Page 39 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

Grace

Terry pushed me hard, tackling me to the ground. His hand behind my head was the only thing that protected my skull from breaking open. The force of his weight knocked the wind out of me.

I closed my eyes against the sounds of gunfire, breaking glass, and bullets hitting metal. This couldn’t be happening again.

Terry lay on top of me, a huge weight pinning me to the ground. I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. The sound of another shot hitting the glass above us made me scream with what little breath I had left.

Terry’s hand covered my mouth. “Quiet.” He lifted a slight bit of his weight off me. “Duke?”

“They’ve got us pinned,” Duke responded. “Three shooters across the street. Keep Grace there. Too much open ground between here and the building.”

“We’re gonna die,” Elliot whimpered. “I just know it.”

“Shut up and stay flat on the ground,” Duke barked. “If you say another word, I’ll shoot you myself.”

Turning my head, I saw Duke’s foot and knee from under the car. He rose, fired three shots, and crouched again.

The other gunmen, whoever they were, peppered our car and the neighboring ones with more bullets .

Terry took his hand off my mouth. “Don’t move and keep your eyes closed.”

Right. There could be blood. I nodded, but didn’t follow his order. With his safety on the line and my heart about to explode out of my chest, I tensed instead. There was no way in hell I was taking my eyes off my boyfriend, my protector.

Terry crawled off me and squirmed across the ground to the back of the car with his gun in hand.

“Don’t leave me,” Elliot moaned.

I twisted toward him. “Shut up and grow a pair.”

I’d seen enough TV to know that if Terry took a bullet, someone had to apply pressure to the wound to control the bleeding.

That had to be me, blood and all. I fucking refused to let my boyfriend die because I had a crap-ass nervous system that shut down at the sight of blood.

If my boyfriend needed a nurse, I was determined to be there for him.

Boyfriend , that word echoed in my head as I watched him. The attacks had crystallized how I felt for my ex-Marine. If I survived this, I was going to tell him exactly how hard I’d fallen for my onetime tormentor.

Terry extended his arm alongside the tire and squinted. He fired, the sound surprisingly loud this close to me. A second later he fired again. “One down,” he announced to Duke.

Duke laughed. “If Marine scout snipers are so good, why’d it take you two shots to hit the guy?” He popped up and let loose another volley of shots.

More bullets peppered our car.

“Fuck you.” Terry’s tone was joking. “At least I didn’t empty half a clip without hitting anything like some washed-up SEAL.”

“It’s called drawing their fire to save your ass and giving you a target to aim at,” Duke argued with a laugh.

Their humor helped me relax a tiny bit. Maybe it was the badass key to handling the stress of such a deadly situation.

Terry stretched out and squinted again. “I’m ready.”

Duke shot twice more before ducking.

More return fire hit around us.

I could barely breathe. I was safely behind the car, but Terry had to be exposed to shoot. With the sound of each bullet hitting nearby, I feared the next one would strike him. That I’d lose him. We couldn’t end like this before we even got started. I couldn’t lose him, not now.

Bang . Terry fired once more. “Winged one.”

“Aren’t snipers supposed to go for headshots?” Duke joked .

“Bite me, sailor boy. A case of beer says I take you at the range, even lefthanded.”

“You’re on.”

Several more seconds went by with an eerie silence.

Duke popped up at the sound of squealing tires, and back down again. “They’re bugging out.”

“Don’t move,” Terry told me before he stood and gave a silent hand signal to Duke. The two split up, moving in different directions before crossing the street.

Now that the gunfire had ceased, I could hear the groaning coming from a distance.

Whoever our attackers were, they’d left one guy behind, presumably the first one Terry had hit.

Sirens became noticeable in the distance just before screams of pain came from behind a car across the street.

I struggled to my feet as people started pouring out of our building.

Another scream. Since the asshole had shot at us, I didn’t care what pressure Terry or Duke used to get information from the guy. Magnanimous was not in my vocabulary today. If I wasn’t scared of the blood, I’d have been the first one over there demanding to know who was targeting us.

Marci was the first to find me. “My God, I didn’t know you were in this much trouble. I can’t believe people were shooting at you.”

Peyton and several others from my company joined us.

“Me either,” I said.

Paul pushed into the circle. “I called 9-1-1.”

“Good. Now let’s all get back inside and let the professionals take care of this.” That’s when I saw Elliot running down the street.

A police car roared up and screeched to a stop.

Duke waved them over to the other side of the street.

Peyton walked toward our building. “You heard the boss. The excitement’s over. Back to work.”

After a few grumbles, the group of my employees followed her back inside.

I got the side-eye from Albert Sakman, whose high-end financial consulting company occupied the floor below us. I would have loved a chance to sell to some of his clients.

Terry ran toward me. “Grace.” His hands were bloody.

This time I followed my training, and tensed immediately, leaned against the nearby car closed my eyes and slid down to a seated position. It is not his blood. It is not his blood. I kept repeating the words to myself, tensing hard between breaths .

“Are you okay?” I felt Terry’s hand on my shoulder and heard the worry in his voice.

I kept my eyes closed. “Thanks to you. I’m just being careful.” The backs of my eyelids remained pink from the sunshine. The darkness I feared didn’t come. I’d conquered my broken nervous system this time. It could be done. “You have blood on you.”

“Shit.” He pulled his hand away.

If it wasn’t for the blood and the possibility of making a fool of myself by fainting again, I’d be tackling him right this second. He’d put his body between me and those mad gunmen. He’d taken one of them out and wounded another. My man was a certified, hot-as-fuck badass.

A few seconds later, he announced, “All cleaned up.”

