Page 22 of Too Guarded to Love (Project VIPER #3)

“I’m sure you do, which is why what happened at the beach was supposed to stay at the beach.

” Tempting the charming Casanova she’d heard tales about had been a gross miscalculation.

Any woman who resisted that velvet voice deserved the Medal of Honor, and she was far from worthy.

“You were supposed to be one night. One time. That’s the kind of guy I thought I was seducing. ”

“Agreed on all counts, but there’s one problem. I can’t forget about a mission until it’s completed.” He stroked her cheek with his knuckle.

She shivered under his touch. “And I’m your mission?”

“One I didn’t choose to accept, and should abort for many reasons, but for the life of me can’t abandon the urge to see it through.

I can’t complete it and move on without all the intel and you’re not sharing.

” The elevator dinged. He stepped back. “We’ll finish this conversation later, and we will discuss your deal. ”

She held her injured arm against her chest as she hurried past him, not because it hurt, but to stop herself from trembling. Tensing her muscles, she turned to him. “And if I don’t?”

“You won’t like the consequences.” He lifted one shoulder as he scanned the empty parking garage. “Or maybe you will. ”

Twenty feet away, a wide black door rolled up from the ground. The two guards in a small booth next to it nodded at Nic. Headlights appeared underneath. A shiver that shouldn’t have felt so arousing danced down her spine. “My brother will kill you.”

A smile tilted his full lips. He didn’t look at her. His gaze remained on the garage door, but damn him, even a side view of that face caused the earth to shudder under her feet.

“You won’t tell him a thing.” He shifted in front of her as the door cleared the top of the sedan. “You don’t want him knowing your business any more than I do.”

“No, I…”

The sound of the garage doors grated in her ears.

An ear-splitting crack crashed through the building. This time, the earth really did move under her feet.

The force of the explosion hurled Nic into Olivia.

Wrapping his arms around her, he twisted his torso and dropped them to the floor.

His steel shoulder clanged against the concrete.

Hot pain tore through his skin as his stitches ripped open.

He rolled on top of her and covered her face with his hands as a mind comms message beeped in his head.

“Status?”

He could barely hear Ryan’s clipped voice over the ringing in his ears. “Explosion in the garage.”

Olivia shook underneath him as the familiar sting of his weaponry coming online prickled down his spine.

He turned his head toward the garage door.

A rectangular hole, where the lower half of the door used to be, exposed them to the street.

The other upper half rested on the trunk of the sedan in a fiery union as baseball-size chunks of metal and glowing, spiky shards fell from the ceiling like a meteor shower.

“The vehicle is on fire.” Dark smoke consumed the garage—and Nic’s lungs—amid the flames that engulfed the rear of the SUV and rushed over the roof. He looked up, but no water sprayed from the ceiling. “The sprinklers aren’t coming on.”

“The team is on the way. They’re…”

The rest of Ryan’s words got lost in the mayhem as Olivia clutched Nic’s shoulder. He sprang up and dragged her with him. Shoving her toward a thick pillar by the elevator, he yelled over the roar of the flames as a wall of heat rose behind him. “Stay here.”

He didn’t wait for an answer as he turned from her and ran to the vehicle. The flames on the roof reached the ceiling of the garage as the inferno shoved him back.

“Nic.”

He spun to her voice that sounded like it was a football field away in the distance even though she stood just a few yards back.

But not far enough. She’d moved several feet from the corner he’d left her in.

She pointed to the car. “The baby.” Tears streamed down her face.

The back of his neck burned from abject terror and sparks from the fire, but he didn’t dare take the time to rub it.

His earlier fears had been justified in deadly fashion.

Almost everyone else in this world that he loved sat in that burning SUV.

Every second counted, but slow was smooth, and smooth got the job done.

Frantic and rash could lead to death. He wouldn’t let that happen on his watch.

Not again.

“Get back.” Nic ran to the security booth. One guard lay unconscious on the floor. The angle of his leg suggested a nasty break. A chunk of thick bulletproof, but apparently not explosion-proof glass, protruded from the second guard’s neck and pinned him to the wall.

