered his voice. “I take full responsibility for what happened last month when we had to relocate you while your brother was on assignment, and I take full responsibility for tonight because Preston was at the festival doing recon for me for another assignment. After last month’s incident, I spoke with your brother about relocating you permanently to a more secure location, or to at least a house in a gated community, but he felt that you would be unwilling to leave your mother’s house. But if you’re open to the idea, I would like to help you and your son relocate.” He nodded at the man behind him. “Neil Christensen has several suitable properties he’d be willing to offer in exchange for this property. As far as why your brother or any of my men choose to work for me, that’s entirely their prerogative. I will let you know, though, that these men are my brothers and I consider them family. That makes you family by default, and I take care of my own. While I cannot control the criminal element in this town, I try my damndest to keep it in check. If you’re willing to discuss relocation, let’s do that tomorrow. But right now, I need you to go with Preston, pack a bag, and get out of here until we can mitigate the situation at hand.”

Mitigate. My head spun.

Summer cursed in the bathroom.

Ty walked out of Nash’s room with Nash’s camo backpack on his shoulder and my son in his arms, who was fast asleep. He tipped his chin at Preston. “I’m putting him in my truck. Hurry the fuck up.” He glanced at me. “Double time, Merc. Clock’s ticking.”

Preston nodded.

Neil stared at me.

André glanced at Ty as he walked past with Nash before looking back at me. “When is your next shift? I’ll call your boss.”

My lungs took in air, my body breathed, my heart pumped, and my blood circulated. But I felt like I was on another planet.

I wanted to crawl into my own bed with my son.

I wanted to quit my job.

I wanted to quit my life.

I wanted everything to stop spinning.

But I was on a ride I had no control over.

Without a word, I walked into my bedroom and packed a bag.