Page 7 of Taz's Guards

The woman cocked her head to the side in a very familiar way that had the hair on the nape of my neck standing up.

“Why’s that? Because you killed me? Well, surprise! You failed. Turns out Donovon did get me out of the smoke in time.”

Gordon stumbled toward the woman and into the shaft of light coming in through the window. A moment later he dropped to the floor, a neat hole through the side of his head. With how his eyes were wide open and glazed over, I knew there was no need to check for a pulse to confirm the fact he was dead.

Relief rushed through me. Gordon was neutralized and Taz was here. Somehow, my man had worked out we were in trouble and was out there with his sniper rifle.

“Mamamama!”

Lolly’s high-pitched voice had me wanting to rush to her, but I still wasn’t sure whose side the woman was on. From what she’d just said, this was Grace, Taz’s sister, and she hadn’t sounded as though she was working with him. Gordon certainly hadn’t acted like a man who’d known his daughter had survived. But she had Lolly. I couldn’t risk my baby girl on an assumption.

“I’ll happily hand her over to you, but maybe you could come here and take her? I don’t want her near him, even if he is dead. And I don’t think my brother would ever forgive himself if he sniped me before he realized who I was.”

I started to move toward her, but she took a step back as her gaze locked onto my hand. “Please put that down. I promise I didn’t come here to hurt anyone other than Gordon. I came to help keep my brother and his new family safe from him.” She nodded down at the body. “That’s all.”

I glanced down at the mirror shard I still held. It’d cut my hand with how tightly I’d been gripping it. I tossed it aside and wiped my palm on my pants so I could inspect the wound. Happy it was barely more than a scratch and wouldn’t need any medical attention, I moved closer to my girl. As I got in range, Lolly reached out, nearly jumping from the other woman’s arms toward me.

Taking my daughter from her, I cuddled her close, relieved to be holding her safe against me, even if she was crying in against my neck. I ran my gaze over the woman. Up close, it was clear she was related to Taz. Same blue eyes, same jaw line. But it was still hard to believe that this woman standing in front of me could be Grace, Taz’s long-lost sister he’d thought was dead for the past twenty-two years.

“You’ve got a hell of a lot of explaining to do, Grace. Gordon wasn’t the only one convinced you’d died in that fire when you were little.”

She nodded with a wince. “Yeah. Let’s go find my brother before he starts getting trigger happy and I’ll explain.”

I pressed a kiss to Lolly’s temple, taking a deep breath in of her sweet baby scent before I followed Grace out of the room and toward the front of the old house.

“Maybe I should go out first.”

She’d had a point about how Taz would feel if he shot first before he asked any questions. I hoped he was ready for the shock of his life, because this was going to throw him for six.

Chapter 4

TAZ

Not wanting to risk alerting Gordon to our presence, Eagle and I set up a distance from where he had holed up. Not that either of us minded. I’d been one of the USMC’s best snipers, and Eagle had been my spotter. While it was a few years since we’d had to work together like this, we fell into our roles smoothly and got down to business.

The crack of my M40 firing split the air around me while I kept my gaze down the scope, watching as my bullet hit Gordon just above his ear and his body dropped like a stone.

Eagle’s voice was calm, helping me stay in the zone I needed to be in. “Target is down. Good shot.”

I kept my gaze on the scope. “There’s someone else in there. I caught a glimpse of her earlier but didn’t have a clean line of sight to confirm if she was a friendly or not.”

Flick walked in front of the window, into my scope’s line of sight and I watched as she held out her arms, reaching for something.

“Let’s pack up and get in there. There’s no way of knowing if that other person is a friendly or a target. Not from here.”

I nodded and stood, grabbing my rifle and jogging over to the cage. We got things packed away quickly — I’d do a better job later of getting it all stowed properly — then we were making our way to the house.

As I headed from the vehicle toward the building with my Beretta in my palm, the sound of several Harleys filled the air. My club brothers coming to have my back. Would Mac be with them? Would Scout? I wasn’t sure how to wrap my mind around them keeping such big secrets about my past from me, but it wasn’t something I was gonna sort out at the moment. Now, it was time to make sure my old lady and daughter were safe.

And work out who the fuck else was in that house.

With my weapon raised and ready to fire, I began to climb onto what was left of the front porch. The door swung open and when Flick appeared in the doorway clutching Lolly to her, I shifted my aim to the space beside Flick’s head, on the opposite side from Lolly. I didn’t want to have to risk a shot so close to either of my girls, but if a threat stood behind them, I could take care of it if necessary.

“She’s a friendly, Taz. Put the gun away. I’m not bringing our daughter out while you have a gun aimed in our direction.”

I hesitated. Any other day I’d do what she told me, but she’d kept shit from me that had led to this situation in the first place.

“Need to make sure you’re both protected. Ain’t lowering my weapon.”

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