Page 88 of Keeping Guard
Noah laughed. “Yeah, you did. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”
“I didn’t mean to. We were fighting over the gun, and I don’t know, it went off. Maybe he was the one who pulled the trigger, shooting his own toe off. Yeah, I like that version. He was going to make me marry him, but I armed myself with weapons, if you can call a piece of wood from a coat hanger and a metal hook weapons, but it was all that was handy, so I improvised. I also have a strip of my wedding dress to tie him up with, or maybe use it to strangle him. Didn’t get a chance to—”
Noah kissed her. He smiled against her mouth. Yeah, she had him well trained. Hearing that gunshot, fearing that he’d find her hurt or worse...hell, he’d never been that scared even in the middle of a firefight. She was shell-shocked, but she was all in one piece. Nothing else mattered.
The asshole was still screaming, and Noah reluctantly pulled his mouth away from Peyton’s. “Can you shut him up?”
“I don’t think so,” Peyton said. “I’m pretty much done with having anything to do with him.”
“Not you, babe.”
She peered around him. “Oh, hi, Jack. Didn’t know you were here, too.”
Jack grinned. “Peyton, you’re my new hero.” He glared at Dalton. “Will you shut the hell up? It’s just a little toe.”
“I shot his pinky?” Peyton said. “His little pinky? That’s it?” She marched over to her ex, bent over, and scowled. “Oh, boo hoo. You’re lucky it was only your little toe. I was aiming for your junk.”
“Bitch,” he growled.
“Neveryourbitch, though. Ha-ha. To show you that I’m a better person than you, here.” She pulled the long strip of white, lacey material from her pocket. “I was going to use this to strangle you, but I’ll give it to you to wrap your stupid toe.”
“I think she’s high on adrenaline,” Jack said.
Noah chuckled. Yeah, she was a bit manic. Jack was grinning like a fool. He knew the feeling. Peyton tended to have that effect on you. If you weren’t smiling because of her, you were kissing her. Well, he was. No one else better be kissing her.
“Can we go now?” She wrinkled her nose as she glanced around. “I really need a bath.”
“Sorry,” Jack said. “We have to wait for Deke to get here.” He glanced at Noah. “I called him while you were getting the gun away from her.”
Peyton shifted her gaze to Jack. “Oh, right. I’m not thinking real clear right now.”
Noah moved next to her. He gently trailed his fingers over the bruises on her arms. “How?”
“When we were fighting over the gun.”
“You can’t kill him,” Jack said.
But he could accidently step on the bastard’s wounded toe, taking satisfaction when the man’s screams intensified.
Peyton tugged on his arm. “Can I at least go outside? It smells in here, and Dalton’s whining is giving me a headache.”
“You bet.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and walked her out. He’d raced here thinking he was going to have to rescue her, but she’d rescued herself. Was he proud of her? Damn straight. “You did good, princess. Half the guys in boot camp wouldn’t have been as clever as you in devising makeshift weapons.”
She beamed at him. “I was clever, wasn’t I? At first, I was really scared. I knew you’d come, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take or if you’d be able to find me. So, I decided not to be helpless. How’d you find me?”
“The trackers. Your father called Jack’s place and asked for me. He told me about the note and how you’d gotten a message to him by saying you’d left with Robbie. He immediately knew you were in trouble. Using his son’s name was brilliant.”
“It wouldn’t have been if Dalton knew about Robbie, but Dad had said he hadn’t told anyone here about his previous life. I counted on Dalton not catching that.”
“Clever, clever girl.” She smiled and he smiled back and what the hell was with his jittery heart? Felt like jumping beans were bouncing around in it. “Who was that man that came tearing out of here right before I came in?” he said to get his feet back on solid ground.
“That was a drunk magistrate Dalton paid I don’t know how much to marry us.”
Noah glanced around. “Guess he took off. Do you know his name?” He’d like to give it to Deke. The magistrate had been prepared to marry an unwilling woman to a man with a gun.
“No, he wasn’t introduced to me.” She glanced at the Mercedes. “Oh, I need to get my purse and phone out of Dalton’s car. He wouldn’t let me have them when we got here.”
“I’ll get them for you.” He grabbed the purse from the front passenger seat, noticing a large envelope was also on the seat. He picked it up and pulled out the sheets, frowning when he realized what they were.
