Safe at Last (Slow Burn 3)

A second later, a flashlight turned on and the beam tracked up the attacker’s body and then to his face.

“What the fuck?” Zack demanded. “Sterling? What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

FOURTEEN

BLOOD trickled down Sterling’s nose and his eyes blazed with fury, reflecting eerily by the flashlight Eliza was currently blinding him with.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Zack roared. “How about you take a trip downtown on assault charges. After I beat the shit out of you.”

Sterling’s lips curled with contempt. “You fucking pussy. You couldn’t take me in a fight. You’re too much of a goddamn pansy to ever get your hands dirty. No, you have others beat up on women for you.”

Zack punched him squarely in the jaw, sending the other man reeling backward. Sterling regained his balance and lunged for Zack, propelling both men to the asphalt parking lot.

A shot sounded, jerking Zack up. Sterling reacted no differently, hitting the ground with speed that told Zack the man was trained. His instincts were too good. Too practiced. The suave, wealthy and polished exterior he crafted covered up the raw, street-smart man underneath.

“What the fuck, Lizzie?” Zack roared. “Are you trying to kill me?”

Eliza huffed out in exasperation. “Look, we don’t have time for this shit. We’re out in the open. Not good. You’re calling attention to us. Not good. Need I go on?”

“And you didn’t just shoot a giant fucking firework into the sky?” Zack asked incredulously.

“Someone had to do something,” she pointed out. “Now, what do you say we have this conversation somewhere other than the middle of a public parking lot.”

“We’re done here,” Zack said flatly.

He didn’t know what Sterling’s issue was, but his insinuation that Zack had been purposely responsible for Gracie’s beating? What the fuck? Zack couldn’t even see straight, his vision was so clouded with red rage.

“No, the hell we’re done,” Sterling said. “Where is Anna-Grace? What did you do to her?”

Zack looked at Sterling like he’d grown a second head. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“She’s disappeared, but that shouldn’t be news to you. Coincidentally, she disappears the day after you show up in my studio, harass her and scare the living hell out of her. It doesn’t take much effort to connect the dots here. But you fucked up this time, Covington. Maybe she had no one who cared about her then. But she does now. She’s important to me. And I will protect her even if it means taking you down for good.”

The roar in Zack’s ears was nearly deafening. He was tired of Gracie’s—and now Sterling’s—hints of some past horrific event. He was tired of being found guilty for something he knew goddamn well he hadn’t done.

He’d harassed Gracie? Since when did wanting to know if the woman you loved more than anything in the world was okay constitute harassment?

And now this polished, prissy motherfucker was going to threaten him? Take him down? What the hell?

“I’ve about had enough of this dancing around the issue shit,” Zack growled. “Someone is going to tell me what the fuck it is I supposedly did to Gracie twelve years ago. Because looking at things from my side? I got dumped. Not only did I get dumped but I didn’t even get the courtesy of a ‘have a nice life’ or ‘goodbye.’ Not even a ‘fuck off, I never want to see you again.’ I got nothing. So for twelve years—twelve fucking years—I’ve thought the worst. And believe me when I say I have a rather vivid imagination. Then I finally locate her, only she’s not hurt. She doesn’t need anything. She’s happy. Started a new life. But the icing on the cake? She acts like I’m some kind of goddamn monster. Like I’m going to hurt her when she knows it’s the last fucking thing I’d ever do. I would have given her the entire world, but she pissed that into the wind when she disappeared, leaving me to think the absolute worst.”

Sterling stirred and looked very much like he wanted to start round three. Zack bristled, every muscle in his body tensing in readiness. Sterling wanted a fight, and Zack was spoiling to give him one.

“Damn it, you two!” Eliza exclaimed. “Swear to God, the next one to throw a punch is going to get shot. I wouldn’t even be prosecuted. They’d consider me to have saved the world from Dumb and Dumber here.”

“You are not helping, Eliza,” Zack said through his clenched jaw.

“Listen up, because we don’t have a lot of time,” she said in a brisk voice. She pointed her finger—the one not curled around the trigger of her pistol—at Sterling, irritation evident in her eyes and words. “You’re coming with us.”

“No—!”

The automatic denial was said simultaneously by both men. Zack shot the other man a glare and then turned his glare on his current pain in his ass.

“You’re right. We don’t have a lot of time, which is why I’m not wasting it on his sorry ass,” Zack said, gesturing toward Sterling.

“The only place I’ll follow you to is hell,” Sterling bit out. “Just to make sure you stay there.”

“Shut up! Jesus. And they say women never shut up,” Eliza grumbled. “Now get in. Both of you!”

She gestured with the gun, indicating that Zack and Sterling should both get into Zack’s SUV.

“You drive, Zack. Don’t give a fuck where. But long enough that I can have a little chat with our friend here and so I can keep a gun on him in case he decides to do something really stupid like pissing me off even more.”

“You’re serious?” Zack asked in clear astonishment.

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

Sterling didn’t look any more pleased than Zack but it was clear he had a healthy respect for the gun Eliza held.

Eliza yanked open the door to the backseat and pointed her gun at Sterling, then whipped it sideways, motioning for him to get in.

Sterling emitted a string of curses and Zack could swear he heard the other man mumble something about crazy-ass women with guns. If this weren’t such a what-the-fuck moment, Zack would laugh at the other man’s bemusement. It was always fun to watch people’s realization that Eliza wasn’t a harmless ball of fluff. She was always underestimated, a fact she’d told Zack had benefited her on more than one occasion.