Page 39 of Fiercely Protective

After the ceremony, I walked Bri to the car after already giving my driver instructions to take her back to the penthouse. No stops along the way.

Once the car began moving away from the curb, I walked toward the gray sedan parked along the street. From the short distance, I could see the two men inside reaching under their coats. I knew exactly what they were going for, strangely enough though, neither one of them made a move, at least not one quick enough.

I swiftly moved to the driver’s side window, pulled the pistol I had under my coat, and slammed the butt of it into the middle of the window shattering the glass.

“Fuck!”

Before the man could utter another word, I pulled him through the shards of glass by his neck, halfway hanging out the window, and began pounding his head against the car door. The man in the passenger seat, jumped out, his hand on the pistol he should have already used. But it was too late now. I still held the pistol in my hand and was able to fire before he could even raise his toward me. The bullet penetrated the man’s shoulder, causing the pistol in his hand to drop and clatter on the sidewalk. His hands moved to cover the hole the bullet had made as blood began to spurt out of the wound.

I pulled the driver the rest of the way out of the window. “You have about five seconds before I bash in your head and spill your brains all over the sidewalk to tell me why you are following me. And who the hell sent you?”

When no answer was forthcoming, I gripped his hair and slammed his head down on the pavement.

I could vaguely hear Michael’s voice as he attended to the man bleeding from the gunshot wound.

“Tell me who sent you now! If you don’t, I will kill you and let you bleed out all over the street.” I pressed my hand around his throat. His eyes bulged in fear.

“Rogue! Rogue!”

I looked up to see Michael, his bloody hands holding a cell phone he had taken from the other man. “Here, look at the last text.”

He tossed me the phone, and I looked down at the screen to read what had been sent, hoping it would lead me to the person responsible for sending these two idiots after me.

“He is just coming out of the church and the girl is still with him. What do you want us to do about her?”

Michael came to stand behind me. “You need to get these men off the street. There have already been some people peeking from their windows.”

“There will be a crew here in two minutes. I had already notified Blaze of my intentions. They will make certain nobody talks to the cops or connects you to this incident.”

“What about them? Are you going to let them live?”

I took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood from my hands. “For the time being, but not without sending a message to whoever sent them.”

We both turned as an SUV carrying five of my men pulled up. They knew exactly what to do. Both men were loaded up without fanfare. Two of the men who worked for me came over to get instructions on how I wanted everything handled.

“Where do you want us to take them, boss?”

“Take them to the warehouse. I will be there shortly. Have two of the men stay here in case anyone who saw what happened tries to make trouble. I don’t want Michael to be linked to any of this.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Delaney. But the people in this neighborhood aren’t going to say anything. They trust you more than the cops, but we will hang around just to make certain.”

I watched as they walked away, ready to do whatever was necessary.

I turned to Michael who was frowning and looking at me with that judgmental face that made me want to punch him.

“My men will see to the rest of this mess and have it cleaned up before any of your parishioners see it.”

“Thanks for that, but while I never wanted to be pulled back into this world, I have to know, is someone trying to kill you?”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “There is always someone trying to kill me, Michael.”

“Don’t! Don’t try to play this off as just an ordinary day. Something is going on and you need to tell me. You show up here with a girl I have never seen you with before and ask me to perform a marriage ceremony. It was obvious she was not expecting it nor was she thrilled about it. Now, you have beaten the shit out of a man and almost killed another right in front of the church. This is not ordinary, Rogue. What the hell is going on?”

“The less you know the better.”

“Bullshit!” He immediately raised his eyes to the heavens and said a quick prayer for forgiveness and most likely patience. “God forgive me. I swore an oath to you the day that you saved me when we were kids. I haven’t forgotten it. If you need my help, I am always here.”

I shook my head, not wanting Michael to be more involved than he was already. “You swore a greater oath after that, Michael, and I will not ask you to break it for me. Besides, these people were not here for me. Chances are they had no idea who they were dealing with. They were too inexperienced, too green. They were both armed but hesitated at my approach. No, these two dumbasses are small time.”

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