Kidnapped by the Billionaire(36)

"Violet." Elijah completely ignored him. "Step away."

"No." She didn't bother looking behind her, keeping her gaze trained on  Gabriel. "Not until I get a promise that they won't hurt you."

Gabriel's dark brows drew down. "What the fuck? You know we're here to rescue you, right?"

"Princess," Elijah's voice was softer this time. "Get the hell out of the way."

She was shaking for some reason-probably shock-and she had the most  ridiculous urge to burst into tears. Either that or to turn around and  walk straight into Elijah's arms.

You fucking idiot. They came for you. Someone actually came for you.

She should be thrilled. She should be running toward the door, getting out and never looking back.

But all she could do was stand there, staring at the three people training guns on the man behind her, murder in their eyes.

"I'm not moving," she said thickly, focusing on Gabriel. "Promise me. Promise me, he won't get hurt."

"Any particular reason you're defending him, Violet?" This from Alex, whose blue eyes never left Elijah.

She didn't know Honor's brother. Had never met him. But Honor had told  her all about their reconciliation after she'd gotten together with  Gabriel. Her friend was happy, but that hadn't changed Violet's opinion  of Alex. Which was poor.

Violet opened her mouth to reply when Gabriel took a sudden step forward  and reached out to take her bandaged wrist in his hand. "What the fuck  is this?" he demanded. "Did he do this to you?"

She jerked her hand out of his grip. "It's not what it looks like, okay?"

"Touch her and I'll kill you, prick." Elijah's voice came from behind her, cold as ice.         

     



 

Gabriel's attention flicked to him. "Oh no, I've had enough of this bullshit. Come with me, Violet, we're-"

At that moment Elijah's hands were around her waist, pulling her back  against the heat of his body and holding her there. "We are going  nowhere," he said flatly. "You and your friends can fuck off out of my  apartment."

The guns trained on Elijah had now moved. To her.

Violet swallowed. She was okay with being his shield, especially with  him half naked and his bare skin pressed up against her back, a  reassurance rather than anything more sinister. It made her feel weirdly  powerful.

She relaxed against him, hoping he'd understand it meant she trusted him.

Gabriel looked furious, while Alex's blue eyes glittered coldly. The  blonde woman hadn't moved, but there was a frown on her face, her green  gaze looking from Violet to Elijah then back again.

Then she said, her accent clipped and Russian sounding, "Why are we  doing this? We are all on the same side." She lowered her gun, her  attention focusing on Elijah. "Nice to see you again, Mr. Hunt."

Elijah slid an arm around Violet's waist, heavy as an iron bar. "‘Nice'  is a relative term, Ms. Ivanova," he said coldly. "Why is it you people  are always involving yourselves in other people's fucking business?"

"We involve ourselves when you take something that's ours." Somehow  there was a gun in Gabriel's hand and he was pointing it straight at  Violet.

"I'm not going to kill her," Elijah said. "If that's what you're worried about."

"And yet you're quite happy to use her as a human shield." Alex's voice was full of disgust. "Fucking coward."

Violet felt Elijah's muscles tense, the arm around her waist tightening.  And it was instinct to lay her hands gently over his forearm, using  touch to soothe him like she would a wounded animal.

She felt his breath across the back of her neck, a soft, inaudible  exhale, and the hard, bunched muscles underneath her fingers gradually  eased.

"He's not using me," she said firmly. "I'm protecting him."

All three sets of eyes focused on her once more.

She lifted her chin and met them each in turn.

"You heard what the lady said." Elijah pulled her closer. "Now make like the good soldiers you are and fuck off."

"Why?" Gabriel demanded, looking at Violet and ignoring Elijah. "We know  he kidnapped you at fucking gunpoint, we have the security camera  footage to prove it."

So they had been looking for her. That must have been Honor's doing.

"She doesn't have to explain herself to you," Elijah said icily. "Now, I'm not going to-"

"We know about your wife." It was Alex who cut in, keeping his gun exactly where it was. "And we know what you want."

Behind Violet, Elijah had gone very still.

