Page 26 of My Grumpy Billionaire Protector

With a snap of his fingers, one of the armed men lifted Evie up to her feet, leaving as much distance between them as possible. In the firelight, his scratch marks burned a deep and angry red.

The dread in my stomach deepens.

Evie’s gaze settles on Isaiah, and the corners of her lips turn down. “I’m here because you want money, right?”

Isaiah pauses. “We want an endorsement, and your grandfather can provide us with all that and more.”

“And I’m the bait?”

“You are so much like your mother,” Isaiah muses. “Same fire. Same bravery.”

Evie’s expression turns angry. “I’m nothing like her.”

Isaiah switches his gaze to one of the men, a slight smile hovering on the edge of his lips. “Why don’t you show Miss Coombes to her room? She’s going to be staying here as our guest, after all.”

This can’t be happening.

This can’t be fucking happening.

Isaiah has lost his mind, and we are all going to go down with him.

“A guest? Are you fucking insane? You said we were going to have a sit down with her mother and try to convince her.”

Isaiah waves my comment away. “This is much faster, and a lot more effective. I knew you’d mess up, so I set my own plan in motion.”

“You’re not going to get away with this, Isaiah. I’m calling the police.”

No business expansion is worth this.

Suddenly, a gun is pressed to my temple, and the other security guard gives me a steely eyed look. “I don’t think so.”

Evie breaks free of her captor’s grip and lunges herself at Isaiah. Luckily, her captor intercepts her when she is inches away from clawing his face and bears the brunt of her attack. He wastes no time by throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her out of the room. She pounds against his back, hurling obscenities at us the entire way.

“I can’t have any of you ruining my plans for the company,” Isaiah continues, as if he hasn’t heard her. “All three of you will be staying with me until this is resolved.”

I glare at the armed man in front of me. “Get the hell out of my way, or you’re going to regret it.”

Isaiah stands up, walks over to Cory, and punches him in the stomach. “I’d tread very, very carefully if I were you.”

I wheel around to face him, shock coursing through me. “What the hell? You’re an investor in the company. I trusted you. You’re supposed to be on the board.”

“The board will do so much better with me at the helm.”

Shock wound its way through me. “You’re going to kill me?”

“I haven’t decided yet. You and I have known each other for ten years, Shane. I like you, and most of the time I respect you, but I’ve known for some time that you can’t do what needs to be done in order to expand this company.” Isaiah takes a gun out of the waistband of his jeans and points it at Pierce. “On your knees.”

With that, I too am forced to my knees. In silence, the three of us are bound and gagged. We are then dragged to our feet by another group of men who shove us down the hallway and toward a flight of stairs.

I climb up the flight of stairs with Cory and Pierce trailing behind me. We are forced right down a carpeted hallway. At the end of it, we stop, the knob is twisted, and we are shoved inside.

The door slams shut behind us, plunging us in darkness. Half-blind, we fumble to get out of our restraints. I press a finger to my lips and creep outside, noticing a flight of armed men at the bottom of the stairs. I duck into a door that’s left slightly ajar and come face to face with Evie Coombes.

She looks like she wants to wring my neck.

“Are you planning on keeping me here the entire time?”

I clear my throat. “Look, I’m as much of a victim here as you. I have no idea what Isaiah is planning.”

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