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

Her eyes widened. “Help!” The people in the room next door could hear her. “ Help!” She jumped onto the bed and raced across the covers. If they could hear her, then they could help her.

Logan tackled her. They both slammed into the bed. She went down, face-first, with him on top of her.

His laughter taunted her. “No one is going to come help you, Anastasia. I’ve got you.”

The knife pressed to her side. The tip of the blade cut into her.

“You are going to be so sorry,” Logan swore as the knife dug deeper.

The motel room door flew open. Hit the wall. A very distinct crash. “Ana!” A roar. The true, deep bellow that sounded as if it had just come from a massive beast.

Her head whipped toward the door. A shudder swept over her even as a smile pulled at her lips. “Kane. ”

Kane was back.

Kane was there.

Everything was going to be okay.

He was already running across the room. A second lock on the door hadn’t kept him out. He’d just kicked in the door or beaten it in or something, and he was?—

Logan yanked her up. Put the knife to her throat. “I will slice her from ear to ear.”

Kane whipped out a gun.

She blinked.

“I will shoot you in the fucking head,” Kane promised flatly. “Before you are even done cutting her, you’ll be dead.”

“Um, wait!” Anastasia cleared her throat. The movement had the blade lightly slicing her. They all needed to calm down. She’d love to avoid the cutting her part. Surely, that could be possible, yes?

“ What in the hell happened to your forehead? ” Kane snarled.

It did hurt terribly. Had it already bruised?

Probably.

Logan hauled her off the bed, but they slipped when the covers tangled around their legs, and she went down, hard, and, in that moment when she fell, Kane fired his weapon.

The gunshot blasted.

The knife clattered down beside her. Anastasia covered her head, and she screamed. Logan torpedoed over her as he ran straight at Kane. But Kane fired a second time. And she heard the thud of the bullet sinking into flesh.

Her hands began to lower.

Logan fell right in front of her. Her screams echoed around her. She was on the floor, with her knees beneath her, with her hands near her head, and he was on the dirty carpet just steps away. His head turned. He stared at her. Those bright, bright green eyes stared at her with fury. With hate.

With fear.

And Kane put his gun to Logan’s head.

Police lights swirled in a sickening flash. Anastasia stood in the motel’s parking lot, watching as the federal agents and the local cops swarmed like bees.

FBI Special Agent Grayson Stone glared as Logan was loaded into the back of an ambulance. Grayson had been the agent in charge of the case, the one who’d arranged for Anastasia to have protection. To vanish with Kane.

He’d also been the one to originally ask her to wear a wire and collect evidence on her homicidal boyfriend.

Grayson barked orders left and right. Two agents jumped into the ambulance with Logan. The siren shrieked. Grayson slammed the doors closed, and then the ambulance raced away.

She kept standing, pretty amazed that her legs were succeeding in their effort to hold her upright.

“Ma’am.” An EMT. “We really would like to take a look at that bump on your head.”

Her forehead. Yes, she’d made the mistake of touching that bump a few moments ago. A giant goose egg that hurt like a bitch.

“You could have a concussion.”

She could. Definite possibility.

But she didn’t move. Just watched the other ambulance rush away.

Grayson closed in on her. “You okay?”

No, she wasn’t. “He was going to slice me with his knife. Make me beg.” Her breath shuddered in. Out. “He would have killed me if…” Her words drifted away.

She’d just spotted Kane. He’d been taken away by some of the Feds after they arrived on scene. She’d been sure they were questioning him. But now he stalked toward her with steady, unshakable purpose.

“But Kane broke down the door,” she finished.

“Kane almost killed our perp,” Grayson said.

You have no idea. Because Kane had put the gun to Logan’s head. He’d been about to pull the trigger. And?—

Kane shouldered past Grayson. Went right to Anastasia. “Why the hell aren’t you already at the hospital?” His hand curled under her chin. He tipped her head back. “That’s major swelling and bruising. We need to make sure the bastard didn’t give you a skull fracture.”

The EMTs had not mentioned a skull fracture. Great, new fear unlocked for her.

“We were trying to get her into the ambulance,” the EMT to her right groused.

“Try harder,” Kane ordered. Then he just swept her into his arms and started carrying her toward the ambulance that waited a few yards to the left.

“Kane!” One arm curled around his neck as Anastasia clung to him.

He kept marching. Didn’t stop until he put her down right inside the ambulance. With a glare on his face, he told her, “You’re going to the hospital.”

