It’s merely awhizand the thump of his body hitting the ground because of my silencer, but she shudders and freezes. Those forest-brown irises lock on to mine with a plea that might as well be a scream. She’s haunted and hollow and petrified. Again.
A blistering rage churns in my veins and bones and every fucking cell. But I stuff it down. That’s not what she needs.
Rushing toward her, I scoop her up. “I’ve got you, baby.”
She falls limp in my arms, a soundless sob racking through her chest. She’s likely headed into shock. Her breathing is labored, and her heart is thudding against me.
“I did it with my shoe,” she mutters, which sounds like gibberish.
Until I see the bailiff on the asphalt twenty yards away, with her high heel stuck in his eye socket.Fuck.
“You did so good, Merce,” I praise and plant a kiss in her matted hair, thoroughly impressed. “You’re a warrior, just like I told you. My Viper.”
Kane jumps into action, ripping the shoe out of the guy, which brings with it the eyeball.
Mercy tracks the extraction, lurches over my bicep, and retches down the side of me. She’s dazed and muttering about going to prison and some other things I can’t quite catch.
I open Mercy’s bag, urging Kane to drop the high heel inside it so there’s no evidence of her at the site. He knocks the eyeballoff, removes his shirt, wraps the heel in it, and drops it inside before he begins moving the bodies.
“I need to get her out of here,” I tell him. “I’m calling it in to Wells and Ty. You’ll be good?”
“We got it,” he assures me, referring to him and the rest of his team.
I make a quick call to Seth, one of my other guards, instructing him to meet me at the corner with my car. Then I pop in my earbud, dial Ty, and race through the back alleys toward a side street, with Mercy and her bag slung across me and my pistol drawn.
Ty answers on the first ring because I rarely call. “Yeah?”
“She was ambushed at the courthouse. I don’t know what happened, but a bailiff had her out in an alleyway, two streets over, and she took him out. We’re gonna need the cameras wiped.”
“Got it.” He relays something to someone in the background, most likely Liam since he’s their cyber expert. “We’ll wipe the courthouse and all surrounding buildings. Body?”
I skirt a chain-link fence, veer around a dilapidated building, and resume my jog to the meeting point, squinting into the blinding late afternoon sun. “Two actually. I handled the other. Kane has them.”
“Wells is contacting one of our FBI agents,” Ty responds, and the comforting clack of a keyboard and all of them setting to work trills in the background. “They’ll run interference while we get this cleaned up. I’ll contact Kane. She can’t identify anyone?”
The heat is oppressive today. Humidity high. It doesn’t help that I’m running in a suit and carrying Mercy, who is also drenched with sweat, with white-hot ire rushing through my veins.
Slowing my pace, I keep us out of sight, waiting in the shadows of an abandoned building. “I haven’t asked yet.”
“Emma,” Mercy whispers.
She couldn’t hear Ty’s question, though she might assume what I was answering. Still, that doesn’t make sense.
I glance at her face, but her eyes are detached. “What about Emma, baby?”
“It was Bryce,” she rasps as Seth pulls up with my car. “He did it. Get Emma.”
Motherfucker.
“Hang on, Ty.” I sprint for the car, open the passenger door, and climb in with Mercy on my lap and her bag at our feet. It’s a two-seater, but I’d be unwilling to let her go either way. I tap the dash, so Seth speeds away with us as I finish my call. “Bryce Wakeford. He’s a charter pilot and the guy Mercy defended today. Emma Campbell might be in danger.”
“Gage is on that. We’ll track them both down.” Ty’s tone is so serene, whereas mine is murderous.
“I want him brought to me. Alive.”
“Understood. Get her home. Burn everything. There’s a record of her being at the courthouse, even without the cameras. We’ll work with our FBI agents to plant a plausible story. But get back to the resort and lie low.”
I end the call, tell Seth to pick up the pace, put on my sunglasses, and send an encrypted text to Axel.
