Page 77 of My Three Rivals

But I hadn’t been wrong about Maverick.

“M-Mav…” I mumbled, unable to speak.

“Oh, that fucking asshole,” Maverick swore, his face furious as he worked at my binds.

My head lolled limply as my hands and feet gave way, my body falling into Maverick’s outstretched arms. Effortlessly, he scooped me up and strode toward the exit where Lou had come and gone from.

“I don’t see him,” I heard Atticus hiss. “Oh, no… Little Fire… Tegan!”

His face came into view and then out, their images a fuzzy, hazy blur.

“Is she okay?” Wyatt demanded, and I almost sobbed.

All three of them were okay. Lou hadn’t hurt them.

“She needs a hospital,” Maverick whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” I muttered thickly. “He’s in hell…”

“Let’s get her out of here—” Maverick started to say, but the sentiment was interrupted by a single gunshot firing through the warehouse.

I screamed, but Maverick held me closer, shaking his head.

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he rasped. “You’re safe now, Princess.”

“How dare you come into my place and steal my property?!” Lou yelled out from somewhere I couldn’t see. “Put the girl down, and I might consider letting you idiots live.”

My head moved, and I realized that Maverick had ducked behind one of the boats, Atticus not far off with Wyatt crouched beside him. In and out my mind slipped as I tried to get a handle on where we were, where Lou was, and how this was going to play out, but my head had been hit too many times.

I needed medical attention.

“She’s not yours to keep, Lou,” Atticus answered conversationally, popping his head up quickly to take survey of where the gangster was. “We’re all walking out of here.”

Lou laughed hollowly, his voice getting closer. “Did you really think I was just going to let you walk away?”

He was close—too close—and I gasped, but Maverick buried my face in his neck, shaking his head. “It’s okay. Trust us.”

“He’s… not… it’s only… him…” I tried to wheeze, but Maverick held me to him as Lou suddenly appeared, his gun aiming toward me.

Another shot fired, and Lou fell back, the smirk falling off his face, two more shots falling into his chest as he went down.

The stress of the situation took me over, and tears began to fall silently down my cheeks as Atticus rose to his full height, ambling toward Lou, who gasped for his final breaths.

“Y-y-you’ll r-regret this,” Lou promised. “Y-you fucked w-with the wrong f-f-f…”

He passed out before he could finish his threat. For a moment, Atticus merely stared at him, the uncertainty on his face palpable. I knew what he was thinking; now the entire mob would be after him.

“Come on,” Wyatt urged, looking over his shoulder. “He can’t be alone.”

“H-he is,” I panted, curling my fingers around Maverick’s shirt.

“You don’t know that, Princess. You could have been unconscious for a while. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

They were all in agreement with that, and by the time they headed out of the warehouse and into the sun, I had also fallen back into nothingness, unable to explain that Lou had been nothing but a dirty rat all around.

* * *

This time, when I woke, I knew I wasn’t in heaven, despite the fact that I could smell the vineyard everywhere and all three of my men around me.

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