His to Protect: A Fireside Novel(34)

“Don’t do it” Kevin’s hand tightened on my throat, cutting off the end of my sentence.

Tears blurred my vision as Declan brought his eyes back to me.

“You hurt?” he asked, stepping into the alley and letting the door close behind him. He lifted his hands and took several steps away from us.

Away from me.

Away from the crazy guy with the gun. Not that I could blame him, but somehow it stung.

“Don’t talk to her.”

Kevin pressed the gun against my temple again, but kept his eyes on Declan.

“Here’s what is going to happen,” he said, enunciating each word. “My wife and I are going to leave and you’re going to stay there, doing nothing.”

Declan tilted his head to the side and smirked. “I am?”

Kevin grinned, a sick-looking, cold, twisted grin that made bile rise in my throat. “You are. Because if you so much as move a foot toward us, I have no problem shooting this gun at either you or her, or her dog,” he chuckled and looked down at Boomer. I couldn’t. A sob tore from my throat as he laughed at my dog, bleeding on the ground. “Again.”

“Take her,” Declan said, and I caught the tail end of his shrug as I looked at him. “You can have her.”

I searched his face for any clue that he was lying, that he didn’t mean what he just said. The he wasn’t just handing me back over to this sick prick I’d called my husband. He didn’t give anything away, and I closed my eyes after I saw nothing hidden in his dark eyes.

He looked like he meant it.

“Declan.”

“It’s been fun, Trina,” he said. I opened my eyes at the way he said my name. His lips were pulled into a tight line and his dark eyes were on me, expressionless. “But I didn’t sign up for this.”

“See?” Kevin sneered, shoving me into the wall to get my attention. “Just a whore who spread her legs.”

The reality of the moment seeped into my lungs and I choked out another sob as my knees buckled. Kevin gripped me tighter and pulled me toward him, my back to his chest and his gun at my temple, using me as a shield. “We best be getting on home then, shouldn’t we, darling?”

I stared at Declan, waiting for some clue that he was going to fight for me, fight for us…what I thought we were building.

What did he just say a little while ago?

Take the time to figure out you…we’ll figure us out together.

I recalled the way he looked at me, the way he spoke to me. How could he be so cold now? So unaffected?

I sniffed and licked my lips. “Don’t let him take me,” I whispered in a hoarse voice. “Please, Declan.”

“Shut up,” Kevin hissed in my ear. He jerked me to the side, and as I flinched, I caught ita small tightening around Declan’s eyes. It was just a flash of a movement, but I saw it nonetheless.

He was not unaffected by this. He was just trying really hard to hide it.

I didn’t know what hurt more. That he didn’t care, or that he did, but was still willing to throw me away.

“Mr. Morgenson.” Tyson’s voice rang out from behind us, forcing Kevin to take a step away from Declan.

Kevin’s back was almost to Declan as he shifted to see someone new enter the alley from behind the dumpster.

“Fuck,” Kevin whispered, taking several more steps back.

“I wouldn’t move any further,” Tyson said, making himself seen.

A breath forced its way out of my chest. Tyson held a gun, aimed directly at Kevin and me, and in his other hand, he was holding out a badge.

Relief began to replace my fear.

“Who the fuck are you?” Kevin asked, pressing the gun harder into my temple. My body began to shake as adrenaline coursed through me, and I lifted my hands to wrap my fingers around his arm at my throat.

“Agent Blackwell, FBI. I’m going to suggest you drop your weapon and you won’t get hurt.”

“Take another step and I’ll blow her fucking brains out.”

“No you won’t,” Tyson said, with all the confidence in the world.

My gaze leapt to Declan and, as our eyes met, he quickly mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

I saw the pain in his eyes and relief strengthened my resolve. I realized what I should have known earlier.

He wasn’t willing to let me go, he just knew Tyson was coming.

A sob bubbled in my throat as I tried to stay in the present.

Kevin wasn’t going to hurt me. Not again.

I gasped and pressed my fingernails into Kevin’s arms.

“See, we have a problem here, Kevin Morgenson III,” Tyson said, and my gaze went back to his to see him smirking.

