“Think it’s the same team?” Brecken asked.
“Whit,” Victoria called from the living room just as I was about to ask her to come look at the video. “Why is my dad texting to tell me to hunker down in the tub?”
“Shit,” I muttered.
“How the hell does her dad know what’s going on?” Brecken asked.
It didn’t take a lot of guessing on my part. When Victoria said her dad was overprotective, she hadn’t been exaggerating. The man called to talk to her every morning, and he texted me for updates each night. “He was well on his way to earning a star before he was medically discharged from the Army, and he’s her father.”
“Understood.” Brecken nodded and leaned back in his chair. “If it was Quinten in harm’s way, I’d call in all my markers to keep him safe. Let me know if you need anything once it’s all over.”
As we ended the call, I couldn’t help but wonder if Victoria was already carrying my baby. If she wasn’t, it certainly wasn’t from lack of trying on my part. We still hadn’t used any of the condoms I bought, and I didn’t have a single regret over it. I would use whatever means necessary to tie her to me forever. But first, we had to get through this clusterfuck so we didn’t need to look over our shoulders for the rest of our lives.
“Get in here, baby.”
Victoria came rushing into the bedroom, her eyes wide. “Is my dad right? Are the bad guys on their way?”
I hated to scare her more, but I wasn’t going to lie to her about the situation. “According to the intel Brecken just shared with me, yes.”
“Oh, no,” she cried, her shoulders slumping as her dad sent another text. “He says he’s following them up the mountain so the two of you can block them in from either side until the sheriff gets here. He’s only a few minutes behind my dad.”
It sounded as though the confrontation with the bad guys was going to be anticlimactic, and I couldn’t be happier for the lack of fireworks. I didn’t want Victoria to get hurt.
“Come with me.” I stalked into the bedroom we’d been using, headed to the back of the walk-in closet, and pulled the hook all the way in the far corner.
When the wall slid to the side to expose a gun safe, Victoria gasped in surprise. “Holy crap. I had no idea that was there.”
“My grandpa had some tricks up his sleeve when he built the place.” I turned and handed her a Glock, well aware that she knew how to shoot after some of the stories she’d share with me about growing up with her dad. “There’s a full clip. Take it and do what your dad said.”
After checking the gun, she asked, “You seriously want me to go hide in the tub?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” I grabbed another Glock to go along with my Beretta, as well as a Ruger semi-automatic. Then I loaded up on ammo before turning back to her. “It’s the safest place for you to be in case shit goes sideways. Knowing you’re protected by the tub and armed against anyone who might get past me and your dad will allow me to go out there with a clear head.”
“Crap,” she huffed, fisting the front of my shirt to pull me in for a quick kiss. “I can’t argue with that logic. You’re less likely to get injured if you’re not worrying about me.”
She just kept proving she was the perfect woman for me. Over and over again.
Patting her ass, I pushed her toward the bathroom. “Go.”
I waited until she dropped into the tub and laid back, gun aimed in front of her and ready to fire, before I headed outside. I kept the semi-automatic rifle at the ready as I made my way down the drive and out to the road that went up the mountain to the cabin. I walked about a hundred yards before I picked up my pace at the sound of a loud crash. Twenty yards down the mountain, I came upon a black SUV whose front wheels were teetering on the edge of the road, partway over the cliff.
The backend had a fuck ton of dents, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out they came from the pickup truck with a reinforced grill guard that was parked behind the SUV. I wasn’t surprised when Victoria’s dad hopped out of the truck and stalked toward the SUV with a Beretta in his hand.
“Damn, Arthur.” I let out a low whistle as I walked to the other side of the SUV and aimed my rifle at the men inside. “You didn’t leave any fun for me.”
“The bastards are lucky I didn’t ram them off the road and fire a rocket launcher at them so there wasn’t anything left to bury,” he muttered.
My gaze slid to the truck he was driving. “You got a rocket launcher in there?”
He quirked a brow and grinned. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”
“Maybe don’t mention it to the sheriff,” I suggested when the sound of police sirens reached us.
“I didn’t mean to mention the damn thing to you,” he grumbled, circling his hand in a gesture to let the men know hewanted them to roll down the windows. “What happened today is just a small taste of the hell I’ll rain down on each of you and everyone you love if you so much as look at my daughter again. You hear me?”
He kicked the door, and the SUV teetered forward. “Yes! We hear you.”
“You got anything you want to add, Whit?” he asked me.
