Page 37 of When He Fights (Protector & Defender #3)

Chapter Twenty-One

“Kane. ”

He couldn’t hear anything.

“ Kane!”

But he could see Gray’s mouth moving. His friend leaned over him, and Gray’s lips were clearly forming Kane’s name over and over again.

Blood dripped onto Kane. Blood from Gray. His friend was bleeding and cut and he was shaking Kane. Gray could stop that crap any minute.

“Kane!”

The bellow finally broke through to Kane’s ears. Sounds rushed back to him, a big gush, like a dam breaking. The back of Kane’s head throbbed sickeningly—probably from where he’d slammed down onto the pavement in front of the dojo. And then Gray’s heavy ass had fallen on top of him.

Kane had cushioned the fall for the bastard. That was what you did for a friend. Cracked your skull open so your friend would be alive.

“You’re okay!” A wild smile curved Gray’s lips. “Sonofabitch, you’re okay!” He hauled Kane up and hugged him.

“No!” Emerson’s sharp voice. “He could have a broken neck or a spinal injury! You both could have severe injuries! Stop! Stay still until the paramedics can get to you!”

Kane wasn’t staying still. Fire was bursting in the air above Gray. Plus, something was…broken beneath Kane. He reached down and found the shattered remains of his phone.

“That was Tyler and Ana calling,” Emerson hurried to explain as she crouched next to them.

Gray had blood and ash and cuts all over his face.

Emerson was right beside Gray, and she looked completely pristine.

Not a hair out of place. Dress without a wrinkle.

“Ana knew there was a bomb inside. She was trying to save you.”

Ana.

His heart thudded hard in his chest. He shoved Gray out of his way and climbed to his feet. He also almost immediately fell on his face. Emerson caught him—tried to, anyway—and she nearly slammed down under his weight.

“Umph!” She held him tighter. “What part of neck or spinal injury did you miss?”

Other people rushed around them. Cops. Feds.

Maybe even the promised bomb squad personnel.

Everything seemed a bit of a blur to Kane.

He thought that two EMTs—or perhaps paramedics?

—crowded around him, too. Huh. Perhaps things were more than a bit blurry.

Definitely blurry. Had he been knocked unconscious for a time? Kane feared he had.

Emerson backed up to give the paramedics more room.

Hard hands reached for Kane before he could fall on his face or even his ass. He may have fought those hands because… “Where the fuck is Ana?” Ana had to be all right. He needed to be told she was safe. On her plane. Flying far, far away from this hell.

Glass crunched beneath his feet. Dark smoke billowed. Red and orange flames raced up the walls of the dojo.

“Grayson, are you all right? How’s your wrist?” Emerson’s worried voice. She coughed, waving at the smoke in the air. “Oh, no, you’re bleeding…a lot.”

“Do not dare vomit on me,” Gray shot back. “Or faint. And the wrist is still freaking broken. Though, actually, it’s probably more broken than before. I swear, I felt more bones snap.”

At least, Kane thought that was Gray’s reply. But the paramedics— definitely paramedics—had closed in around him. One had grabbed hold of Gray, too.

The next thing Kane knew, he was in the back of an ambulance. A siren was screaming somewhere nearby, and he curled his fingers around the arm of the guy trying to shove a needle into him. “Put that in my vein, and it will be the last mistake you make,” Kane gritted out.

The paramedic’s eyes got very, very big.

“Where in the hell is Ana?”

The man swallowed. “I have no idea who Ana is or where she is.”

“Find someone who knows.” Then… “Gray!” Kane bellowed. “ Gray, where the hell is my Ana?”

Because Logan was still out there. Logan and his traps, and terror clawed apart Kane’s insides. I just need Gray to tell me that she’s safe. I need him to tell me that Ana is okay. That Tyler took her far away. That Logan can’t ever touch her. That’s what I need Gray to say.

“Sir, you need to calm down,” the paramedic advised him. “I can give you something to help calm you down and ease your pain.” The man came at Kane with the needle again.

So Kane snatched the syringe from his hand and tossed it.

“That is not cool,” the man snarled. “ I’m trying to help you. ”

“He’s a real shit patient,” Gray declared. “Sorry about that.” Then Gray was there, leaning over Kane. A bandage had been slapped on Gray’s forehead. The bandage was already turning red. “You’re gonna have to write that man an apology note,” Gray chided. “What would your mama say?”

Kane grabbed Gray’s shirtfront. “Ana. ”

“She’d say Ana?—”

“ Tell me that Ana is safe. ”

“I’m safe, Kane.”

That voice—Ana’s voice.

