Page 55 of Just One More Affair
Charlotte had already explained the situation and it was as bad as it could get. “Come on. We’re leaving now. Talking later.”
Jared stepped closer, grabbed the other man’s skinny arm, and all but dragging him down the stairs, around the corner, and out the door, him yelling about how it hurt the entire time.
He didn’t give a shit about the man’s pain. He wanted to get Charlotte out of here and to safety. This shitty neighborhood was freaking him out. Nothing could happen to her or his baby. Allowing her to come had been a mistake.
They were steps from the car and he caught her wide-eyed gaze when two men approached, seemingly out of nowhere.
“Fuck.” Jared glanced at the car and narrowed his gaze, silently warning her not to dare unlock the vehicle. He turned as a hooded man grabbed Dan, one arm around his waist, the other holding a knife to his neck.
Seconds later, Jared was pushed from behind and plastered to the hood of the car, the second man holding him in place. Taken by surprise, he expelled a rough breath of air, aware he had to fight this guy off.
But the only thing going through his mind was Charlotte as he prayed she stayed in the damned car.
***
Charlie watched thehouse, barely blinking as she waited for Jared to approach the old, run-down home and knock. Her stomach bottomed out when he walked inside and disappeared from sight. Time seemed to slow as seconds, then minutes passed.
When she saw Jared and Dan rush down the grass to the car, she breathed out a sigh of relief. And then two men jumped out of the bushes from the side of the property and she screamed in surprise. In the blink of an eye, her brother had a knife to his throat and Jared was thrown against the hood of the car by a man with a tire iron in his hand.
The guy with the knife pushed Dan forward and looked Charlie in the eye. “Get out of the fucking car.”
“No!” Dan screamed.
She couldn’t hear Jared but his lips moved and she had no doubt he was warning her to stay put.
She froze, not moving, her heart pounding in her chest. The police, she thought, grabbing her phone from the center console. She had to call the police. Dialing 911, she hit speaker, giving the operator the address where they’d come to get Dan. She prayed they’d arrive soon.
“Did you hear me? Open the door and get the fuck out here!” the same guy yelled, pressing the knife closer to her brother’s throat.
“Ouch!” Dan yelled as blood dripped down his neck.
No way was she letting them get hurt if it was in her power to stop it. “Stop!” she screamed before all hell broke loose.
Jared headbutted the man holding him from behind and broke free, the other guy grabbing his bleeding nose. While he was distracted, Jared swung, nailing him in the jaw, then kicked out and got him in the abdomen. Obviously not expecting it, the man fell to his knees.
Charlie was panting, fear overwhelming her, but she trusted Jared to handle things.
Dan tried to wiggle free, but he was trembling and too unsteady. Jared thrust out his foot, nailing the man holding Dan in his knee. He threw her brother to the ground and went for Jared, who appeared ready to take him when the second guy, the one Jared had taken out of the equation, rose to his feet.
Charlie flung open the car door to warn him, screaming as he hit Jared in the back of the head with the tire iron and he fell to the ground, seemingly unconscious. “Jared!”
Both attackers turned her way, taking a step forward, when the blessed sound of sirens filled the air. The men froze, whispered something to each other, then took off at a run.
Charlie fell to her knees by Jared’s side. “Jared?” she asked, her hand shaking as blood oozed from the wound in his head. Afraid to move him, she sat by his side, caressing the side of his face. “You’ll be okay,” she said softly. “You have to be okay.”
She glanced up at her brother who was jumping where he stood. “The cops are coming. I have to go!”
“Don’t you dare,” she hissed. “Jared was hurt because I insisted on rescuing you. You sit down, shut up, and take responsibility for once. You owe him that.”
A patrol car screeched to a halt behind the SUV and an officer climbed out, his partner walking around the vehicles beside him.
“He needs an ambulance, now!”
One officer called it in while the other grasped her brother’s arm as he tried to slink away.
Fear and nausea warred inside her as she sat waiting for paramedics to arrive, stroking Jared’s cheek, saying prayers the entire time.
Chapter Twenty
