Page 29 of Tice's Kind of Trouble
Eagle is in the cat room where she was earlier.
But where is Bethany? Panic laced with fury swells up into my throat.
I motion for Kane’s woman to drop to the floor. She reads my hand signal correctly, throwing herself below the glass viewing window into a corner as I move past the room.
All the cold, calculated killer in me takes over.
Bethany will be safe.
Turning down the hallway toward the storage area and offices, I grip the handle of my sidearm in practiced hands.
Tuning in, I listen with hyper-focus, praying Bethany is somewhere with the dogs or maybe the horse in his small paddock.
But she wasn’t supposed to go far.
No.A man could have her. Goddamnit. A fire straight from the pits of hell rages in my chest.
Get her. Find her. Protect her.
Silent, I move down the hallway, one hundred-percent focused, keeping my shoulder to the wall.
The office door is open. Scuffing sounds coming from within. I steady my weapon, ready for any threat.
I’m coming, baby. Just hold on.
A shadow moves across the opening. Large. A man’s shape.
Swinging to the other side of the door, I kick it open and storm inside. “Don’t move!”
He lunges. In a flash, the man hurls a lamp at my head, bouncing it off my shoulder.
“Get down!” I yell, kicking his knee with all the fury clawing through me. “Get on the fucking floor!”
He makes a grab at the things on the desk as he caves, scrambling for any kind of weapon he can get. But I’m on him.
The intruder is untrained and sloppy.
In seconds he’s subdued, his arm behind his back, my weight pressing him hard into the scuffed floor. My fist is in the air, ready to slam into his head. “You scared my goddamned woman.”
“Tice!”
Chase flies into the room. “Easy.Not gonna let you go down that road.”
Kane is hot on his heels, dragging me up but keeping the man down. “Go to Bethany. We’re dealing with this POS.”
Bethany.
God. “Where was she?”
“Was in the supply closet. I told her to run to your truck.”
My vision is still hazed over with the need to commit deadly violence. But Kane shakes me hard. “I’ve got this guy. Bethany needs you.”
“Copy.” I scrub both of my hands over my face, trying to steady the wild pulse crashing through every inch of me. “Fuck,I can’t believe I stepped out when some bastard was out there trying to get close to her.”
“But you got him,” Kane reminds me, shoving me toward the door.
I stumble, my stomach shaking, into the lobby and out into the sunshine. When Bethany realizes it’s me, she leaps out of the truck and flies into my arms.
