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“Auction is tomorrow, it’s only yours if you win it,” the man in charge says with a smirk. “Not that you’ll be alive for it,” he adds before he ducks down, and the three guards start shooting at him.
Panic hits hard, until Gage grabs the jerk Jonah, holding him up in front of him. Bullets hit him and he screams and sags, starting to drop as his legs buckle, but Gage keeps him upright, before returning fire. Three quick pops go off and the guards fall one by one.
Gage pushes Jonah to the side and moves over to creep cowering behind a crate. He stops before he reaches it and turns towards the door where we were all forced to change and take our pictures in, firing before the man that rushed in here can shoot him, and he drops instantly as well.
Gage points his gun straight at the creep telling him, “You either open that door or give me the keys to it. Now!”
“Okay, okay, don’t shoot,” the coward says, getting up with his hands by his head. “Which one do you want?”
“Don’t ask dumbass questions. Open the fucking door,” he warns, and the man opens the one for the two blondes first. “The other one you stupid fuck.”
Relief floods me as the lock unlatches, and Gage’s eyes turn to me finally.
“Come here Emery, it’s time to go home, baby,” he says giving me a nod, and my feet are moving in an instant. He holds out his hand to me and I don’t stop until I’m wrapped up against his side, his free arm holding me tight. “I’m sorry it took me so long to find you, baby.”
Tears fill my eyes, shocked beyond words that he’s here, was looking for me—hell that he even knew who I was.
“Okay, you have her, now go,” the coward says pulling a dark growl from Gage that has him cowering once more.
“There are keys to my car in my front pocket, Emery. There’s no one else outside that can hurt you, go get in the car while I have a few words with this piece of shit,” Gage says, his tone a million times softer when he speaks to me than towards the jerk.
“You promise you won’t take me back to my mom,” I plead, pulling his attention down to me for a moment, and the jerk tries to rush us, resulting in Gage bringing the gun down over his head, splaying him out on the ground.
“I promised your brother I’d keep you safe from your stepfather and your mom’s blindness towards him, Emery. Took me five year too long to find you so I promise, they’ll never get near you again. No one that wants to or tries to hurt you will,” he adds, giving me a nod, and that’s all I need to know right this second. I slip my hand into his pocket, taking out the keys, hurrying out of the space and into the cold air of night.
Chapter 2
Gage
Anger seeps through my veins as I stare at the asshole that had Emery locked in a cage. Finding Jonah wasn’t hard and as much as I wanted to put a bullet between his eyes when I found him, he was the only one that could lead me to where Emery was being kept. The bullets in him might be more fitting after what he attempted to do not only to Emery, but also my buddy Kellan’s new girl Sadie. If it wasn’t for them, I’d never have known Emery was here.
Not until it was too late at least.
When Kellan called me this morning, wanting information about Jonah, I was disgusted with what I learnt about the pervert. Finding the auction site and the girls’ photos on there had rage I haven’t felt in five years flooding me. I was heading out the door before I was even off the phone with Kellan and the entire drive up here had me wondering how Emery ended up in that fucker’s hands.
Didn’t take long to get it out of him, not after getting rid of the two that were supposedly his ‘protection.’ Idiots don’t know the beginning of the meaning of that, how to truly protect someone, but I do. I may have nearly died because of the IED that took Emery’s brother from her, but it didn’t take away any of my skills.
The piece of shrapnel that imbedded itself into my thigh ended my original career. Left me with some muscle damage, enough for them to offer me medical discharged.
I chose not to fight it. They weren’t sure if I’d make it back to my team with the injury and offered me the opening I needed. I didn’t care what they thought of my chances at that moment. I’d promised David I’d keep Emery safe, and it felt more important than staying in and rehabbing. Though I did do the latter on my own and got myself back to pure fighting shape since I didn’t have anything else to do at the time.
I was too late getting home to protect Emery from her stepfather. I had to have surgery to repair my leg and the artery it nicked. Without it, I’d have bled out, just far slower than David did with all his injuries.
When I got back to the states, they were gone, and I’ve spent the last five years trying to track them down. Which led me to opening an online only service to help find information, as well as my mountain home. Both of which had me meeting Kellan.
Not only is he my neighbor but he’s also used my services before, to help find someone positing fake reviews on his family’s ski resorts’ pages. It turned out to be an ex-girlfriend of his that was angry he broke up with her. She’d had her eyes on his fortune, but he felt nothing for her and broke it off. She retaliated and ended up with a restraining order to stay away from not only Kellan, but his family’s resorts as well.
We became friends through both of those things, learning we enjoyed the solitary of the mountains more than the trappings of town, and were both waiting for the right woman to come into our lives rather than continue to deal with the crazies. During my time in the military, I didn’t have anyone else to support, minimal bills since I lived on base even. With what I earned there and what I make now with my online work, I don’t have to worry about money. I may not be in Kellan’s tax bracket, but I have more than enough for an eventual family.
After seeing Emery’s photos on that damn site, I realized why I’d been trying so hard to find her. I thought she was adorable the first time I saw a photo of her and David, but she was just a baby still. Even the photos she sent David a few weeks before he died didn’t have me hard the way the ones this morning had—and the ones this morning had her more covered than she was in those of her at the beach.
I knew it the second I saw them this morning. Knew I’d be waiting for Emery this entire time, knew it was why other women didn’t interest me. Emery’s mine and I’ll show her exactly how I intend to take care of and protect her once we’re home. I’ll be the one claiming her innocence while giving her mine—well, not that I’m innocent beyond never having fucked a woman.
That’s probably the only thing Kellan doesn’t know about me. I rarely ever dated even before I moved out here. Felt nothing for any of the women I did go out with and decided to keep my pants zipped until I found someone I wanted to spend my life with. Didn’t think it’d take me until thirty-eight to do it, but Emery’s worth the wait.
With Jonah, the creep that bought my girl from that slime Harvey, bleeding out slowly behind me and the fucker running this shitshow on the ground, I pocket my gun, then turn towards the girls there. The two blondes seem more pissed than anything, so I deal with them first.
“Let me guess, you’re happy to have a man pay for your first time so you can what…go to Hollywood?” I state getting a hair flip from one of them while the other shrugs. “Have at it, but not with this fucker. He’ll double-cross you in an instant and sell you, not just your virginity to some scum. You want to do it with someone reputable, take this name and get out of here.”