He tossed Gray the same way that he’d tossed the syringe.

In the next heartbeat, Kane was bounding out of that ambulance.

Swaying a bit, but bounding, and Ana was right there.

His beautiful Ana. He grabbed her, pulled her into his arms, and felt her softness against him.

He buried his face in her hair. Drank in her scent.

Ana. Ana. Alive. Safe. In his arms.

She’s supposed to be on a plane. She isn’t supposed to be here. He would let her go. In a moment, he would. Kane would tell her that she had to go to the safe house.

In a moment.

Once his hands could manage to let her go.

“You’re a terrible patient,” Ana mumbled.

He still didn’t let her go. Her arms were around him, too, holding on tightly. Maybe even tighter than he held her.

“I called you,” Ana said.

He made himself let her go. Not completely. Just eased up enough so he could stare down into her face.

“You didn’t answer.” She blinked away tears. “I thought you’d died on me.”

He kissed her. Had to do it. Kissed her deep and hard. Kissed her with all of the wild emotions coursing through his veins. Fear. Fury. But most of all, love.

He loved her so much. So insanely much.

He pushed her back. “You have to get the hell out of here.” His gaze whipped around. Landed on Tyler. “Why is she here?” His buddy had been given one job. One very important job. Fly Ana to safety. Not bring her into hell.

“Ana’s here because she drove the vehicle,” Tyler responded.

What?

“I had to make sure you were okay.” Ana’s soft response.

His gaze jumped right back to Ana.

She winced. “You’re bleeding. I’m pretty sure you’re going to need more stitches.”

No, what he needed was her. But first—first he needed to wipe Logan Catalano from the face of the earth. “Go get on the plane, Ana.” His fingers curled around her waist.

But she shook her head. “I can’t.”

“Ana…”

She wet her lips. “He has Zuri. He wants me to come to him. If I don’t, he’ll kill her.”

What. The. Hell?

“I’m not leaving you. I’m not leaving Zuri. I’m staying. I’m fighting.”

They were both fighting.

Ana’s house was dark. The windows had been boarded up in the front. Yellow police tape covered the pretty, wraparound porch.

Cops were everywhere. Cops. Feds. Bomb squad members.

Gray and his team had taken over the house next door—Mrs. Shirley’s place.

Ana’s sweet neighbor had been quite stunned when the team of armed officers had appeared at her door.

A female agent had spirited Ana’s neighbor away to a new, safe location, and Gray and Tyler had immediately accessed the footage from Mrs. Shirley’s doorbell camera.

There had been no footage of Logan or Zuri on that camera.

But…

Zuri’s car was parked behind Ana’s house.

“How did he get here?” The question came from Emerson. “Gray, you had eyes on the dojo. You said he never left. Turner Mitchell and Kyle Sanchez went inside. They were attacked. That means that Logan had to be there. So how did he get out? Without anyone seeing him?”

Ana wrapped her arms around her stomach. She wanted to hear this explanation, too. Her gaze kept darting to Kane. A bruised and scratched and slightly blood-covered Kane. A Kane who looked exceedingly dangerous and exceedingly pissed.

A Kane who is alive.

“I’ve got people pulling up schematics for the block and businesses around the dojo,” Gray replied.

He stared out of Mrs. Shirley’s side window, with his eyes narrowed.

“I think there must have been a tunnel or hell, some kind of air duct or some shit, that connected to the businesses on either side of the dojo. If he’d been prepared—and clearly, he was—then Logan could have escaped that way.

I believe the bastard was close by. I think he was watching us—at least for part of the time—and he made his getaway while we were trying not to get blown to hell and back. ”

Ana pulled in a deep breath. “But where was Zuri?” Ice seemed to encase her skin. “Did he have her in my house the whole time?”

Gray glanced back at her. “Have you gotten proof of life?”

Ana bit her lip. “No.”

“Then we don’t know that Zuri is alive in your house, Ana. And I am not sending you in there. I’m not letting you walk inside so that I can watch the whole place explode around you.” His gaze flickered to Kane. “We’ve been there, done that routine already. I’m not making the same mistake again.”

“You saved those two men,” Emerson pointed out, tone sharp. “If you hadn’t gone in the dojo, Turner and the lawyer would be dead right now. Even removing the bomb from the equation, their wounds were so severe that the paramedics said if they didn’t get immediate attention, they would’ve died.”

“Still might be their fate. They’re in critical condition,” Gray bit out. “For all we know, they’ll both be dead soon.”

“Ana isn’t going in that house,” Kane said. Adamant. “Not happening.”

