Page 14 of When He Fights (Protector & Defender #3)

Chapter Seven

“You don’t need that knife.” Her voice trembled. Her gaze seemed fixated on the blade.

“I’m afraid that I do. I have to make you bleed so that the sharks will be drawn in.”

The sharks were swimming behind her, but Ana didn’t fear them.

She feared the man in front of her. The man who’d been ordered to kill her?

Her tongue slid over her dry lips once more.

“Let me make sure I have this all right in my head.” A ragged exhale.

“You never wanted to date me. You were ordered to get close to me, and now you’ve been ordered to kill me? ”

He nodded. “Glad you’re following along.” He advanced toward her. She could see the dark bruise on his jaw. A bruise that had come courtesy of Kane’s fist.

“The sharks are well fed!” A desperate cry. What kind of weapon did she have? What was handy? Her yoga mat would be of zero use. Maybe her water bottle? It was right beside her bag. The bottle was made of stainless steel. It would be better than nothing.

And nothing was pretty much what she had, with the exception of that bottle.

“What the hell does them being well fed have to do with anything?” Turner glowered.

“Didn’t you hear that story out of New Orleans a few years ago? What happened at their aquarium?”

“I’m not from around here, remember?”

Right. Crap. That info should have made her way more nervous sooner. “You said you weren’t from New York.” She’d specifically asked where Turner originally hailed from when they first met. He’d told her that he was from Maryland. They’d laughed about being two fish out of water. Bonded a bit.

“I lied. I’ve got plenty of friends up there. The kind of people who you want owing you favors.”

He meant the mob. Check. “Did Logan give you the order to kill me?”

He took another stalking step toward her.

“I thought Logan just got out!” This wasn’t making sense to her. “You’ve been here for months!”

The knife was way too close. Another ragged breath escaped her.

Ana knew she needed to keep him distracted.

If he was distracted, then he might not be stabbing her.

“In New Orleans, they had this tour group at their aquarium years ago. Back then, there was this catwalk-like thing that went right over their big shark tank. Something went wrong. People on a tour fell into the water— with the sharks. But no one got bitten. Everyone was safe. Know why? Probably because the sharks are so well fed! And humans aren’t their preferred meal and?—”

“Bet those people weren’t bleeding from knife wounds when they went into the water.”

No, they hadn’t been. She didn’t intend to be, either.

Ana took a step to the side, a step that would put her closer to the stainless steel water bottle.

“We don’t even have the big, aggressive sharks here.

Do you see any great whites swimming behind me?

” With her phone still gripped in her left hand, she gestured toward the tank.

As she’d hoped, Turner’s gaze automatically darted to the tank, and she used that opportunity to lunge for her water bottle. Her fingers curled around it just as?—

Screams.

Someone was screaming. Shouting. She could hear the cries as they carried through the aquarium. Not her screams.

Turner grabbed for her. Before he could use that knife, she slammed her water bottle into the side of his head. As hard as she could.

Swearing, he stumbled back. He weaved.

She hit him again. This time, right in the mouth with the bottom of the bottle.

Blood flew from his busted lips, and the impact might have also cracked some of his teeth.

Ana didn’t exactly investigate the damage.

While he howled in pain and tried to cover his mouth, she spun and ran.

But because he was between her and the door that led to the entrance of the massive aquarium space, she turned to the left and hauled butt toward the additional exhibit space.

The lights were already turned off, and the only illumination came from the displays—aquariums of various sizes filled with sea horses and jellyfish and strikingly colored, smaller fish that flashed to the left and the right and she?—

Ran through the waiting, viewing tunnel. A tunnel surrounded by thick glass. The glass separated her from the sharks. The octopus. The glass covered all sides but the floor, and she hurried to get to the other side.

She didn’t make it.

A hard hand curled around her shoulder. Turner hauled her back toward him.

She kneed him in the groin. “Help!” Ana screamed, and the scream seemed to echo in the tunnel around her. “ Help me! ”

He hit her. A blow that she mostly dodged, but, unfortunately, part of his fist grazed her jaw.

She stumbled back, managed to stand on her feet, and then was running the rest of the way out of that tunnel.

She made it to the other side. Shoved open the staff door because maybe some of the guards were back there. “Help!”

No one was there.

