Page 108 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

JOLIE

T he thought registered a split second before he squeezed the trigger, and I felt the real fucking bullet graze my shoulder as I dove back behind my tree.

I dropped my useless fake gun immediately, digging a gloved hand under my long sleeve to depress the panic button on the dainty rose-gold Rolex the boys had gifted me over the break.

Then I yanked my real gun from the pocket of my cargo pants.

“Motherfucker,” I growled under my breath as I flicked the safety off and checked the magazine.

“I was enjoying a little frivolous fucking fun with my teammates.” I leaned around the tree and fired a quick shot at the asshole, who had jumped back behind his boulder.

“But noooo. No, can’t have that, can we? ”

The skin at the top of my left shoulder stung, and I could feel the cool breeze of the evening air hitting the exposed wound where the bullet had torn my shirt. It was just a graze, and I was really fucking lucky it wasn’t more serious.

The sound of heavy boots crunching the dead grass and not even trying to be stealthy kicked my heart up into my throat. Reinforcements were arriving now that I’d been located—alone and vulnerable.

“Orders are to eliminate target on site!” someone shouted.

“She’s behind that tree, but she’s armed,” boulder guy announced .

I yanked my goggles from my face and chucked them behind a nearby tree. The sound of them thumping to the ground pulled their focus away from my tree for a split second, and I used it to lean around the trunk to fire into the group.

There were half a dozen or so of them, and I witnessed my bullet burying itself in one guy’s thigh before I shielded myself again.

As he roared in pain, the one who was apparently the leader shouted, “Advance! Secure her now!”

Adrenaline pumped at a furious pace through my veins. I readied myself to take another shot and make it fucking count, but I knew I couldn’t take six attackers alone.

It was a good thing I wasn’t alone.

Gunshots sounded from the trees surrounding us, and two men dropped to the forest floor with little more than pained grunts.

“Take cover!” the leader roared.

Another shot from the trees. Another body dropped.

Bennett stalked into my line of sight, his goggles on his forehead and his Glock raised high.

And he looked really fucking mad.

“Hey, Princess. Save some for us?” Zach whispered as he appeared from behind a dense group of shrubs nearby, sneaking toward me with both of his guns drawn. His smirk died when he saw my shoulder. “Baby, you’re bleeding,” he said, alarmed.

“It’s just a graze, Zach,” I replied under my breath. “I’m okay. I promise.”

Another shot—another cry of pain before the thud of a body dropping.

Zach nodded, momentarily satisfied, then he motioned for me to get moving. I rolled to my feet and crept out from behind my tree. Bennett advanced on the boulder where the remaining attackers hid, and we joined him, fanning out around it, our weapons raised.

“Where’s Noah?” I asked Zach under my breath.

He jerked his head toward the hill that rose beyond the clearing. “Finding the high ground.”

“Good,” I said. “Let’s smoke them out.”

We converged on the boulder. Some haphazard shots flew in our direction, then the leader shouted, “Retreat! ”

Two bulky black-clad bodies bolted from behind the huge rock. They took off through the clearing and up the small hill, and we gave chase, firing round after round as we all weaved through the trees.

“Fuck, I’m out of ammo,” I huffed.

“Me too,” Bennett said as I heard the telltale click of his gun.

Zach had holstered one of his pistols already, and he waved his remaining gun. “I have a few left in this one. They’ve got to be getting low too.”

A shot sounded from up ahead, and one of our targets went down. The remaining man dove behind a fallen tree trunk, swearing viciously, then he fired several rounds up into the branches of a nearby tree.

Then his gun clicked.

“Take him alive!” I called to Zach as he ran at top speed toward the log with a feral smile. I heard the sounds of flesh hitting flesh as he tackled the man to the ground.

“Noah?” I called out, looking up into the trees. The shots that felled the last few men had come from somewhere.

“Here, Jojo,” he rasped.

I turned to find him gingerly dropping from a low branch of the big, stately maple tree to my right. His sneakered feet hit the ground, and he collapsed like his legs couldn’t hold him.

Then I saw the blood.

“Noah!” I screamed, my heart in my throat, icy dread shooting through my entire body, the breath snatched violently from my chest as the world spun because my Noah was hurt .

