Page 34 of Frankie and the Fed (Untamed Rascals #3)

I awoke to a gun in my face. Darkness blanketed us. Jamie’s soft snores and warm arm belied the danger we were in. I couldn’t see who held the gun, but I was certain they wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

“Wake her up,” a deep voice commanded as he gestured to Jamie where she lay wrapped around me.

My heart raced.

No.

I just found her.

The soft snick of him switching off the safety whispered through the room when I didn’t move.

I patted Jamie’s leg where it lay slung over my hip. She shifted, but resettled, obviously still asleep.

I tried again, my tongue tied, blocking the words desperate to escape .

She still didn’t wake up. My heart hammered in my chest. Anything I could use for self-defense was too far away. We were going to die here.

“Jamie,” I finally croaked out, my voice raw with tension and fear. I jostled her again. My heart beat so loud in my ears it drowned out all other sounds. How was that not waking her?

She mumbled something, but it was too late. The man with the gun became impatient. This was it. At least I would leave this world wrapped in her arms.

“What’s going on?” She asked, kissing my shoulder before raising her head to take in the horror of the night. “Shit.”

She moved faster than I thought possible, diving over me so she was in the line of fire.

No. Not again.

I clung to her naked waist, too tangled in the sheets to do more than stare in horror as she faced him down.

“Good,” he said in a satisfied tone. “Now that you are awake, I can tell you exactly how this is going to go.”

He pointed the gun right past her and back at me.

“You destroyed my family and any chance I had at happiness. Now, I’ll destroy you.” His hand shook slightly while he spoke. I had a feeling that just made this more dangerous. He believed what he said, and he seemed crazy enough to follow through on his threats.

“Taggart,” Jamie said. The name was meaningless to me, but clearly, she knew him.

“I gave you what you wanted, and you told her anyway. Then you went and killed my man before I could finish the job and get my money.” Killed his man. Tom .

So, there was someone beyond that rat bastard, and now he’d come for revenge. That still didn’t tell me how Jamie knew him or why she would destroy his family.

Old suspicions crept back in, and I wondered again if everything with Jamie really was a lie, too good to be true.

I couldn’t think about that now, though.

The room was still dark, so I couldn’t see anything more than the glinting silver of the gun in the moonlight and vague shadows seeming to move on their own. I could feel, though, as Jamie inched her hand along the sheet toward the nightstand.

“Taggart, let’s talk about this. Put your gun down so we can have a reasonable conversation,” she said, her voice calm and even, such a contrast to the racing beat of my heart. “Frankie has nothing to do with this, and I’m sure we can work something out to keep her safe.”

I clung to that. Even if everything about her was a lie, she wouldn’t let me be harmed.

“Nothing to do with this? My wife had nothing to do with this, but you meddled, and now she’s left me.” Taggart waved his gun, his voice becoming more erratic by the second.

Whatever Jamie was going to do, she needed to do it fast.

“That must be very distressing,” she said, still calm, but her hand was almost to the nightstand and whatever she thought it held.

“Distressing? You’re about to find out just how distressing it is.” He leveled the gun at me again. “Don’t worry, though. When I’m done with her, I’m going to destroy your life so thoroughly that you’ll break. Every moment for the rest of your life, I will haunt you.”

I needed to do something—anything—to help when Jamie made her move.

I wasn’t some helpless victim.

I let go of her so she would be free to move and thought through my options. The last time I tried to help, I made the problem worse, but I wasn’t sure how much worse it could be right now.

I pushed down my doubts. I’d gotten myself out of tough fixes before. I wasn’t a damsel. I could do something.

I’d already wasted enough time while Jamie was distracting him. I inched my feet, aiming for the edge of the bed. If I could get closer and roll off the side, I’d be out of danger, and Jamie could make a move without fear of me getting hurt.

One small inch at a time, I made my way to the edge of the bed.

I kept my eyes on Jamie, watching as she walked her hand closer and closer to the nightstand.

“It’s all your fault! I had the perfect setup.

The perfect plan. All you had to do was come here, pretend to investigate, arrest your little slut here, and then all would be well.

” Taggart made his first mistake. He brought his hand up to his head in frustration, and it was exactly the break Jamie and I needed to make our moves.

In one mostly graceful move, I rolled off the bed, landing on the hardwood floor with a thud.

“Bitch!” Taggart screamed. I couldn’t see what happened, but Jamie must have done something.

I groped around under the bed for something to defend myself with.

My fingers wrapped around a hard cylinder, and I didn’t stop to wonder what it was. I pulled it to me and crawled to my knees, prepared to throw the object right at his head if I needed to.

I peeked above the bed just in time to see Jamie kick the gun out of Taggart’s grasp. It went flying and landed somewhere beneath the dresser.

Good.

With that out of the picture, I jumped up, but instead of joining Jamie in her fight, I turned and ran for our phones.

