Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
“‘Can you handle that?’ Wait, wait, wait. You seriously said that shit to her? Those actual words? After Delaney admitted that she still wanted you?” Ryan sat on the cabin’s front porch as darkness surrounded them.
“Why would you do that? That is the time when you close in with charm and skill. When the woman says she wants you, you grab the opportunity. You don’t send her running while you try to scare her away!
” A disgusted shake of his head. “Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. No wonder she was edging away from you all day long.”
Nash stared into the darkness. They were in the mountains, at the end of a long, lonely, snaking bit of road. A million stars glittered overhead, and a million insects seemed to chirp from the woods around them. “I was trying to be honest.”
“Oh, great. Why? Because you want to watch her slip through your fingers again? That’s your current goal?”
He turned to glare at his brother. “She thought I was a doctor. You get that? When I rushed into that church and took her out, she had no clue about what I’d become. When she sees me now, she still sees him.”
“Him who?” Ryan stood and stalked toward Nash.
“The dumbass kid she knew before!”
“Uh, hate to point out the obvious, but you are that dumbass. From where I’m standing—which is basically right in front of you—you’re even more of a dumbass now than you were then because you said the woman you are obsessed with, the woman who basically ruined you for everyone else—you said she confessed to still wanting you. ”
Why had he overshared that with Ryan?
“And then you said, let me paraphrase here…” Ryan’s voice dropped as he growled, “‘Oh, great. Delighted you want me. And by the way, I kill people for shits and giggles.’”
“That is not what I said. I told her that I’d killed too many—”
“Her ex is a psychotic killer! Why in the hell would you basically tell her you are the same as him? Newsflash. We are not the same. You and I target international monsters. People with victim sheets that stretch for miles. Serial bombers who are intent on chaos and destruction. Every target has been carefully researched and screened. We know that we are targeting monsters. Apprehension is the goal, but sometimes, those pricks try to take out others on their way down and we have no choice but to use deadly force. Did you explain all that to her?”
No.
Ryan sighed. “You’re sabotaging yourself because you’re afraid to take what you want so desperately.”
Dammit. Ryan was…
Right.
His brother was also not done. “In one breath, you say that only you can protect her. And then, in the next instant, you try to push her away. Hello, whiplash. Make up your freaking mind. Either you’re all in with her or—”
“I’m always all in with her.” His hands had fisted. “I just wanted her to know what she was going to get with me.” Because if he had her again, then he could not walk away.
“You know what, bro? How about you keep some secrecy in your romance? Because right now, the goal is to keep her alive. Not make her want to run from us because she thinks that we’re bad guys, too.”
“Maybe I am bad for her.”
“You’re the woman’s number one protector at the moment.
Because you repeatedly volunteered for the job.
Your ass had better be good for her.” Ryan rolled back his shoulders.
“We’re supposed to head out at 0600 tomorrow.
I’m about to go crash. I will be taking the downstairs bedroom.
I’m assuming you’ll be in the room right next to your lady? ”
He assumed correctly. Nash turned to walk inside.
“There are no guarantees.” Ryan’s voice. Low. Far more serious than normal. “I don’t like this case. I don’t like this setup. I don’t like that our asses just sat at this cabin all day long. If Kurt Wellington truly is Typhon—”
“He is,” Nash returned. “Delaney said that he was specifically called by that name.”
“Yeah, well, if he is the infamous Typhon, then you know he has serious reach. He has eyes everywhere. Maybe even in the CIA. And the stolen car you boosted was hauled off a little too late for my liking. Hopefully, those agents ditched it far, far away, otherwise, we could be tracked. Hunted too easily.” His gaze swept the darkness.
“I don’t want to wake up to any surprises tonight. ”
Neither did Nash. “I’m going to check on Delaney.” She’d gone to bed an hour before.
“Yeah, you do that. While you’re checking on her, how about you try to say sweet, gentle, soothing things? Let’s keep all references to being a killer on the down-low, shall we? Great plan. Fabulous talk.”
Nash flipped off his brother as he marched back into the cabin.
And as he headed for the stairs that led to her room, Nash tried to figure out sweet, gentle, and soothing things to say to Delaney.
Unfortunately, he didn’t tend to be an overly sweet, gentle, or soothing type of guy.
There was someone standing beside her bed.
