26. Corbin
CORBIN
“ W hat was that?”
“I don’t know.” Beau held up a hand. “Wait here.”
“No way in hell are you going after whatever might be out there without me.”
He extracted a gun from a kitchen cabinet and stuck it in the waistband of his jeans. “I don’t want you in danger.”
“I keep telling you I can take care of myself.”
We heard another sound—breaking glass. “We need to go now,” I insisted heading for the door.
Beau grabbed my arm, pushing me behind him. “You need a weapon.”
I pulled a gun from the pocket of my sweatpants.
“Where the hell did that come from?”
“Did you honestly think I was going around unarmed?”
“You’ve had that on you every day in the shop?”
“This is one of the weapons I’ve had on me every day at the shop. Now let’s go.”
As we headed down the steps, I was impressed by how silently Beau moved. He had his gun in his hand when he opened the door at the bottom of the stairs. I was ready to jump into a fight, but I didn’t see anyone.
I thought the sound I’d heard was a breaking window, but all the windows along the front of the office building were intact.
Beau tilted his head toward the door, and I nodded. We were going to have to head out front and look around.
I didn’t like how exposed all the windows across the front of the building left us, but I followed Beau anyway, forcing myself to keep my attention on our surroundings.
If anyone hurt him, they would die in the most painful way I could dream up, and I knew a lot of ways to torture people.
That might not have been my role in our family, but it didn’t mean I hadn’t listened to satisfy my curiosity about the darker side of things.
As soon as we stepped outside, I realized the sound of breaking glass had come from a window in Beau’s car, his beautiful car that I knew he loved. Someone was going to regret that sooner rather than later.
I kept close to the edge of the building, and when I reached the corner, I saw a flash of movement near the second workshop.
I tapped Beau on the shoulder and pointed.
The person moved closer to the building.
I started moving in that direction. Beau made a low growl of disapproval behind me, but he didn’t reach for me to hold me back.
We moved closer and closer, keeping cover when we could. Something must have alerted the person to our presence. They started to run. I took off.
Beau was right behind me, but I was faster. I caught the man just as he reached one of the cars parked at the back of the property. Did he actually think he could hotwire it and drive out of there before I caught him?
I gripped the back of his shirt and used my momentum to pull him down. He rolled over and came back up, ready to fight, but as I’d expected, he was nowhere near as fast or as agile as me. People underestimated me because I was small, but I was powerful and had taken my training seriously.
I delivered a kick to his midsection that had him doubling over.
He rushed at me, and we both went down. I flipped him over and rolled off him.
He reached for me, and we tangled. This time, I managed to lock my legs around his head.
“This only ends one of two ways—with you dead or unconscious. Take your pick.”
The guy clawed at my legs, trying to pull me off, but I knew he didn’t have much time left. I applied tighter pressure to his neck, and his body went limp as he lost consciousness.
I stood up and kicked at him until his limp form rolled over and he was face down in the dirt.
I looked up to see Beau standing by with his gun trained on the man. I didn’t think he’d need to use it. The guy would be out for a while. “Got some rope or zip ties? Anything we can use to restrain him?”
Beau stared at me. “How the fuck did you…” He shook his head. “I really did think you needed protection.”
“I told you I could take care of myself, but sometimes I like being protected.”
“Good. I’ve got zip ties in the shop. I know you probably want to question him, but shoot the bastard if he wakes up before I’m back.”
“Yes, sir.”
Beau headed into the closest building and returned a few seconds later, zip ties in hand. We bound the man’s arms behind his back and his ankles together.
I was thankful for Beau’s strength. I would’ve had a hell of a time dragging the guy inside on my own. I could’ve done it if I’d needed to, but it was nice that Beau could just throw the man over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
We took him into the workshop, and I pulled a chair out from behind a desk. Beau set the man down in it. I cut the ties that bound his ankles and used new ones to bind them to the chair.
When I was done, I looked up at Beau. “As much as I’d love to work this bastard over, I know people who are much better at getting information than I am.
Right now, I’d probably just kill him. He touched your car.
” Beau stared at me, wide-eyed. “Don’t tell me I’ve shocked your delicate sensibilities. ”
He snorted. “No, I was just thinking this aggressive version of you is just as hot as when you’re on your knees for me.”
“I aim to please.”
“Make your call. I’ll get some rope and secure him to the chair.”
