Page 23 of My Grumpy Billionaire Protector

I am rewarded with a loud wheeze and a muffled protest.

Blindly, I swing again, and this time, there is a crunch and a howl. Blood pounds in my ears, and my breathing comes in short bursts. Someone reaches out and tries to wrench the bat out of my hands. I squirm and struggle, but it is taken away, and I hear it fall to the floor with a clatter. Soon, a pair of arms come up around my shoulders and drag me forward. Using every ounce of energy at my disposal, I kick, scream, and writhe.

But my attackers, four of them in total by the look of things, are a lot larger and much stronger than I can imagine. Still, adrenaline bursts through my veins. I continue to kick and scream until my voice is hoarse. Abruptly, something is stuffed inside of my mouth, and I taste bile in the back of my throat. Somewhere to my right, a flashlight shines and sweeps in my direction. I flinch and swing my head away until fingers dig into my flesh and force my head back.

“Easy,” someone barks. “We’re not supposed to hurt her. Boss wants her alive and unharmed.”

“She fights dirty. First, with the bat and then her nails.”

The other person chuckles and steps out of the shadows. I struggle to make out his features, but the darkness clings to him. All I can make out is a tall and muscled figure dressed in black. When our eyes meet, unease races through me, and my eyebrows draw together. He frowns at me and snaps his fingers together. The last thing I see before they tie a blindfold over my eyes is a pair of determined hazel eyes.

SHANE

Iplace both hands on the steering wheel and glance into the rearview mirror at Cory who has a scowl etched onto his features. “Are you still sore that you got your ass kicked by a woman?”

“She was batting her lashes at me and pretending to be injured!” Cory snaps, his eyes tightening. “That’s the only reason she was able to catch me by surprise.”

My lips twitch. “Sure, it is.”

“She’s crazy,” Cory adds, tossing a sour look over his shoulder at the gym receding into the background.

Clearly, Cory’s sparring partner is a woman who knows how to take care of herself.

And she is in pretty good shape for a woman her age.

I am almost impressed by her tenacity.

But a quick look at Pierce, whose arms are covered with scratch marks, only filled me with more amusement. “Nice tats, Pierce.”

“Fuck you,” Pierce growls before holding his hand up to the glass and examining it. “I didn’t know anyone could bite like that. I need to get out of underground wrestling, man. The women there are like fucking feral cats or something.”

I burst into laughter, my grip on the steering wheel tightening. “I would have paid good money to see you get taken down by a woman half your size. What is she, five-four?”

Pierce levels me with a withering look. “That’s a lot of talk from someone who didn’t even go up against her. You backed out of the fight, so you shouldn’t even get any opinion.”

I shrugged. “It’s not my fault there was some actual work to finish like budget reports and such.”

With a fuse blowing at the company, my plan to pull an all-nighter has been derailed from the get-go. Thankfully, I had enough sense to pull out a few flashlights and candles to keep working. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after that Pierce and Cory both called, needing me to pick them up.

It didn’t take Cory and Pierce long for them to spill the beans.

A speed bump rises up out of nowhere, and I hit the brakes a little too late, sending us all flying over it. Pierce grumbles and adjusts his seatbelt while Cory pats his head.

“I asked the people in attendance to send me pictures and videos of your fight, Pierce,” I say cheerfully. “Cory, your training session is going to be a little harder to get my hands on. Consider it payment for picking you both up in the middle of the night.”

“Has anyone ever told you to mind your own fucking business?”

“Many times, many times, but it’s never stopped me.”

Pierce and Cory flip me off before settling back into their seats.

I steer the car onto a crowded street with cars pressed up on either side of me. Both sides of the street are illuminated by a pale, yellow light and the glow of a crescent moon. Slowly, I lean forward in my seat and peer into the darkness, trying to make out the vague outline of the traffic light ahead.

Fucking change already.

Little by little, the cars around me come to life, crawling forward at a glacial pace. The car lurches forward, and I lean back into my seat, unease crawling up my spine. Over and over, I thought of the measures we are going through in order to secure a meeting with the governor’s daughter.

We hadn’t done anything illegal by approaching her event coordinator and his assistant.

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