The conscious guard pointed to the security console. “I activated the emergency fire suppression, but I can’t get to?—”

Nic spun and raced to the hose coiled a few feet away. “ Two injured guards.” He yanked the hose and turned the knob above as he glanced at Olivia. Relief poured through him like the precious water flowing from the wall. She was safe for now, but someone had left a vulnerable gap in the garage.

God knew who might come through it.

Flipping the lever on the hose nozzle, he turned it on the car and dragged it closer. Angry sizzles popped from the inferno as he aimed the water toward the passenger door. The flames cast ghoulish orange and gold shadows on the dark-tinted windows. Nic inched closer, squinting against the heat.

“I can’t see inside the car.” Nic inhaled smoke and coughed.

“I’ve got Hudson on the phone.” Ryan cursed . “The vehicle’s doors are jammed. The stairs and elevators have been compromised. The team is approaching from the street. ETA is three minutes.”

Fuck, they might not have three minutes.

The SUV was equipped with new technology invented in VIPER’s labs, but that didn’t mean it was death-proof.

He glanced toward where he had left Olivia.

He cursed again, fear coursing through him as he took in the vacant spot.

Screaming her name, he swiveled his head and spotted her behind him, treating the wounded guard.

“Olivia.” A sickening creak sounded overhead. “Take cover.”

She didn’t turn to look at him. The damn woman stood too close to the flames. The unstable ceiling. The exposed street.

Dammit. He’d told her to stay put, but she’d ignored his order and put herself in danger just like?—

Fuck, how was he supposed to keep Kane’s sister out of trouble, let alone safe, if she didn’t listen? With another curse, he fought the past and lunged toward the hole he’d made in the fire. He’d deal with the disobedient sirena later.

Heat seared Olivia’s back as she slid into professional mode and assessed the guard’s condition. Blood pooled around the shard embedded in his neck and seeped into her fingers.

“Stay still…” She glanced at the name on his uniform. “Parker. Stay still.” If he moved, the piece of debris could tear into something vital, and he could bleed out.

Something cracked above her. She looked up and opened her mouth, but her scream caught in her throat.

“Watch out.” Parker grabbed her waist and yanked her toward him.

A metal beam crashed behind her as she slammed against his thick body. Blood spurted onto her shirt as she lost contact with his wound. Panting, sweat dripping down her back, she pressed her hands into his neck and shifted to his side.

Nic stared at her, his body backed by angry flames and dark, dastardly smoke. He shouted something she couldn’t understand, but its meaning didn’t need words. The terror in his eyes said it all.

“I’m fine.” She shot him a thumbs-up.

A corner of his lips curled up in a ferocious snarl as he turned to the burning vehicle. Her throat stung as she yelled at him to get back, but he just stared at the inferno as he held the hose like a weapon and sliced water into the flames.

Sweat dripped from her hairline and into her eyes. She squinted against the burn.

Squinted again, but the sight didn’t change.

Nic remained rooted to the concrete floor and stared at the SUV as if studying the optimal approach to subdue an opponent.

An orange haze bellowed from the dark smoke, highlighting his powerful body while shrouding him in a surreal light.

He looked two times bigger. A dozen times stronger.

The set of his jaw a hundred times harder as he shifted his stance and braced himself for a fight.

“Nic.” His name swirled into the otherworldly dimension he was caught in.

Or maybe created himself. The fire lapped closer, tendril by tendril, as the rush of water created a chasm down the middle.

She tracked beads of sweat dripping down his neck, one by one and into his shirt.

The material clung to his body and accented every chiseled muscle in his wide back.

She stared, her fingers stanching the flow of blood from Parker’s potentially deadly, horrific wound, her attention transfixed on Nic as she screamed for him to get back.

To get the baby, her future sister-in-law, and the others out.

To run into the street and out of the fire.

“Kane, Chris, Linc, anyone.” Where the hell was the rest of the VIPER team? She shouted for help again, for Nic to back away from the flames, but he didn’t listen. Instead, he raised his right arm, oblivious to her cries and the fire closing in.

“Nic, please.”

