Page 348 of The Trouble With Bad Boys

Stealthy footsteps approached the main barn doors from outside. They paused. The man was calculating his next move.

Dominic watched the guy’s shadow, faintly outlined by an exterior spotlight, as it merged into the darkness, indicating he was doing recon.

The night went terribly silent.

Would their menace try to enter through the side door instead?

Even better.

Dominic tested the tension of the rope in his hand. He had 0.03 seconds to make this count.

The side door creaked open. The bucket wavered.

The man pushed another inch inside.

Dominic tugged. The bucket dropped.

Crash!

Following the rope’s lead, its payload cascaded onto the man’s head. Startled, he yelped in surprise as the heavy bolts and sharp metal rained down, leaving him disoriented and howling in pain.

Dominic lunged, snatching the heavy chains from the floor and looping them around the intruder. He used the full weight of his body to bring the man down, but the intruder rolled violently, attempting to free himself.

Dominic’s grip held firm. He dug his heels into an upraised floorboard like a cowboy reining in a stampeding buffalo.

Lights flickered on overhead. Under the sudden glare, the menacing intruder went still.

“Don’t move.” Lara stepped forward, holding Dominic’s nine-millimeter in her hands, aimed at the center of the guy’s chest.

She hadn’t switched off the safety, following Dominic’s instructions precisely. Despite her bravado, the tremor in her hands didn’t diminish the powerful impression she made.

The wild-eyed, unblinking stare of their captive told Dominic he hadn’t noticed those details.

A curse scraped from the man’s throat.

Moments later, he heard the approach of cars, and soon after, three sets of headlights beamed through the barn slats.

A groan of surrender from the chained heap on the floor told him the assassin had given up the fight.

Dominic’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He shifted the chains to one hand to answer Detective Rally’s call. “Yep. We’ve got him. We’re in the barn.”

He watched as visible relief etched Lara’s face.

Then he sucked in a breath. “Wait!”

Lara froze, pure terror in her eyes. He never wanted to see that look in her eyes ever again.

He instructed, “Lara, pull open the front garage doors now. We don’t want hay bales dropping down on the detective’s head.”

When she did, two heavy hay bales pounded the barn floor in front of Rally and his two backups. Straw and dust plumed in the air like confetti caught in the beams of their headlights.

Rally coughed and swatted the debris from the air.

Lara raced toward Dominic and dove into his chest. “I’m sorry if I did anything wrong.”

“You were perfect, sweetheart,” Dominic murmured, hugging her close.

Setting his hands on his hips, Rally surveyed the scene. “Not as sorry as you could’ve been, taking the law into your own hands. You ignored my instructions to stand down.”

---