Yep. Rage. That’s definitely rage I see in his eyes.
The fool took another step closer to the group. But he quickly realized his mistake when the atmosphere around them turned electric. You could almosttastethe tension and anticipation in the air. He quickly backpedaled toward the SUV before yelling to his companion. “Ben! Come ’round to thisside! I need you next to me!”
Aha. So Neanderthal’s cohort was named Ben.
Apprehension detonated at the base of Emily’s brain. If Neanderthal let a name slip, it meant she and the BKI boys were dealing with one of three possibilities. One, Neanderthal was an idiot. Two, Neanderthal had never done anything like this before. Or three, Neanderthal didn’t worry about slinging around namesbecause he planned to kill them all.
None of those scenarios made her very warm and fuzzy.
Christian must have felt the same. The muscles beneath her fingertips went rock hard. He was readying himself to make a move. Any move. All he needed was an opening.
Ben, who had been aiming at the group over the steaming hood of the SUV, slowly skirted the front of the vehicle. His black workboots splashed through puddles. His jeans were soaked clean through and hung low on his waist.
He looked a lot like Neanderthal. So much so that Emily decided they had to be brothers. But where Neanderthal appeared resolved to do whatever it was they’d come to do,Benlooked uncertain. His dark eyes were too wide. The big-knuckled hand on his weapon was too shaky.
Once Ben was in a betterposition, Neanderthal turned his attention back to Christian. “What are you up to, Watson? What did you blow up back in Port Isaac?”
“A car,” Angel answered for Christian. There was no hesitation in Angel’s voice. No inflection. Just those two words.
Emily’s eyes pinged to the Israeli and noted that he wore the same unreadable expression he always did, despite the rivulets of icy watersluicing down his too-handsome face. She wondered if he’d look like that even if a nuclear bomb was about to fall on their heads.
“To distract the reporters, eh?” Neanderthal’s thick lips quirked in a knowing smirk. “So you could sneak out the garden door, catch a plane, and leave the country?”
“Yes.” Again it was Angel who answered. Maybe because he feared what calamity might spill outof Christian’s mouth if Christian was left to do the job.
“And go where?” Neanderthal demanded. “To do what?”
“None of your business,” Christian said.
See? Calamity.
She pinched him, but he ignored her warning. Instead, he leaned harder against her, wedging her more tightly against the pickup truck.
“I was hopin’ you’d give me a reason to shoot you,” Neanderthal lifted hisweapon. Rain dripped in a steady stream from the barrel, and the yawning black hole at the end of it was aimed between Christian’s eyes.
Emily flinched.
Christian didn’t.
“I thought I needed to hear you say it,” Neanderthal continued. “I thought I needed toknowyou were responsible for what happened. But I don’t. All I really need to know is whether or not you’re a fucking asshole.”His accent madefuckingsound more likefooking, and he smashed some of his words together so much, and left the hard consonant sounds off the ends of others, that Emily had a tough time understanding him. “And I have my answer.”
“Hang on a second,” Ben said, but Neanderthal was already squinting one eye. Emily was sure she saw the muscles in his thick finger tighten on the trigger.
Shedidn’t think.
She simply acted.
“Wait!” she yelled, squirming from behind Christian and dodging his hands when he tried to grab her. She stepped in front of him and raised her chin, projecting confidence and daring Neanderthal even though her insides were swirling around like the dark-gray storm clouds overhead. “If you want to kill him, you’ll have to go through me.”
Wow! Her voicedidn’t even shake. When she had time to look back on this moment—if shelivedto look back on this moment—she was going to be quite proud of herself.
“Sodding hell, Emily!” Christian hissed at the same time a bolt of lightning sizzled overhead. It was accompanied by a deafening crash of thunder that made Ben flinch.
That’s all the distraction Angel needed. The Israeli looked like a JamesBond/Bruce Lee badass mofo when he bounded forward two steps and knocked Ben’s weapon from his hands. A split second later, he executed a textbook roundhouse kick that swept Ben’s legs out from under him.
Before Ben even hit the wet surface of the lot with a loud grunt, Neanderthal was bellowing his outrage.
Emily hardly heard it. She was too focused on Ben’s gun. It had landed in an oily-lookingpuddle not two feet from her. Heart pounding, she went for it. All instincts and no rational thought.
