Page 93 of Rescued Heart

Eddie lowered his chin. “Sounds like the perfect deal.”

She rose on her toes and closed the distance between them. His lips hit hers, and she allowed herself to lean into the hero that kept accepting the real her.

Eddie slowed down the kiss and then pressed his lips to her forehead. “It’s getting late. You have an early call tomorrow. Don’t you?”

She hooked her arm around his and rested her shoulder against him as they followed the path of the sidewalk. “It just means I get to see you sooner rather than later.”

Eddie sent her his dimpled smile. As they neared the section of trees that housed the smoking section with its grouping of picnic tables, the sound of something being struck was followed by a male voice.

“Payment is your only redeemer from the Duke,” a man growled from somewhere behind the picnic table inside the darkened area of the trees.

The Duke.She remembered that name.

A groan and then a familiar male voice. “I’ll pay up. Tell him my word’s honorable.”

Bianca stopped before the curve in the sidewalk. “That sounds like Carter.”

Eddie narrowed his gaze at the trees. “Are they filming?”

Bianca squeezed her fingers on his arm. “Those aren’t lines from our script.”

She pulled out her phone and peeked into the trees. A soft glow from one of the parking lot’s dusk-to-dawn lampposts provided enough light to view Carter being held on the ground by a clean-shaven man. Blood coated Carter’s face and white shirt. The other man was dressed in black pants and a gray shirt with a flat cap pulled low over his forehead. “Eddie, Carter’s in trouble.”

Eddie stepped in front of her. “Get back inside the truck and lock the doors.”

She dialed security, but Eddie headed in the opposite direction than he’d told her to go. She grabbed Eddie by his back pocket. “You can’t go over there without a weapon.”

The hidden man rumbled out a laugh that sounded the opposite of funny. “Money’s the only thing that speaks in this business. Doesn’t matter who you are in the hierarchy.”

“Hello,” came a voice from Bianca’s phone.

She released Eddie as he yelled, “Carter!”

Bianca pressed her phone to her ear. “Thad, help! I think Carter’s being attacked. He’s by the front trees in the parking lot where the construction worker was found.”

“On my way.” Thad’s breaths came out staccato, as if he’d leaped from his security booth. “Get somewhere safe, Bia.”

If only Eddie would listen to that command himself. But he’d already sprinted through the trees. A shadow slinked back into the darkness and disappeared in between two set buildings.

Bianca poked her head around a tree. “Eddie?” she whispered.

Another groan sent her rushing forward.

Please, Lord, don’t let Eddie get hurt too.

Leaves scraped along her arms as she batted branches out of her way. Wood chips slipped into her sandals and poked into her feet. Finally, the trees parted, and two men were on the ground—Eddie squatting and Carter lying on his back.

Eddie moved his flashlight up to Carter’s bloodied face. “Anything broken? Your nose is bleeding. Let’s get you sitting if possible. Breathe through your mouth. Can you pinch your nose, or do you need me to do it?”

Carter sat and sucked in a breath as he gripped his side. “I don’t need help pinching my own nose.”

Another flashlight waved toward them, followed by heavy footsteps. “Carter!”

“We’re over here, Thad.” Bianca knelt beside Carter and pulled out a lone tissue from her purse.

Carter took the tissue and put it in his nostril. “I’m going to need about twelve hundred more of these.”

Bianca winced. “What happened?”

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