Page 26 of James (Big Northwest #6)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

PHILLIP

A FTER CLOSING OUT the video chat window on his laptop, Phillip leaned back in the desk chair in his room at the B&B.

Except it wasn’t only his room anymore. He and James had crept down the hallway in the middle of the night, collecting her things from the room Jeffrey put her in. She’d decided they should stay in his room, considering they’d already innocenced his sheets and hers were still pristine.

He pushed back his chair, standing up to stretch out the stiffness from an adventurous night coupled with sitting for two hours going over shit with Nathan and the rest of his team. There were a lot of changes coming in both his personal and professional life, and he was eager to get started.

The first one being his trip to Paris. Going solo and leaving James alone in Chicago wasn’t an option, so he’d sent an email to Nathan right after Charlie came to pick James up to take her to the meet-and-greet at the cafe. In an unsurprising move, Nathan reached out asking for a meeting and he figured now was as good a time as any to tell everyone about his plans.

And they were pretty fucking fantastic.

It was telling that no one batted an eye when he explained that James was going to be moving in with him and helping out at the office. It was also telling that no one seemed bothered by it.

If anything, they appeared happy. Not as happy as he was, but still.

Pulling on his jacket, he strode out of the room, ready to find out why in the hell she was taking so long. The meet-and-greet was only supposed to be an hour, but she’d been gone over two. Probably swiping more hoodies from the gift shop or stealing pancake balls from the bakery.

Skipping down the steps, he made his way through the silent building. The place cleared out as soon as the businesses in town opened up, so he had it practically to himself. Even Jeffrey was gone, making sure things were going smoothly at the cafe.

Pausing at the coffee maker to fill his travel cup from the decanter, he was just replacing the lid when Kenneth came barreling down the hall, running at full speed through the open kitchen and living room.

He’d seen enough men running toward danger to know what the look on his face meant.

Something was real fucking wrong.

Abandoning his drink, he took off after the older man, following him down the entryway and out the front door. He was two steps outside when all hell broke loose in front of him.

Out of nowhere, Karlson sisters were fucking everywhere. Dropping off the roof of the bakery. Jumping from the tree beside it. Running in from one side of the alley and racing out from beside the building.

And they were all converging on the same spot. A spot marred by seedy looking men wearing suspiciously familiar looking dark suits.

Phillip’s heart stopped, chest constricting as all the air left his body, along with a little bit of his soul. Where in the hell was James?

“Shit.” Kenneth ran faster, moving pretty damn well for someone his age as he aimed for the melee taking place in the alley behind the bakery.

Phillip did the same, heart racing as he scanned the blonde heads for the one that belonged to him.

And James was his. Had been even before they’d met. His stubborn ass was just too dense to admit it. And now someone had to die so he’d have the chance.

His eyes landed on a familiar face. Leonard was in Shadow Pine and he had James by the arm, attempting to drag her toward the open door of a waiting vehicle.

Like fucking hell.

Changing his own trajectory, he focused all his attention on the man who was about to take his last breath. Hopefully he fucking enjoyed it.

He didn’t blink as he closed in on where Leonard’s sweaty ass was huffing and puffing, looking about one wrong move away from a coronary. The bastard better not. No way was he going to get the easy way out of a natural death. He was going to suffer. Struggle and fight as Phillip squeezed his neck until?—

A blur of blonde cut him off. Before it fully registered what was happening, Charlie gripped Leonard’s head, twisting it hard. The sound of his neck breaking was muffled by the thick layers of flesh fighting the collar of his shirt, but it was still unmistakable.

“Eww.” Charlie held both hands out, looking at her palms with a horrified expression. “Why was he so sweaty?”

“A sedentary lifestyle and too many carbs.” James grimaced as Leonard slumped to the ground, falling on her feet. “Also too much alcohol and a complete disrespect for his own physical limitations.”

Charlie continued holding her hands up, lip curled as she looked from side to side, her blue eyes eventually falling on where Alex was fighting with one of Leonard’s men. She fearlessly approached, wiping her hands down the guy’s back, cleaning Leonard’s sweat off on the fabric of his jacket. The move distracted the man, his head swinging to see who was behind him, giving Alex the opening she needed to drop him to the blacktop the same way Charlie had taken out Leonard. Only Alex had less flesh to fight and managed to twist his head into an unnatural position, leaving him permanently looking over his shoulder.

