Every muscle in his body seemed to have turned to stone.
“I did. As soon as I found out the truth about him, I tried to leave. But Kurt chased me down. He caught me. He tied me up and locked me in a closet.”
What. The. Fuck? Deadly rage burned beneath his skin. “He locked you in a closet?” Holy hell. She knows exactly what he is. The intel we had on the guy was dead on.
“I got free of the ropes. I managed to get my phone, and I texted Agnes. I know she worked as a Fed, and I thought she could help me. That she could come in with guns blazing only…” A faint click as she swallowed. “I guess she didn’t get the second message. And instead of guns blazing…” Her voice trailed away. “You came to save me.”
The night surrounded them. Her seductive scent filled his nostrils. And fury poured through every cell of his body. After a tense moment when the silence stretched far too long, Nash nodded. He forced his hands to release their too tight grip on her. And then he backed away. One step. Two. He spun on his heel and lunged for his motorcycle.
She rushed forward and darted around him to stand in Nash’s path. “What are you doing?” Delaney asked.
“Going to kill a man.” The first item on his to-do list.
“What?”
“The bastard put ropes on you? Locked you in a closet?” His teeth snapped together. “Dead. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure his death hurts. Count on it.”
She pressed her hands to his chest, as if to physically stop him. “You can’t do that!”
“If I’d known what the guy did to you when we were back at that church, I would have killed him then and there.” Going back and taking care of the job was now mandatory.
Except, wait, the creep probably wasn’t at the church any longer. Had he been in one of the three rides that just torpedoed past them?
“Nash! No!” Sharp. Confused. Delaney shook her head, and he saw some of the heavy locks of her dark hair fly over her shoulders. “You are a doctor! You don’t kill people!”
His lips parted. But he didn’t speak. Kinda because he wasn’t sure what to say.
The last time that he’d seen Delaney, yes, Nash had planned to be a doctor. He’d been in medical school. He’d wanted to be a trauma surgeon. But…
Life had changed. He’d changed.
After two years of medical school, he’d followed the path to another calling. A calling that, ah, did make him highly skilled at killing. Turned out, he tended to excel in that particular area. But very few people knew about his real job. Not like you just made a habit of announcing that you worked for the CIA and that your job was to eliminate the deadliest criminals in the world.
And that job brought me to Kurt Wellington. A man with some seriously shady ties. A whole lot of suspicion was aimed at Kurt. Enough suspicion that, when Nash had realized Delaney was marrying the man—well, he’d had to act. Can’t let her marry him. Can’t let her be hurt.
Can’t. Won’t.
But he couldn’t say those things to her, dammit.
It’s a good thing Agnes called me. Though my sister has no idea I was already planning to stop the wedding. He’d gotten to the church so fast because he’d already been heading to Delaney. The minute he’d seen the surveillance photo of Kurt that had included a pic of his bride-to-be, the minute Nash had recognized Delaney’s delicate features…
That was the minute when my world stopped spinning.
“Let’s get back on the motorcycle, and let’s get as far away from here as we can,” she implored, her touch scorching through him. His black jacket hung open, and her fingers pressed to the dark t-shirt that he wore. One that was old and thin and, hell, yes, he could feel the heat of her touch through the fabric.
His body had always been far too sensitive, too attuned, to Delaney.
Once upon a time, Delaney had been his sister’s best friend. She’d also been his not-so-secret obsession.
And now…now…
Stop thinking about what her touch does to you. The woman just told you that she’d basically been kidnapped and that her groom wanted her dead. “You need to contact the cops.”
“I can’t contact the cops here. They are on Kurt’s payroll. That’s why we have to get away. It’s not safe here. Kurt will hunt me. If he finds me, he’ll drag me back, and I’m afraid that he’ll hurt you!”
Nash snorted. “Yeah, I’d like to see him try.”
“I wouldn’t.” She pulled her hands away from Nash.
