Levi already had, he realized. His biggest hurdle, he knew, was convincing a woman who believed she wasn’t worthy of being loved that she was adored and cherished and special, and always would be. She’d spent most of her life being abandoned by people she trusted and believing that she wasn’t good enough. He was going to do whatever it took to convince her otherwise, because he wasn’t letting her go, ever, without a fight. She was his.
Levi met his brother’s gaze and didn’t miss the cocky expression on Mason’s face. Funny how the tables had turned. How his brother—a totally reformed man-whore—was now giving Levi advice about love.
Out of the corner of his eye, Levi saw the guy he’d been watching at the far end of the bar slide off his stool and head back toward where the restrooms were located. Nothing unusual for many of the patrons in the bar, but the fact that the guy was alone made Levi more suspicious than usual. He didn’t think Sarah’s ex would be bold and brave enough to make a move on her in public, but as a cop, Levi had seen and learned that desperate people did very stupid things without thinking through the consequences.
He had no idea what Dylan looked like, and he didn’t think Sarah had seen the man’s face when she came up to the service bar to collect her drink orders. She was so busy Levi knew she wasn’t aware of her surroundings beyond her own customers, which wasn’t a good thing at all.
But that’s exactly why Levi was here, and as he saw the man leave the restroom, he narrowed his gaze, his body instinctively on edge as he watched every move the other guy made. He didn’t like the way he stood off to the side in a shadowy corner or the way he was watching Sarah so intently.
“You got your eye on that guy who just came out of the men’s room, too?” Mason asked in a low voice that was equally tense.
“Yep.” Clearly, his brother was feeling the same apprehensive vibe that Levi was. Trusting his intuition, he slid off the barstool. “How about we go and ask him a few questions?”
“I’m in.” Never one to pass up a good confrontation, Mason flexed his shoulders and fell into step beside Levi.
As they started in the man’s direction, Sarah headed the same way to deliver a full tray of empty glasses to the bar, oblivious to anything except where she was going. She rounded the corner way before Levi could get there, and the guy abruptly stepped right in front of Sarah, causing the tray of glasses to fly from her hand and crash to the floor. Glass shattered everywhere—the sound barely heard above the music playing in the bar.
All Levi saw was Sarah’s round, horrified eyes as the man who had to be Dylan wrapped an arm around her waist and began hauling her back down the hallway—toward the back exit. As soon as she opened her mouth, Dylan clapped his hand over her lips to stifle her scream.
Adrenaline rushed through Levi’s veins as he bolted toward Sarah, with Mason following. There was so much going on around them that none of the patrons even noticed that Sarah had been grabbed. He felt the crunch of glass beneath his shoes, heard Tara yell something from the service bar, but didn’t stop his pursuit. Once he cleared the main bar area where all the customers were, he withdrew his service revolver from the holster beneath his shirt, but before he could say or do anything, Dylan pushed open the delivery door and dragged Sarah out back with him.
“Fuck.” Levi ran after them, bursting through the door to find Dylan standing close to a beat-up Toyota, now facing Levi with a knife at Sarah’s throat. Levi came to an abrupt stop but kept his gun trained on Dylan’s head, the only part of his body Levi could see. The motion detector light had come on, and the panic he saw in Sarah’s eyes nearly destroyed him, but he managed to keep his cool. He had to put his emotions aside in order to think clearly and rationally.
Vaguely he realized that Mason hadn’t followed him out, that Levi was on his own. Where the fuck had his brother gone? “Let her go, Dylan,” Levi ordered.
“The only place she’s going is with me,” the other man yelled back as the knife shook under Sarah’s chin. “She’s mine, and I’m taking her back where she belongs!”
“She doesn’t want to go back to Sacrosanct,” Levi said very clearly, just as he saw a figure come around the building behind Dylan and move quietly toward the other man. Mason. Thank God.
“Doesn’t matter what she wants.”
Sarah made a soft sound of distress. Dylan must have tightened his hold, and Levi’s gut twisted, and he exhaled a harsh breath. As a cop, he’d been trained to negotiate during a standoff, to diffuse the situation before it escalated to violence. Right now, it took every ounce of control Levi possessed to follow procedure, instead of acting on pure instinct and shooting the guy between the eyes.
“Think about what you’re doing, Dylan.” He caught another movement as Mason crouched and eased around the car where Dylan was standing. “If you kidnap Sarah and try to take her back, you’re going with a police escort.”
“If you don’t put your fucking gun down, I’m going to slit her throat!” Dylan yelled, as if he hadn’t heard Levi or just didn’t care. “Do it now!”
The other man waved the knife in the air in a threatening gesture. With the blade away from Sarah’s throat, Mason snuck up and grabbed Dylan’s arm, the one holding the weapon, and quickly twisted it behind his back, so high and hard that the man screamed in pain and automatically released the knife, letting go of Sarah.
Once freed, she stumbled toward Levi. He grasped her hand and pulled her behind him just as Mason wrenched both of Dylan’s arms behind his back, pinning them tight.
Threat disabled, Levi holstered his gun, and as much as he wanted to take a frightened Sarah in his arms and reassure both her and himself that she was fine, they weren’t done with Dylan just yet.
Levi glanced at Sarah and gave her a reassuring glance. “Stay right here,” he said and then approached Dylan.
Even though Mason had Dylan immobilized, the other man still tried to come at Levi, but Mason’s hold was so strong and unrelenting Dylan’s struggles barely registered.
Levi stopped in front of the furious man, who looked just as enraged as Levi felt at the moment.
“Listen to me,” Levi said, his jaw clenching. “Sarah is not going anywhere with you. Not now. Not ever. If you come near her again, you’ll be sorry that you did.”
“Fuck you!” Dylan spat.
Levi shifted his gaze to Mason’s, the smirk on his brother’s face indicating Mason was itching for a fight, before he glanced at Dylan. “I suggest you get in your car, go back to wherever you came from, and stay there.”
“Not without Sarah.”
The man was persistent, he’d give him that. But Levi had warned him. “Then I guess we’ll just have to change your mind about that.”