She didn’t know what she was begging for any longer, but she kept screaming. Smoke choked her cries. She rasped something encouraging to Parker, caught between saving him from certain death and pulling Nic from the flames .

Parker shuddered beneath her hands.

She glanced at the wound. Firelight glittered off the sharp edge of the thick chunk of glass. “Try to stay still.”

Her own legs didn’t listen to her cries.

She tensed her muscles so hard they burned.

If she crumpled, so would he. She glanced at the other guard on the floor and prayed his pulse still beat a steady rhythm.

It had before she’d thrust her hands around the projectile in Parker’s neck, but that had been five minutes ago.

Ten? She had no idea, but knew it was too long.

Movement at the garage entrance caught her eye. The cavalry materialized through the dissipating smoke.

“Thank God.”

Kane rushed toward her as Chris and Linc ran to the opposite side of the car and faced Nic. Both raised fire extinguishers and attacked the flames.

She tried to yell at Kane to get Nic to safety, but only a painful groan sounded from her ravaged throat. She swallowed and tried again. “Get Nic out of there.”

Kane ignored her and jumped over the demolished guard booth. Gripping Parker under the arms, he held him upright. “You okay?”

Her shoulder burned from supporting Parker’s weight, but she ignored the pain. “Help Nic.”

And why was Kane helping her instead of running to save his fiancée?

Instead, Chris and Linc just stood there as Nic pointed his arm toward the top of the car.

She squinted again. Was that fresh smoke?

She knew that sounded ludicrous. Smoke wasn’t fresh, but this thin stream of black soot was different.

She squeezed her watery eyes shut. When she opened them, the haze in the garage cleared enough to paint an image of Nic standing in front of the fire like a warrior about to take on an army, but this new smoke seemed to be coming from the doorframe.

She barely felt Kane move her hand away from Parker’s neck as she stared at what had to be a mirage.

The smoke at the top of the door crept toward the right.

The metal and rubber of the doorframe glowed a mixture of orange and red.

The black paint melted off particle by particle as the heat traveled slow and steady around the curve of the door and down to the tire.

“Kane. Do something.” Flames no longer lapped at the vehicle, but visions of five charred bodies, one tiny, burned in her brain. She stepped forward. Her toe hit the fallen beam as Kane placed a hand on her arm. “Please help them.”

Kane watched his teammates, his lips moving in a silent conversation he seemed to be having with himself. “They’ve got this.”

“Got what? Burning to death? Beth is in there, for fuck’s sake.”

“Trust us.”

She swung her head and leaned toward the rescue she didn’t understand.

Arm outstretched, Nic stood as stiff as the concrete pillar he’d told her to stay by as he traced the path of the mysterious heat around the doorframe with his finger.

The orange-red glow traveled toward the back of the sedan.

Not a muscle moved in his body except the slow, slight motion of his arm, as if the heat held him in a hypnotic state.

On the other side of the SUV, Linc fought the flames with a fire extinguisher as Chris outstretched his steel arm, a transfixed expression on his face.

The same dark smoke rose from the top of the doorframe as his lips barely moved.

She jerked her gaze back to Kane. His lips were moving, too, like he and Chris were having a telepathic conversation.

Sirens blared beyond the door. So did shouts to stay back from the gaping hole where the garage door used to be.

“Steady.” Kane placed his hand on her shoulder, his voice barely audible over the flames. “Almost there.”

“Almost where?” Why wasn’t anyone busting into that car with their bionic limbs? Adrenaline buzzed through her like the deadliest opioid. The toxic high paralyzed her breath. Somehow, the unstable combination cleared her head.

“Wait, are they…”

The smoke and mystifying glow completed its path around the doorframe. Nic dropped his arm as if he were a snake and the smoke was the charmer who’d released him from the spell.

Chris dropped his arm and nodded at Nic as paramedics rushed into the garage.

“Fuck yeah,” Kane murmured.

As the doorframe fell at Nic’s feet, she realized Nic hadn’t been a snake under a charmer’s spell. He’d been the charmer, and the car had been the snake he’d burned wide open.