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I nodded. "Yeah."
I rattled off a quick text, telling him of our suspicions, warning him to be safe until we could get there to protect him.
"What's the plan?" Tierney asked.
"No fucking clue. Jax has a pistol, but he's a tech guy, not a gun guy."
"So, we strap on as much hardware as we can carry and make the rough outline of a plan on the way over there."
I nodded, the closest thing I could muster to a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. "That's the closest I have to a plan."
"I'm going back to bed. I have the pistol you left me last night, and the dogs will alert me."
"Absolutely fucking not." I shook my head. "Not a chance in hell the three of us are splitting up until that bitch is room temperature."
To her credit, Connor didn't argue, simply walked back into the makeshift hospital room and retrieved the weapon from the bedside table.
Tierney and I both rushed up the stairs, splitting off at the top. Me heading for the arsenal in my bedroom; her going to fetch her scout and my Walther.
In less than ten minutes, we met at the base of the stairs. Once again, she looked like death herself, perfection. Her hair twisted into her favorite fishtail braid, with daggers sheathed invisibly along her body. Under other circumstances, I would have gladly spent my afternoon releasing her wild hair and running my hands over her delicious curvesuntil I found every hidden blade. I wasn't one for games, but that one sounded like it could be a lot of fun.
The hard set of her eyes brought me back to the moment, and I pushed down the indecent thoughts that seemed to frequent my mind when she was around.
"Load up."
"Shotgun!" Connor yelled, calling dibs on the passenger seat.
Tierney laughed. "That's fine. As long as I'm not riding dog, we're fine."
I smiled at their easy interaction, another thing that had fallen into place as everything else seemingly fell apart around us.
Jax didn't live far—maybe twenty minutes. We came up with a loose plan I hoped to firm up once we saw his security set up. Connor agreed to stay in the car and shoot anyone who came within sight that wasn't us. It was a simple plan, but it was all we could do with the limited information we were working with.
I pulled into the winding drive, relief washing over me at the sight of him standing in front of his door, arms folded across his chest and what looked like the Ruger I'd given him, tucked into his waistband.
"The fuck is this about Rossdale?"
"I told you. The crazy bitch that kidnapped my doctor." I fished the camera out of my pocket and passed it to him. Hoping he could give me more info.
"Where'd you find this?" confusion filled his eyes as they met mine.
"I found it where they were holding Connor."
He pushed it back into my hand. "You're being played, man. The range on that thing is shit. Bitch couldn't have been more than maybe three hundred feet away."
Everything happened, seemingly in the space between heartbeats. Jax's head exploded—blood and brain matter sprayed across both Tierney and me as the shot rang out.
On instinct, we both dropped, my head finding the only rock in the driveway as I fell. Tierney didn't miss a beat. Rolling to straddle my body, her pistol sweeping for signs of a shooter. She fished the pistol out of my waistband, holding one out in each direction as she protected me.
Covered in blood, weapons in hand and fire in her eyes—I'd never seen anything more sexy in my life.
"So fucking beautiful." I whispered reverently.
Chapter 38
TIERNEY
My heart thundered in my chest as I straddled Ahren. We'd dropped so fast, there hadn't been a way of avoiding the broken brick paver left carelessly on the driveway. The back of his head had taken a direct impact, and I knew it would take him a moment to shake it off. Until he did, he was vulnerable.