Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Davin ushered her behind him. She stared at the unfamiliar young men. They were all about college age and obviously drunk, staggering and calling out obscenities. They must have rented one of the homes on the beach and spent the rainy parts of the day drinking.
“Hey, would you look at that,” one of them shouted. “We got ourselves a hottie!”
Rain splattered onto her forehead and hands, a gust stinging her cheeks and whipping her hair into her face. She shivered, but the moisture and icy wind had little to do with it.
“You’d all better get back to shelter,” Davin said, his voice full of warning.
“No way. We’re gonna steal your girl and take her with us,” one of them slurred.
“I’d let her keep me warm,” another yelled.
More curse words swirled in the air, accentuated by thunder and wind and the increasing rain.
As a group, the six men surged toward them. Davin backed up, his arm held out protectively in front of Chloe, but they couldn’t go nearly as fast moving backward.
“Hey,” Adam yelled from down the beach.
The young men ignored Adam’s warning and his uniform. They tried to reach around Davin to grab Chloe. One of them yanked on her shirt and another grabbed her hair. She cried out, pushing their hands away.
“That’s it,” Davin growled.
He threw a punch at one kid, landing it at the back of his jaw. The guy went down in a limp heap. He grabbed another man’s head and yanked it down to meet his knee. Blood sprayed from the guy’s nose and there was a crunch almost as loud as the thunder that rolled and the scream the kid produced.
Adam raced toward the melee. He darted around Chloe and pushed her back. Chloe stumbled a few more feet from the fight and watched with a slackened jaw as Adam joined Davin and the two of them fought the drunken idiots.
They both fought like warriors. The problem was the young men’s inebriated state made them fight wilder. They didn’t seem to feel the pain of the vicious kicks and hits Davin and Adam landed on their faces and bodies.
The kid with the broken nose got knocked flat to the ground with a kick from Adam. He struggled back to his feet, turned tail, and zigzagged down the beach and away from the fight.
Davin whipped another kid’s arms behind him, yanked hard, and she could hear the sickening pop of his shoulder going out of socket.
The young man dropped to the sand and writhed in agony.
Chloe was sickened by the fight and absolutely amazed by Davin. She’d known he did brave things for his book research, like jumping off of cliffs and free diving, but fighting? He said he didn’t know how to use a gun. Now he and Adam were each battling two young men at once.
A sudden yearning burned inside her. A yearning to be the woman Davin protected and fought for, in every way.
Adam spun and brought an elbow into one guy’s temple and he went down, unconscious.
The three remaining seemed to sober up as Adam yanked out his Taser and pointed it at them. “Shadow Cove Sheriff’s Department,” Adam growled. “You all want to spend the night in jail?”
The three on their feet backed up, holding up their hands.
“Didn’t realize you were a cop,” one of them muttered.
“Take your friends back to your house,” Adam commanded. “I’ll be by in the morning, with some warrants for your arrests.”
Wide eyed and muttering curses, the three picked up their unconscious friend and shuffled off. The kid with his shoulder out of socket followed, whimpering.
“You’re going to just let them go?” Davin asked, wiping at a trickle of blood from his eyebrow.
“SCPD has bigger things going on right now than those idiots. We have to get you inside,” Adam urged. “Now.”
The rain fell in earnest, wind whipped their hair and clothes, and lightning lit up the sky as thunder growled deep and terrifying. They shouldn’t have come on their walk, but then she and Davin wouldn’t have shared that incredible kiss.
“What’s going on?” Davin asked as he took her arm and they ran with Adam along the wet sand.
Adam glanced out at the frothing ocean and up at the leaden sky as they hurried back toward the house, as if something nefarious might rise out of the ocean and attack them.
“I got a text right before those drunks attacked. That’s why I was slower to get there to help. Nice fight, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Davin said. “What’s going on?”
“Garcia assaulted an older lady in her home in Eureka. Stole cash, jewelry, and injured her … badly.”
The poor lady.
“Garcia’s in Eureka?” Davin held onto her hand tighter, and they all upped their pace. “When?”
“A few hours ago.”
“He could be here,” Davin said, his eyes darting around.
“Let’s get back to the house, meet up with the sheriff, and he’ll explain.
” Adam’s gaze took in everything in front of and behind and above them.
He even looked out to sea. Nobody would be crazy enough to be out on that water, but Garcia could’ve already crossed the ocean during the break in the storm, though the waves had still been churning.
Davin only nodded.
They upped their pace, racing along the beach. Chloe was disoriented, chilled, and terrified. Davin’s hand kept her from face-planting in the sand, steadying her through the storm battering them and the horror rising up to choke her.
Balam Garcia had felt like a distant fear, but maybe he had paid someone to hurt her and get information about Davin. There was no maybe about him growing ever closer. He seemed to know where Davin was, and he was coming for them.
Chloe slipped and sprawled forward. Davin wrapped his arm around her waist and held her up.
“Almost there,” he reassured her. “You’re okay. I’m here.”
She glanced up into his handsome face, water streaking down it, his eyes more gray than blue, stormy like the weather around them and the fear inside her.
“You’re some kind of hero,” she whispered.
He chuckled, but it was unsteady. “No, I only write about heroes.”
She shook her head, wanting to contradict his words, but Adam was urging them forward. “There’s the staircase. Let’s go.”
They rushed up the slick stairs, clinging to the railing.
Davin was a hero in her mind. But how could he protect her from a murderous drug lord?