Page 10 of Hunted Hearts (Black Heart Security #6)

T he alarm ripped through the venue, a shriek shattering the calm.

Through the wall between the side stage and the auditorium, startled murmurs and shrill voices erupted as guests started to panic. The overhead lights flickered once before the emergency systems kicked in, leaving the space washed in red.

Theo was at Juliette’s side before she could register what was happening. “We move. Now.”

She jolted, gaze darting toward the practice room. Wisps of smoke curled from the crack under the door, launching her heart into her throat. “There’s a fire! My violin—”

“Forget it.” He tugged her arm, forcing her to move in the wrong direction.

“I can’t! That’s my grandmother’s violin. It’s priceless, Theo—”

“Not the priority. Move.” His grip closed on her arm, and he steered her toward the exit, head pivoting as he scanned for threats.

She couldn’t leave her precious instrument behind.

With the sheer strength of will backed by adrenaline, she tore her arm from his grip and whirled toward the practice room.

Her heels clicked on the tile as she ran forward.

When she reached the door, heat radiated from it, and she hovered a hand over the handle, remembering some training from childhood that door handles would be hot.

Panic surged in her veins, a tidal wave of emotion. She couldn’t leave her violin.

Gathering her skirt in one hand, she used the fabric as a barrier between the metal handle and her flesh. In one swift shove, she opened it.

Heat blasted out at her. She felt the mascara on her lashes stiffen and curl like twigs. The room flickered with flames, and off to the side, her violin was still resting on the small table next to the music stand.

“Juliette!” Theo hooked his arm around her middle and yanked her off her feet.

She kicked and flailed. “No! I need my violin!”

Theo dragged her several steps away from the door as the roar of the flames fueled by more oxygen threatened to claim more than her violin.

Denver materialized through the haze of smoke spilling into the corridor, motioning hurriedly. “Got her. Let’s go!”

Juliette resisted, heels scraping against the tile. “Theo, I have to get it!”

“You will get out. I’ll get the violin!” He pushed her toward Denver.

Her eyes locked on his for a moment, panic worsening, but Denver didn’t give her room to argue. He wrapped a steadying arm around her and propelled her toward the flood of guests surging through the rear doors.

Her last view of Theo was him poised at the entrance of the inferno, his shoulders squared for a heartbeat before he disappeared into the smoke-filled room.

Chaos erupted around her, and Denver swept her along with the tide of people running for safety. Juliette looked at the sea of faces around her and suddenly realized she didn’t know where any of her people were.

“My team!” she yelled to Denver.

“They’ll get out safe.”

She didn’t ask how he knew this to be a fact, just prayed it was true. As soon as he ushered her into the warm open air of the parking lot, she spun to face him.

Then it hit her.

This wasn’t just an accident. It wasn’t random.

Someone wanted her off that stage.

She grabbed Denver’s arms. “My team!”

But he wasn’t looking at her—he was looking through her. His lips were moving, and took her a moment to pick out his words from above the noise of frightened people hurrying to escape a burning building.

His words were low, urgent. “Theo, talk to me. Where are you?”

Juliette rocked on her heels as if slapped. Theo. The man went through that wall of flames to get her violin.

In her panic to retrieve her violin, he went back in for it. When it came down to it, she’d put him in harm’s way. And she couldn’t live with herself if anything happened to him.

“Theo, answer me. Theo?”

Her fingers curled into Denver’s steely forearms, her wide gaze fixed on his face. On the surface, he wore a mask of calm, but the turmoil in the depths of his gray eyes revealed that he wasn’t so composed on the inside.

“Theo. Juliette is safe. Answer me.”

Her fingers convulsed on Denver’s arms, biting into the pristine black dress shirt he wore.

His eyes seemed to focus on her.

“How can you be so calm?” With every word, her voice rose in rattled increments.

“We’ve trained for this, and Theo won’t do anything to jeopardize his life.”

She felt her knees wobble, and her body sway to the notes of horror rather than the music she loved performing. The violin was insured. Even though it belonged to her grandmother and had a history bigger than anything Juliette could ever know in her lifetime, the instrument could be replaced.

A man couldn’t.

She pried her fingertips out of Denver’s muscle and dropped back a step, swaying with terror.

“Theo, talk to me.”

She fixed her stare on Denver’s face, picturing her bodyguard running into the burning room. He never would have gone back if not for her. This was all her fault.

