I shake my head as tears roll from my eyes. I won’t let him win. I know backup is coming. Oly is safe. Rylan will kill to get me back.
Slowly and as quietly as I can, I crawl from my hiding spot and twist my body so I’m facing the doorway. Silas is out by the workbench. I stand up and fire the gun, hitting him in the chest. He didn’t expect me to be armed. But nothing happens. No blood. No grunt of pain. He doesn’t even flinch.
He’s wearing a bulletproof vest.
I take aim again. But before I can fire, he shoots, and I drop to the floor, my gun slipping from my hand. He missed, but now I must find my gun. I feel around for it in the dark, but it’s too late.
I hear the cocking of a gun before it’s pressed into the back of my head.
“You’ll pay for that, little Mimi. Let’s go.” He jerks me up, and I cry out from the pain in my arm where he shot me. “You deserve that.”
I reach out and grab a dough knife off the desk, then slip it into the pocket of my jacket. Silas kicks something across the floor. I know it was my gun. It slides under the table.
He leads me out of the bakery and shoves me into the back seat of a car. I scream, trying to get people’s attention, but no one seems to do anything. Before he speeds out of the parking lot, he pauses at the open door to my shop and rolls down his window. He tosses something into it and then another one toward my car. It rolls across the ground, and I realize they’re grenades.
“No,” I yell as I beat him on the head, trying to stop what I know is coming.
He swings around with the gun and slams it into the side of my head as two explosions rock the car. We roll away, and I fall to the seat unconscious. My last thought is of how much I love Rylan, and how bloody he’s going to make Silas for touching me.
Kodiak
My phone pings from my pocket as I secure the torn awning from the building. Wind gusts around us, pushing my body around. I get the awning tied down and pull out my phone. It’s an alert from Marnie’s bakery. I had Vortex loop me into her system.
“Shit. GB, call Vortex and ask him why the alarm is going off at the bakery. Tell him we’ll be there as soon as we get this building taken care of.”
GB and Fluke are helping me today.
I slip my phone back into my pocket, thinking GB will take care of everything, but instead my phone goes off again.
“Motherfucker, I don’t have time for this,” I growl as I pull out my phone again.
“Come on, dude. You need a secretary,” Fluke grumbles, and I look at him with my head tipped slightly and my lips pinched.
“What?” I demand into the phone without looking at who’s calling.
“Your old lady left here. I haven’t heard from her.”
I pause as my heart clenches. I swore I’d protect her.
“Juneau with her?”
“He’s not out front. So, I’m assuming. I’ve tried calling both of them, but it just keeps ringing.”
“He was under orders to call an officer to go with them if they left. Find out who. We’re heading to her store now. An alarm was going off. Secure and lock down the house. Nothing happens to Oly,” I order him before I turn and walk away from Fluke and straight to my truck.
I jump in and take off for the bakery.
My tires squeal to a stop as I turn into the parking lot and see the fire trucks and cop cars. My heart drops, and I head to the back of the building, where I find her SUV engulfed too.
“Fuck,” I yell.
I need to find out where my woman is. In my heart, I know she’s not in that building or vehicle. But I know she’s in danger.
I’m out of my truck, barely throwing it in park, and leave the door open. Sparky and Vortex walk up to me. Sparky holds out his hands, trying to calm me.
“She’s not in there. But Juneau is in the SUV.”
Shit. The kid was only twenty-four. He’d been a prospect for two years now.