He looked like he was enjoying this, calm and collected with his gun still trained on Kevin. “Seems to me that you wouldn’t want to be charged with first-degree murder, which would surely be added on to the embezzlement charges that you’re currently being investigated for.”

What?

My eyes widened as I listened to Tyson.

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“I do.” Tyson took a small step forward. Kevin must have been too focused on what he was hearing, too fearful, because the gun at my temple began to shake and his hold loosened around my throat. I inhaled a deep, much-needed breath and closed my eyes. If I pushed forward, I could shove him off me.

Could I do it before he shot me?

“See, it pays to have friends who owe you favors, and I have loads of them. And since we’ve come to know Trina, and knew you were looking for her, I’ve been trying to find you. In doing so, I’ve uncovered a slew of charges from your past that have been dismissed. Unfortunately, I don’t think stealing over five hundred thousand dollars from your current law firm is going to go over well.”

“Lawyers,” Declan muttered, shaking his head. “Always a bunch of assholes.”

Tyson snickered.

“You assholes don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know if you don’t take that gun off Trina in point five seconds, you’re going to end up with a bullet between your eyes,” Tyson said. I saw muscles tense on his arm as his hold tightened on the gun.

He wasn’t kidding.

“You aren’t taking me in,” Kevin snapped. The gun returned to its painful position at my temple.

I squeezed my eyes closed, knowing this could be it for me.

He adjusted his hold on me and I snapped my eyes open. He put me directly in front of Tyson and began tugging me backward, toward the street.

In the distance, I heard sirens, but they were all background noise.

Kevin continued jerking me backward, so roughly that I almost tripped over his feet, but I righted myself. Tyson followed us, but kept his distance.

“Mr. Morgenson,” he called, but Kevin didn’t stop. “This will end easier for you if you give up now.”

Kevin laughed. He sounded maniacal. When had he become so crazy? My mind was swirling with the accusation Tyson had thrown at him when Kevin laughed again and said, “You don’t know anything. You’ll never take me in. I won’t allow it.”

The sirens grew louder as we moved closer to the street.

Hope unfurled inside my chest. There was no way Kevin was getting out of this. I just had to survive it.

Forcing myself to go limp, I relaxed into his hold and whispered, “Kevin.”

My eyes darted to Declan, walking behind Tyson. Muscles were bunched in his shoulders and his hands were balled into fists. The intensity in his expression scared even me.

“Let me go, Kevin,” I whispered. “Do it, and I swear I’ll be with you.”

It was my Hail Mary pass, the only thing I could think of to promise him. If I left with him, if I agreed to, if he didn’t see me as a threat or a hindrance to getting away, perhaps I could buy myself a chance.

“I know you will, darling,” he said, loud enough for Tyson and Declan to hear. “No man is getting you. Remember? You’re mine. Always.”

I swallowed down the bile I felt rising in my throat and nodded. “Always. I know.”

Declan flinched and I knew he’d heard.

I didn’t care.

I was doing this for us. For me.

We reached the street just as the sounds of sirens and squealing tires surrounded us.

A door slammed and I tensed in Kevin’s hold.

I turned to Declan and, without thinking, mouthed, “I love you.”

His eyes widened and his lips parted.

“Freeze!”

It seemed as if a dozen voices shouted at once.

Kevin jerked me around and it felt as if time stopped, or we were moving in slow motion.

I heard him curse.

Felt him jerk.

And then his arm was gone from my waist and I was falling forward.

My hands smacked the warm cement just as a loud bang went off behind me.

“Trina!”

I heard Declan shout my name as my forehead slammed against the pavement.





Chapter 20


Trina


When I opened my eyes, I immediately flinched away from the blinding light, cringing and twisting my head to the side.

“You’re awake.”

Slowly, I opened my eyes again and then gasped when I saw Declan sitting in front of me.

My eyes stung and I squeezed them shut.

“Trina,” he said, and reached for my hands. “I’m okay, and you’re okay.”

Shudders racked my body. Opening my eyes again, I licked my lips. “I almost got you shot.”

“No,” he said. “Nothing happened to me.”