“Doctor Savage?”
He breathes out and then looks up at me, attempting a smile. “Candace, dear.”
I hurry down the steps to kneel beside him. “Doctor Savage, what are you doing?”
“My house is burning down. I’m supposed to meet the fire trucks there now.”
My eyes go wide. “Your house is burning down?”
“That’s what they tell me.”
Blood flushes my face and heats my neck. My mind races with all the ways this might be tied to Tag, and my fear for his life is immediate. “Come with me.” I stand back up and grab his hand. “Now.”
“I’ve been drinking. I can’t get up.”
“Get up now or you might die. Any moment now a man who wants to kill me, and I suspect you, will walk into this stairwell. Get up—now!”
“No,” he says. “No. I’m not getting up. If they want to kill me, they can kill me.”
“Candace!”
At the sound of Smith’s voice, I call back. “I’m here.”
“Get your ass down to me, now!”
I tug on Dr. Savage’s hand. He jerks it back. “Go. I’m fine.”
“Please—”
“Candace!”
I turn and Smith is standing behind me. “What the hell?” he demands, looking between me and Rick’s father.
“He was just sitting here,” I explain. “He says he’s drunk. He says his house is burning down. I don’t want to leave him. What if that monster comes after him?”
“Don’t be a fool, little girl!” Rick’s father shouts at me. “Tag needs me. He doesn’t need you or my son. Go the fuck away.”
“He burned down your house.”
“He didn’t burn down my house. I did!”
“What?”
Smith catches my arm. “Savage needs to hear from you now and know that you’re safe and right now you are not. It’s life or death. I’ll send a man for him.”
I’m torn. This man is Rick’s father, but Rick himself and my father are in danger. “Let’s go.”
Smith takes my hand and guides me the rest of the way down the stairs. We exit to a hallway somewhere on the lower level and then exit to a side door. A white truck waits for us there and Smith opens the passenger door.
I climb inside and I don’t know how Adrian is here, but he is and he hands me his phone. “My father?”
“Nothing yet. Talk to Savage.”
But I don’t talk to Savage. I turn to Smith. “Rick’s father—”
“I already sent a message to one of our men to get him. Now talk to Savage. He won’t kill Tag until he hears your voice.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Savage
I’m not even holding the gun on Tag. He’s back to sitting in his chair, in the living room of his rental. I’m in the chair across from his chair, elbows on my knees, that baseball hat I’d put on earlier on the table. The gun is on the coffee table, too, right there beside my hat and right between me and Tag. Adam is on the couch between our chairs. Since we don’t plan to stay around to clean up our mess, Adam and I are both wearing gloves, playing cards but the cards are not what entertains me. It’s watching Tag sit there, his mind racing as he tries to figure out how to get the fuck away from me. In my mind, I’m tormented by what is happening with Candace. I need to hear from her.
The sound of my cellphone rings and adrenaline surges through me with the hope of good news and the fear of bad but I’m an emotionless canvas. Tag still smirks. He knows I’m on edge waiting. I eye the caller ID that reads Adrian and with a steady hand I do not feel, I answer the call.
“Rick.”
At the sound of Candace’s voice, relief washes over me with a force I have never felt in my life. “You okay, baby?” I ask, my eyes meeting Tag’s and delivering a message: now you die.
“I’m fine.” She gives a nervous laugh. “But you can no longer be an asshole to Adrian. He tackled Alejandro. He saved me.”
A muscle in my jaw begins to tick. “That King Kong motherfucker came after you?”
“Yes, but Adrian handled him. Rick, your father—”
I cut her off. “Not now, baby. I have something I need to do. I’ll see you at the airport in a few. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
I disconnect and set the phone down. “She’s safe,” I say, my eyes burning holes in Tag. “He came at her. I know you didn’t have time to tell him you were in trouble. Why did he go after her?”
“I’m not a fool. I know your fucking tricks, Savage. He tried to call me. I told him if I didn’t answer, or call him back in fifteen minutes, to kill her.”
“You know what comes next.”
“You should know that I’ve arranged a large sum of money to be deposited into Alejandro’s account if she dies in the next five days.”