She raced up the steps. Up, up, up. When the steps finally ended, she shoved open the door before her and stumbled straight ahead. Ana heard the echo of footsteps as Turner ran behind her, and, dammit, this was bad. So bad. Because she’d just raced straight to?—

His laughter stopped her.

His laughter and the fact that she’d reached the end of the line.

Literally. Because the water was in front of her.

She’d reached the top of the massive three-story tank habitat.

With her heart thudding in her chest, Ana whirled to face Turner.

She should have turned to the right when she entered the staff area.

She’d never been in the staff area until that moment, so she hadn’t known which way to flee.

She could see the glowing red letters of the EXIT sign. But those letters were behind Turner. To escape, she’d have to somehow make it past him.

And now she was trapped.

“Thanks for coming to my planned destination.” He swiped a hand over his mouth, and blood smeared over his lips. “Bitch.”

“I don’t think name calling is necessary.” One bonus for her—there were lots of weapon options in that area. She saw big nets. A scary-looking hook. If she could grab something, she’d attack and fight with all of her strength against him.

“I was gonna make sure you were dead before the sharks got to you.” Turner advanced slowly. “But now, I don’t give a shit. If I have to do it, I’ll just hold your fucking head under the water while you fight. You can drown and get eaten by the sharks at the same damn time.”

“Guards are coming!” Ana yelled. And to think, she’d once thought Turner was nice.

“Nah, they’re not coming. I asked for time alone with you. George is gonna make sure we’re not interrupted during our romantic interlude. He thinks I’ll give him free lessons at the dojo as payback.”

Her heart was about to jump out of her chest. “What is going to happen when my body is recovered? Don’t you think George will admit you were here with me?”

Turner’s eyes widened as he tried to look innocent.

Hard to do with blood on his face. “I’ll say I left.

You insisted on staying here all alone. Doing more yoga.

But when the cops push me, I’ll say that I thought I saw someone suspicious lurking around.

Wanna guess who that suspicious person will be? ”

She did not want to guess. She wanted to scream for help over and over again. But Ana was afraid that if she screamed again, he’d attack.

“The new boyfriend. The one on steroids. I’ll say I saw him.”

She thought that she heard the creak of the stairs. Maybe the thud of rushing steps? “Kane isn’t on steroids. He’s just strong.”

“Not strong enough. Don’t see him here to help you?—”

“Right fucking here ,” Kane snarled as he burst out of the stairwell and ran for Turner.

Turner spun toward Kane, and Ana used that distraction to race to the left. Her goal was to grab one of the big nets and use it in an attack. Her fingers had almost touched the long, wooden pole that connected to the net when?—

Splash.

She whipped around.

Kane and Turner had gone into the water. Her mouth dropped. She grabbed the net and rushed back to the platform’s edge, stopping to kneel right by the top of the water. “Kane! Kane!”

He swam beneath the surface. The sharks darted right by him. No, they darted away from him.

“What is happening here?” George’s familiar voice shouted.

“Call the cops!” Ana yelled without looking at him. Her focus was completely on Kane. A Kane who needed to rise to the surface. Come on. Come up. Come up.

“Already did.” Zuri’s shaking response.

Wait, when had Zuri arrived? But her friend was suddenly crouching next to Ana and staring down into the water.

“Are they gonna get bitten?” Zuri asked.

Ana shook her head. “No.” Hopefully not. “But Turner had a knife. He tried to stab me, and he could stab Kane!” If Kane didn’t surface in the next five seconds, she was going in after him.

“So Kane isn’t the bad guy?” Zuri wanted to know. Then, lower, “Probably want to call the cops back and update them on that situation.”

Kane broke the surface. Water flew around him as he tossed back his head.

“Kane!” Relief broke in his name.

His eyes locked on her. “You’re okay.” A statement. Not a question. Kinda more like a… You’d damn well better be okay.

“I’m not the one swimming in a shark tank!” Ana shouted at him. “ Kane, get out. ”

He swam toward her and hauled a spitting and shaking Turner with him.

“One touched my foot!” Turner screamed. “It hit me! I felt it! It’s going to bite—it’s going to bite —get me the fuck out! ”

Kane kept his hard grip on Turner.

“He was going to kill me,” Ana heard herself say. “Cut me with his knife, and he wanted the sharks to finish me off.” That had been Turner’s first plan. Should she mention the more recent plan? “He also had the idea of just holding me under while the sharks attacked.”

