“Your woman? This is Michael Granito’s woman, and we need her.”
Teeth gritted he looked Kelsey in the eye. Tears fell down her face cutting him to the core.
Come on, Killer. You can do this. They’re nothing.
“Michael has got no hold over her. Let her go and take your shit out on him.” He needed to keep them in this house. Fucking small house and he didn’t have any of his brothers to help him.
“No, we know he’ll become more amenable with her help.”
“You’re wrong,” Kelsey said, speaking up. She cried out as the guy holding the knife pressed it against her throat tighter.
“Did I give you permission to fucking speak?”
Blood dripped down from the blade.
“She means nothing to him. Why the fuck are you bothering with her?” Killer asked, feeling helpless. He’d never been helpless in his life, and yet there was nothing he could do.
“Any man in our world who keeps their woman a secret is important,” Knife guy said. “She’ll be perfect for what we want, and then we’ll sell her.”
If they left the house then he was fucked. Finding Kelsey would be impossible if they tried to sell her. Men like them wouldn’t give a fuck about her. They would sell her to turn over a profit. “No, you’re not leaving here.”
He was laughed at. His anger spiked at their mocking.
“You’re in no position to bargain with us.” The knife guy nodded to the man at her wrist.
She screamed as the knife dragged over the wound that had been healing. Blood seeped out of the wound.
“Let her the fuck go!” He yelled the words, forcing himself to hold back from what was happening.
Blood fell from her wrist to drop on the floor.
Turning his gun he tensed on the trigger. He didn’t fire, and only wished he could.
“You’re Killer, right? Why don’t you join us? We pay a lot of money, and the women are easy to come by. They’ll do everything to stop the pain.”
Kelsey whimpered.
Shaking his head, he gritted his teeth knowing he needed to make a choice. He either fired at one and risked the other two killing her, or he let them walk out, hoping no harm came to her. Both choices were fucking shit ones.
“I love you,” she said, mouthing the words so no one could see but him.
No, he wasn’t saying goodbye, and her words felt like a goodbye. Shaking his head, he stared at the others. None of them left him a choice.
When he was about to let down his weapon he heard a shot ring out, and the man with the gun at her head fell down. He didn’t give himself time to panic, only to react. Firing his gun he dropped the other two men, and Kelsey collapsed in a heap. Noise filled the house as more men came around the front. He went down to the floor, turning and holding his gun up.
Thank fuck he didn’t fire as he was staring at Tiny, leader of The Skulls.
Throwing the gun away, he went to Kelsey’s side. Her wrist was bleeding, and he wrapped her wrist with a towel.
“I’ve got you, baby.”
She had a cut at her throat.
“What the hell is going on?” he asked, turning back to Tiny. He paused seeing Michael standing beside him. “You?” Reaching for his gun he had the other man trapped against the wall.
Within seconds two guns were trained on him, and his brothers had guns trained on the men.
“Are you going to kill me?” Michael asked.
“Killer, man, let him go. We’ll tell you everything,” Tiny said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“He’s responsible for hurting my woman.”
“No, he’s not. Please, we’ve got to get you out of here and deal with this mess.” Tiny kept talking, but all Killer wanted to do was kill Michael.
“Killer, help me please,” Kelsey said.
Her pain-filled voice got through to him.
Withdrawing, he glared at the other man, but he walked away. Kelsey needed him a lot more than this fucker needed to die.
Picking Kelsey up, he walked out of the house.
****
One day later
Kelsey sat in bed waiting for some visitors. Killer hadn’t taken his time to get her to the Fort Wills hospital. He had initially taken her to the hospital in Paradise Rocks. She didn’t like it, and after they’d bound up her hands, she’d asked for him to bring her back to Fort Wills. Breaking most of the speed laws, he’d been determined to get her here. He picked her up off the hospital bed and carried her out to the car. Without waiting for an explanation he drove the couple of hours to get back into their old town. He would do anything she asked. Sandy came to her to check over the damage Michael’s enemies created. No one had stopped them not even to take down her insurance details.