Authors: Elle Saint James
Tags: #Romance
Ava moved again. “I need to help Marisol and Javier. He’s going to kill me anyway.”
“He’s a liar. He doesn’t have them. He’s just trying to lure you out there. Please don’t believe him.”
“But if I can save Marisol…”
“He’s lying.”
“What if he has them?”
“You can’t help them if you let him kill you. There is no logical upside to you leaving this house. Sit tight. The explosion and the barn burning will alert the authorities. We just need to wait for somebody to come to us. He won’t risk anyone seeing him.”
Her eyes shut, but she didn’t stop struggling. “And what if he kills more innocent people?”
“Then that’s on
his
soul, not yours.”
Another loud boom sounded from the direction of where the barn used to be. Troy’s resolve to kill Diego with his bare hands resurfaced. He stalled his thoughts about Declan being dead as he just couldn’t process that dire possible information right now.
Diego kept talking, but he moved to a different location outside. Troy kept a tight hold around Ava’s middle. She pushed and tried to get free, but he wasn’t letting her go.
“If I can save you…”
“Ava, please. He’s a liar. I’ve seen his face. I can identify him. Trust me, he won’t go until I’m dead so as not to leave any witnesses. And he kills with bombs. I truly believe the house
is
wired.”
“So why are we staying in here?”
“Where will we go?” But maybe if he got her downstairs and into the utility room it would be strong enough to withstand a blast from above. The room was concrete. Maybe if he grabbed the mattress off the bed for protection, they’d have a chance. Maybe.
“If you won’t come out, I’ll have to leave and blow this house up with you in it. Oh, and the front and back doors are already set to blow if you cross the threshold.”
Troy closed his eyes for a moment, trying to center himself and keep Diego’s voice out of his head.
Diego continued, “If you try to leave…well, then you won’t even hear the explosion that ends your life. I let your friend out to foolishly try to help you escape, too bad he didn’t notice I’d wired the van to blow when he slipped into the barn earlier. Unfortunately, the authorities will be here soon, and I don’t have much more time. If you won’t come out, I’ll have to come back and photograph your lifeless, broken bodies. Once I get to a safe distance, I’ll put you out of your misery. Or you can run out of either door and do it for me. Oh, and there is a trip wire that runs all around the house, including every window. I’m afraid the windows will also set off the explosives.”
They heard the sound of a vehicle roar to life just outside. Troy took two steps forward and chanced a look out the front window. He saw a black sedan headed away from the house on the graveled road, spraying water from the storm out of the potholes he couldn’t dodge.
Troy searched around for some way to escape without opening a door. He would hate to be in the basement when the house blew. Everything would fall in on their heads. Would a single mattress protect them?
A squeaking sound from the direction of the basement door startled them both. Troy lost sight of Diego when he spun around to put himself between Ava and the basement door.
He saw Declan’s head peer around the doorframe.
What the hell?
“Where did you come from?”
“Come on.” Declan motioned them to come forward. Ava darted around him and raced to the basement door. Troy was close on her heels.
Without any further explanation, Declan led them back to the utility room. Troy almost left to get the mattress, but Declan walked deeper into the room. He disappeared from sight as he went past the water heater. Ava followed so Troy did, too. In the corner he hadn’t noticed the last time they were here was a door.
Declan shouldered it open and led them through a musty-smelling, dug-out crawl space.
“Where are we going?” Troy whispered.
Declan glanced over one shoulder and then pointed ahead to a short hallway barely six and a half feet high. “Out through the storm doors.”
“Aren’t they padlocked from the outside?”
“Yes.” Declan ducked into the hallway, ending the conversation.
Troy didn’t even ask how they were getting out. Declan must have a plan. Otherwise, how had he gotten inside? Troy just put one foot in front of the other and kept moving forward. His internal joy at Declan being alive made this easier.
His friend stopped a few yards from a large wooden door.
“Now what?” Troy asked. He couldn’t help it.
“When have you ever known me not to have an escape route planned?”
“Never.”
“Exactly.”
“How did you know there was a bomb in the barn?”
“I didn’t. Not until I went in there and saw it. He put it on the rear bumper. The timer had thirty seconds. So I ducked into the secret tunnel beneath the barn and escaped without leaving out of either of the visible doors.”
“A secret tunnel? Really?”
“Yeah. The bad-boy bootleggers in my distant family history were always very prepared to either hide moonshine or escape the authorities, if needed. If the place sells, my sister is insisting on filling them up for safety. I’m just glad the place hasn’t sold yet.”
“Me, too.”
“In fact, there’s more than one tunnel on the property.”
Declan opened another thick wooden door that led to concrete steps and the morning shafts of light coming from above. They all moved forward and stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading to what looked like the storm doors he’d seen next to the back porch.
“How will we break through the padlock?”
Declan moved forward and braced his back against the left door. “We won’t, just help me lift the door up. I removed the pins from hinges on the right side. Looks like it’s padlocked from the outside, but we can get out by lifting the doors.”
“So clever.” Ava suddenly looked incredibly relieved.
“I try.”
They slipped from the basement and ran for the nearest outbuilding several yards behind the house. They’d just made it to safety when the house blew up.
The sound of a helicopter was heard well before it thumped into view as the sun rose higher in the sky. It was too far away to determine if it was rescue, police, or news crew, but at least someone was on the way.
Diego’s dark sedan raced back to the house. The helicopter’s approach got louder and closer.