He started to back away.

She caught his arm. “Thank you for saving me.”

“You shouldn’t have been alone. He never should have gotten that close.”

Her grip tightened on him. “Thank you for saving me,” Anastasia repeated.

His eyes glittered at her. “I could have made sure you never had to fear him again.”

Her heartbeat was far too loud. The EMTs were there.

Grayson had followed them. And Kane was just casually talking about how he could have killed Logan for her.

If she hadn’t stopped him, if she hadn’t leapt forward and thrown her arms around him and told him to stop.

Begged him to stop. “That’s not who you are,” she whispered.

“Yes, sweetheart, that’s exactly who I am.”

He pulled away. Backed away from the ambulance even as an EMT guided her to sit down on the stretcher inside the vehicle.

“And that’s why you need to have a different life,” Kane told her, voice clear and flat.

She…

“On it,” Grayson said. “Rest assured, I am on top of the different life situation.” He cleared his throat. “Kane, I believe your work is done. Thanks for stepping in. Thanks for protecting and serving.”

Kane grunted. His eyes—those swirling hazel eyes—did not leave Anastasia.

“Ahem.” Grayson maneuvered closer to Kane. He slapped a hand on Kane’s shoulder. “Also, know that I will owe you one big-ass favor in the future.”

“I’ll collect,” Kane vowed.

The EMTs were poking and prodding at her. She was struggling to keep watching Kane.

“I think this should be goodbye,” Grayson mused.

“I’ll go with her to the hospital. Get her checked out.

Make sure that we have all our loose ends tied up.

Really great job catching the killer, Kane.

I knew I could count on you. You never let me down, and you don’t cross lines.

Not like plenty of other assholes I can name. ”

No, Kane hadn’t crossed lines.

He’d just saved her.

Grayson let go of Kane. “I have her from here on out.”

That was it? Kane was just…just leaving her while she sat in the back of the ambulance? And she should say something. Anastasia knew she should. Part of her wanted to recklessly call out…

Don’t leave me!

But, no, she couldn’t. She couldn’t do that. She just had to stay in that ambulance and feel her stomach knot. Feel the shivers that slid over her body and the racing heartbeat that shook her chest. If Kane hadn’t broken through that door, would she be dead?

A tear spilled down her cheek. “Goodbye,” she whispered.

Grayson hopped into the ambulance with her. “You’re going to testify. You’re going to send Logan away for life.” He shouldered an EMT out of his way. “You’re going to be safe.”

Safe.

Because she was going to get the promised new life. The new identity. A new town. A new name. A new job.

Once the testifying was done. Once Logan was locked up. Once…

Kane turned away. He—he didn’t even say goodbye to her.

Another tear slid down her cheek.

The ambulance doors were slammed shut.

“Ana?” Now Grayson seemed worried. She should look at him and not just stare at the closed ambulance doors. “Ana, are you okay?” Real concern deepened his words.

“We’re trying to examine her.” The disgruntled mutter from an EMT.

Anastasia swallowed. Her head turned toward Grayson. “I’m never going to see him again, am I?”

Understanding flashed on his face. Then, jaw locking, Grayson shook his head. “No.” A soft exhale. “Believe me, it’s for the best.”

It didn’t feel like the best thing.

Grayson leaned toward her. His voice dropped as if the words were for her ears only, and he said, “If you see Kane again, it’s because danger is coming after you. Hell is calling, and he’s the answer to the call. If you see him…”

Her hands fisted.

“If you see him again,” Grayson told her, “then you are in deep, deep trouble.”

The siren screamed on.

He tensed when the siren wailed. Kept his spine straight and his gaze locked dead ahead.

The scene was chaos. Madness.

And Ana…

Ana was leaving him.

Ana…beautiful, sweet Ana. With a smile that had—for all too short of a time—lit up his world. Ana, who had offered him her gorgeous body. Ana, who had kissed him as if her very life depended on the task.

Ana…who had stopped him from putting a bullet into her ex’s brain.

Ana…who had seen the monster who lived and breathed inside of Kane.

There was a reason that “Heartless” was his nickname. “Heartless” Kane Harte. He didn’t love. He didn’t feel. He just didn’t care.

Except…

The ambulance carrying Ana had left. He turned around. Slowly. He could feel her absence in the very air around him.

Goodbye. Her voice, drifting through him.

Sonofabitch.

She should have been mine.