Page 54 of Armed ’N’ Ready

“Were you supposed to take the woman to this other address?”

“Yeah.” Matteo nodded.

“Then what?”

“Tie her to a chair, then wait for a guy to show.”

“What guy?”

“I don’t fuckin’ know. We were just supposed to turn her over to whoever met us there. That’s it. Not my business what happened after that.”

He gripped the phone tighter, resisting the urge to bash it against Matteo’s head. But time was ticking down fast. Sooner or later, it would go up the chain that they’d bungled the kidnapping. Nick was hoping for later.

Gears began spinning in his head. There was still a chance that whoever was on the receiving end of the delivery that wasn’t going to happen was there now, waiting. They had a small window of opportunity before word got out, and that window was closing with every passing minute.

He grabbed the pen and a pad he’d set on the table and shoved them in front of Matteo. “Write it. All of it. Including the name of your cowardly buddy who drove off and left you to take the hit.” He motioned to the other trooper to follow him out the door, leaving Matteo alone to pen his confession. Normally, he’d spend more time with an interrogation as important as this one. Time was not on his side.

Eric and Cox came out of another interrogation room. “He talk?” Eric asked.

“Yeah.” He charged into his tour commander’s office. Eric and Cox followed.

Five minutes later, they were speeding down the highway toward Holyoke with four marked state police vehicles in tow. Eric sat in the passenger seat of Nick’s SUV.

“You okay?” Eric asked.

“Great.” Not even close.

He’d called the number on Matteo’s phone, but no one answered. That phone had probably been tossed down a sewer grate by now. He gunned the SUV faster down the highway, but his gut told him they were already too late to grab their quarry. At least the bastards hadn’t gotten Andi.

He admired that she hadn’t broken down and gone into hysterics. She might be soft and sleek on the outside, but there was a tough core at the center of that woman. Still, if he hadn’t been there tonight, or if he’d been too late…

He clamped his fingers tighter around the wheel, his fury growing exponentially by the second. This time he had been there, but there’d been a time—five years ago—when he’d failed.

Tanya had needed protection. Protection he clearly hadn’t been able to provide, something that would always tear into him. He should have been able to save her. He’d tried. God, how he’d tried. Maybe it was finally time to accept that. That and the fact he’d been alone long enough.

Never in his wildest imaginings did he expect to care so deeply for a woman again, or even let one get close enough to try.

He yanked the wheel to veer onto the exit ramp, barely slowing into the curve.

There was no telling what would or wouldn’t happen next between him and Andi, but he was sure of one thing. What he’d said earlier about not letting anything happen to her had been a colossal understatement. If it came down to it…

…he’d die protecting her.

Chapter Thirteen

It was ten p.m. Sunday night, and Andi wiped down the gleaming bar for the tenth time in the last hour.

Nick was still out there searching for the people who’d tried to kidnap her. They were dangerous, and they were armed. She was thankful that Saxon was with him, but with every passing hour that he didn’t show, her emotions coiled tighter and tighter until he was all she could think about.

Could she really open herself up and risk her heart again? In the depths of her soul, she knew the answer, and the thought was frightening.

I already have.

Ugly memories of Steve’s lie and the damage he’d done to her career and her emotions edged its way front and center in her mind. She’d been royally burned before and had good reason to have sworn off men for all eternity.

Nick can’t have been playing me. Not then, and not now. She’d know if he was.

She threw the damp cloth into the laundry bin then looked around the dining room. As soon as the dinner crowd had ended, she’d cut most of the staff loose, leaving only her and Tess to close up.