He moves away from the desk and me. “Interesting. My boys will be sorry to hear that, at least the ones who had Dakota holding out in the pool.”
“You put money on all this?”
Gary grimaces. “Of course we did! We bet on all kinds of things. Like which one of the fugitives - if any - would be apprehended first. Which state my brother is hiding in. How long it will take you to break. Those sorts of things.”
“Mmm-hmm. And who’s going to make me break? You, Gary?” I lift an eyebrow. “Absolute offense meant here, Gar, but you don’t look like you could break a breadstick, much less a U.S. Marshal with a background in the military.”
C’mon, Gary, a little closer.
Gary laughs, then pushes a button on the underside of the desk. Varsity Goon is in the room a second later.
Shit.
I stand, looking between Gary and Varsity Goon. Gary is closer. I might get one chance at using Gary for leverage, but it depends on the loyalty of his goons.
I smile at Gary. “You know what? Gary? I’ve reached an age where my brain went from saying ‘you probably shouldn’t do that,’ to ‘let’s see what happens.’”
“What does that mean?”
“It means this,” I grab Gary in a chokehold and point the pen at his eyeball. “It means if you so much as fucking move, Gremlin Gary, I’ll stab the shit out of your brain - through your eyeball.”
Instead of quaking in fear, like I expected him to do, he laughs.
Motherfucker.
And since I’m not cut out to simply stab a mo-fo in the eye, for no good reason, I pause.
It’s long enough for the Varsity Goon to leave his spot by the doorway and head in my direction. He has a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. I know he won’t shoot me with Gary between us, but that won’t last long.
I grip Gary tighter in his headlock and drag him further into the library. I’m reconsidering my stance on stabbing idiots without reason when a ghost from my immediate past jumps on the back of Varsity Goon and slits his throat ear-to-ear with a giant fucking Bowie knife.
Varsity Goon drops his weapons, grips his neck, and falls dead to the floor. Ryker stands behind the body like a blood-covered avenging angel, and my Coochie Mama is hollering out all sorts of nonsense that translate to:Get it, Girl!
I almost forget about Gary quaking in my arms, about to pass out because I’m gripping him so hard.
“You left something behind, Kitten,” Ryker closes the distance between us.
He pulls my medallion out of his shirt and kisses it.
My mouth drops open. Desire pools in my pants. My skin flushes with the heat of a thousand suns.
“Uh, I hate to break up this little reunion, but my guys are going to gut you,” Gary threatens.
I blink the lust out of my eyes and stare at Ryker, who shakes his head.
“Not likely,” I laugh and kick Gary in the spot behind his knees, forcing him to the floor. “Hands behind your head. You’re under arrest for the kidnapping and detainment of a federal officer. And unlike your previous witnesses and technicalities, I won’t be recanting my statement.”
“Where are my guys?”
I look at Ryker and the amount of blood covering his clothing. He wipes his knife on the back of Varsity Goon, who is now dead in a pool of his blood.
“You don’t have any more guys, Gary,” I smirk. “So, you might want to think long and hard about the information you’ll give us in our search for Jeffrey Rose.”
“His girlfriend helped us!”
I shrug. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“His girlfriend was related to someone in prison!” Gary gasps as Ryker slaps the Flexi-cuffs on him.
