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“Stuart!” she shouts.
I turn forward again just in time to see two guys ambush Stuart from behind, one slings his arm around his neck while the other punches him in the side of the head. The girls in the van are screaming and the girls behind me start crying too. I lurch forward to help, keeping my gun down so as not to hit Stuart. Sliding the knife from the sheath on my belt, I hold my hand out to the people behind me in what I hope is a very clear instruction to stay put while I run forward and drive my knife into the side of the guy hanging from Stuart’s back. He let’s go but turns to me and pummels a fat fist in my face. The blow knocks me back enough for him to kick me to the ground and when he stamps his foot on my wrist, I let go of the knife without meaning to. The guy, with a shaved head and yellow teeth that he bares at me like a rabid dog, is on me in a second, his hand around my neck and he straddles my hips. In this position, I can’t reach my gun or my knife, which have both been knocked away in the struggle.This guy is a big fucker but lazy and exerting himself too much to maintain the pressure on my throat. So it’s relatively easy to buck him off balance and switch our positions so I can pound my fist in his ugly face over and over until it’s mincemeat. The sound of one of the girls still stood with Annika wailing in distress brings me out of my red haze.
Stuart grunts next to me, taking a baton to the head and dropping to the ground as the much bigger, uglier guy continues to beat him. I can see movement from the corner of my eye and hate the idea that Annika is on her way to intervene, so I get to my feet, feeling immediately dizzy from the blow to my head. I can see my gun laying on the ground and bend to pick it up. But before I can aim it, the attacker roars in pain. A fountain of blood shoots from what I can only assume is his carotid artery with the amount coating his t-shirt and the hand he’s pressed against the gash in his neck. He drops to his knees and then falls forward, dead eyes still open and staring at nothing. Behind him one of the twin boys stands, my knife in his hand, the blade laced with blood and he’s shaking, deathly white and tremoring.
“I…I-I killed him…Is he dead? Have I..?” In this moment, he’s not the young man fiercely protecting his friends, he’s a child, a young boy in over his head.
“Hey.” I stumble over to him just as I hear the front door and the pounding of boots as the other men come to help us. Dooley is out the car and bent over Stuart as I pry the knife out of the death grip the still shaking twin has on it. “It’s okay,” I say gently. “You’re okay, let me take that.” He finally releases the knife and blinks up at me.
“I killed him,” he whispers.
I can only nod at that. “You did, but you saved his life.” I jerk my chin at where Dooley has Stuart sat up with his back against the bumper.
Sapphire and Lizzie are huddled under one blanket at the far end of the van, Lizzie stroking the back of her friend’s head as she cries into her shoulder. Lee and Murray are there instantly, helping Stuart up. Annika steers the others toward the back of the van but one of the girls sees the two dead bodies and freezes, a scream ripping through the muggy evening air. The twin still holding the young girl in his arms seems desperate to go to her but is already struggling with his precious cargo. I take the knife from his brother but he looks about ready to pass out so I can’t exactly leave him. Annika looks at the panicked girl. Two huge hands clamp down on the screaming girl’s upper arms and Brent ducks down to bring himself eye to eye with her.
“Look at me,” he barks sharply. “Look at me,” he repeats when she doesn’t immediately comply. Her watering eyes turn to him, and she stops screaming. “You’re safe,” he tells her with a gentleness you wouldn’t expect from the brute. “Those guys, they’re bad guys. They’re gone,” he tells her, listing it off like a mantra. “You’re safe now. We’re going to take you away from here. We’re going to keep you safe.”
She obviously believes his words, collapsing into the big guy’s vest clad chest with hiccupping sobs. He cradles the back of her head and hugs her.
“Come on, let’s get you out of here.” He guides her to the back of the van and gives me a nod as he passes, reminding me that there’s a kid here who needs a little help.
I turn to the twin by my side. “You did a good thing.”
He nods but looks at the man at his feet, whose blood still drips from the knife in my hand. “Hard to see that right now.”
I put my hand on the back of his neck and steer him to the van. “You’ll get there.”
38
ANNIKA
All of the teenagers are in the back of the van and Lance closes the doors. The three security personnel have taken the prisoner to a holding facility, where he’ll be pressed for answers about how this operation came about, and if there are others that we need to bring down. Lee and Murray are with Stuart in the lead SUV, Dooley will follow, and Harvey and I will bring up the rear.
“We’ll finish off here and meet you back at yours,” Lance says with a nod before he and Brent each pick up a dead body from the pavement and head back to the house to torch it. The plot is large and situated on a corner with roads on both sides, the other houses in the area face the other way with their gardens backing onto the road we’re currently stood on so there is no concern about a fire reaching another property and unlikely that any other residents would have witnessed the scene. It’s very private, probably why these arseholes chose it.
With our small amount of privacy, I fling my arms around Harvey and breathe a shuddering sigh against his neck.
“You okay,rainha?” He pulls me away from him, his eyebrows etched with concern as he looks me up and down to check for some imaginary injury. I guess he’s misinterpreted mydistress. Seeing Harvey fighting with that man had me frozen in fear, something I’ve not felt in my entire adult life. I wanted to jump in and kill the guy hurting him, but I was also in charge of five scared and fragile children. My feelings for Harvey had me panicking, something I’ve never allowed myself to do but in a blaring moment of clarity I realised that I didn’t care. I love him.
“Me?” I look at him as if he’s crazy. “I’m fine. You scared me, Harvey.”
His cocky smile looks good even with the blossoming black eye. “I like you worried about me,rainha.” His fingers curl around my hip and he pulls me to him, taking my lips in a quick but burning kiss. “We’ve got to move out,” he says, taking my hand in his and leading me to the remaining SUV.
He heads to the driver’s side, but I pull him back. “You’re a little wobbly on your feet, I should drive.” He doesn’t argue, heading to the passenger’s door and clambering in as I do the same the other side. “Make sure the doctor checks you over once she’s done with the victims and Stuart.”
He leans his head back against the headrest with an indulgent smirk. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good boy,” I counter, biting my smile and pulling out on the road behind the van.
“Watch yourself,rainha,” he says sternly but his eyes remain closed, and he winces as if in pain. Worry stabs at my chest and I concentrate on the road to ward it off.
After a few moments, he sits up straight and pulls his phone from his pocket, stabbing at the screen before pulling it to his ear. I listen as he tells Guinevere we’re on our way back and to get ready for seven extra houseguests.
We travel in silence for twenty minutes, both of us on edge, looking out for vehicles following us or an attack on the van ahead. Nothing happens. We pull into the gates of my mansion without even being stopped at traffic lights. Guinevere opens thedoor as soon as we pull up and is at the back of the van helping the kids climb out, directing them into the house.
Harvey and I are out the car and helping as soon as the ignition is off. Lee, Murray, and Stuart are there too. Another figure stands in the doorway, blocking the light and we all look up.
“Ah Christ,” Stuart growls. “You called my wife?”
