Chapter 27
Steam drifted into the air as hot water ran from the tap. Just the sight of it made her shoulders drop and the tension in her muscles ease.
Something about baths made everything feel okay, even when that wasn’t one hundred percent the case.
She pulled off her sweater and was about to undo the button of her jeans, when something sounded from the bedroom. The creak of a floorboard, maybe?
She opened the bathroom door. “Connor?”
The room was empty.
Great, now she was so stressed she was hearing things.
With a sigh, she turned back toward the tub, leaving the bathroom door ajar.
She opened the mirrored upper cabinet and spotted the bath salts that Connor had bought for her.
Since the day she’d moved in, he’d started filling this house with little things he knew she’d like.
Candles in small nooks. Caramel in the kitchen for her lattes.
He’d even made a point to mention that there was space on top of his dresser, on shelves, and above the fireplace for any framed photos she might want to put up.
God, she was lucky to have him. It was the kind of love she hadn’t been sure she’d find after Xander, and the only good thing to come out of the last few months.
She poured some salts into the bath, watching them sink to the bottom.
Heaven. This was heaven.
Rising to her feet again, she put the jar back into the medicine cabinet.
She’d just closed the door when she saw Xander behind her in the mirror’s reflection.
A scream crawled up her throat, but she never got a chance to release it. Xander grabbed the back of her neck and slammed her head into the mirror.
Pain blasted through her forehead, the feel of sticky blood immediately seeping down her face.
Before she could process what was happening, he yanked her back against his chest, his forearm around her throat. “Hello, my darling fiancée. I heard you’ve been looking for me? It’s so nice to see you again.”
A wave of dizziness washed over her. If Xander wasn’t holding her up, she wasn’t sure she’d have remained on her feet.
“Since you’ve royally fucked me, I need you to fix it,” he growled.
Where was Connor? There was no way he hadn’t heard the mirror breaking.
Xander dipped his head and sniffed her neck. “Mm. Wish we had more time.”
“Get. Off. Me.” The words tore from her chest, slow but full of fury.
“No. Not until you get me what I want.”
“What could I possibly do to help you? There’s a warrant out for your arrest. You laundered money. You killed people! I can’t get you out of that.”
The arm around her throat tightened, almost completely cutting off her air supply. “And the only reason they know all that is because of you. Now I have to disappear, and to do that, I need money.”
When he loosened his arm, she gasped for air. “I don’t have money.”
“You do. In an account I set up years ago in your name. The only reason I haven’t touched it is because the fucking bank changed their policies.
I can’t withdraw more than five hundred at a time without verbal authorization.
I need everything in that account transferred, now, and they’ll only speak to you. ”
Another account? Because everything he’d already done wasn’t enough?
“Now, this is how it’s going to go. You’re going to call this bank, move the money. Then I’m gone.”
She almost laughed. Did he actually think she believed he’d just leave after the call?
There was an edge to his voice that she’d never heard before.
His eyes were wild and desperate. He was already wanted for murder and money laundering.
The second he had what he wanted, she had no doubt in her mind he’d kill her.
“I’ve written down exactly where I want that money moved to,” he continued.
“Let me guess, some new fake business account?”
“That’s none of your fucking business.” He lifted his phone. “I’m going to dial. You say your name. Confirm you authorize the transfer and answer any personal questions. Understand?”
Her heart started to beat wildly. But not out of fear for herself. Connor should be up here by now. Why wasn’t he? “Did you do something to Connor?”
“He’s outside. And if he gets in before we’re done, I shoot him.”
Her heart stopped.
Xander hit call on his phone. An automatic voice came over the line. As he pressed keys, Raven eyed the glass hand-soap dispenser.
The idea had barely formed before she grabbed it and swung her arm over her shoulder.
Glass smashed into Xander’s face. He cried out, the phone dropping from his fingers, his forearm releasing her throat as he grabbed his eye.
She spun and kneed him in the balls. He grunted, and the second he hunched over, she tried to race around him. She didn’t even make it out of the bathroom before his heavy weight dropped onto her back, sending them both to the floor.
Air whooshed from her chest, breathing suddenly impossible. She barely had a chance to fill her lungs before she was pulled up by the hair.
“I’m going to kill you, bitch!”
She was kicking, grabbing for his fingers as Xander dragged her across the room—and then her head was shoved into the bath water, pressure on her back once more.
Her lips snapped closed, the world silencing. She bucked, hoping to dislodge the body behind her, trying to twist and free herself.
But he was like an immovable rock.
He held her head under for so long she swore her lungs were about to burst. When he finally pulled her up, she gasped for air. Then his mouth was by her ear. “You’re going to do what I fucking say, or I’ll hold you under so long you drown. Do you—”
A gun shot sounded downstairs. Glass shattered.