"You want revenge," Alex continued. "And you would have had it, if Eva hadn't pulled that trigger."

Violet didn't dare take a breath, knowing something was happening but  not sure what or even what Alex was talking about. It was important  though, that much she was certain of.

"Yes," Elijah agreed, a harsh edge to his voice. "I would. I told you to  keep out of it. I told you to stay the fuck away. But you didn't  listen, did you? You just had to keep searching."

"We had our goddamn reasons." Alex's tone was hard. "And if you know who I am, then you'll know what those reasons are."

Elijah had begun to back away slowly, imperceptibly, taking her with  him. And she went, not even understanding why, only knowing she had to  go with him because if she didn't, something terrible was going to  happen. "Oh, I know your reasons," Elijah was saying. "I know who the  Seven Devils are. I already destroyed two of them."

The other three looked at one another, glances Violet couldn't interpret.

Who the hell were the Seven Devils? And what did he mean by destroying them?

Gabriel's expression was like iron. "Fuck this bullshit," he said coldly. "This ends now."

Violet didn't understand quite how it happened, because neither Gabriel  or Alex moved. But somewhere a gun went off and she was suddenly thrown  violently to the side. Biting off a scream, she threw her arms over her  head as she crashed to the floor.

The wood beneath her vibrated with a heavy impact, the sounds of shouting filling the room.

Wild with inexplicable fear, she was already on her feet again, turning  around in time to see Gabriel lift a hand, a wicked-looking gun held  tightly in his fist.         

     



 

Only to bring it down hard across Elijah's face.





CHAPTER TWELVE

Elijah came to, his vision blurry, his cheekbone hurting like fuck and  his shoulder wound feeling like someone had kicked the shit out of it  with steel-capped boots.

Jesus, what the hell had happened? Last thing he remembered, he'd  finally gotten the phone call he'd been hoping for, the one from one  Jericho's flunkies naming a time and place for a meeting. Then after  he'd ended the call, he'd come out of the kitchen area to find Violet  standing there with the Heinlein Marie had given him for their first  wedding anniversary.

And she'd asked him  …  what? Something important. Something that had  hollowed him out like she'd reached inside him with a melon-baller and  scooped out his heart.

After that  …  Shit, that's right. The front door of his apartment had  flown open-God knew how, since his security system was state of the art  and no one should have been able to get past it-and Gabriel Woolf and  his merry band of assholes had burst in.

Mother fuck  …  What had he missed? What had he done that had given his position away?

He blinked hard, trying to get his eyesight working, taking a scan around at where he was.

Bare room. Concrete floor and gray brick walls. No windows. Lit with a  harsh, white fluorescent light. Your standard torture room in other  words.

He was sitting in a chair, unbound, which was a mercy. But not, apparently, unguarded.

In front of him stood four people. Woolf. Rutherford. King. And Alex St.  James. They were all looking at him, their expressions ranging from  completely blank to ice cold to furious. None of them had guns but he  felt the prickle at the back of his neck that told him someone somewhere  had a weapon trained on him.

A slight turn of his head and he spotted a fifth person. The bodyguard,  Ivanova. She was the one with the weapon and it was pointed directly at  his head.

Okay then.

He said nothing, shifting slightly in the chair, staring back at them  expressionlessly because he'd be fucked if he gave them anything. Their  insistence on sticking their noses where they didn't belong had ended up  destroying years of planning. They were no friends of his.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Hunt." Rutherford was the one who broke the  silence, his cut-glass British accent sharp. "I have to commend your  ingenuity. You've proven to be a bit of a bastard to track down."

Elijah shrugged, fighting down the urge to wince as the movement  aggravated his shoulder wound. "I'm hardly likely to make it easy for  you."

Rutherford's amber gaze dropped to Elijah's shoulder. He was still  bare-chested and wearing the shorts he'd put on to take out his rage on  the punching bag. Felt like years ago. The bandages were bloody again  and he had a sudden flashback, of Violet's hands on him, wrapping the  gauze around his shoulder, her fingers gentle  …