A scream followed me to my purse.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I muttered as I fumbled around in my bag, my hands shaking.

I dropped my makeshift weapon—a vibrator, useless—and upended the contents of my purse, looking for my phone.

The faint glow spilling in from the streetlight beyond did nothing to help me. I didn’t want to turn on a lamp, though, and risk bringing attention to myself.

I dropped to my knees and felt my way through everything I’d dumped from my purse.

A grunt exploded from the room, and something thumped to the floor.

God, Jamie. Be ok.

I felt something cool, hard, and rectangular. Yes .

I picked it up and tapped the screen. Nothing.

“Don’t be dead.”

I tried to power it on. Still nothing.

Fuck.

I raced to the kitchen where I kept a spare charger and plugged it in.

Come on. Charge enough for a call .

The house fell silent. My racing heart and rapid breaths filled the space. Still, the phone wouldn’t turn on.

I pulled the chef’s knife from the magnet on the wall and turned around, holding it aloft and ready to defend myself.

“There you are,” Taggart said when he rounded the corner into the kitchen.

Jamie.

My heart stopped.

No.

“Back the fuck off.” I shouted, my voice shaking. “I will stab you.”

“I’d like to see you try.” He rushed me, but I held firm. If the dick was going to run into my knife, all the better for me.

He reached for the knife, and I swiped it across his hand, my hands surprisingly steady as I defended myself.

Blood pooled from the cut and dripped onto my kitchen floor, marring the aged hardwood. Fucker. It cost a small fortune to restore those.

“That hurt,” he growled, holding his hand to his chest while reaching out to me with the other.

I dodged toward the opening where his injured hand should have been, freeing myself from the corner he had backed me into. The idiot.

I swiped at him with my knife as I went, digging in as deep as I could. Hopefully, the pain would slow him down.

Jamie.

I had to get to Jamie.

I ran to the bedroom, my feet slipping on the hardwood floor as I went. I slammed into the door, turning the light on, and searched around for her beautiful blonde head .

“Jamie!” My heart dropped into my stomach as I rushed to her, desperately looking for any signs of movement. “No. Don’t you fucking leave me. Not now.”

Whatever secrets and lies still stood between us, she was mine, and I wasn’t losing her now.

I tried to find her pulse, but I had no fucking clue what I was doing. “Dammit. If you survive this, you are so teaching me how to defend myself and more than just basic first aid. I cannot keep being a victim here.”

She groaned and moved.

“Oh, thank god.”

I turned back to the door. Jamie was in no position to defend herself. Silver caught my eye. The gun.

I dove for it, coming back up just as Taggart charged into the room, blood dripping from the deep wound in his arm.

“Don’t come any closer,” I said, surprised at how steady my voice was.

“All I wanted was a happy family, and your bitch here had to go and ruin it for me!” His face was beet red, and a vein pulsed in his temple. If I didn’t kill him, a heart attack would.

“Listen, dickwad, I have no fucking clue what you’re talking about, but if you come any closer, I will shoot you!” I kept the gun trained on him, my hands steady.

Jamie groaned again behind me, and, as much as I wanted to check on her, I didn’t take my eyes off Taggart.

“I had the perfect plan, and you were the perfect fall guy. It’s not like you wouldn’t have gotten out of it. You know what? I think I’ll get a taste of your whore pussy before I kill you both. See what all the fuss is about. ”

With the lights on, the manic look in his eyes was all too clear. Whatever was going on in that head of his wasn’t sane.

I didn’t risk taking my eyes—or gun—off him to stand, but I really hated kneeling at his feet. I needed to end this.

“Sounds like a really brilliant plan there, buddy. Sorry it didn’t work out, but hey, if you turn around and leave right now, I won’t call the police. I promise.”

He laughed. The kind of maniacal laugh that only a true psycho could pull off. “I am the police.”

He lunged at us, and I didn’t have a choice. I pulled the trigger.

The gun exploded in my hands, kicking back harder than I expected. The shot didn’t hit him square on, but it nicked his shoulder, causing him to scream out.

“You shot me!” he said, surprised, as if I didn’t fucking warn him that was exactly what I was going to do.

“I’ll do it again.” I aimed lower this time, wishing I knew how to actually aim the gun and hit what I wanted. Hopefully, the next shot would land somewhere that would stop him.

He took another step toward me, rage twisting his face into an inhuman scowl.

I didn’t hesitate.

I had to protect Jamie.

Bracing for the kickback, I pulled the trigger and hoped I hit somewhere vital.

He screamed again and fell to his knees, blood pooling on my floor. I didn’t see where I hit. It didn’t matter, he couldn’t get to us now.

I turned to Jamie and gently helped her roll over .

“I’ve got you, baby,” I whispered as I brushed the hair from her face.

Panic seized me seeing the trickle of blood on her head, but she was breathing.

She would be ok. She had to be ok.

“Please stay with me.”