Connor.
She was yanked to her feet, and a gun was pressed to her head just as the door burst open.
Then Connor appeared, Glock in hand, looking ready to kill.
Connor sprinted back to the house, searching the street. Was he outside? Watching? Waiting to shoot?
When he reached the door, he pulled out the key and unlocked it. But when he pushed at the door, it didn’t budge. He glanced through the window to see a chair had been wedged against the door.
His skin went cold. Son of a bitch. The fucker was inside.
Without caring about the noise or damage, he stepped back and fired a bullet into the glass beside the door.
It shattered. He reached inside and shoved the chair aside, ignoring the scrapes of glass against his skin.
Then he was inside and running up the stairs.
She wasn’t in the bedroom, but the sound of running water came from the bathroom.
He ground to a stop inside the doorway, the sight in front of him dragging the fury in his chest to the surface.
“What the hell are you doing, Xander?” Connor’s pistol was raised, the rage in his voice tangled into each word.
“You can see pretty fucking clearly what I’m doing,” the man growled, the muzzle of his gun pressed to Raven’s temple. “Drop the weapon or I shoot her.”
Connor scanned Raven from head to toe. There was a cut on her forehead, and she was wet from the shoulders up. The asshole had already hurt her. And he was going to pay.
“Drop it!” Xander shouted. “It will be so fucking easy to shoot. I want to. You have no goddamn idea how much. But I also need something from her. So drop the gun, let me get my money, and I’ll leave.”
Money? What the hell was he talking about?
Raven whimpered when Xander pushed the gun harder into her head.
Connor glared. Then, slowly, he set his Glock on the bathroom tiles.
“Good.” Xander smirked. “Now move into the bedroom.”
He walked backward, not taking his eyes off either of them.
Raven looked scared, but also angry.
“What’s the plan, Xander?” he asked, his feet twitching to lunge at the guy. But he had to choose his moment carefully.
Xander steered clear of Connor, heading toward the door. “I’m taking her with me.”
He almost laughed. “If you think I’m letting you step foot outside this house with her, you clearly don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
“Do you know who you’re dealing with? I’m a man with nothing to lose. Everything’s been taken from me. And the person responsible is in my hold. So yes, she is coming with me, and she’s gonna get me back a fraction of what she took.”
Connor’s eyes narrowed.
Xander took another step back, toward the door. “We’re leaving.”
“But you’re not. My team is on the way. There’s little chance you’ll make it out alive. Even less if you hurt Raven.”
His eyes flared. Connor knew the exact moment the guy decided to run. His stance shifted, his hold on Raven loosening.
Connor was a millisecond away from shooting forward when Raven slammed her foot onto Xander’s, then dropped her weight.
As soon as the gun wasn’t aimed at her temple, Connor dove forward.
In one fluid move, he shoved Raven aside and drove his shoulder into the asshole’s chest, sending them flying into the hallway. His left hand gripped the wrist that held the gun and shoved it high.
The deafening crack of the weapon firing cut through the house, the bullet hitting the ceiling, drywall falling on them both.
Connor didn’t flinch as they slammed against the stair railing outside the bedroom. He twisted hard, locking the guy’s wrist, forcing him to drop the pistol.
Xander growled and shot his head forward. Connor dodged the hit, but in the process, Xander rolled and threw an elbow into his face.
Connor didn’t pause. He jabbed Xander in the ribs. Once. Twice.
On the third, Xander cursed and rolled away, grabbing for the gun.
He’d just risen to his feet at the top of the stairs when, simultaneously, Connor kicked him in the shin, hard—and a different gun fired, the bullet hitting Xander between the eyes.
There was a flash of Xander’s eyes widening…then his body crumpled, tumbling backward and hitting the stairs at odd angles before he landed on the floor below, eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling.
Connor shot to his feet and closed the small space between him and Raven. Gently, he put his hand over hers and removed his Glock from her hold. The second it was holstered, he cupped her cheeks. “Raven—”
“I shot him.”
“You did.”
“I killed him.” Her eyes were wide as she took in Xander’s body at the bottom of the stairs.
“Look at me.” He waited for her gaze to meet his. “You did what you had to do. He wouldn’t have hesitated in killing either one of us.”
She nodded jerkily.
His gaze narrowed to her forehead. “I’m sorry I let him get in.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“It is. I went outside to check a car. I left you unprotected.”
“But it’s over now.”
“It’s over now.” He pulled her against his chest and held her tightly. So fucking tightly that he wasn’t sure when he’d feel ready to let her go.