Page 77 of Guardian
None of that logic helps, though, when the shooting picks up.While I try to cover my ears, to stay ducked below the level of the window, I’m also craning to try and see what’s going on.Mr.Cat lets out a tiny mewl from his carrier, and I nudge it under the seat as far as possible to keep him safe.
There’s some movement on a small yacht across the way, cutely named theSally Sue.We had a roly-poly calico named Sally Sue when I was little.
What’s not cute is the guy who jumps from the boat deck down to the dock, barely breaking his stride as he shoots.It’s a semi-automatic handgun.I think Liam told me once the maximum number of bullets is, like, eighteen?At first I try to count, thinking it would help to know when the guy runs out.Except then he reaches into the pocket of some bag that’s strapped to his chest and pulls something out.I can’t see what it is, but when he throws it, it makes a ton of smoke.
Now I can’t see a thing.All I can do is hope that Liam and Channing are okay.
And try not to think of my parents.Which…once the night they were killed pops into my head, it’s impossible to rid myself of the memory.The pops and bangs I’d thought were fireworks.
“Fuck,” I whisper to myself as I press my hands harder over my ears.I hate this.I hate feeling helpless like this.The way I’m shaking.
When my parents were killed, I was two doors down.A rare sleepover party I’d been invited to, probably mostly because we were neighbors.People in our neighborhood were always shooting off illegal fireworks, so we figured that was what we’d heard.
Knowing I’d been so close to them, and I hadn’t realized…
Breathe, Ravi.Focus on the breath going in.Focus on the breath going out.
When I was a teenager, I’d get so impatient with my mom, so annoyed that she kept telling me to breathe whenever I was in pain or to breathe through anger, when what I wanted was to be able todosomething.I really should have appreciated her help more when she was around.
My relief when the smoke clears is short-lived.Channing and Liam are racing for the boat.The guy who looked like he threw the smoke bomb is on the ground now, with blood pooling beneath him.There might be someone else still up there on the deck.I could swear there’s movement near the cabin.Maybe it’s only shadows shifting with the boat’s rocking?
Whatever it is, I have a bad feeling.
I see the fire before I hear the boom.It’s so surreal I can’t make sense of it, because who the fuck sets off an explosive on a boat that probably cost more than Liam’s house?
Liam, who just went on the boat.There’s fire where he’s supposed to be.In that first breath my feet are glued to the floor, everything slow and surreal and muffled.My brain’s put itself on pause.
“No.”Once it unfreezes, I’m out of the car and running.There’s no thought in my head of what I’m going to do.How can I even help?All I know is the boat is leaning backward now, nose slightly upturned like the rich snob it is, and I have no idea where Liam went.
All I know is I have to get to him.I have to.And he’d better be alive.He’d better be, or I’ll set every boat on fire.
It’s confusing when all of a sudden I’m running but I’m not going anywhere.
“Stay fucking still, you little shit,” someone growls in my ear.
I hadn’t felt him grab me.I hadn’t even realized he was there.
At least I can answer the question of who, though.Mid-struggle, I freeze at the sight of his face.
“You were at the party.”It’s the guy who tried to grab me before.The one who wanted to buy me for two million dollars.
“For a little guy, you’ve been a lot of fucking trouble,” he grits out.He’s trying to pull me backward, and I’m trying not to let him, but he outweighs me by a lot.
“You know what?Get in line.”I nearly roll my eyes.“People have been telling me I’m annoying for years now.If I’m such a pain in your ass, why were you trying to buy time with me?”
“I don’t want any time with you.”His arm ratchets around me tighter.Even as his voice takes on a tone that’s almost apologetic.“It’s nothing against you.What we needed was an investment.Daniel Corvus was short-sighted to limit auctioning you off to the wealthy in Belle Argo when there are much deeper pockets elsewhere in the world.Some of those guys would absolutely salivate over a tiny, feisty thing like you.”
A boulder sinks into my stomach.When Liam kept insisting on the danger of the auction and I kept blowing him off, all I’d been thinking of was what an enthusiastic or slightly sadistic buyer might want to do.
I figured I knew myself well enough to know that a guy handling me too roughly wouldn’t be much different than going streaking through a warehouse full of guys with guns.It might not be sexy, but I could handle it.Maybe it would even be sort of exciting.If I was really lucky, I might get off on it.Honestly, the wills had been more of an I’ll-never-need-this-but-I’ll-do-it-anyway sort of thing.
Whatever Liam thinks of Brennan, I know he stakes his reputation on having quality employees.He draws a hard line on “mishandling the merchandise.”
This is something else though.“Are you saying you wanted to resell me or something?Is that why you were trying to get me for cheap?”In spite of everything, I almost want to pat myself on the back for actually thinking someone paying two million for me would have been cheap.If the guys could see me now.
But as the puzzle pieces snap together, I struggle harder.Every calculation I made hinged on a certain set of assumptions.Never once did it occur to me that someone might want to do something other than bid on me and fuck me.Or…you know, fuck-adjacent.
“It wasn’t an easy decision.You’re so pretty and delicate.The trouble is, I’m in deep with some guys who make Brennan Doyle look like a toddler playing dress-up.If it weren’t for that?Mmm.You’re so soft.Flexible.Gorgeous.I’d love nothing more than to lose my cufflinks inside you.”
