Think. What would Agent Wood say?She tried to think back the FBI Agent who’d given her the skills to bring down an entiregroupof criminals.
When you’re in a tough spot, you look for the weak spot.
Bruiser was strong, no doubt aided by fury and whatever he was on. The grip on her neck tightened until she started to see spots. She needed to breathe. She needed air.
Don’t panic. Weak spot. Weak spot.
He was trying to drag her forward and she was fighting it. But she couldn’t fight it. Surprise was a weak spot, she remembered.
So with the last bit of energy she had, she stopped fighting the forward progress and threw her weight into it instead. Bruiser stumbled in surprise now that there was no oppositional force. His grip loosened enough for her to suck in a breath as they stumbled forward, toward the fire.
But Bruiser regained his footing quick enough, and after maybe two decent breaths, his arm was crushing against her windpipe again.
They were so close to the fire now. She could feel the heat pouring off it. Flames licked higher and higher, smoke hanging in the air so that even if she could get a breath, it was sour and heavy.
“You like fire so much?” Bruiser said, huffing and puffing in the exertion of the fight. “Let’s see how you like this.”
Lia braced herself, or tried, for whatever he was threatening. She held her breath and planted her feet and—
“Let go of her and step away.”
Both Lia and Bruiser stilled. Tears immediately filled Lia’s vision. It was Gard’s voice. She couldn’t see him because of Bruiser’s grip on her, but sheknewit was him.
Here. To save her.
Bruiser carefully turned, but he positioned Lia in front of him. She pulled at his arm on her windpipe because she couldn’t breathe again. She didn’t want Gard to see her like this, but he stood there. Stoic. Sure.
Gun pointed at them.
Smoke swirled between them as flames licked up the door and wall behind Lia and Bruiser, but she could see Gard’s blue eyes were intense and direct and on Bruiser. Not on her.
After trying to save Sammy, Lia understood why. He was maintaining focus and distance because he wouldn’t be able to do either if he focused on her. Just like she hadn’t been able to spend time looking directly at Sammy without emotions taking over.
“Who the hell are you?” Bruiser demanded, which made sense. Gard didn’t look very cop-like in his plain clothes, gun drawn, and blank expression on his face. He looked like some kind of…vigilante or something.
But he didn’t answer Bruiser’s question. “Drop your arm and step away or I shoot,” he said, calm and intimidating.
Lia could feel Bruiser moving behind her. She didn’t know what he was doing, but she could hear him messing with something. She struggled to get a little, tiny breath, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough. So much so she almost didn’t know that Bruiser was now holding the sharp edge of something against her back.
Gard couldn’t see it. He didn’t know. And Lia couldn’t tell him, because she couldn’t even breathe.
“This is your last chance,” Gard said. His finger curled around the trigger.
Lia didn’t know how he could shoot when Bruiser was using her as some kind of shield, but Bruiser’s grip on her neck eased a little bit. Lia could struggle in a smoke-filled breath and then another. She coughed on both, but it didn’t even matter. He was letting her really breathe. She thought maybe… Maybe he was actually going to let her go fully. He was afraid enough of the gun that he would do what Gard said.
But he had a knife…orsomethingsharp pointed into her back. If he let her go and Gard didn’t shoot, would he hurt Gard with it instead?
Lia couldn’t let that happen.
So with another sucked-in breath, she managed to get out half the sentence. “He’s got a kni—” Then she let out a scream of pain as agony sliced through her.
Chapter Twenty
Lia cried out—clearly in pain, so Gard did the only thing he knew how to do. He fired his weapon at his target.
The man who’d been holding Lia fell backward, but Lia did too, falling right on top of him with another cry of pain.
Gard rushed forward, pulled Lia off of the man and into his arms and as far away from the fire as he could. He wanted to find out where she’d been hurt, carry her out of here, but he had to be sure he’d incapacitated her captor.