Blearily, Delaney blinked her eyes as she tried to adjust to the darkness. She could definitely see a tall, shadowy form beside her bed and…had Ryan come into her room again? Because that shape did not belong to Nash. Not quite big enough. What did Ryan want this time? What was happening—
A hard hand slapped over her mouth.
“We have to hurry up!” A low rumble. “Those jerks on the porch won’t be out there for long, and the men we disabled in the woods could get loose.”
Fear blasted through her. She began to struggle but more hands grabbed for her. More hands—because there wasn’t just one guy in her bedroom. There were two. One on each side of her bed. One with a hand slapped over her mouth. One with his hands on her arms to hold her down.
No, no, no. She twisted and heaved, but they were yanking her out of the bed.
“Tie her hands! Slap some tape over her mouth! Or just knock her out!” A whispered snarl. “We have to move! Hurry!”
Her legs kicked out, but she couldn’t reach her attackers with her feet.
A soft rap at her door. “Delaney?”
Nash’s voice.
Nash!
The door creaked open. Light spilled into the room. “I’m sorry to wake you but we really need to—get the fuck off her!” A roar.
Because the light had hit the bed. It had hit her.
Her attackers. Nash lunged across the room.
He grabbed one man—the jerk who’d been holding her arms—and Nash threw him into the wall.
With her arms free, Delaney reached for the nightstand.
He’d told her before to use anything close as a weapon, and she snagged the square alarm clock and slammed it in the face of the man who was still trying to keep his sweaty hand over her mouth.
She hit him with the alarm clock once, twice, and when she went for the third hit, Nash was there. He caught the attacker by the nape of the neck, spun him around, and drove his fist at the man’s face.
Delaney scampered out of the bed. Her breath was heaving, her body shaking. Weapon, weapon, weapon. The man who’d been tossed into the wall was weaving as he stood next to an open window.
Open window? I’m on the second floor! Those men had scaled the cabin in order to get to her?
She flew across the room and slammed her hand into the light switch. More illumination flooded the room. Nash was still beating the hell out of the man near the bed. As for the one near the window…
They are both wearing ski masks. Both big. Dressed all in black. Their clothing would have let them blend with the darkness outside.
The man near the window was reaching under his shirt, and she realized that—oh, no. Oh, crap. He has a gun! He was going for a gun in a holster beneath his shirt, and he was looking straight at Nash’s unprotected back.
“No!” Delaney screamed, and she charged at the attacker. She threw the alarm clock at him. Because, yep, she’d still been clutching it. The clock slammed into his chin.
Swearing, he angled toward her. Correction, he angled and aimed his gun at her.
“No, don’t!” A yell from his partner. “We’re not supposed to shoot her!”
But it was too late. The gun was pointed at her, and Delaney was sure he was pulling that trigger.
Except a bullet didn’t hit her. Nash did. He slammed his body into hers, and she crashed into the floor.
“Run, run, run!” A wild order from one of the men.
She didn’t even know which intruder had given that order.
“Shoot him and run!” The shrieking order came again.
Shoot him?
Nash shoved his body up. “Stay down,” he barked at her.
They weren’t planning to shoot her. They were going to shoot him! He needed to stay down. She and Nash were both too exposed. She needed a weapon. She needed to help. To fight.
Nash heaved away from her. He rushed at the man with the gun.
The guy who couldn’t seem to decide what the hell he should do.
Before the masked man could fire, Nash drove his body into the would-be shooter’s.
A hard, powerful hit. Nash’s shoulder collided with the guy’s chest, and the intruder went hurtling back.
Back toward the window.
He hit the window once. Tried to aim his weapon at Nash.
Nash drove into him again.
The attacker went through the window.
Halfway through the open window, halfway through the glass because the top part of the window shattered as the man’s body heaved through it. Delaney screamed as she watched him topple out of the window and fall into the night.
The intruder’s partner chose that moment to try and run past her. Still on the floor, she acted on instinct. Her hand flew out and curled around his ankle, tripping him. He toppled toward the floor. His body hit with a jarring impact.
He rolled and tried to kick at her fingers.
Delaney snatched her hand back.
Only for Nash to catch the guy’s kicking foot in his hand. “You don’t attack a lady.” Nash twisted the foot he held. Hard.
So hard that the intruder screamed in agony and Delaney was pretty sure that Nash had just broken the man’s ankle.
And then…