I ran to him with Bennett hot on my heels, my own legs giving out as I reached him.

“Oh, Noah,” I cried. “No, no, no.”

He’d taken a bullet to the outside of his thigh, the wound bleeding heavily as Noah sucked in deep breaths and winced as he shifted on the ground.

“I think it’s okay, sweetheart,” he said, forcing a smile. “It missed the femoral artery. I’ll live. I’ll live.”

Tears streamed from my eyes as I yanked the black bandana from around my neck, and with shaking hands, I shredded a long, thick strip from its edge.

“I’ve got it, Angel,” Bennett said softly, taking the strip from me and helping Noah tie it tightly above his injury. He took the rest of the fabric and padded the wound in a rough patch job that would have to last until we could get Noah to the hospital.

“Hey,” Noah said, already sounding calmer as he cupped my tear-streaked cheeks in his hands. “Sweetheart, I’m going to be okay. I promise. It was a lucky fucking shot. They’re all in much worse shape.”

It was only then I belatedly noticed there were four more bodies strewn about the forest floor.

“I wasn’t able to get back here in time to catch the first group after we got your distress call, but I got the second one as they snuck through the back gate of the property,” he said with a little grin.

I forced a smile. “You’re amazing, Noah.”

“I know,” he replied, his grin widening and almost convincing me he wasn’t in serious pain.

Zach’s voice rang out from over by the log. “Everything okay over there?”

“Help me up,” Noah demanded.

Bennett pulled him to standing, and I ducked under his arm to support his left side while Bennett got his right. I was still shaking, the gut-wrenching panic I’d felt now bleeding into the familiar feeling of violent, simmering rage.

They hurt my Noah .

They would pay.

Zach’s face paled as we approached with Noah limping along between us. “Oh, shit, man. They got you?”

“They got me. I’ll live, I swear.”

We lowered Noah to sit on the log, then I took the opportunity to kick Zach’s captive hard in the ribs.

“What the fuck, you bitch,” he hissed, struggling against the restraints binding his hands and feet that Zach must have procured from one of the bodies.

Zach buried his fist in the guy’s face, and the crunch of his nose breaking echoed through the trees. “Do not speak to her like that, Anderson. You’re already in so much fucking trouble, and I am happy to make it even worse for you if you even look at my girl.”

“You know this guy?” I asked, glaring down at the asshole.

“Oh yeah,” Zach replied. “Daniel Anderson, previously one of Ferrero’s top Enforcers until he must have run like a little bitch from the tiny skirmish we had at the Industrial City warehouse.

” He crouched next to Anderson, who glared at him as blood gushed from his nose, running over his mouth and dripping down his chin.

“Ballsy of you, my friend, to show your face in the City after that. Did you promise to deliver the Knight Heir to my mom on a silver platter in exchange for her not putting you on one of her cargo ships and having your pathetic ass dumped into the river?”

Of course, Anderson said nothing, and Zach stood from his crouch to look at me, his face heavy with regret. “This was a Ferrero hit, baby girl. I’m so sorry we weren’t more careful.”

I shook my head. He had nothing to apologize to me for.

I sat down next to Noah on his log, my own legs in danger of giving out on me as I fought the fury, the adrenaline crash, the soul-deep panic that Noah wasn’t as okay as he pretended to be. I gripped his hand, breathing through my nose as I tried to steady myself.

I looked at Bennett, then at Zach, and I said, “We have to end this.”

They both nodded, their faces grim, but determination shone in their eyes.

My phone buzzed from its spot in one of the pockets of my cargo pants. I fumbled for it, and I saw Max’s name on the screen.

“Hey,” I said, ignoring the loud grunts from our captive as Zach kicked the shit out of him.

“Can you stay out of trouble for, like, five fucking minutes, Jojo?”

I sighed. “It’s what I get for thinking I could go and have normal college student fun.”

The loud clanging of weights in the background told me Max was at Dom’s gym tonight. I heard a deep voice muttering, then Max said, “Rocky says to tell you he’s pissed you went and did this on his day off.”

I didn’t have it in me to come up with a snarky retort.

“Max,” I whispered, unable to keep the anguish from my voice. “Noah’s hurt.”

