Shadow Warrior (Shadow Riders 4)

“Rene, calm down,” Grace said, keeping her voice quiet and low. “It looks like a war zone in here. I doubt that these two are to blame.”

“There is no one else,” Rene insisted. “I was gone only a moment.” He threw his hands into the air and made several gestures impossible to read. “Perhaps five minutes. I had an important phone call. Five minutes and I come back to see this room destroyed and with it all of my dishes. Everything.” He toed a broken bowl and glared at the servers and then glared at her. “The music is so loud, I couldn’t hear myself think, let alone someone breaking everything.”

Both servers put their hands up in surrender, but they weren’t looking at Rene or Grace, they were looking over her shoulder to Eloisa. Grace half turned and as she did, Eloisa cried out and hit the floor hard, blood matting her hair and pooling under her head. There were no bodyguards in sight. Had Emilio pulled them off to protect the riders, or had Haydon Phillips targeted them and hurt them already?

“Haydon?” Grace stared at the face she was so familiar with, yet looked so different she barely recognized him. He was dressed in a suit and tie, a short well-trimmed beard and mustache almost making him unrecognizable. He fit into the very elite crowd of wealthy sponsors and benefactors of the Ferraro fund-raiser.

“Not Haydon. It’s Emerson Caldwell. Eloisa Ferraro’s assistant put me on the guest list herself. Coming from California, I didn’t know many people out here and she was just the person to arrange for me to meet friends—which I did. Everyone seated at the table I was assigned to was very nice.”

Casually, he aimed the gun at one of the waiters and pulled the trigger. He shot the other one in the same knee as he had the first. In spite of the silencer, the gun sounded like a one-two shot and she hoped one of the bodyguards was close enough to hear over the loud music and conversations taking place in the ballroom and on the outside patio. She was terrified for them.

Both men went down screaming but when Haydon shook his head, they stopped, one with his hand over his mouth to prevent any more sound. Grace looked down at Eloisa. She moved slightly, but Grace didn’t want to call attention to her by crouching down to see how bad the head wound was. She shifted slightly to put her body between Haydon and the others.

Haydon laughed harshly. “Always the heroine, aren’t you, Gracie? Come on, we’re blowing this place. I’ve got us a car. They’ll never find us.”

Her worst fear. “I’m not going with you this time, Haydon. You tried to sell me.” She didn’t know what to say to stall him, but she had to give Vittorio time to come get her. She knew he would, and she had faith that he would be able to use his training to take control.

Haydon, at her declaration, turned and shot Rene. This time, the bullet went into his chest and he dropped, gasping. Haydon smiled at her. “I didn’t kill anyone, Gracie. That should make you happy. Well, with the exception of Ferraro’s mama. She’s going to die. I hate that bastard. He can’t keep you away from me.”

He stepped closer to get around her to get a better target on Eloisa. Grace could see her eyes were open and she was taking in everything Haydon said.

“If you want me to go with you, the only way I’ll do it is if you don’t touch Eloisa. You leave her alive, right here. I mean it, Haydon. I’ll let you shoot me, but I won’t go.”

“Rene there needs medical attention right now, Gracie. Do you want him dead? Because I can make that happen.”

Grace folded her arms across her chest. Her engagement ring felt like a talisman on her finger. She pressed it close to her chest. She wasn’t trained the way Vittorio or the members of his family were, but she was stubborn. Haydon knew it, too.

“You kill any of them, Haydon, and we’ll all stay right here. Me with them.” She knew in terms of time, although it felt like hours to her, only a few minutes had gone by, maybe at most three. She could hear the shouting outside growing louder and her heart sank. No one was going to hear the gun if Haydon shot them all.

He cursed over and over, swearing at her, taking a step toward her and raising the weapon as if he might strike her with it the way he had Eloisa.

“Why don’t you just go on your own?” She risked taking a beating or getting shot to stall him. Vittorio would come. She knew he would. She had complete faith that he would. She repeated the mantra to herself over and over. Now she was convinced that Haydon had targeted the guards watching her and Eloisa. She just didn’t know how.