Page 44 of Hero Next Door
He’d pulled it out the moment we got into the kitchen, and had been flipping it around ever since, my body twitching every time he threw it around. I didn’t like guns. I’d never shot one myself, and I’d rarely even handled them, but I knew enough to know how dangerous they were. I knew they could go off easily, and without much encouragement.
I knew you absolutely didn’t throw them around like they were a penny you’d just grabbed out of your pocket.
“Listen, Kevin,” I said, fighting to keep my voice even. “I know you think this land would be perfect. But I’m telling you, it’s not going to work. We’re too far away from anything else for this to be a good spot for the houses you want to build.”
To my horror, he pointed the gun right at me. “That’s where you’re wrong, little lady. People who buy the houses like I want to build want to be out in the middle of nowhere. They want peace and quiet.”
He bracketed the last phrase with sarcastic air quotes, his face screwed up in a sneer, and I saw him quite clearly, then, for what he was. Not a nice guy. Not even adecentguy. He was the sort of guy who stole land from people who didn’t realize they had a choice and then built houses for people he didn’t even like. He was the sort of man who screwed everyone else over just so he could get what he wanted.
And when his face turned mean—furious—and he steadied the gun on me, I realized that he was worse than ‘not a nice guy.’
He was the same sort of guy my dad had been. And Gordon. And the millions of other men out there who took their anger out on the first woman they came across.
“It’s perfect, Parker, and you’re going to sell me this land, because I want it. I have deals already inked that require this land, and if I don’t have it, it’ll be my life. And between the two of us, if it means your life or mine, I’m betting you’re able to guess exactly what I’m going to do.”
My body froze. A million and one times I’d wondered what I would have done if my dad had come after me when I was an adult. I’d thought I would have stood up to him. I’d taken self-defense classes in Nashville and I’d known—I’dknown—that if another man came after me the way he had, or the way Gordon had, I would be able to defend myself. I’d be able to put them on the ground and get away. Call the cops and tell them exactly what was going on, the way I’d never done when I was younger.
But right now, faced with a situation that was so similar to what I’d faced before, my body froze. The same way it always had.
I couldn’t even run.
And God, I wished Dev was here, with his broad shoulders and strong hands and chiseled jaw and his desperate need to protect me from the world. I didn’t want to need it. I hated that I even thought it. And I’d gone out of my way to convince him that I would never need him like that. I’d told him I was fine on my own, and happier that way.
He’d never be coming to save me. He probably believed that Iwasjust fine on my own.
But God, I didn’t want to be alone anymore. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life by myself, watching my friends find their people and fall in love. I didn’t want to be the last woman standing, taking care of business and traveling around the world and rising to the top.
I wanted to have a person. I wanted to fall in love and find my safe place. I wanted Dev.
But as Kevin cocked his gun and smiled grimly, I realized that I might have come to that conclusion way, way too late.
And I’d never even be able to tell Dev.
CHAPTER28
Dev
By the time I got up the hill to Parker’s house I was in a panic at how long it was taking me. Granted, it had probably taken me about two minutes max, but as far as I was concerned, that was two minutes too long. I’d never wanted another person depending on me, and I’d certainly never wanted to give anyone else the keys to my heart. I’d promised myself a long time ago that I’d never do that again.
But Parker had crept in like a thief in the night and stolen those keys from me, and now that I knew she had them, I couldn’t stand the thought of losing her.
I jerked to a stop, taking in Kevin’s car—parked haphazardly across the driveway like he’d arrived in a rush—and then jumping from my own truck and running for the house. I saw that the door to Kevin’s car was open and the engine still running, and then I was at the door.
It was broken. Someone had kicked it in. My stomach sank even lower and I shoved through it, my fingers itching for some sort of weapon as I walked into a situation that I was positive would be trouble. I paused in the foyer, listening carefully, and heard voices in the kitchen.
Parker, talking quickly and quietly like she was desperately trying to speak sense to someone. And a man, his voice low and harsh and laughing, like he didn’t care what she had to say because his mind was already made up.
I was running for the kitchen before I finished the thought, no plan in mind except that I needed to save Parker, no matter what it took.
I slid to a stop when I saw her standing with her back up against the island we’d been working on installing, her eyes big and very, very frightened. Gone was the girl who’d looked challenges in the face and laughed. Gone was the girl who’d told me she could handle anything by herself.
She looked like a girl who was facing her worst nightmare.
And I couldn’t blame her for that, because Kevin Farlan was standing right in front of her, pointing a gun at her face. I jerked, surprised at how quickly this had escalated, but felt my body already falling into something it had learned a long time ago in battle. How to move quickly and efficiently, and how to make the most of the space it had. I narrowed my eyes on his back, considering, and then noticed movement behind Parker.
When my gaze snapped up to the other side of the kitchen, where a door led out into the back of the house—a door that I’d told her should be locked at all times—I saw someone else. He wasn’t dressed like Kevin, but had on baggy blue jeans and a white tank top. Long, scruffy hair that looked like he hadn’t washed it in weeks and dark circles under his eyes. Scruff covered his jaw and he looked exactly like Connor had described him.
Like he’d just gotten out of jail, and like he’d gone to jail because he’d done something really, really bad.
