Page 19 of Midnight Torment

“I’m sorry,” I replied, trying to temper the news with a smile. “But I really am booked out at the moment.”

She opened her handbag, and lifted out a hand grenade. “I was told that I had to make an appointment with you and present you with this gift.”

My full attention was on the bomb in her hand, because right now her presence heralded death.

***

Chapter Seven

Jordan

The photograph on my phone burned a hole in my head. Who the fuck would send rancid flowers with a dead mouse in it? The only person that would be so ballsy was Dante. The guy was about to find out what it felt like to be top of my problem list. My attention was about to be solely on Dante until he was dead like the rodent hiding under the flowers in that box.

I abandoned my car in a parking space and strode through Benson and Parsons as if I owned the place. Kerri sat at the desk outside Megan’s office like a dragon protecting a castle. Her expression was just as ferocious as I imagined a dragon’s would be.

“Ms. Davenport is in a meeting and cannot be disturbed,” she said in the haughty tone that she liked to use on men. Someone must have done a number on her in the past. Megan thought she hated her. My guess was that she hated the way men looked at her, and tripped over themselves when they were about her. I was one of those fools, so I could say nothing.

“Thanks, I’ll introduce myself.” I changed directions and headed toward the conference room, as that was where Flynn told me they had set up camp. He gave me an update every time a client arrived and when they left. She was on her last client for the day, but I no longer cared. I appreciated she was a career woman and I was immensely proud of her successes, but now she was about to find herself in my protective custody and I didn’t care if I had to strap her into a Saint Andrew’s cross and leave her there to ensure she was safe.

Kerri scrambled out from behind her desk to try and follow me, but I had already made my mind up and nothing would deter me, not even an emotional soon-to-be ex-wife.

I stopped dead in the doorway at the scene that greeted me. A woman stood waving a hand grenade toward Megan and Flynn. All eyes and attention in the room snapped to me and I held my hand out in front of me in the universalI mean no harmsignal.

That was a lie. Right now I wanted to wring her neck for threatening Megan. Instead, I put a casual smile on my face.

“Am I interrupting?” I asked, stepping into the room. “Considering you’re on an upper floor, you might want to reconsider your options right now.”

Kerri gasped from behind me and I inwardly cursed myself for not locking the door behind me.

The woman’s brow furrowed, and she looked between me and Megan. “It’s you,” she hissed in a low tone, selecting me as her new target.

I didn’t reply, merely continued to move slowly toward her. All my focus was on the bomb in her hand and the fact that her other hand was ready to pull the pin out. I needed to get to her before she removed that pin and activated the grenade.

Flynn slowly pushed Megan under the heavy conference table, motioning her to crawl to the other end of the room since the woman’s attention was locked on me right now.

“I can help you,” I said. Another lie. The only help I could give her was the gun in the holster at the back of my trousers. “Give me the grenade.”

She blinked slowly, her gaze moving to what was in her hand in confusion. “I…” She looked at me again and then at the item in her hand. “He would be upset if you were injured. He is the only one allowed to hurt you.”

That was a problem I would contemplate on another day when I had free time to consider why someone wanted me left for them alone to torture and kill.

“He would be upset.” I took another step forward. “The grenade has the power to kill me.”

“But—” She shook her head as if to clear it. She frantically searched for Megan, her head moving from side to side.

Flynn and I moved as one. I grabbed her hands, pressing them together, while Flynn restricted her movements from behind. Kerri shouted, bringing attention to our gathering, and my back molars ground together in annoyance.

The woman started to scream in a high-pitched wail, her eyes and mouth wide. She jumped up and down on the spot, trying to free herself. Somewhere in the middle of people racing into the conference room and shouting advice, she managed to get her right hand with the pin in it free.

“Fuck!” I snapped. If no one had been here, I would have snapped her neck and stowed the body until later. My gaze met Flynn’s and we both knew we had a matter of seconds until that thing detonated. I struggled it out of her hand, leaving her to Flynn to restrain, flipping the table near the door with tea and coffee on it and dropping the bomb into the metal coffee pot.

“Get back!” I shouted, my arm spread wide to make everyone retreat.

The woman was frantic as she bounced up and down.

“Fuck this,” Flynn said, holding the woman with one arm, and retrieving a taser with the other, discreetly pressing it into her side while I distracted everyone.

The bang made my ears ring and my stomach lurch up into my chest. Screams surrounded me, followed by shouting. Flynn had the woman propped against the wall and his phone in his hand. He would have his team close by for any problems.

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