The assassin who’d dogged their every move stepped from the car. He was about to be very disappointed. He gazed at the house and then noticed the three of them crowded together behind the side of an outbuilding. He frowned.
Ava stood up, wiggled her hips back and forth, and shot him both her middle fingers. He grimaced and took a step toward them, as if he were about to launch forward and run her down. But then suddenly he stopped, stiffened, and fell face first onto the ground next to his open car door.
Declan and Troy looked at Ava’s hands, then at each other, then back at her.
“Powerful fingers.” Troy put his arm across her hands and lowered them slowly like she had a lethal weapon in her possession.
She looked down at her own digits with surprise. “Yeah. So watch out.”
The sleek black helicopter landed in the space between the burning barn and the now-flaming house. Clay emerged from one side along with Jake Salerno. Dalton Rourke, who was holding a rifle, came out of the other side.
“You shot him?” Declan asked when they got close enough to hear each other over the rotor blade noise.
Dalton shook his head, but he was smiling. “No. I just tranked him with a dart. He’ll be coming with me. He’s wanted for so many international murders, he’ll never see the light of day.”
“How did you know he was here?”
“Didn’t. But I got worried when you didn’t try to call back,” Clay said. “However, just in case, I persuaded Dalton to commandeer a helicopter for assistance along with the means to assist in a capture of a possible assassin. He agreed as long as he got to take custody if it turned out to be Demetrius Barkova.”
“Thanks, Clay. Great timing, by the way.”
He glanced at the two burning buildings with a dubious expression. “I sort of wished we’d left a little sooner. Sorry about your childhood home.”
Declan shrugged. “It’s probably insured.”
Troy looked at first the barn and then the house. “So Declan…think anyone will notice we’ve been here?”
* * * *
Ava stared at the killer facedown in the dust. Diego. Her building contractor. A man she’d trusted. She hated that she hadn’t ever had an inkling he was anything other than what he said he was.
She shook off the anger that wouldn’t change anything and centered her thoughts. Her only concern at the moment was what else he’d done since the last time he’d tried to kill them.
“May I please borrow someone’s phone?” she asked the assembled crowd of very tall men. Clay pulled his phone from his front pocket and placed it in the palm of her extended hand without missing a beat. “Thanks.” She dialed a number from memory.
When she answered, Ava almost went to her knees with relief. “Marisol? Are you okay?”
Declan put an arm around her shoulders and held her up as she listened to her friend’s solid voice. Marisol told her she was fine and perfectly safe at her cousin’s home.
Ava hung up and handed the phone back to the impossibly tall man they called Clay. His shaved head glistened in the light of day, but a bit of stubble was also visible.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.” He slid the phone back in his pocket. “I’m Clay.
This is my good friend Jake.”
Jake shook her hand and his expression was that of a friend who’d done something wrong. “I’m sorry all this happened to you because of a woman in a picture I was looking for.”
“That’s okay. I think you saved my life. He probably would have come after me regardless. So thank you for sending Declan and Troy to keep me safe.”
He nodded, but she didn’t think he believed her. “Clay was the one who sent them.”
Ava turned to Clay with a grin. “I heard your middle name might possibly be Protection. Is that true?”
He grinned back. “Nope. My middle name is Damien. But Protection is also a good choice.”
She glanced at Troy and Declan. “So I guess I’m safe to go back home then.”
They both turned sharply toward her as if pulled by the same yank of an invisible string to stare at her. Declan narrowed his eyes. “No. You should come to Colorado with us.”
Troy nodded. “I agree. Your house is blown up. Where would you go?”
Ava shrugged. He had a point. She didn’t really have anywhere to go. But this fantasy sex fest of a journey was over. It was time to face reality. The assassin chasing her was caught. She didn’t
need
to go with the two of them, but she really wanted to.
Clay lowered his sunglasses. “I have a place for you to stay on the property for as long as you need it. Why don’t you come back with us and take a few days to figure out your next move?”
Ava nodded. “Thank you.” She wouldn’t have immediate access to Declan or Troy like she had for the past few days, but they wouldn’t be three states away either. She could get out of their pheromone range and discover if she was truly in love with them.
And she’d be able to see if they truly cared about her. The looks on their faces and the glares they gave Clay gave her a hint, but then again. Time would tell. Perhaps when they got back to their regularly scheduled life routine and job, she’d be forgotten, or worse, ignored.
Declan was rather unhappy with the arrangements once they flew back to Colorado. They’d flown back separately because he had to
literally
help put out the fires on his childhood homestead. The volunteer fire department hadn’t made it in time to do much more than spray water on the few remaining flames within the complete destruction from the bombs Barkova had set.
When he and Troy finally got back home, Clay had already ensconced Ava in his security bunker upon their earlier arrival at the DRMC property. They hadn’t even gone home to change, but instead both decided they needed to see her. Then Clay refused to give them access.
Fierce scowl on his face, Clay said, “No. You can’t come in. Go home.”
Declan narrowed his eyes at the surly expression he was getting from Clay. “What do you mean, no, we can’t come in? We want to see Ava.”
“Too fucking bad,” Clay said and folded his arms across his chest and blocked the entrance door. “She needs to rest. I told her no one would bother her until tomorrow. And I plan to keep that promise.” He glared at them. “You aren’t getting in here. So come back tomorrow.”
“And if we called the security number, you also wouldn’t let us speak to her.”
Clay smiled and then nodded. “Yes. That’s right. Like I said, go home. Get some sleep. Take care of whatever you need to after being gone for these past few days.”