Sage nodded.
I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of invading Daisy’s privacy by tapping into her phone, but after several hours of failing to get a hold of her and now with her not answering her door, my instinct that something was off was kicking up. Daisy’s role in Ronan’s group was to be available at the drop of a hat. If she was going to be offline for any length of time, she always let Memphis, the team lead, know so he could have either Mav or Sage act as Daisy’s backup during that time.
We’d called Memphis half an hour ago to ask if he’d heard from her, but he’d said he hadn’t. Since we were so close to her location, he’d agreed that we needed to actually lay eyes on her.
I tapped my fingers on my leg as I considered our options. I was leaning back against the wall outside Daisy’s apartment door while Sage was standing in front of it. It was well after midnight, so none of Daisy’s neighbors were around to ask if they’d seen her.
“Fuck it,” I muttered and reached into my pocket to pull out the tools I’d need to pick the lock on her door.
Sage stepped out of my way, but right as I was about to insert the first tool into the lock, I heard it disengage. I stepped back as the door opened just a crack.
I knew instantly that something was wrong. I felt Sage stiffen next to me as soon as he got a look at Daisy’s face.
What little of it we could see.
The one eye we could see was red-rimmed and swollen and sherefused to look directly at us. Her knuckles were bloodless as she held onto the edge of the door. She hadn’t removed the security chain.
“Sorry, I was in the shower,” she said, her voice cracking. “What are you doing here?”
“We were worried about you,” I said as I tried to get a better look into her apartment, but there wasn’t enough of a gap to see much of anything. She was wearing what looked like jeans and a sweater and her hair looked tangled as it fell over her shoulder. It wasn’t even damp.
“I’m fine,” she quickly said. “Um, I’m just… I’m working on some stuff for Roman. You know what a slave driver he is. He’s got me doing two things at once,” she added with a fake laugh.
“Yeah,” I said carefully. “Well, we’ll let you get back to it. Maybe just call us later?” I said as lightly as I could. I saw that Sage was already reaching for his gun.
Good, he’d picked up on Daisy saying Ronan’s name wrong to send us a silent message.
She made a little bit of a choking sound and I desperately wished I could reassure her that I’d heard her loud and clear. “Sure, will do,” she whispered, then shut the door.
The second the lock re-engaged, I turned to Sage. “Two assailants.”
He nodded. I waited one more beat to give Daisy enough time to get clear of the door, then reached for the gun at my back. I pretended to turn away from it in case someone was looking through the peephole from inside the apartment, then turned in a flash and kicked in the door. I heard a rough grunt as the wood made contact with a body on the other side.
It took just a split second to determine that the assailant holding onto Daisy’s arm a few feet inside the apartment was too close for me to risk hitting her with my gun, so I launched myself at him. At the same time, Daisy elbowed him hard in the nose. My body hit his just as he let her go with a bellow of pain, so Daisy was clear of us when we crashed to the floor. I heard someone shout behind me, then the sound of flesh striking flesh. PresumablySage was going after the guy I’d hit with the door when I’d kicked it in.
The guy beneath me tried to jam his gun into my side, but I managed to grab his wrist. I snapped it like it was nothing and he screamed in agony. I punched the guy, but before I could knock him out cold, I heard Daisy scream my name. I managed to look up at her in time to see that she was looking at the door. I had just seconds to react when I looked over my shoulder and saw a third man standing in the doorway, gun drawn and pointed at me. I quickly rolled myself and the guy beneath me so he was on top of me. His body jerked as two bullets hit him in the back. While the guy who’d pulled the trigger was distracted by the fact he’d shot his own buddy, I shoved the body off me and lurched to my feet. I launched myself at Daisy as the guy began shooting again. My body hit hers hard and I did my best to break her fall while still keeping my body on top of hers as we landed on the floor just behind the loveseat.
Several more shots volleyed around us, then everything went silent.
“Cash!” Sage yelled.
“We’re okay,” I said, instantly relieved to hear his voice. I’d lost track of him in the fight.
I shifted my weight off Daisy. “Are you hurt?” I asked as I quickly scanned her body for blood. She was gasping for air as she shook her head.
“Shallow breaths,” I said gently as I cupped her cheek. “You got the wind knocked out of you.”
I mimicked how I wanted her to breathe. It took her a second to follow my lead. I fought back my fury at the sight of the bruise on her right cheek.
“Daisy?” Sage called as he hurried to us and dropped to his knees. I was beyond relieved to see he was unhurt. He grabbed her hand in his and skimmed his fingers over her hair. Her breathing was a little better, so Sage and I helped her to sit up. The second we did, she began sobbing.
Sage drew her into his arms. “It’s okay, honey, we’ve got you,” he said as he ran his hand up and down her back. She clung to himand nodded. I was about to get up and take stock of the scene when Daisy suddenly reached out one of her hands.
She was reaching for me.
I took it and shifted so I was pressed up against her side. “You’re safe, Daisy,” I whispered in her ear as I brushed a kiss over her temple. “Sage and I are here now. You did real good.”
She managed another nod, but it was several minutes before she calmed. I could hear sirens in the distance.
