Page 114 of When He Protects

I pulled her out.

“You think you know Esme?” A hard, negative shake of Etienne’s head. “You have no clue who she truly is.”

“She bakes the best chocolate chip croissants in the world.”

Etienne’s stare sharpened on Tyler.

“And when she lies, her voice gets all arrogant. Haughty. That’s how I know she’s pretending. Because the real Esme isn’t like that. The real Esme is warm and caring. She’s the kind of woman who will risk her life to save a child. She’s the kind of woman who will fight like hell for someone she loves.” He remembered her flying out of the motel bathroom and attacking Thaddeus. “She can’t follow orders for shit. And she always hides when she sheds real tears. But that’s stopping. Because she’s not going to cry any longer.”But she’d been crying when she was taken away from me.

Etienne watched him with glacial eyes of black ice. “You made my daughter cry?” Anger. Nope. More like rage.

Tyler got it. He’d want to kick the ass of any man who madehisdaughter cry.I’m going to find Esme.We’re going to have a future together. And if any fool ever makes our daughter cry, I will destroy him.“Maybe you should go ahead and take a swing at me.” He motioned to the two silent goons. “Or let them do it. I deserve a punch.” More than that because Esme had been taken.

Etienne rubbed a hand over the bridge of his nose, as if considering something, then he said, “Esme loves silence.”

Tyler could feel Kane watching them. “She hates it. Comes from all that time when she couldn’t hear a thing.”

Etienne’s hand fell. “Why in the hell would she choose you?”

“Because she mistakenly thinks I’m some kind of hero.”

“Esme doesn’t like heroes. Mostly because she doesn’t believe they actually exist.”

“I pulled her from the café in Paris.”

Etienne backed up a step.

“She mistakenly thinks I’m a hero,” he said again. “But I’m about to show her that I will do things no hero will ever do.”

“Uh, Tyler…” Kane edged closer. “Public place. We should probably not be saying?—”

“I am going to find the man who ordered Esme’s abduction—the same man who put a hit on my life—and I am going to kill the bastard. There will be no escape for him.”

Kane coughed. Then, for the nurses who were side-eyeing them, he blustered, “Nothing to see here! Just a little theater work!”

Etienne rolled back his shoulders. “You know that Thaddeus put a hit on my daughter.”

“Yes. The original one. But I’m pretty sure Jorlan Rodgers is the prick we can blame for what happened at the motel. He’s the one behind her abduction.”

“Jorlan?” Surprise flickered in Etienne’s eyes. “Jorlan wants to marry my daughter. He’s been obsessed with her for years.”

“He’s a twisted monster, and his obsession is over.” Because Jorlan was about to be over.

“If you know he’s responsible, then why are you here?” Etienne gestured to the hospital.

He was there because Jorlan was in the wind and no one could find him. But Tyler had an ace in the hole. A very unlikely ace. An ace that he did intend to beat the hell out of later, but an ace nonetheless. “I’m waiting for a?—”

A phone vibrated.

Not his phone. Tyler didn’t have a damn phone at the moment.

Kane’s phone.

Kane glanced down at the screen, then he handed the device to Tyler. They both knew this ace in the hole.

Ace. Asshole. Same thing.

Tyler read the text. His breath shuddered out. “Any chance you happen to have a private plane I could borrow? It would really speed up the rescue process for your daughter.”

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