Denver’s questions kept coming. “Theo, you’re not doing anything stupid, right?”

He didn’t seem to be responding.

“Theo, talk to me, goddammit!” Denver’s grating tone sent ripples of goosebumps up and down her arms.

She took a step toward Denver, cursing her diminutive height and that even with high heels, she didn’t have a chance of seeing over the crowd of people swarming the parking lot.

People called out for loved ones and friends. Juliette wrapped her arms around her middle to try to quell her shakes.

“Thank fucking Christ.” Denver’s tone made her snap to attention. The man raked his fingers through his hair and twisted to scan the crowd.

When he shifted, his body created a window so Juliette could see through the crowd.

Theo was coming toward them.

She let out a squawk and clapped both hands over her mouth as she watched her bodyguard weaving through the crowd …

Cradling her violin.

He stopped in front of her and held out the instrument.

She didn’t even see the rich, beautiful wood—she only saw the smudge of black soot streaking his cheek.

She ignored the violin and threw herself at Theo. She struck his chest hard with the force of her embrace and threw her arms around his neck.

His muscular arms looped around her, and he lifted her off her feet, carrying her away.

Faces blurred past her vision, and the crowd seemed to surge around them like floodwaters striking the strong pier that was her bodyguard as he carried her through the parking lot.

“Juliette!” Rachel’s familiar voice made her crane her neck to see her friend—no, her family —in the crowd.

Theo spoke to Denver through their earbuds. “Tell the team to follow us to the vehicles.”

Everything blurred into a whirlwind for Juliette as he loaded her into the SUV, setting her on the seat like she was precious cargo, then placing the violin in her lap.

Denver jumped behind the wheel, and Theo took the passenger seat.

“My team? They’re all right?” She twisted side to side, trying to see out the windows.

“They’re following us,” Denver said. “They’re safe.”

She melted against the seat like a piece of candy left out in the sun. Her gaze dropped to her lap and her grandmother’s violin resting across her knees. Tears blurred her vision, and she couldn’t blink them away fast enough. A few trickled down her cheeks.

Using the hem of her dress, she dabbed them away as fast as they fell.

When she began to gather herself together, she tuned in to the conversation in the front of the vehicle.

“We didn’t miss a damn thing in that place,” Theo was saying. “It was clearly arson.”

“Now everyone who paid five grand a plate is going to be under investigation.”

He gave a grim nod at Denver’s input. “Not to mention every worker in the building. Cooks, servers, bartenders.”

They traded a look. To her shock, Theo’s lips did that twitching thing. Not quite a smile, but clear amusement.

“I’ll call Carson,” he said almost cheerfully. “He’s going to love all this extra work.”

“Poor bastard.”

The brothers shared a laugh at the expense of whoever this Carson person was. The sound of Theo’s laugh sent ripples of awareness up and down Juliette’s spine.

The sensation was just as shocking as the fact her bodyguard was actually finding a bright spot in all the darkness that surrounded the day. He could have lost his life back there…for her.

Juliette clutched the violin closer, the smooth wood cool against her trembling hands, and tried to steady the pounding in her chest. Every rise and fall of Theo’s low voice from the front seat pulled her focus away from the fear still twisting in her gut and placed it onto him —the man who had gone through fire to retrieve something precious to her. Without hesitation.

The adrenaline still hummed through her veins, but underneath it, something…hotter, heavier…stirred each time she caught the faint rumble of his laugh or the view of his strong profile.

She should be shaking with anxiety and fury that somebody was trying to harm her, but instead she sat there, heart beating unevenly, realizing just how much, in such a short time, she’d come to trust—and feel something for—the man tasked with guarding her life.

* * * * *

The parking lot was empty except for their small convoy—two SUVs idling near the edge of a remote overlook.

The view stretched for miles, the valley below painted in muted gold and gray beneath the late-afternoon sky.

The wind swept through the lot, cool and restless, tugging at Juliette’s hair as she stood beside the open door of their vehicle.

Theo caught himself staring again.

She was his ward. His responsibility. That was the only reason his eyes kept dragging back to her, the only reason the sight of her wind-tousled hair and pale, tear-streaked face hit something in his chest harder than any bullet ever could.

Back where he came from, there were no tears. No emotions. You got hit; you got up. You buried your dead; you kept moving. Whatever ache was left behind, you stuffed it down until it turned to stone.