I called Lance while Beau wrapped a rope around the man’s arms and chest securing him to the back of the chair, then he pried the man’s mouth open in order to gag him. If we were going to leave him here so my family could extract what they could from him, we couldn’t have him making a lot of noise.
While I waited for Lance to answer, I took a better look at the bastard’s face.
Shit, he had to be a Landry. There was too much resemblance between him and Clark and Charles, the Landry twins who’d fucked up their family’s attempt to bring us down.
He must be a cousin whose involvement in their business wasn’t significant, so we hadn’t bothered tracking him.
Why was he here? How was he involved in this?
Fuck. I knew the answer.
“Elandra,” I said just as Lance answered.
“What?” Lance and Beau said at the same time.
I held up my finger to Beau while I told Lance what had happened and what we needed.
“I’ll have someone there ASAP. I’ll send Dax and whoever he wants to bring along with him. You and Beau should go back to Remington’s house.”
“But Remy will be back tomorrow.”
“Not until the early afternoon. You need to be somewhere safe, and I’m sending the guards back to watch over you. I don’t care what you say.”
“I’m fine with that.” I welcomed the help with Beau in danger.
“Now explain what you meant when I answered. Were you talking about Elandra Landry?”
“Yes. Beau is listening too. I’m going to put you on speaker and explain the background to him.”
“Fine, just get on with it,” Lance insisted. I heard Tony chattering. He was probably sitting on Lance’s shoulder as usual.
I looked at Beau. “Elandra was married to Timon Landry.”
“The head of their family?” Beau asked, and I nodded in confirmation.
“I think she is Guidry’s backer.”
“Who’s Guidry?” Lance asked.
“An asshole who has it in for Beau and some of his old friends, including Ambrose. Word is he’s working for someone who wants to take down our whole family.”
“And you didn’t bother telling me this before?” Lance asked.
“Until last night, we didn’t realize it was a widespread problem.”
“Corbin, you can’t?—”
“Corbin is doing a damn fine job of handling this,” Beau said. “He caught the guy that might have the answers we need. I was damn impressed with his skills.”
Lance chuckled. “I bet you were.”
“I’m serious,” Beau growled. “He can handle this.”
“I guess we’ll figure that out tomorrow. I’ll let Remington know we need a family meeting as soon as he’s back.”
“And that will mean he’ll take over, and I won’t be able to do anything.”
Beau raised his brows and glared at me. He was trying to tell me something. Oh shit. I was responding to Lance the way I used to, like a whiny brat who wanted to get his way. That didn’t work.
“I’m taking the lead on this. My man has been targeted, and I’m the one this was brought to by the other parties involved. I’ll be at the meeting, and I’ll be leading it.”
“Corbin, you need to?—”
“I need to learn how to take charge, so that’s what I’m doing.”
Lance huffed. “Tomorrow is sure as fuck going to be interesting.”
I had no doubt about that.
I gave Lance more details about Guidry and what had happened. I could tell he wasn’t feeling any more charitable toward me when he realized the extent of what I knew. Maybe he understood how I felt all the time.
“I still don’t understand why you think Elandra is involved,” Beau said.
Lance answered for me. “Because everything I know of her says she’s far more dangerous than her husband was. She was the real power behind the family.”
Not to mention she’d lured in our cousin Dawson with her bullshit about wanting an alliance, then killed him.
Beau frowned. “And she got away when you took the family down?”
Lance sighed. “She disappeared, and we have a rule not to go after wives or children. Of course, most of the time those wives aren’t killers.
They’re just caught up in the things their men do.
Everyone suspected Elandra was pulling the strings, but we didn’t have proof, so when she disappeared, we hoped she wouldn’t come back. We were wrong.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being reluctant to go after a woman,” Beau said.
“No, but if she’s orchestrating this…”
“Then it’s time for her to face the consequences.”
“Damn straight. She’s come after you, and I won’t tolerate it.” Beau smiled at me. “You damn well better not be thinking it’s cute that I want to defend you.”
He laughed. “I might’ve thought that a few days ago, but after seeing you in action tonight, I’m just happy to have you by my side.”
“Enough of that mushy shit,” Lance said. “Corbin take your man to Remy’s house and stay safe. I’ll take care of this other problem, and tomorrow we’ll decide what moves to make.”
“Good night,” I said.