Protecting Her

“You okay?” I ask.

She nods, but I don’t think she is.

“I’m going downstairs to take care of it. You and Laura stay here.”

She nods again. “Sh-should you stay with us?” There’s a hopeful lilt at the end that puts a smile on my face. My girl is worried about me.

I wink at her. “Better get to work on that serum because once I take care of this mess, I’ll be coming for you.”

Laura groans. “Really, Gabe?”

“Yeah, really.” I grin, and Cat blushes. At least she’s not cowering in fear anymore. “Go on,” I tell Laura. “Take care of my prize. I’ll be back to claim her.”

“Maybe I’ll do the claiming,” yells Cat as the door closes.

I glide down the stairs and shove the bookcase shut. I reach the entry just in time to see three cars pull up. Sandy and Domingo have the metal screens to the windows up.

“Everyone’s in position, sir.” Sandy salutes me.

I stuff a magazine in my back pocket, ready my gun, and jerk my chin up. “Then let’s roll.”

The skirmish lasts about thirty minutes. The safe house takes a number of bullets but is not breached. It’s not a safe house for nothing. Steel reinforced walls and bulletproof glass gives us enough time to launch an offensive, and it’s over almost as soon as it began. A few of the guys outside suffer some superficial bullet wounds, but the hired mercenaries who came at us are worse off. We round up the nine tangos, zip-tie their hands and feet, and wait for an extraction team who will drop them off at the nearest FBI department. I’m guessing that every one of these guns for hire has a criminal record.

The leader, a glum Eastern European with a nasty scar under his left eye, glowers at me when I approach. I hunker down on my haunches. “Want to tell me who hired you or you going to play the stoic, loyal soldier until the end?”

He spits in my face.

I wipe the back of my sleeve over my face. “So be it.” I nod to Sandy. “Take the rest of these fools to law enforcement, but bring this one to headquarters and put him in the treatment center. I think he needs a bath.”

Sandy smirks. The bath is a water containment unit that we use to help reluctant tangos find their voices. I give strong and silent about twenty-four hours until he breaks. Everyone else clears out, leaving me with one more task to take care of. I look to the small peak at the top of the house where the panic room sits. I can’t fucking wait.

Chapter 13

Catriona

I worry my bottom lip between my teeth telling myself Gabe will be okay. How long have I been in here? It must have gotten bad. Because it seems as though I’ve been in here for a long time.

What if everyone else is dead and I am stuck in this panic room with the bad guys waiting for me to come out?

My eyes sting with tears. I close them, needing something to distract me. I pick a country and then start naming cities that are within its borders in alphabetical order in my mind. My eyes fly open when I hear the door open.

When Gabe’s face comes into view, I drop my laptop down onto the bench. I get to my feet before throwing myself at him.

“You’re okay.” I hug him tight. The sight of him has me so relieved.

“Nothing is going to stop me from having you, Cat.” He runs his hands up and down my back. I feel myself relax into him, suddenly feeling exhausted. I wasn’t even the one who was in a battle.

“Is everyone okay?” His hands run up and down my back, pausing as he tenses for a moment. I lean back to look at him. The sting of tears come back. I would hate for anyone to have gotten hurt trying to protect me.

“Do you mean us or them?”

I lick my dry lips. “Your people.”

“They’ll all live” is all he says.

“The others?”

“Some dead, some alive.”

I swallow. “Is the threat gone then? Can life go back to normal now?”

“Almost. We need to interrogate one of the men to find out who he works for.”

“What if he won’t tell you?”

Gabe smirks. “He’ll tell me.” I let out a breath, dropping my head back onto his shoulder. I don’t doubt for a moment that the intruder would tell Gabe whatever he knew. Gabe has that effect on people. And by people I mean mostly me.

“Does that mean you’re leaving to go do your interrogation?” I don’t want to let him go. My fingers dig into him more. Who knew I was going to be clingy? Figures.

“Going to let him stew for a while. I need to get you taken care of.”