Page 3 of Ready or Not

I nod, putting her on her feet. “If you run, then I am going to spank your ass. And you cannot have a divorce. Don’t ask again.”

“Bishop,” she whines, ignoring me completely. “Please stop.”

I sigh, heading toward the other side of the kitchen. I have to jump over Bishop’s big ass to get to his other arm. Garza is actually turning a little blue.

“Hey, we all like Marina’s cooking. If you kill her son, she’ll never forgive us.” I look at Vale, nodding for her to try again.

She whines, begging him to stop.

The more I study Garza, the more I notice the blood vessels in his eyes are starting to pop.

I grunt, stretch over, and dig my fingers into Bishop’s bullet wound.

His head shakes as he snarls, but when Vale whines again, it finally seems to snap him out of the fog. He releases Garza, shakes off me and Mercy, and aims for Vale.

Mercer hits his knees next to Garza and offers him a hand up.

Garza slaps it away, rubbing his throat.

I hop over his still-prone body and follow Bishop.

Vale tilts her head, holding out a short finger. “Did you plant him in my life, specifically trying to force me to you?”

“What?” Bishop growls, rearing back.

“Like the traffickers do. Plant someone in a person’s life to find out if anyone would be around to report them missing?” she asks, still keeping the finger pointed at him. “Tell me you didn’t do that.”

I just realized a great way to take out the majority of our operation—send in a bunch of women instead of men for the traffickers we take out, and guys like Mercy and Bishop would be dead within a week.

Guys like me, Ranger, and Garza might have a chance because, if you’re trying to kill me, I’m going to treat you like any deadly opponent.

But Bishop? He’s got over a foot in height on her, and she’s keeping him in place with a single damn finger.

I shake my head at the absurdity of it.

She’s probably good and pissed that I plucked her off the stairs, but she can stay mad. She wasn’t thinking clearly, and my first priority was keeping her and Aurora safe.

Bishop growls, tilting his head. “Do you want me to kill him? Because I will if that’s what it’ll take for you to stop looking at me like that.”

“You really didn’t know?” she asks, shuddering out a breath. The way her nose turns red as tears glitter in her eyes has me preparing to play defense in case Bishop comes back to finish the job.

“I swear to you on my life.” Bishop approaches slowly, but she nods, and he scoops her up. “You better get him the fuck out of here before I change my mind.”

I open my mouth to speak, but Vale lets out an agonized moan, clutching her stomach.

Mercy is still behind me, talking to Garza in hushed tones, but I rush to Bishop and Vale.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, pulling her hair back from her face. She’s still kind of hunched over in Bishop’s arms, rubbing her stomach.

“Gorgeous?” Bishop asks, studying her carefully.

“I don’t know,” she groans, sounding winded. “But God, that hurt worse than anything yet. Holy fuck. It felt like my insides were being ripped apart and rearranged for a few seconds.”

“Call Patrick,” Garza chokes out, his voice cracked and raw.

“No, we should go to the hospital.” I run my fingers over Vale’s cheek and catch one of the fat tears running down it.

“I’m okay now. I think. I really don’t want to go to the hospital. Maybe if it happens again, but…” She snuggles into Bishop’s chest. “I just want to go to my nest.”

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