“So,” she said as she slotted herself between my legs and eased down onto my thigh, “we’ve got dinner. We’ve salad for the appetizer. We’ve got a bottle of wine?—”
“Bubbling grape juice,” I corrected as I reached for the bottle and picked it up. “You’re still on hard medications that require you to be off alcohol.”
She slipped her arms around my neck and giggled. “All right. We’ve got dinner. We’ve got the appetizer. We’ve even got the drinks. But I don’t see any dessert on this table.”
I had to swallow down a snarl. “You’re dessert.”
Her grin was mischievous. “Does the good ol’ Doc that plays by the rules ever eat dessert before dinner?”
I growled as I snatched her up and stood. I marched right over to the other patio table I had outside, and I dropped her down against it, on her back. I grabbed her ankles, listening to her giggle as I held her legs in the air. I slowly parted them as I stood over her, already smelling the gathering of her arousal that I wanted on the tip of my tongue.
She giggled with delight as she wiggled around, jiggling those juicy, perfect little thighs for me. “Does that mean you get to bemydessert?”
My cock stiffened at the thought. “You can do whatever you want with?—”
Something caught my eye. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. My focus was on one thing, and one thing alone. Making Elizabeth scream my name again so that the entire house knew who she belonged to.
But then, the flash happened again.
Oh, no.
“RED ALEEEEEEEEEEERT!”
Miss Elizabeth flinched as I yanked her legs toward me. They spread as she flailed, and that’s when I felt it.
Whizzing right by my left shoulder.
THWIP!
She was in my arms in seconds as lights flipped on in the house. “WE HAVE A SNIPEEEEEER!”
“What!?” Elizabeth shrieked.
I turned toward the house and ran. I booked it in a zig-zag fashion, all of my training coming back to me at once as bullet holes sank themselves into the cobblestone and dirt path at my feet. Inside. I had to get Elizabeth inside.
She would be safe inside.
“Daniel, put me down, I can help,” she said as she wiggled around in my arms.
I snarled like a wild animal. “No.”
One of the bullets shot at us sank into the doorframe just as we slipped inside. I slid the glass door closed and locked all three of the locks, thanking my fucking stars that I replaced all of the windows with bulletproof glass over the years. After my parents passed, I sank all of my money into making this as safe of a place as possible. Not because I ever envisioned a family for myself, but because some day, I knew me and the crew would need it.
It was mayhem the instant I started for the stairs.
“Doc! Get up here with her now!” Brutus barked.
“Come on, girls, I know,” Anna said in a voice that was so uncharacteristically soft for her. “I know you’re scared. I know. Just come on. Follow the line.” Smoke was already at the top of the stairs. I didn’t know how the dog had gotten inside, or when, but there he was—planted at the threshold of the hallway like a sentry, his black body low and coiled, ears flat and eyes tracking every shadow that moved. He didn’t bark. Didn’t pace. He justheld the line, pressing himself against the wall so the women could move past him, and then fell in behind them like he’d been running this drill his whole life. Because he had.
A bullet bounced off the window of the second floor and the girls shrieked. They hit the deck, but I shoved my way through all of them, my voice bellowing above their heads.
“The windows are bulletproof! All of the women in the panic room, now!”
“Yeah, Boss,” Brutus said, speaking into his phone. “Sniper. At the house. We’ve been found. Wait a second, you’re fuckin’ where!? You and the guys need to get back—yes. The women are getting into a panic room that Doc had built. Yeah, you heard him right. Bulletproof. Get on your bikes, guys. We’re being attacked.”
It was mayhem. Bullets bouncing off the windows backdropped getting the women shoved into the bedroom that I essentially turned into a panic room. No windows to the outside world. Lockdown mechanisms for days. A satellite television so that we could talk with them, even via video, if absolutely necessary.
I dropped Elizabeth down onto one of the beds. Smoke was already inside, posted up near the door with his back to the room and his nose pointed at the threshold. He’d gone in with the women like it was the only logical thing to do. Like there had never been any question about where he’d be.