“I know, babe,” he said, his tone softening considerably. “Spencer called it in. Kara and Julie already cleared the park and are on their way to you now.”

“It was Andrea,” I said gruffly. “We have her Enforcer bagged and ready. He’s not talking much. ”

Max snorted. “That’s gonna suck for him later.”

The sound of motorized vehicles approaching caught my attention, which meant it was time to get Noah out of here. “Tell Dom and Laura I’m completely unharmed,” I said. “Then call Zepp and tell him Andrea’s time is up.”

“Will do. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I hung up just in time to see two ATVs crest the small hill and zoom in our direction.

They came to a stop a few feet away from where we’d gathered, and Julie dismounted from one while Kara sat on the other, taking in the scene.

She’d apparently brought a passenger, his long, bare arms looped tightly around her middle from his seat behind her.

“I cannot believe you all have summoned me into the fucking woods ,” Frankie griped, climbing down from the ATV and looking around the forest, his lip curling in disgust. “If a bug touches me, I swear to God….”

I could only stare blankly at him. He did look a bit out of his element here in… nature.

Zach rolled his eyes. “Stop bitching. I have a present for you.” He motioned to Anderson, who now appeared appropriately terrified.

Good .

Frankie perked up at that. “For me?” He stomped toward us, pausing to glare at a root that caught his ratty Converse sneaker, then his usual manic grin returned. “Oh, hey there, Anderson. So nice to see you again. Looks like you and I will be going on a date—are you excited?”

“Fuck you, you fucking freak,” Anderson managed to sputter like a man with a death wish, and Frankie giggled.

He giggled , and then he stepped casually forward, placing his shoe squarely on Anderson’s crotch and leaning his weight onto it.

Anderson squealed while Frankie ignored him, crossing his arms and surveying the rest of us with mild interest as he stood on Anderson’s dick.

He said, “Everyone doing okay? That doesn’t look too good, there, Hargraves. ”

Noah let out a wry chuckle, motioning to our captive while Kara fretted over him in a motherly way that relaxed me the tiniest bit. “This one got off a lucky shot. Make sure he pays for that—it upset Jojo.”

Frankie ground his heel down, and Anderson screamed again. “Oh, that is cardinal sin number one in this City, my friend,” Frankie cooed, then he nodded at Zach and Bennett. “Help me load him up, then I’ll sit on him while Miss Julie drives us out of here.”

They went to work, dragging a flailing Anderson to Julie’s ATV, and I helped Kara carefully load Noah onto hers.

“I’ll get him to our hospital, Jojo,” she told me.

“They’ll patch him up good as new. You guys are safe to hike out of here—I had the rest of my team clear the area.

” She revved the engine and then flicked on the headlight, as the night had finally settled around us.

“And don’t let Rodney give you any shit about the ATVs—he wasn’t in the mood to be helpful, so we weren’t in the mood to ask his permission to use them. ”

I scoffed. “Rodney’s going to have worse problems if I find out he had anything to do with letting Andrea sneak fucking mercs onto his property.”

Kara chuckled. “I didn’t get the sense that he did, but we’ll see what Frankie can get out of our guest.”

I leaned over to kiss Noah, who was now pouting about being carted out of here while he clung to Kara like a child. “I’ll be right behind you,” I whispered. “I love you. Please don’t die.”

He pressed his lips to mine again. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart. See you soon.”

I watched them drive away, dread settling in my gut like a lead weight. Bennett stepped in front of me, and he pulled me into his arms. “It’ll be okay, Angel. Noah’s tough.”

I sniffed, the tears welling again. “It’s because of me,” I said in a pained whisper. “I’m the reason he’s hurt.”

Zach snuggled up to my back, sandwiching me between the two of them, and he ran a soothing hand down my spine. “You’re the reason he lives , Princess. Same for the two of us. We’ll do anything to keep you safe, because there’s no us without you. We’re not doing that again—not ever.”

I could only nod into Bennett’s shoulder. I took one moment to let two of the three men I loved hold me while I broke in the dark, quiet woods, then I pulled myself together and marched out of there next to them, Noah’s recovery the only thing on my mind.

But Andrea’s demise would be next in line.