Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“Is that what I think it is?” Mae asked with a frown.
“It depends on what you think it is.” He set the timer and nodded West’s way. “You go first. Expect trouble. The stairs will be on your left. Move quickly but keep your eyes and ears open. We’re going to meet Drake on the west side of the building.”
“What are you doing with that?” West asked, his brows coming together.
“It’s a flash-bang.” MaeBe looked weirdly hot with a small pistol in her hands. She carried it like she knew what she was doing.
“Sort of. It’s mostly smoke.” He pulled his second cell, a burner phone. He dialed the only number he ever would on this one. 911. “There’s a fire at the Monroe Apartments on Oak Street. Please hurry.”
He hung up the phone. He would dump it once they were far from Mae’s building.
It wouldn’t matter. He had ten more exactly like it.
And one in case his enemy called.
He nodded toward West. “Let’s go. Mae, don’t you dare move from in between us. I don’t care what my uncle’s taught you. You are not to engage.”
She didn’t even look back at him, simply followed West.
He was fucking this up, but now wasn’t the time to gently explain to her that he dreamed about losing her at night. That when he closed his eyes his nightmare was looking down at her dead body and knowing there was no reason for him to go on.
Time and space had done nothing to change his feelings for MaeBe Vaughn. Except to make them stronger. He knew once and for all that she was the one. She was the woman he would go to his grave loving, and she seemed to not feel the same way.
He was fairly certain his therapist would give him a whole list of reasons why he wasn’t being fair to the woman he loved and that his unwillingness to allow her to be a full partner in this current mission had undermined the trust they’d had. Yes, that’s what Angie would say.
Her wife, Sandra, would merely slap him upside the head and tell him to be less of an asshole.
West eased out of the apartment and nodded back, letting Kyle know the hall was clear.
It wouldn’t stay that way.
When he was through MaeBe’s door, he rolled the modified flash-bang down the long hallway. The timer went off and smoke billowed from the small device.
“They’ll likely think it’s the Harwood boys,” he said quietly.
“Great, blame a couple of sweet high school kids,” MaeBe replied under her breath.
They weren’t sweet. They were minor criminal geniuses, and they would weather the accusations well. After all, they’d managed to get out of any number of pranks they had actually committed.
They slipped inside the door that led to the stairs as the elevator opened and someone cursed.
There was the crackling sound of a radio. “The fire department is on its way. Pull back.”
He eased the door shut behind him. It had worked.
They wouldn’t start a firefight in such a public place. The last thing Julia wanted was attention. She couldn’t buy everyone.
“Keep moving. I don’t think they’re going to attack at this point.” He could hear a siren in the distance. “But now we need to leave before the fire department gets here. When we get to the ground floor, go straight out the back. Drake will be waiting. Don’t hesitate. I want her in that car two seconds after we open the back door.”
They moved down the stairs as quietly as they could with West wearing cowboy boots. He wanted to lecture the dude on why it’s not smart to wear cowboy gear when bodyguarding, but he rather thought MaeBe would take West’s side in that argument. Likely any argument. He could probably say the sky was blue and she would argue with him.
He’d been trying to protect her, damn it. Why was she looking at him like he was worse than Julia?
And why the hell had she put herself in the line of fire?
Damn. Had she been trying to protect him? Trying to find a way to free him from his past mistakes?
How did he handle this?
He glanced behind him, and the stairwell was silent.
“I think we’re in the clear,” MaeBe whispered. “They were coming up in the elevator and the smoke scared them off.”
“Or made them change their plans and they’re waiting for us outside the building.” West proved he’d had at least some amount of training. The ability to think through worst-case scenarios was invaluable to a bodyguard.
“I doubt it,” Mae replied. “And even if they are, what are they going to do? Shoot me in the lobby? There are cameras everywhere.”
“Which they’ve probably taken over,” Kyle pointed out. Mae needed way more paranoia.
“Well, if someone hadn’t left my laptop behind, I might have been able to fix that problem,” she muttered under her breath.