Page 38 of Too Guarded to Love (Project VIPER #3)

O livia’s already frayed nerves slithered beneath her skin as Nic helped her out of the helicopter and into the chilly, moonlit night. Since the hospital helipad was already in use, Joe had secured a place for them to land at a private airstrip about a half mile down the road.

Almost there. She willed herself to calm down as the rotor blades and her gown whipped in opposition to her efforts. There’d been talk about going back to headquarters to change, but she shot that plan down quicker than the Joint Chiefs had consumed the president’s aged whiskey.

Taking Nic’s hand, she followed him toward the dark sedan that Joe had left for them on the edge of the deserted clearing about fifty yards away.

Nic froze in place as he swiveled his head toward the line of pine trees behind them. Shooting his gaze to the cockpit, he pushed her back toward the helicopter. “Get inside and stay down.”

“What? No.” She couldn’t go back. Not when she was so close to Harlee.

“Go.” Nic spun her and Linc jumped out. Pulling her into his side, Linc opened the door and shoved her in. “On the floor and stay there.”

Holding her breath, she crouched in the middle as she watched Nic take position on the side of the helicopter facing the clearing, and Linc on the side facing the trees.

In almost perfect unison, both spread their muscled legs and set their hard bodies in a fighting stance like predators waiting for their prey.

Fear and the paralyzing feeling of knowing there was nothing she could do to help glued her to the floor. She’d been dying to know about what superpowers Nic and the others had. Under the full moon, she feared she was about to find out.

“Six hostiles approaching from the trees in groups of three. No visible weapons. Only use V-Strikes if necessary.”

Fuck necessary. Nic would listen to Edgar’s order as long as Olivia remained safe. If she wasn’t, he’d do whatever it took to make sure she didn’t get hurt.

As the first hostile charged him, Nic prayed the fight would be over soon so he could get Olivia to Harlee.

Sweeping out his leg, he brought the guy with about fifty pounds of muscle on him to the ground.

The hostile hit the grass and bounced. Cocking his arm, Nic punched the second and tallest of the three with his flesh-and-blood fist. His knuckles split and the force of the blow spiraled up his wrist as he shoved the guy back a dozen feet.

A string of curses scraped through the air as the tall one joined his beefy friend.

Nic embraced the pain as the third hostile threw a punch to his face. He blocked it with his steel and countered with an uppercut to the ribs. Bones cracked as number three doubled over with a grunt.

The hostile fell to his knees. Before the attacker could take another breath, Nic kicked him to the side with his super leg. The impact spiraled up his steel as strong arms wrapped around him from behind. Grabbing onto a bicep, Nic bent at the waist and hurled the hostile to the ground.

Swiveling his head, he spotted Linc near the cockpit, spinning like a ninja into a roundhouse kick. The recipient of the strike fell to the earth along with his buddies.

None of them moved.

“Incoming.” Edgar cursed . “Three more hostiles from each side. These men are armed.”

Nic glanced back at the helicopter. He spotted the top of Olivia’s head through the window and willed her to get the fuck down. “We don’t have time to engage. Permission to fire.”

“Granted.”

Nic hummed along with the buzzing in his neck for one, two, three heartbeats as he waited for the next wave of hostiles to approach.

He didn’t need to look at the helicopter to know that Olivia watched.

While she’d answer later for not staying all the way down, he relished showing off his superpowers for the girl he was falling for.

As the first hostile rounded the helicopter, Nic visualized the damage he intended to inflict as he raised his steel arm.

Fire.

The V-Strike, conjured to incapacitate but not kill, streamed from Nic’s fingertip into the hostile’s gut. The guy yelped a curse as he clutched his stomach and doubled over in a heap on the grass.

Fire. Fire.

Simultaneous shots flowed from the middle of Nic’s thigh and his kneecap.

Behind him, he heard Linc’s targets meet the same fate as the two hostiles crumbled to the ground next to their colleague in an unconscious pile.

Nic scanned the area. Nothing but a field littered with inert bodies and the sedan waiting at the edge met his gaze. “Clear.”

Linc reported the same.