When I opened my eyes, he was marvelously shirtless, with just a slight red tinge to his hands, and the shirt he’d used to wipe off the blood lay in a clump yards away.

He pulled me to my feet and into a wonderfully tight hug.

“You are one hot badass,” I told him. Watching him in action was the turn-on that kept my fear in check.

“Elliot?” he asked.

“He took off.”

“You scared my people,” Sakman complained. “You’re a menace, Brennan. I’m going to talk to the landlord about having you removed.”

Talking to him had never been a pleasure. The man grumbled about everything. “I was scared myself, but everything’s okay now.”

“You call shooting a man on a busy street okay?”

Terry stepped between us. “I do.”

“Did you shoot that poor man?” Sakman demanded.

Terry advanced on him. “He attacked my woman and my friend, so yes, I shot back. I protect the people close to me against anyone who threatens them—anyone. I only regret that I didn’t get him between the eyes and now he’s going to take up a hospital bed that should go to somebody who matters.”

“You’re a menace too. I’m definitely getting her thrown out of this building.”

Terry advanced, forcing the older man to back away. “It sounds to me like you’re threatening her.”

“No. No. Of course not,” Sakman spluttered. “I would never.”

“Good. Because Grace has put a lot of effort into her business. It’s important to her, and she’s important to me.” Terry forced him back farther. “If you do anything that hurts her, I will be back to see you, and you do not want me to come looking for you. Do you understand? ”

Even though Terry’s words were aimed at Sakman, his lethal tone scared the shit out of me.

“Yes, sir.” A wet spot appeared on Sakman’s pants.

Terry backed away and lowered his voice. “What’s your name?”

“Sakman. Uh, Albert Sakman.”

“Albert… I like that. It sounds like an honest name. What do you do, Albert?”

Sakman partially regained his composure. “Financial… financial consulting.”

“Rich clients?”

“The upper tier of the one percent,” Sakman said, puffing up and putting on his sales voice.

“Albert.” Terry put his arm around me. “Grace and I got shot at today because she went out of her way to help her cousin. I happen to think that helping family is pretty damned admirable, don’t you?”

Sakman nodded vigorously. “Uh-huh.”

“Maybe she’s the kind of high-integrity person you’d refer your upper-tier-of-the-one-percent clients to?”

Sakman did a bobble-head imitation. “Absolutely.”

“I like that. It’s good to know that you’ll have Grace’s back in the future.”

Sakman was still nodding.

“It’s been nice to meet you, Albert, but we have to go now.” He pulled me against his side. “Kitten, let’s get you inside.”

Could this man be any more perfect? I blinked back a tear of joy at the way he’d gone out of his way to turn a complete shitshow into something positive for me. “We need to get you something to wear.” I liked his chest and his ink, but I didn’t like the idea of all my employees ogling him.

“I left a windbreaker in your office.” He waited until we were alone in the elevator to add. “Or, we could go into your office, pull the blinds, and I could rip your shirt off so we’re even.”

I slapped his shoulder. “Stop that. This is my place of work, Goodwin.”

His thumb teased my breast. “You know what they say about all work and no play?”

His words sent a rush of heat between my legs. I pulled the red emergency stop button.

As soon as the alarm bell started ringing, I grabbed him for a kiss. He fought me, but I took control, plundering his mouth. The noise of the alarm only heightened the experience for me, and I was breathless when we broke the kiss. “I had to say thank you for being there for me. ”

He touched his nose to mine. “You know, they’re probably calling the fire department right now.” He had to speak loudly over the blaring alarm.

I nodded, gave him one last peck on the lips, and released him. “When we get home, I plan to show you how thankful I can be.”

He reset the emergency stop, and the elevator started back up silently. “We don’t have to wait.” He grinned mischievously, cradling my waist. “Your office is closer.”

I pushed at his shoulder. “As fun as the office sounds, I have a client demo to do.”

“I figured you’d say that.”

“Were you really going to punch Mr. Sakman for me?”

The ding sounded, and the door opened on our floor.

“What happened?” It was Marci among a gaggle at the elevator.

“Some kind of glitch,” Terry answered. “You might want to call maintenance and take the stairs down when you leave.”

A few heads nodded as the women ogled my bare-chested hero.

I folded my arms over my chest. “Doesn’t anyone here have work to do?”

Grumbling, the group left.

“He threatened you. I will not let that stand,” Terry said, answering my previous question.

It was as much of an answer as I was going to get. Although I wasn’t a fan of violence, it was a thrill to think I was that important to Terry. I pulled him to a stop when he started to leave. “Hold on. I need to say something…”

“Yes?”

Peyton rushed up before I could get the words out.

Telling him how I felt was going to have to wait. I wasn’t doing this in front of an audience. Maybe her interruption was a good thing, because I wasn’t even sure of the right words, and rehearsing might be a good idea.

“Mr. and Mrs. Lim are waiting in demo one.” Peyton didn’t hide her admiration for my boyfriend’s physique. There was that word again, boyfriend .

“I left a windbreaker in your office. I’ll join you in a sec,” Terry told me.

“Right.”

We followed Peyton through the space, and so many eyes tracked Terry.

I grabbed his hand, staking my claim for all to see. Several steps later, I decided that wasn’t enough and pulled him to a stop.

“What?”

I answered by slipping my hand behind his neck and lifting up to kiss him, making it public in front of my employees. He said he’d claimed me, and now I’d claimed him as well.

The only sounds in the room were gasps.

When we broke apart, he nuzzled my ear. “I thought you were against PDA.”

“It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.” My words would have to wait.