The man’s mouth pulled into a sneer, but before he could pull the trigger, there was a loud crashing sound as the kitchen window suddenly exploded. I instinctively turned my head away as glass went flying, but I didn’t feel any of it penetrating my body. I heard a popping sound, but didn’t know what it was at first. But when the guy threw himself past me and towards the hallway that led to the main part of the house, I realized I was, in fact, hearing gunfire.
Just not from his gun.
I turned in the direction the shots were coming from and watched in amazement as a man calmly stepped through what was left of the large picture window. He had a huge gun in his hand and it, too, had a silencer on it.
“Get down!” he ordered, his voice loud, but not panicked.
I instantly dropped to my ass as bullets flew over my head, and I realized the guy was still trying to shoot the man as he escaped the kitchen. The guy stepped past me and disappeared down the same hallway. My gut was telling me to run, but I was in a state of shock at the close call. I had no idea who the guy who’d just shot out my window was, but I had to assume, since he hadn’t blown my head off when he’d had the chance, he wasn’t my enemy.
I heard more popping sounds, and then a few seconds later, a heavy tread as footsteps came my way. I knew I should try to hide in case it was the first guy coming back, but I couldn’t find the strength to move. My hand hurt like hell, as did my jaw. My side also hurt and I wondered if some of my ribs were fractured.
I dropped my head back against the wall as I tried to catch my breath. But within seconds, the second guy reappeared and he dragged me to my feet. He was huge…bigger than me, even. I suspected he was older than me by at least fifteen years, putting him well over forty. His short hair was a mix of black and silver and barely looked ruffled, considering everything that had just happened. He was wearing military-style clothes, all black. His upper arms were huge, with muscles bulging beneath the fabric of his T-shirt. I finally noticed that, in addition to the huge handgun he was carrying, he had a second gun hanging by a strap at his hip. It was considerably bigger than the handgun, but not quite as big as a rifle. It also had a silencer on it, and I wondered if he’d used that gun to shoot out my window.
“We need to go,” he said. He may as well have been telling me about the weather because, despite his declaration, he was utterly calm. I felt sensation spark to life just beneath the surface of my skin where he was holding me by the upper arm.
“What?” I asked. Was he serious? Go? I wasn’t fucking going anywhere. Not until I got some answers.
And that was exactly what I told him.
Chapter 2
Vincent
“I’m not going anywhereuntil you tell me what the hell is going on!”
Figured the guy would be an ungrateful asshole. I shoved him back against the wall and said, “In case you missed it, you stupid fuck, you almost got your ass blown off. When that happens, you typically don’t want to stick around to give them a SECOND FUCKING CHANCE!”
I forced myself to calm down, though by most people’s standards, I probably appeared completely calm and in complete control. Yeah, I was in control, but I wasn’t calm. I hadn’t been from the second I’d seen the assailant standing behind Nathan, knife poised to strike. I’d still been in my car, so I hadn’t bothered to shout a warning to him. By the time I’d grabbed my guns and darted across the yard, the man and Nathan had disappeared from view, and it hadn’t been until I’d gotten closer to the house that I’d seen them in a death match on the floor. Nathan had managed to break free from his attacker, but he’d been seconds away from death when I’d grabbed my Sig short-barreled rifle and started firing through the window, knowing full well the rounds wouldn’t reach theattacker, but the breaking window would sure as hell distract him long enough for me to get inside.
The whole thing had been too damn close. And while I didn’t particularly give a shit what happened to the man myself, I did care about the impact it would have on Dom’s nephew. I’d been curious about Beck Barretti after the way Dom had talked about him, so I’d done a little research just to appease that curiosity.
I hadn’t been appeased.
At all.
The mental issues Dom had alluded to had included a suicide attempt. I’d hacked the computers of the psychiatric hospital the young man had been admitted to and learned that Cade had been the one to find Beck and had managed to cut him down just in time. I hadn’t gone digging beyond that, because even the little bit of research I’d done had felt like a violation, not to mention it had brought back some pretty shitty memories for me. I’d had what I’d needed, anyway. Beck Barretti needed a shot at a better life and he was going to get it, even if I had to keep this ungrateful ass in one piece to do it.
But as soon as I grabbed Nathan by the arm again, he jerked away from me.
And immediately stumbled.
I managed to catch him around the waist before he fell, and Ireallydid not like the feeling of awareness that went through me at the sensation of his body pressed up against mine. I quickly reached out with my foot to grab the leg of one of the kitchen chairs and jerked it over. Nathan wasn’t much shorter than me and I figured when he was at his normal weight, he’d give me a run for my money in the overall size department. The fact that he’d managed to survive the brief, albeit intense, attack from his assailant was proof that he had some decent muscle built up, along with the instincts to fight back against someone with better training than him.
“Sit,” I murmured as he continued to resist me.
“We have to call the police,” he said, even as he sat down and put his uninjured hand up against his head.
“So you know who attacked you?” I asked as I went around tothe kitchen and snagged a clean-looking hand towel that was draped over the oven door handle.
“No,” Nathan murmured as he lowered his arm so it was resting against his leg. The move allowed him to keep holding his head without having to keep his arm in the air. It was testament to how quickly he was crashing after the adrenaline rush.
I tore a wide strip off the hand towel and knelt down in front of him. He winced as I wrapped the strip around his hand and used enough force to stop the bleeding. The wounds on his palm and possibly the ones on some of his fingers would need stitches, but I didn’t have time to deal with it now. “Hold pressure on that,” I said as I motioned to the binding. I climbed to my feet and went to the window. The frame was still intact, so I pulled the large retractable blind down in the hopes passersby wouldn’t notice the window was actually missing. Although both the assailant and I had used suppressors on our weapons, the sound of shattering glass would have been hard to miss. I could only hope like hell this was one of those neighborhoods where everyone assumed someone else was calling for help.
“Then you have an idea of who attacked you?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer was.
Nathan, predictably, remained mute.
“Let me tell you how this is going to go,” I bit out as I stood before him. I expected him to look up at me, but when he didn’t, I bent down so I could look him in the eye. Because I was giving him one shot at this. Dom or no Dom, I couldn’t help someone who was too stupid to help himself.
