Page 85 of Her Protector Daddies

“I want to, my head is just not…”

“You don’t need to explain.” Tyler gently tucked a few strands of my hair behind my ear. “You’re okay.”

“God.” With a groan, I slid from Tyler’s lap and stood up. “Who would have thought a twenty-three-year-old store clerk would help take down a Cartel Boss?”

“Right? You should be doing all the other things a typical twenty-three-year-old should be doing, like drinking and partying and turning up to work late,” Tyler laughed. “Although I think it’s pretty damn hot.”

“Of course you do,” I remarked. “You’re insatiable.”

“For you?” Tyler reached for his shirt as a distant knock rang through the apartment. “Absolutely.”

“Maybe food will distract me.”

“There’s still pizza left, I think. Assuming none of your other bodyguards have eaten it all.”

“Is it normal that they don’t talk?” I asked as we left the bedroom. The other guards stationed here were the epitome of professionals, and small talk was rarely granted.

“They’re scared of you,” Tyler teased. “You’re taking down a Cartel Boss; god knows what you would do to a protective agent.”

Laughter bubbled up in my chest but the moment it escaped, the front door – which was being opened by one of the guards in question – flew open violently and the man crumpled down, dead, from a gunshot to the forehead.

“Get down!” Tyler grabbed me by the shoulder and forced me to bend at the waist, covering me with his own body as gunfire erupted overhead.

Slamming both hands over my ears, my laugh morphed into a scream of fright. I was blind to everything but the flashes of gunfire reflecting on the polished wood at my feet and Tyler’s body jolting slightly with each shot he fired in my defense.

Suddenly, air rushed up to meet me and a large, bright explosion ripped me away from Tyler’s grasp. I was weightless for a second until I slammed hard into the opposite wall and my vision was burned by a bright, white flash. Air knocked forcefully from my lungs, and my ears rang painfully while I slid down the wall and crumpled to the floor. Each breath in was smothering, and I couldn’t manage more than a few short gaps before the scratchiness in my throat forced me to cough.

I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear and I could barely think.

Instinct took over and I wound both arms around my belly to protect my baby, then I curled over on myself and prayed to anything that was listening that we would all be okay. Distantly, gunfire continued to bounce off the walls but from the ringing in my ear, everything appeared so far away.

Suddenly, a harsh grip wound into my hair and dragged me from the ground. I choked in pain, coughing from the smoke pouring from the flashbang and still, I kept my arms around my waist.

“The kid ain’t here,” came a distant voice. “Just the girl.”

Then, the ground swiftly rose to meet me as I was dropped. I hit the floor and my blood ran cold as the wait for a shot that would surely kill me dragged on. But the shot never came. Instead, two gunshots sounded from further away then the floor vibrated as something heavy landed right next to me, and I screamed.

“Selena!” Tyler’s face suddenly swam before mine, blurred from the tears pouring past my lashes in reaction to the light and the smoke. “I’m here, Selena it’s okay. You’re okay! Deep breaths, baby. Deep breaths.”

“What’s—What’s happening?” I choked out, clutching at him with all my strength.

“It was a flash bang, a shock to the senses I know but you’re okay, we’re okay.” He scooped me up into his arms and my world tipped as nausea swept across the back of my tongue.

Then we were outside and I dragged in my first lungful of air free of smoke. I coughed repeatedly and Tyler did the same, setting me down on the stone steps and rubbing my back.

Then it hit me.

The kid.

Smoke irritation forgotten, I whipped around to Tyler and clutched at his arm, nearly making him drop the phone he pressed to his ear.

“We have to get to Jay. We have to get Jay now!

When we arrived, the door was hanging off its hinges. Light party music floated from inside, slightly distorted from the ringing in my ears that had lingered through the entire reckless drive over here. Jay’s safehouse had been on the other side of town, and each minute that dragged by trying to reach him had been torture.

More so when he hadn’t answered any of Tyler’s calls.

“Jay?” Tyler called, his gun raised high as we stepped inside. A few party balloons lingered near the ceiling and several paper party streamers hung from each door frame.

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