Page 55 of Guarding The Phoenix: Vol. 2

“Fine. Just leave my bodyguards alive. They’re just hired help. You let them live and I will go with you,” I bargained with my heart in my throat.

Luka gave a signal, and the gunfire ceased.

“See, that wasn’t so hard.” He kept a hand around my bicep, pulling me toward his boat. It worked. They would live.

My footsteps were leaden as I boarded his yacht. They felt like the footsteps of doom.

The moment we were on board, Luka shouted, “Light ‘em up boys.”

Gunfire erupted.

“No!” I screamed with my heart in my throat.

His yacht separated from the dock. I stood beside Luka as the scene unfolded. My guys held their own. One of them must have run back into the house and grabbed some guns. But then one of Luka’s goons stood on the deck of his yacht with a rocket launcher. I shook my head in dawning horror.

The ferocious roar of the missile as it ignited and shot out of the launcher was deafening. It flew fast, in an arc of flames to its target—the house.

The house exploded in a fiery ball of timber and glass. Flaming debris rained over the shore and dock.

I couldn’t see my guys. Were they dead? Had the blast killed them? I wanted to jump over the side of the yacht and find them. But Luka held my arm like an iron manacle.

Luka didn’t care that he was leaving some of his men behind for dead. What kind of sadistic psychopath was he?

The yacht picked up speed, sailing away from the billowing flames engulfing the house. I wanted to believe my guys survived the blast and the gun battle. I clung to the hope that they would live and come find me.

A second explosion rocked the shoreline as my yacht blew sky high. The heat from the explosion knocked me back a few steps, and the boat rocked at the waves. I screamed bloody murder as I was dragged from the deck, down a long hallway and into a bedroom with Luka Santos.

I had never been more terrified in my life.

Chapter eighteen

The Pursuit

Axel

Shesnatchedthedamnmap on her mad dash. Mateo had already downloaded a copy with the location of the island her husband owned. I wished I would have come clean sooner, but Gideon had been adamant about keeping her in the dark until the case was finished. And look where it had gotten us. She had every right to be upset. We lied to her and destroyed the trust we’d built.

Would she ever forgive me?

Didn’t she realize there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her? If she asked me, I would retire from the CIA in a heartbeat and be her bodyguard, her lover, and her husband, if she would have me. I would shield her from harm and protect her with my life. When I looked into her eyes, I saw my future. I wanted babies with her. I wanted to love her until my dying day.

Damn woman was fast. She raced out the front door like the hounds of hell nipped at her heels.

I chased her outside and skidded to a halt.

Motherfucker!How the fuck had he found us?

Standing twenty feet from the front door was Luka Santos. And he had Kylie. Mateo and Chase stopped behind me.

“What the fuck?” Chase exclaimed.

“NO!” I roared in disbelief. I couldn’t let him take her. I’d promised her he would never get his hands on her ever again.

Then we ducked at a hail of bullets. We were under fucking attack. I needed firepower and lots of it.

Shit. How could I be so stupid? My firearm was inside. I never should be without it on a mission. But I had my fucking phone. On the ground I yanked it out of my back pocket and called Gideon, putting him on speaker.

“Yeah?” Gideon answered.

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