Alex cringed. “Yikes. Did not mean to put so much spin on that.”

Danny and Frankie brought down the other two men just as they realized they were outnumbered and went for their guns, ending the whole thing before it could really get started.

Kenneth’s steps slowed, his breathing coming in deep pants as he surveyed the scene. “I didn’t have ‘cleaning up a bunch of dead assholes’ on my bingo card for the day.” He frowned at the collection of men in black suits sprawled across the asphalt of the alley, then sighed, hands going to his hips as he looked from Karlson sister to Karlson sister. “Did you really need to kill all of them?” He scowled, kicking the closest one with the tip of his boot. “I would have liked to get at least one swing in.”

“There were only four.” Sam frowned, crossing her arms. “I didn’t get to kill one either.”

“You didn’t get to kill one because you’re pregnant.” Charlie bent down, wiping her hands off on another of the dead men’s jackets as she tipped her head in James’s direction. “She didn’t get to kill one either.”

“Only because she already got to kill one and hit another with her car.” Danny smirked. “Anyone want to go get one of the side-by-sides and even us up?”

“No one’s hitting them with a side-by-side.” Phillip stepped in, feeling like someone had to be the voice of reason in this situation.

And it clearly wasn’t going to be the women around him.

“We have to decide how we’re going to deal with them. The B&B is empty now, but it won’t be long before people start coming back this way. We’ve got to hide them somewhere until I can have someone come pick them up.”

Kenneth’s brows lifted. “You know someone who cleans up these sorts of messes?”

Phillip didn’t necessarily want to confess the extent of his sins to James’s family. Especially before telling them he was taking her with him when he left.

But then again, they were standing in a circle of dead bodies and no one was freaking out, so maybe they’d be more understanding than he thought. “Yeah. I used to work for a company that had to handle situations like this pretty regularly.”

Kenneth eyed him. “What company?”

“Alaskan Security.” He offered it up because there was no reason not to. The chances of Kenneth—or anyone else here—being familiar with?—

“I know Pierce.” Kenneth slowly smiled. “Met him through a contact I had when I worked for the government.”

That was an interesting development. One he could get distracted by later. Right now they needed to clear the alley before someone noticed the pile of bodies. “Where can we put these?”

“Bakery freezer?” Frankie offered.

“What?” Sam’s expression was horrified. “No freaking way. We put food in there.”

“But it would keep them cold, right?” Frankie’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t want them to start stinking the whole town up.”

James’s reaction to murder and vehicular assault was starting to make a lot more sense now.

“If we can get them over to my shop, we can put them in the walk-in.” Danny shrugged. “Or we can just put them out in the woods and let shit work itself out.”

He’d told James her sisters hadn’t murdered anyone, but he was starting to second guess that claim. “We’re not putting them in the woods. It’s not worth risking someone making the connection.”

“These guys came for us.” Sam stood taller, her eyes flaring. “It was self defense.”

“I’m not worried about the cops.” He turned toward his former client. “That guy was into some shady shit. There’s the chance someone might not be happy he’s gone, and I don’t want them coming after you.”

“Taxidermy freezer and Pierce it is.” Kenneth turned to Phillip, nodding at the still running SUV Leonard had tried to force James into. “Let’s put them in this and then drive it over.”

Once he and Kenneth managed to get Leonard and all three of his men into the vehicle, Kenneth climbed behind the wheel, following the smaller streets circling downtown to the back of Danny’s shop. Phillip sent the rest of the sisters off to go about their days, reminding them none of this ever happened, before taking James’s hand and following Danny to the building that housed her business.

From his understanding, she used to do a lot of animal processing in the back, but as the town got busier she’d been able to stop that sort of work and focus on her real passion—restoring preserved animals.

Craig was at the desk when they walked in the front. He angled a brow as the three of them hurried through and headed into the back. “What’s going on?”

“You don’t want to know,” Phillip answered honestly.