Kane’s eyes narrowed right before he dropped his grip on Turner. The man immediately sank beneath the surface.

“Kane!” Ana cried. “Kane, he was ordered to do it! We have to make Turner talk— and we can’t just let him drown! ”

“I’m going in,” George announced from beside her.

Only he did not, in fact, go in. He just kept crouching. Waiting. Sweating.

“Those sharks aren’t gonna bite, right?” George wanted to know. “Aren’t they like, really well fed?”

She ignored him. “Kane! Get out—and bring Turner with you!”

Kane huffed out a breath. “Fuck.” Then he disappeared beneath the surface. A few moments later, he was back, and he practically threw a sobbing Turner onto the observation platform near the water before Kane hauled himself out and stood up.

Water poured from his body. His clothes clung tightly to every single muscle.

“Holy shit,” Zuri breathed. “I want one of those.”

Zuri and Ana and George were still crouched near the edge of the massive tank.

Kane glowered at Ana. “You never let me kill anyone. That is a major problem, sweetheart.”

“OhmyGod.” A quick breath from Zuri. “I take it back. I do not want one. I like to look at one. Especially when he’s all wet and dripping. And super hot. But I don’t want one. You keep him.”

Ana leapt to her feet. I want him. I would love to keep him. She threw herself at Kane and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could. “Thank you,” she whispered.

One powerful arm curled around her.

“You saved my life,” she told him. Her head tilted back. She gazed up at him. Found his intense eyes blazing at her. Seeming to eat her up. A ragged sigh broke from Ana. “What took you so long?” A flippant question. One created by nerves and fear, and she didn’t even know what else.

The faint lines on the sides of his mouth deepened. “Getting tased slowed me down a little. Won’t happen again.”

Getting tased?

Before she could question him more, his mouth took hers.

A deep, hard, frantic kiss. One that she had not expected at all.

Not with Turner sobbing near them. Not with Zuri whipping out her phone and calling the cops again.

Not with George—well, George seemed to be busy trying to figure out what in the hell was going on.

She didn’t expect the kiss.

Wrong place. Wrong time.

She didn’t care. Adrenaline and fear poured through her veins.

Her hands curled greedily around Kane’s arms as she held on tightly, and Ana kissed Kane back with wild abandon and true desperation.

She opened her lips wide. His tongue thrust into her mouth.

He tasted, and he took, and she moaned low in her throat as arousal flooded through her.

Wrong time. Wrong time. Wrong time.

She didn’t care. She kissed him as if her very life depended on the task. As if?—

Someone yanked her back.

Ana’s breath sawed in and out. Her gaze collided with Kane’s.

Hunger. Possession. So much lust.

“The cops are coming!” Zuri informed her. “Stop making out with the hero and talk to me!” She tugged Ana toward her. “What is happening? Why did Turner attack you?”

Her heart still drummed. “Pretty sure…” Ana stopped and cleared her throat. “Pretty sure he got an order to kill me.”

Zuri’s eyes were huge. “ Why would he get an order to kill you? Who would even give that order?”

She wasn’t supposed to say, was she? Wasn’t that the whole point of having a new ID?

A new place to live, courtesy of the US government?

Except, if Turner had been there for months waiting on the order to attack, then her cover had been blown for ages.

Her location hadn’t been leaked in a recent hack.

Logan had known for a long time exactly where she’d been hiding.

If her cover had been blown so completely, then why bother with more lies?

Ana exhaled. “So, I have this ex who was a mob hitman.”

Zuri’s jaw sagged open.

“I’m pretty sure he’s angry that I sent him to prison.” Pretty sure? More like one hundred percent sure. “He’s not going to rest until I’m in the ground.”

Terror flashed on Zuri’s face.

“But don’t worry,” Ana hurried to reassure her friend, “Kane’s here.”

“Kane,” Zuri echoed as her attention shifted to him.

“He’ll make sure I keep breathing,” she said.

Zuri nodded. Weakly.

“Damn straight, I will,” Kane agreed.

And then—finally—the rest of the guards at the aquarium swarmed in from wherever the heck they’d been. They swarmed with tasers and flashlights and yells.

And the regular cops weren’t far behind them.

Kane kept dripping.

Ana’s knees kept shaking.

And Turner immediately demanded a lawyer.