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Roy’s goons closed their triangular formation around him, Charlee, and Roy until they were about six-feet away. Jay vibrated with the need to move behind her and wrap her in the shield of his body. If he reached out and stretched his arm, he might’ve been able to touch her, but there were too many fingers on too many triggers. The slightest movement would endanger her.

Something caught his eye on the far side of the lot.Oh Shit. Nathan. Jay kept his gaze on Charlee but could make out the movement in his periphery. Nathan head-butted some guy and chopped his hand at the throat. Jay refocused on Charlee. “Talk to me.”

She didn’t shift her eyes or the gun from Roy. “I shot him in the chest. Why aren’t you bleeding, you…you bloodless monster?”

Roy rolled his head back and released a laugh that tumbled into a hacking cough.

Maybe the blood was pooling unseen beneath his bulky jacket.Bulky jacket.He would bet his Martin Acoustic there was a bulletproof vest. “Take off your coat.”

A gunman with a missing earlobe angled his barrel at Jay. “How should we precede, Mr. Oxford?”

Roy’s exhale whistled past his clenched teeth. He unzipped his jacket and pushed back the sides to reveal a black tactical vest rising and falling with his wheezes. Sharp edges protruded from the dimple left by the bullet. “What are you waiting for, Charlee? You can still shoot me in the head.”

Fuck. Jay wanted to grab the gun and do it for her.

She shifted her aim from his chest to his face. “If I shoot you, your Craigs will shoot me. If I don’t shoot, I get to ride down to the police station. Except we both know that ride will take me to San Francisco and I’ll end up chained to your bed by morning.”

Roy scraped his curling fingers along the pavement. “Oh, it’ll be the stockroom for you, darling. I’m hard just thinking about it.”

Jay’s adrenalin rushed to murderous boil.

“I choose death.” She squared shoulders.

Not going to happen. Jay forced a calmness he didn’t feel into his voice. “Give me the gun, Charlee.” He would start with Roy’s nutsac. A bullet in each testicle. Then he’d shove the barrel in his rectum and pump it with enough lead to shred his innards from sphincter to esophagus. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“I earned that privilege.” She adjusted her finger on the trigger.

The sudden rigidness of the gunmen strained the tense atmosphere to the edge of snapping.

Jay needed warp speed to shield her in time. Even if he had the speed, the firepower that would unleash from the surrounding gunnery would tear through him and hit her anyway. “Wait.”

She glanced up without moving her head or her trigger finger. Looking into her eyes was like watching a storm roll over the horizon and devour the blue skies. It was magnificent. Unstoppable. And deadly. “I have to end this, Jay.”

“There’s a better way.” He hadn’t worked out what that was yet, but he’d make damn sure it was a solution she would walk away from.

Colson remained in the driver’s seat with the engine running. The bodyguards had spread out, but not one was in sight. Where were—

Nathan poked his head around the SUV nearest to Charlee.

Jay tried not to fidget or make eye contact. No one looked in Nathan’s direction. Was the rest of the team hiding? Planning an attack from concealment?

His muscles tensed in readiness. His pulse fired with purpose. An idea played out in his head. It could work. Adrenaline flooded his body with instant energy.

Roy shifted to a sitting position in a cautious stiff movement. His breathing was quieter, steadier, as he looked between Jay and Charlee. “You lied.” His eyebrows lowered over his narrowing eyes and his nostrils flared. “You’re fucking this lowlife?”

Jay’s fist clenched. “That’s rich coming from a rapist.”

Charlee snorted. “There’s a hell of a lot of horny girls willing tolowerthemselves for Jay Mayard.” She shrugged. “He’s a wet-panty dream. I’d do him.”

Was the casual disregard in her voice and posture enough to convince Roy? The man’s blank face revealed nothing. Jay burned to put a bullet hole in it.

“Put your guns on the ground.” Tony stepped from around a parked car. Nathan, O’Neil, Vanderschoot, and Edison rushed in from nowhere and everywhere. Five on five, each of his team covered the three thugs and two cops.

Jay released a breath, but anticipation billowed in the wake of relief. With her gun leveled on one of the officers, Tony looked at him out of the steely eyes of a Marine and waited for his signal. She was prepared to fight this with muscle and gunfire.

And Charlee stood at the center of the web formed by the projectile paths of ten guns if they went off.

Jay’s plan would ensure her safety. He was used to being the coward, the social retard, the pain in the ass. That was his go-to. He would fight this with evasion and bullshit. “Roy. Got some bad news for you. My team leader just gave me visual confirmation that you are being recorded.” He jerked his chin at the SUV they arrived in that morning and at the backup vehicle they had returned in. “They activated video and audio equipment on the dashes when we arrived. The recordings are fed live to my team in L.A. If anything happens here, it will be broadcasted.” He held Roy’s glare and made sure he didn’t miss a single word. “Charlee willneversee the inside of your stockroom again.”