Page 26 of Come For Me
And then the glass behind him shattered into a million pieces.
A thousand stinging bees landed on his head and neck. Throwing his arms up to protect himself, he darted away from the raining glass. His desperate eyes landed on Kelly in the doorway of Stan’s office, gun up, head turned to look at something behind him. He swung around, and his gun connected with Livie’s head.
Dain roared.
Three men charged from Stan’s office; three guns pointed directly at him. Dain barely registered the noise of shots fired, but he saw Kelly’s henchmen go down. How, why, he didn’t care. Every ounce of his will went into his legs, into taking out the man who’d hurt his wife.
The man currently scrambling backward in the face of Dain’s rapid advance.
He didn’t stand a chance.
Before Kelly could gather enough sense to find and squeeze the trigger of his gun, Dain was there. With a quick roll, he locked the man’s hand to his weapon and twisted. The sound of joints popping and ligaments tearing filled him with a primal satisfaction. So did Kelly’s scream.
And then the gun was in his hand and Kelly’s face was making contact with his knee. Dain let him drop like the garbage he was.
“Dain, no, stop!”
The quiver in Livie’s voice amped his rage even higher. His step over Kelly’s unconscious body was more of a leap, but that was as far as he got. The sight of Cecil coming through the doorway, his arm strangling Livie’s neck, a small handgun pointed at her head, jerked him to a stop.
He’d never felt as helpless as he did in that moment. Kelly and his goons, they at least had practice and control on their side. The likelihood of an accidental shooting was low. But Cecil? The way his hand shook testified to his terror. A single twitch could set the trigger off.
Dain slid a foot forward, then another.
Cecil stumbled to the side, toward the back hall, dragging Livie with him. Her breath caught on a sob.
Dain put his hand up, the free one. The gun hand he slid behind his back—out of sight, out of mind, hopefully. “It’s okay, Cecil. It’s okay. Don’t hurt her.”
“Cecil, don’t do this. Don’t make it worse than it already is.”
There was no going back from this, Dain knew. The dozen SWAT members outside assured it. There was no escape for Derrick. Any sympathy the man had garnered faded to nothing when Dain’s gaze came to rest on Livie’s face. Her eyes were glued to his, her expression stark terror. She knew exactly how precarious her situation was, and it was killing him.
The ragged sound of Cecil’s panicked laughter washed over them. The man’s eyes shifted back and forth, surveying the room but not really tracking. Derrick had lost it—and he held Dain’s world in his arms. “It can’t get worse.”
“Yes, it can.”I could kill you.He would, friend or not. He just needed a clear shot.
Using Livie’s body to shield himself, Cecil shuffled toward the hallway. “I’ve got to get out of here, Olivia. Noelle needs me. Sylvie—” His voice broke on his daughter’s name. “She needs me. I have no choice. I have to get away before they find us.”
“Cecil, don’t.” Livie’s voice shook. “We’ll find the money. I’ll find the codes, I promise, just put the gun down and let me go.”
So the codes hadn’t been in the safe as they’d thought. Dain didn’t point out that Derrick would never make it to his family without being captured. He simply advanced, heel to toe, heel to toe, getting as close to Livie as he possibly could.
Derrick’s finger fumbled at the trigger.
“Don’t,” Dain growled. “Don’t do it.”
“Stop, motherfucker!”
The voice came from the hallway behind Cecil and Livie. Small, delicate-looking Elliot inched closer, the warrior side of her on full display. She stalked forward slowly, just like Dain, gun drawn and trained on Cecil, blue eyes filled with cool calculation and a tiny bit of glee as she sized up her prey. That look made suspects sweat, and Cecil was no different. His attention jerked between the threat in front of him and behind, as if he could keep them at bay with a look. The panic in his eyes denied it.
Cecil raised his shaking hand, gun in grip, to point directly at Dain. “Don’t come any closer!”
And just like that, Dain could breathe again. Not Livie; her gasp reached his ears, the knowledge that he was far too close to dodge a bullet shining in her eyes. “Put the gun down, Cecil,” she begged him. “No one has to die. You don’t have to die. You have to live, for Sylvie. Please, please don’t do this.”
“Everyone freeze. Guns down!”
SWAT was tired of waiting, it seemed. Two officers moved in behind Dain, at least one gun trained on him. The itch at the back of his neck told him so.
Livie squeezed her eyes shut.
