Marriage of Inconvenience(Knitting in the City Book #7)(131)

“You come here to kidnap her? Huh?” he asked, wiping the blood from the side of his mouth with his hand and then checking the weapons.

Cold dread slithered over me, down my neck and spine, like a bucket of ice water. I stared at Seamus while he struggled to breathe, and he stared back. His eyes were large with some emotion I couldn’t read.

Dan placed the guns on the stairs, then moved back to his brother, patting him down. When he seemed satisfied, he reached into his own back pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Who are you calling?” I asked, holding on to the banister for balance.

“The police,” Dan responded flatly, bringing the phone to his ear.

I nodded, wrapping my arms around myself and sitting on the stairs next to the guns and knife.

Dan turned to me, his eyes full of concern. “Hey. Hey—are you okay?”

I nodded again, my shoulders hunching forward. I was cold. So cold. I began shivering. I couldn’t stop.

Dan rushed to me, cupping my cheek tenderly. “Kit-Kat, I—Yes, yes. I’d like to report an attempted kidnapping. The perp is still here, but he’s incapacitated.” Dan paused for a moment, listening to the person on the other side of the call. “Sure, sure. The address is—”

The phone was knocked from his hand before he had a chance to finish because Seamus had brought the lamp down directly on his head.

Dan crumpled to the ground.

I screamed.

Without thinking, I scrambled for the gun, standing on the stairs and flipping off the safety. “Get away from him!”

Seamus stared at me as he stumbled back, dropping the lamp to the floor and showing me his palms.

I stepped around Dan. Perhaps it was stupid, but my first instinct was to protect him, stand between him and his brother. “I swear to God, I will shoot you if you touch him.”

Seamus wiped blood from where it was dripping into his eye. “He knew,” he rasped. “You told him.”

“What?” I shifted my weight back and forth on my feet, not understanding his meaning. “What are you talking about?”

“The guy said,” his voice was rough and he paused, like speaking was painful, and backed up slowly, “he said you were playing him. He said you were using him.”

“Who?” My hand was shaking and I forced myself to hold still, bending my elbow, gritting my teeth. “Who said that?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, shaking his head, reaching behind him, presumably for the doorknob.

He opened the door, slowly, and I watched him. His eyes were no longer defiant. If my instincts could be trusted, they looked . . . remorseful. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to shoot him. But I couldn’t let him leave, could I?

Tears blurred my vision and I rolled my lips between my teeth to stay my wobbling chin, taking two steps forward, but to no purpose.

I don’t know what to do. What do I do?

“Tell him—” he grimaced, his hand coming to his throat. He paused in the open doorway, looking at me. Just looking.

I blinked away the tears, staring at him.

“Tell him I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Leave.

Just leave.

He nodded, making me wonder if I’d spoken my thoughts out loud.

His eyes dropped to some spot behind me.

And then he slipped out the door.





Chapter Twenty-Four





U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act: Originally passed in 1938, this act subjected new drugs to pre-market safety evaluation for the first time. This required FDA regulators to review both pre-clinical and clinical test results for new drugs.





—FDA.gov





**Dan**





“…”

“What?”

“…”

“You want to say something, just say it.” I glared out the window of the penthouse rather than glare at my phone, watching the ant-sized people below. I followed a guy in a black suit with my eyes as he walked down Pearl Street before turning into the park.

“You’re in a bad mood,” Quinn said from his side of the call, all matter-of-fact.

I didn’t respond.

He was right.

I was in a bad fucking mood.

I’d been in a bad fucking mood for five days, ever since my tirefire shitdumpster of a brother tried to kidnap my wife. Seamus attempting to kidnap someone didn’t surprise me. Hell, Seamus attempting to kidnap a billionaire heiress made perfect sense, in its own twisted way.

But, his own brother’s wife? That was some fucked up shit.

“Yeah. What else is new?” I grumbled finally.

I kept my eyes on the guy in the park. He walked past a bench, stopped, turned around, walked back to the bench and sat on it.

That was weird, right?

No.

It wasn’t weird. Since last Wednesday, I’d been seeing threats where none existed and acting like an agitated asshole on the daily. Rubbing my eyes, I shook my head. I needed to get a grip.