Chapter 37
Bean stepped out of the elevator as Stanley exited the stairwell, followed by Chase. Stanley pointed at the door to her apartment, and he nodded.
They weren’t going to knock. This wasn’t a social call. If she were okay and just hanging out in her apartment, he would apologize. But she hadn’t answered her phone or called him back. That was concerning in itself.
Chase mouthed the countdown from three, and Stanley kicked the door. They practiced breaching all sorts of doors. He hoped Garnet hadn’t set the deadbolts as Stanley’s foot came in contact with the door.
The door flexed and then gave way under the force from Stanley. They were in. Bean followed Stanley, who had momentum, and Chase came in behind. He heard the elevator ding, which meant Link was with them.
He took in the room, seeing Garnet at her desk, a man behind her. He’d been pointing a gun at her, but he turned, shock filling his face.
Garnet picked up her laptop with both hands and smashed it into the guy’s side.
Stanley rushed forward. The gun went off, but the man shot wide, missing all of them.
Then Stanley grabbed the guy’s forearm of his gun hand, wrestling him for control.
Bean saw Stanley disarm the man as he rushed forward and punched the guy, knocking him out.
The man dropped to the floor next to Garnet.
It had all happened so fast, he was amazed that they’d actually disarmed the guy and no one had been shot. It could have gone so much worse.
Garnet flung herself at him, her feet getting tangled up on the guy’s arms, so he pulled her against him and moved them to the other side of the small room.
His muscles shook from all the excitement as he clung to her. She held onto him so tightly that it almost hurt. He relished the pressure, glad to have her in his arms again.
“Good lord, woman, I’m never letting you out of my sight.”
Her laughter sounded choked as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m okay with that.”
His lips found hers as he assured himself she really was okay. Hopefully, this was the end of this nonsense, and they could live in peace. He hated that she’d gone through so much, but he was glad she had survived.
Garnet spent almost an hour stalling, and the guy had seemed to be at the end of his rope.
She’d been thinking about bashing him over the head with the computer, so when Brady and his friends had busted into her place, she’d already had the thought formed and had been preparing for the action of knocking the guy for a loop.
She was thankful Bean and his team had come looking for her. After the police had cleared out and they were on their way back to North Carolina, she thanked each of them and promised she wouldn’t be so dramatic going forward.
“Hey, we enjoy the challenge,” Stanley said.
She laughed and shook her head. “You all are just adrenaline junkies.”
“I can do without any drama for a while,” Brady said.
She leaned over and kissed him. “You’ve got it. Calm waters from here on out.”
“So the patch to fix the system, have you sent it?” Chase asked.
She nodded. “I did. That idiot didn’t know enough to understand what I was doing.
I sent it while he was standing behind me, thus fixing the system and making it so that even I couldn’t do what he wanted me to do.
Or I wouldn’t be able to do it in less than a day, as the patch filtered out to all the systems and bases. ”
“Good,” Stanley said. “Hopefully, there will never be another threat like that one.”
Brady snorted and rolled his eyes. “Don’t curse us. Someone could come along and think of something worse to hit us with.”
“Goodness, I hope not,” Garnet said.
They all laughed. This was their world, and she was glad she’d only gotten a small taste of what they had to deal with all the time.
The plane was in the air, and she leaned her head against Brady’s shoulder.
He had his hand on her leg, squeezing every so often.
So much could have gone wrong, but so much had gone right.
She was thankful Brady had shown up with his team.
They’d saved her yet again. Her heart expanded as she thought of spending her life with this man.
No question, she was falling for him. She didn’t think she’d ever fallen for anyone before, but with Brady, she’d found the perfect guy.