Page 161 of Protecting Peyton

Eyes, throat, nose, balls, knees.I jabbed my fingers into his eyes and then kicked him in the groin.

He curled into a ball on the floor.

Taking off as quietly as I could, I zigged and zagged back toward the front.Zane, right about now would be a perfect time to show up and save me.

“Dimitri is down.” The yell came from behind me. “He’s hurt bad.”

I stopped and listened, then smiled, knowing I’d taken one bad guy off the board.

Wait a minute? Dimitri, Marco, Oleg, Baldy, and now whoever had just yelled, that made five bad guys working for the monster. Did this guy have one-eight-hundred-Russian-goons on speed dial?

Hunched over, I kept moving.Never give up.Never give up.

“I see her.” The monster’s yell came from my left.

Our gazes briefly locked before I turned and ran.

Rounding another set of pallets, I ran smack into trouble.

Baldy. He swung. The blow connected with my temple, and pain exploded through my skull. Beefy arms grabbed me and lifted me off my feet. “Got her.” He grabbed my breast and squeezed hard.

Fight with everything you have.I threw my head back into him and heard the satisfying crunch of cartilage.Take that asshole.

“Bitch.” He grunted and threw me to the ground. “You’ll pay for that.”

I rolled, ending up against a pallet.

Blood ran from his nose as he snarled, then kicked me in the head.

It hurt for an instant, then nothing, and the world went dark.

CHAPTER 37

Zane

I leanedagainst the car as we waited for Jordy to find where the BMW had gone.

O’Connor had composed himself and sat in passenger seat of my Cayenne.

Lucas motioned me over, so I strode to him.

“What happened?” he asked in a hushed tone, nodding toward my car.

“He can’t take fast driving,” I explained. “A complete lightweight. I don’t like him, and?—”

“You’ve made that obvious,” he said dryly.

“I can tell he’s going to slow me down when it comes to assaulting the target. We could still trade, and you could take him.” I made it sound like a joke, but meant it seriously. It was worth a try.

Lucas’s eyes bored into me. “In this job, you have to put emotions like that aside and work with whoever you’re assigned. The job requires teamwork, not selfishness.”

Constance nodded.

“Copy that, Boss.” After that last comment, I felt about two feet tall. His message was crystal clear. I might not like O’Connor, but trying to pawn him off on somebody else was selfish of me. It hurt that I hadn’t seen that. Being called selfish was an insult to any SEAL. We were all about teamwork.

Lucas grasped my shoulder. “With good teamwork, one plus one is more than two. You know that. It’s your job to support him as much as it is his job to support you.”

I nodded as I looked back at my car’s occupant. “Copy that.”Teamwork.