Craven Cove Royalty (Craven Cove)

“What are you talking about? Whose idea was what?”

“It was supposed to be anonymous.” She crosses her arms over her chest and looks up at me. “I don’t know who he is, but he was hired by her family.”

“Explain.” I grind my teeth together, torn between needing to know the answers and punching a hole in the wall.

“I don’t know! All I do know is a couple of months ago someone approached me with an offer to flirt with you and said they’d pay me a lot of money.” She lets out a long sigh. “You’re not even my type.” She waves at my body like it’s the last thing on earth she would like. “When I asked why, they said they had their reasons. All he said was her family hired him to make you go away.”

“Jamie, do you have any idea what you’ve done? Someone is after her.”

“What?” Her brows pull together in confusion.

“Her apartment was broken into. She’s been getting threatening messages, harassing phone calls. That’s why she’s staying with me.”

“Oh god.” She puts her hands over her mouth. “What have I done?”

“What did you do?” My blood runs cold.

“They told me today I need to get you alone.” Her words are quiet, but it feels like she’s shouting as everything in me is frozen in place. “I’m sorry, Shy. I didn’t know.”

Without another word, I push her away from the door and run out of her apartment. It was the guy in the hall, the one I almost bumped into. I was so distracted I didn’t even look at him.

“Carrie!” I’m already shouting as I race home. It’s not far, but my lungs burn as I yell for her over and over.

When I get to our apartment, the door is wide open, and she’s nowhere to be found. I glance at the elevator and see it’s still on our floor, so they didn’t take that down. Running to the stairs, I push open the door and fly down as fast as I can.

“Shy!” I hear Carrie’s voice in the distance, and both relief and fear mix together.

“Carrie!” I yell back at her and glance over the railing to see the door to the back alley open and then slam with a heavy thud.

Without stopping, I jump over the last rail and throw myself outside. There’s a van in the distance, and I know without a doubt that if the guy dragging her away gets her in there, she’s gone.

My legs ache as I push faster, and seeing the absolute terror in her eyes forces me to stay strong. I can’t fall apart, and I can’t let her know I’m scared too. She’s fighting as much as she can, but the guy that has her is big. I have no idea if he’s got a gun or not, but I don’t care. I’ll die before I let him take her.

As he gets to the van, he has to let go of one of her arms to open the sliding door. That’s enough time for me to make up some distance between us, and for Carrie to fight his hold. She kicks out, and it connects with his hip, sending him back against the van. But his grip on her is too tight, and they both fall over to the ground.

A heartbeat later, I’m there, and without thinking, I pull back my foot and kick the shit out of this guy with my steel-toed work boots. He grunts as he clutches his side, where I’m pretty sure I broke a couple of ribs. It has the desired effect, and he lets go of Carrie.

“Shy, let’s go.” She tugs on my arm, but I shake my head.

“Listen to me, kitten.” I take her face in both my hands and look at her. Her eyes are wide, and she’s still scared even though I’m here and I’ve got her. “I want you to go through the door we came out of and go to the lobby. Get security. I’m not leaving him out here to get away.”

She swallows hard and takes a breath before she’s running back down the alley. I turn my eyes on the guy on the ground, and rage like I’ve never felt floods through me. If I learned anything from my mom’s shitty past, it’s how to fight.

Grabbing him by the shirt, I pull him up and throw him against the van. “Who the fuck are you?”

The guy tries to throw a punch, but I easily block it and knee him in the same place I kicked earlier. He cries out, and I push him back against the van, asking the same question.

“You’re going to tell me, or you’re going to tell the cops. It’s up to you how many broken bones you get before they arrive.”