Page 6 of Antonio Miles

It wasn’t long before someone came for Pippa, and several of them left, presumably to go to the hospital. Gunnar had been loaded into the private ambulance fifteen minutes ago. The medics had worked fast. They’d stabilized him enough to move. Enough to give him a chance.

I turned away and walked the perimeter of the room. The structural damage was worse than I’d first thought. The outer wall had buckled inward. Steel reinforcements bent at odd angles, and concrete dust still sifted from the ceiling. The building was compromised. We’d known Haven was vulnerable, but nothing like this. Well. We’d already discussed moving the women’s shelter deeper into the property. Now, it seemed the discussion was over.

My head of security, Kass, fell into step beside me. He didn’t look at me and he kept his voice low. “Four hostiles. Three dead. One got out through the service corridor but not off the property. We found him two blocks east. Got him in the trunk.”

I nodded. “And the hit?”

He paused. “Guy said they were after a woman.” He handed me a picture but he didn’t have to tell me who they’d come for. Tessa knew way more about people who would do anything to keep their secrets than those people could afford.

I looked back at her. She had moved to the other side of the room, helping with the cleanup. Her shirt was torn at the shoulder. The cut above her temple had stopped bleeding, but the dried blood made a lock of hair stick to her forehead.

The woman she’d helped earlier, Melanie, sat nearby, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the wall. Tessa checked on her every few minutes. I watched Tessa’s face when she thought no one was looking. The guilt she felt was plain as daylight, even though she’d had no control over any of this.

The longer I observed her, the more intrigued I became. And I was already fucking intrigued. I wanted her behind my walls. Tonight. Not only would it be safer for the residents of Haven, but Tessa would be safer with my security. Plus, I’d get the added bonus of being able to study her. To figure out what made her tick.

“One more thing, Tonio.” Kass’s normally unflappable expression turned dark.

I looked at my head of security, narrowing my gaze. Kass was… pissed. “Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like what you have to say next.”

“Because you’re not. Iron’s gone. Guys are still working out how, but he killed two guards and almost killed a third.”

“When?” I ground my teeth.

“Best we can tell, ten minutes after the attack here started.”

“This day just keeps getting better,” I mumbled, scrubbing a hand over my face. “I want her moved. Tonight. Take her to the property in the Smokies.”

Kass nodded and moved away to make the call. My father took Kastiel in when we were both boys, so I’d grown up with him. Other than my father, I trusted Kass the most of any person in my life.

I didn’t want to examine the thing in my chest. I didn’t need to. I knew what it was because I had the same fucking feeling for the people in my life who mattered. My father. My sister’s child, Carrie. Darby, my daughter, though God knew I’d tried to bury it all deep enough it wouldn’t surface. But it was the same feeling. The same certainty that Tessa would not be harmed on my watch.

I watched her a moment longer. Then I moved toward her, knowing I’d started making arrangements she didn’t know she needed and might not be too happy about.

The distinctive growl of a Harley cut off, then boots hit the gravel outside, moving quickly in our direction.

“Goddamn it. We missed the whole fucking party.” Darby came through the shattered doorway. My daughter had never needed an invitation to enter anywhere. She wore a leather property vest over a threadbare T-shirt, her dark hair pulled back in that messy braid that never quite contained all the pieces.

Sully followed three steps behind her, attempting to hold her back but failing miserably. As usual. He finally gave up trying to corral her and put his time to better use sweeping the room for any threats still in play.

The familiar tangle of pride, sharp and decidedly inconvenient, mixed with exasperation too closely related to fondness. I couldn’t fucking tell anymore. And beneath that, the thing I still didn’t want to make peace with, which was the sight of my daughter with a man twice her age who had prison in his past and a stillness in him that reminded me too much of men like myself.

Darby’s gaze found me across the room. She raised an eyebrow. “You could’ve called sooner.”

“You were on the road.”

“We were forty minutes out! We could’ve been here sooner!”

“You’re here now.” I kept my voice level. It was an old dance. She pushed, I held the line, and somewhere in the middle we found the place where we could stand without drawing blood. Now, anyway. It had been touch-and-go for a while.

She snorted and turned away, taking in the room with the quick, assessing look she’d had since she figured out which exits would get her clear fastest from my heavily fortified, heavily secured estate. Her gaze landed on Pippa, still huddled against the wall, and something in Darby’s face shifted. Hardened.

“What happened?” Darby was all business now, her voice soft as she questioned me.

“Gunnar’s hurt. Bad.”

Darby sucked in a breath. “Oh, no.” She looked back at Pippa where Hannah had moved to her side and held her while she cried. Knuckles still stood beside her, eyeing me. Yeah. I got it. He wanted blood, and I was right there with him.

Then Darby’s gaze caught when she skimmed over the room as she saw Tessa kneeling beside a woman with the bandaged arm, speaking quietly. The guilt shown on Tessa’s face, plain as day, telling me she’d come to the same conclusion we had.