Page 113 of King of Temptation

That’s my girl.

“Half the respectable members of the community are members of one kink club or another.” The smaller of the two comrades sounded bored, which did not bode well for Rowan. A bored criminal was a dangerous criminal.

Great. Their recon mission was now a rescue mission.

Turning to Goldie, Brody pressed a finger to his lips and then pointed at the ground.

Stay here, and stay quiet.

Goldie’s brows pulled together with obvious annoyance, but she nodded. Trusting she would actually stay where he’d put her, Brody crept forward, his mind racing as he tried to figure out a plan to get him and Rowan out of this situation his dumbass cousin had gotten himself into. Preferably alive and mostly undamaged.

The latter was really just for Murphy’s sake.

“This is bullshit!” Rowan’s voice pitched up in anger, but it only served to make him sound even more like a petulant child than he usually did. “You asked for information on Killian and that’s what I gave you. I want what’s due to me and I want it now.”

“Oh, don’t worry. We have every intention of giving you what’s due.”

Chapter 40

Goldie

Being stuck on the sidelines sucked. It wasn’t even so much that she wanted to be in the thick of the action, but watching the man she loved creep closer and closer to danger had every nerve in her body on edge.

And then she saw it. The glint of metal behind the smaller Russian’s back when he moved.

Fuck.

Did Brody see it? What if he didn’t and he tried to step in and save Rowan’s worthless life and got himself shot?

Terror clawed at her throat as she watched Brody move toward the madman with a gun. He’d told her to stay put, and for once she didn’t really want to disobey him.

But she couldn’t just sit idly by while he walked unknowingly into danger, either. If he wanted to whip her ass for it later, so be it. She’d handled it once, she could handle it again. Could handle anything he wanted to do to her as long as he lived.

Clutching that desperate wish to her chest, she inched forward, mimicking his movements. Keeping low to the ground, her back pressed against the building, she followed him, her heart threatening to beat itself right out of her chest with every step.

“Oh, don’t worry. We have every intention of giving you what’s due.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Smaller Russian had the gun in plain sight now, pointed right at Rowan’s chest. She might think he was a bit of a prat, but she didn’t want to see him die.

Heart in her throat, she watched as Brody moved out of the shadows, his own firearm raised. It hadn’t actually occurred to her he might have a weapon of his own, which she could see now was a ridiculous oversight on her part. A man like Brody O’Rourke never went anywhere without the ability to defend himself and the people he loved.

“Put the gun down, and walk away.”

Brody’s voice didn’t waver in the slightest as he leveled his own pistol at the two Russians staring down his cousin, but Goldie’s entire body vibrated with terror at the sight.

Smaller Russian only smirked. “You brought us a present. Two O’Rourkes with one gun.”

“You can certainly try,” Brody said, his tone the verbal equivalent of a shrug, as if the entire situation was nothing more than a mild inconvenience to him. “But you’ll be on the ground before you get a second shot off. If you put the gun down now, I’ll let you walk away. There’s no reason we can’t all leave this parking lot alive.”

Unless the big guy there also has a gun. Which would put the odds firmly in the Russian’s favor. Brody might be able to take out one of them before they shot him, but unless he possessed some kind of superhuman speed she was unaware of, he’d be dead before he could get a second shot off.

Panic dug its claws into her lungs, squeezing until all the oxygen had abandoned her and the edges of her vision turned gray. She had to do something to protect him, but what? Throwing herself into the fray would only give them another target and distract Brody in the process.

Whipping her head around, she looked for something, anything to help. Her gaze landed on a large rock less than a foot away, and a plan rooted in her mind. It was, potentially, a really stupid fucking plan that could backfire horribly on all of them, but it was the only plan she had.

The world slowed down around her as she crouched and hefted the rock in her hand. She said a brief prayer this crazy ass plan of hers would actually work, pulled her arm back.

And let the rock fly.