This was the same argument they’d had on the furious rush to their current location. Ana threw him a glower. She got that he was worried. She was completely terrified herself, but there was no way she would leave Zuri alone with Logan. “I am not letting my friend die.”

“She could already be dead, ” Gray snapped. “No proof of life, remember?”

“If you believed that Zuri was dead, you would have already ordered your team to storm the door of my house.” Ana wasn’t backing down.

“You think she’s alive. You think there’s a chance she’s alive, anyway.

That’s why we’re all here right now. You’re holding your men back because if Zuri is alive and they rush in there, Logan will kill her. You know he will.”

Gray nodded. Then, voice grim, he told her, “Or maybe the sick freak has the place wired. I send in my team, and I watch a whole lot of good people get blown to hell. So, yes, I’m sitting here, I’m running over every option I have, again and again, and the number one thing that comes back to me is we need proof of life. ”

Gray had tried to call Zuri’s number several times already. There had been no answer. But his agents had confirmed that Zuri’s phone was currently inside Ana’s house.

“The only way we are going to know if Zuri is alive—I have to go in the house,” Ana said. “I can see her with my own eyes.”

“No.” From Kane.

“No.” From Gray.

“No.” From Tyler.

“I can go in.” From Emerson. “Me, not Ana.”

Everyone whipped their heads to look at her.

“I can.” She nodded. Her hair slid lightly over her cheek. “Or I can at least go to the porch. I don’t have to actually step foot inside the house.”

“That’s a shitty idea,” Gray barked. “Absolute shit.”

But Emerson shrugged. “Logan doesn’t have me on his vengeance list. I think he’ll talk to me.

I’m not saying he’ll come out of the house, but if he’s there, I can get his focus on me for a bit.

I can either get him to give us proof that Zuri is alive…

” A slow exhale. “Or I can at least distract him long enough for some of you to sneak in the back door— not get blown to pieces in the process— and maybe you can take him out.”

“Not happening.” Gray pointed at her. “If you try that shit, I will cuff you to a chair in here.”

Emerson’s shoulders stiffened. “It might not be the best plan ever, but it’s an option.

One with minimal risk. Put a bulletproof vest on me.

I’ll go no closer than the porch—or, you know what?

I’ll stay off the porch. I’ll remain on the sidewalk near the porch.

I won’t climb up the steps. I’ll call out to him.

Logan knows me. I think he even trusts me.

If he’s in that house, he will talk to me once he sees me.

I can get you proof that Ana’s friend Zuri is alive or…

” An exhale. “Or like I said, I can at least distract him so that one of you can sneak in the house and get close enough to apprehend Logan.”

“It’s not—” Gray began.

“It’s a solid idea,” Tyler interrupted.

Gray rounded on him. “What the hell?”

“She’s his shrink.” Tyler waved toward Emerson. “She knows him. She knows how he thinks.”

“And he doesn’t hate her,” Kane muttered. “He’ll talk to her, if he’s in there. We need this.” He pointed to one of the agents milling around. “Get her a bulletproof vest.”

“No.” Gray shook his head. “She can’t do it. She’ll fuck it up. No. ”

Ana saw the flash of pain on Emerson’s face. But the flash was quickly hidden.

“I won’t fuck this up,” Emerson retorted. Brutally polite. “I want to help. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

“If she doesn’t go in the house,” Ana spoke slowly, “then she won’t be breaking the rule that Logan gave to me. He said that only I could go in.”

“I won’t be in.” Emerson nodded. “I’ll leave that part to whoever we think can get in the back without making a sound and alerting Logan.”

Gray’s right hand fisted. Released. Fisted. The left had been encased in an even bigger brace than before. The man probably needed an actual cast for his broken wrist, but Gray had refused to be taken to the hospital. He’d said no one would sideline him.

The tension in that room was so thick that it felt suffocating. Ana wanted to scream. All of these people—these good people were putting their lives on the line because of Logan and the threat he posed.

When would the nightmare end? When would it ever stop?

But she knew.

When we make it stop.

Gray’s nostrils flared as he glared at Emerson. Then, grudgingly, each word coming like the growl of a beast, he ordered, “Get Dr. Marlowe a bulletproof vest.”

“Get one for me, too,” Kane added immediately.

“I need one,” Tyler said.

Ana raised her hand. “Can I get one, too?”

“Fuck,” Gray snarled. “Fuck.”

But Kane curled his hands around Ana’s shoulders. He tugged her toward him. “You are not getting anywhere near Logan.”

“‘Better safe than sorry,’” she quoted. “Isn’t that how the saying goes?”

“You’re better alive than dead,” Kane returned. “That’s how the freaking saying goes.”

She did like that one better.