Turning to Olivia, he stalked to the helicopter. Opening the door, he gathered her in his arms and pulled her out. She stared at him in awe. Tucking her head into his chest, he ran toward the car with Linc at his six.

As they sped to the sedan, a lone shot peeled through the night.

A bullet impacted his thigh. Grunting through the impact and Olivia’s terrified scream, he dropped to the ground.

His vision blurred as the wet grass withered to gritty sand.

The cool night flipped to a blazing day as his mind left the airfield and traveled back in time.

Nic yelled to Rachel to get back in the vehicle, where he’d ordered her to stay put.

As he walked toward her and the local farmer she’d cornered for an interview, an explosion rocked the terrain.

The force launched Nic backward onto his ass.

Scrambling to his knees, he wiped shards of glass and metal from his face and searched for Rachel among flaming projectiles whizzing from all directions.

He spotted her a few yards away, slumped against a rocky slope. Boulders teetered in the craggy peaks.

As he crawled through the subsiding debris, she mouthed his name. He yelled at her to hang on, but he knew he was too late. Blood seeped through her fingers and pooled around the hand she held over her stomach.

“Nic, help.”

Covering his head, sand and blood stinging the cuts on his face, he sprang to his feet and ran toward her.

“Rachel.”

A second explosion shook the ground as he launched himself at the woman he was responsible for. Before he hit the unforgiving earth, fiery debris ripped through the side of his body. He landed on top of her, blood mingling with hers as pain burned a path from his shoulder to his toes.

As he covered Rachel’s head with his arms and prayed she didn’t bleed out, another explosion pitched the earth.

He felt the craggy slope at his side tremble.

Curled his body tighter over Rachel’s as he heard stone scrape against stone.

Before he could roll them away, several boulders big enough to crush a man came crashing toward them.

Ryan’s voice dragged him back to the present.

“Shooter is fleeing on foot. Linc is in pursuit. Get Olivia to the hospital.”

Nic sprung to a crouch and lifted her into his arms. Sprinting the few feet to the car, he yanked open the driver’s side door and shoved her in.

She scrambled into the passenger seat. “Are you okay? You were shot, weren’t you?”

Head on a swivel, he climbed in after her. “I’m fine.” Throwing the sedan into drive, he sped down the sandy road and thanked God Joe had left the car running.

Olivia ran her hand over his thigh. “How can you be fine? I felt the bullet hit your steel all the way in my bones.”

“I got hit in the back of my thigh. It didn’t hit any skin.” But the impact still reverberated like somebody had used his steel as a gong. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, but…” She turned her body and looked out the back window. “Those men? Are they okay? None of them were moving after you and Linc did…” She shook her head. “We’ll talk about that in a minute, but first we need to go back there. Those men need medical attention. What if some of them are dead?”

Nic clasped her arm and tugged her back into the seat. “Trust me, they’re not dead. Linc and I made sure to just put them out of commission long enough so we could get you safely out of there. Whoever sent them will come back and clean up.”

She looked behind her again. “But?—”

“But nothing.” Whipping the car onto a paved road, he acknowledged a mind comms message from Linc as he clamped his hand on Olivia’s knee. “Those men you’re worried about were hired mercenaries sent to do a job, and it wasn’t to welcome us. Focus on the reason we’re here, okay?”

“Okay. Are you sure someone will come for them?”

They could bleed out for all he cared. She was safe, and that’s all that mattered, yet despite what she’d just gone through, she’d been concerned about him and a bunch of mercenaries before herself.

While her compassion was just one of the qualities that made her irresistible, it also made her reckless.

He was quickly learning one was a product of the other, and he was falling for the sum of everything about her.

“Nic, were those men sent by the Diablos?”

He thought about saying he had no idea, but she deserved to know the truth. “Yes.”

Her eyes widened to the size of the full moon. “I didn’t want to believe that Jonathan was working with the cartel, but this proves it, doesn’t it?”

He took her hand. “Looks that way.”

“I’m scared, Nic.”

As he sped toward the hospital, he fought the urge to turn around and finish the fuckers who’d terrified his girl.