Page 6 of When He Protects

Tyler shrugged. The bastard had a gun up and aimed at him. An annoyance. Why did the prick keep doing that? He should know better than to go around waving a gun. “I don’t always like to stay where peopleputme.”

“Get the fuck back!” A yell. The gun trembled in his gloved hand. “I will shoot! Don’t you test me! I will?—”

The double doors behind the man flew open. Four federal agents stormed inside. All wore bulletproof vests and take-no-shit expressions. “Drop the weapon!”A roar from the lead agent.“Drop it now!”

The masked man shuddered. He also dropped his weapon. And immediately threw his empty hands into the air.

“I took the liberty of calling in a few friends,” Tyler revealed. He kicked the weapon to the side. No sense leaving it too close to the perp. “You were so busy stealing jewels from the party guests that you didn’t notice I was freeand taking out your crew.” He still held his broken cue in one hand, but his left lifted a cell phone. “Borrowed this from one of your buddies, after I knocked his ass out.”

The perp swore.

The Feds swarmed him. Yanked off his mask.

Ragged, blond hair slid over the lead robber’s forehead. His features were twisted in rage as he glared at Tyler. He looked young and mean and…scared.You should be scared. You’re about to be locked away. You pulled a gun on me, asshole. You don’t walk away after that.

Tyler smiled at him. “You’re under arrest.” A joint task force operation. They’d formed it to take down this crew of high-profile robbers. This crime ring was goingdown.

While the Feds cuffed the perp and started reading him his rights, Tyler tossed the cell onto a nearby table. Champagne still bubbled in the flutes on the table. The guests were gasping and begging to be set free. They also wanted their jewelry back.

“We arrested the bodyguards outside.” It was the FBI agent in charge, Grayson Stone. Gray to his friends, and Tyler was one of the very few people that Gray considered a friend. Most people just considered Gray to be an all-around asshole. Because he was. “They tried to stop my team from entering.” Gray shook his head. “Dumbass mistake.”

It was just as they’d thought. “The security company is compromised.”

Gray nodded. “We were suspicious of them. They had too many ties to the other thefts.” He surveyed the scene. “That’s why I wanted an inside man here.” His head cocked as he looked at the wooden cue Tyler held. And the blood on the cue. “Stop to play some games, did you?”

Tyler shrugged. “They took my gun.”

“Uh, huh.”

“And my knife.”

“Sure.”

“I had to improvise.”

“You are good at that.” Gray holstered his gun. He also snagged the black bag that had been tied at the ring leader’s waist. He opened the bag. “Well, well…” A whistle. “That is a whole lot of sparkle.” His eyes shifted to Tyler. “Nice job. If you hadn’t been in here, if you hadn’t been able to make contact with me and the other agents, we wouldn’t have known the bastards were at play. The bodyguards outside kept signaling that all was fine. Before we ever realized what was up, the robbers would have been in the wind.”

“You shouldn’t be here!” Spittle flew from the blond jerk’s mouth as he glared at Tyler. “You should have been locked up, you big bastard!You shouldn’t be here!”

Yeah, well, as to that…

Tyler turned away. He headed for the library. The key wasn’t in the lock. Tyler glanced back at the now cuffed blond. “Key.”

“Fuck yourself!”

Whatever.

Tyler lifted his foot and kicked in the door.

As the wood shattered, a nearby redhead in a shimmery blue dress let out a shriek and collapsed back against her date.

Gray frowned and hurried closer to Tyler. “What in the hell are you doing?”

Tyler pushed open the broken door.

Gray crowded in behind him. “Oh. Sure. Yeah. I might have broken the door in, too, in order to get to her.” Low. He waved. “Hi, ma’am.”

Esme stood near the bookshelves. Her hands werebehind her back. She appeared to have not moved at all from that spot. Her lashes fluttered. “Is the danger over?”

---