Page 122 of Relentless

A phone rang in the room. Brandy pulled out her phone and smiled. “My love is calling me. Moe, Billy, leave the two lovebirds and come with me. We’ll come back to play with Piper and Liam in a few minutes. Maybe Liam will convince Piper to spill her guts before he bleeds out. If he doesn’t, we’ll turn your skills on her.”

A moment later, the three of them were gone, locking the door behind themselves again.

Piper lurched across the room and knelt beside Liam. “Liam.”

He dragged in a shallow breath. Man, breathing hurt. Definitely had at least one cracked rib. “I have knife in my right boot. Get it.”

“What if they’re watching on camera?”

“Move fast. We’ll only get one chance.”

She scurried to the other side of the chair. “Tell me where.”

“Near the outside of my ankle.”

Piper twisted to put her back to Liam and groped for his boot with her bound hands. She fumbled a moment, then grabbed the hilt of the knife and pulled the weapon free. “What now?”

“Hand it to me.”

She maneuvered the knife until she gave him the weapon hilt first.

Liam fought off dizziness as he sawed at the zip tie restraining his right wrist. In seconds, the plastic gave way and he made quick work of the ties holding his other wrist and both ankles. “Hold your hands as far apart as you can.” When Piper complied, he sliced through her restraint.

He rose from the chair and swayed, gritting his teeth to keep himself upright. Not good.

“The door is locked and Brandy and her merry band of thugs are on the other side of the door. I can hear them in the hallway.” Piper steadied Liam with an arm around his waist.

“We do whatever is necessary to survive until help arrives.” He nudged her toward the door. “Stand behind the door. I’ll take down whoever comes into the room first. Slam the door in the face of whoever follows. Hopefully, we’ll both be successful so we only have one of those clowns left to handle together.” He didn’t bother to tell Piper he wasn’t sure he would be mobile at that point. His goal was to keep her alive long enough for his teammates to arrive.

The voices in the hall grew louder. Brandy was wrapping up her phone call. Liam positioned Piper behind the door, shut off the light, and pressed his back against the wall on the other side of the door.

The door opened and Moe strode through first. “Hey, what happened to the light?”

Using Moe’s momentum, Liam jerked the guard forward, throwing him off balance enough to fall to his hands and knees. Trusting Piper to give him a few seconds to handle Moe, Liam delivered a roundhouse kick to his head. The guard dropped to the floor and lay unmoving.

A rustle of movement at his back and a feminine scream had him pivoting to go to Piper’s aid. She was on the ground, fighting with Brandy.

Before he could intervene, Billy tackled Liam with a roar of fury.

“I’m going to kill you, McCoy.”

Liam didn’t have enough breath to reply or strength to waste on taunting the security guard. He did, however, have the determination to stop Billy from hurting Piper.

He blocked two punches and landed an elbow strike to Billy’s temple. The blow stunned the guard long enough for Liam to slam his fist in the man’s throat and crush his windpipe. Billy’s eyes widened and he grabbed his throat as he fell to the concrete, struggling in vain to breathe.

After making sure the other man didn’t have weapons within reach, Liam turned toward Piper and staggered her direction just as his woman landed an uppercut to Brandy’s jaw. Barone’s mistress slumped to the floor and lay still.

Piper got to her feet and turned. “Liam.”

He reached out and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “We have to get out of here.” Liam staggered to toward the door. One step, two. His legs gave out.

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