The back end of the shop was still set up for processing and packing, with bright lights and lots of stainless steel. It was actually the perfect place to hide bodies.

Phillip leaned into James’s ear, lowering his voice as Danny opened the back door to let Kenneth in. “Maybe you should stay here. They seem set up really well to handle all the dead guys in your wake.”

James scrunched her face up at him. “Shut up.” She lifted her chin, looking smug. “And for the record, Sam says these aren’t the first guys who came to Shadow Pine to try to abduct one of us.”

“Someone tried to abduct you?” Craig’s voice echoed through the space.

James winced. “Technically, it wasn’t someone.”

Craig’s eyes swung to where Kenneth was dragging in one of the men. His skin paled.

Phillip cradled James’s face in his hands. “I need to go help Kenneth and Craig drag these guys in. Will you be okay?”

James angled a brow at him. “Are you really asking me that?”

“Yes.” He let his forehead fall to hers. At this point he was done hiding what was between them. “Stop being a pain in the ass and tell me you’re okay before I lose my shit.”

James smiled up at him. “I’m okay.”

“Good.” He pressed a kiss to her lips then turned to find Craig looking a little gray. He rushed to catch his friend as he started to go down. “Whoa. Are you okay?”

“Lay him on the floor.” Danny grunted under the weight of one of the men as she hauled him in. “He’s gonna pass out.”

“I’m not gonna pass out.” Craig scrubbed one hand over his face as he turned away from the door. “Is there blood?”

“No blood.” James moved in at Craig’s other side. “Just snapped their necks.”

“Don’t tell him that.” Danny dropped the man she was carrying to the cement floor, plopping him right over a floor drain. “If he gets another concussion, you’re the one who’s taking him to the hospital.”

James rolled her eyes to Craig’s wobbly form, brows lifting at a judgmental pitch as she helped hold him upright. “Why don’t we take you somewhere to sit down?” She turned him away from the open door, leading him back through the building, leaving Phillip to help Danny and Kenneth.

They managed to get all four men stuffed into the freezer, locking them in. Once they were latched in, Danny went to check on her husband and Kenneth left to check on everyone else and make sure there weren’t any more of Leonard’s men laying in wait. The way Alex’s father-in-law handled the whole thing had him itching to ask questions, if only to have someone to trade stories with. There weren’t many people who could understand the life he’d lived before starting his company.

Speaking of the life he’d lived before…

Pulling out his cell phone, Phillip dialed Pierce’s number and waited for him to pick up. The first ringing trill was just ending when a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and James’s blonde head rested on his chest.

He pulled her close, closing his eyes as he took his first full breath since seeing Leonard with his hands on her.

“Phillip Foster.” Pierce’s smooth voice carried through the line. “I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon.” There was a smile in his voice. “I’m guessing this isn’t a social call.”

Phillip sighed. “No.” He smoothed down James’s hair. “But I’m not opposed to making one.” After pressing a kiss to her head, he continued, “I’ve got a little bit of a mess I need help cleaning up.”

“How many?”

He hesitated before admitting, “Four.” It wasn’t a huge number, but it wasn’t small either.

“You killed four men?” Pierce chuckled. “I see you haven’t lost your touch.”

“I didn’t actually kill any of them.” He’d been a lackluster former mercenary. Five deaths and a vehicular assault and not a single one was his doing.

Pierce was quiet for a heartbeat. “Who killed them then?”

“That client I called you about before? It was her sisters.”

He could only imagine what was running through Pierce’s mind. Probably ways he might be able to talk the Karlson sisters into coming to work for him.

“Her sisters killed four men?” Pierce sounded impressed. “I’d be interested to meet these women.”

“They won’t want to come work for you.” He put it out there just so Pierce would know. “And, heads up, one of their fathers-in-law knows you.” He gave Pierce the information for the town along with Kenneth’s name and number.

“I do know Kenneth. Good man.” Pierce didn’t offer up any more information on his relationship with Edward’s father. “Will you be there when we come to clear this up?”

“Depends on when you come.” His eyes fell to the woman holding him tight. “I’m leaving in a few days to take James home to Chicago.”