Page 118 of Keep Your Guard Up
Chance.
Chance.
Each beat could do nothing but repeat his name. Over and over again in soothing yet frantic calls for him.
He was on his knees in front of me. So close, and yet so far away.
If my fucking legs weren’t tied to the chair, I’d be able to reach him with my toes.
His hand, the one with the rings, was covered in blood now, along with the side of his shirt. He hung his head low, letting out slow but even breaths.
Athudsounded from the back of the house, near mine and Chance’s room. Talia’s heels clicked like a horse running as she sprinted across the tiles. When I looked back, Chance was on his feet, eyes blazing as he staggered towards me.
“Chance!” I choked. “Stop! You’re bleeding!”
“Well …” He grunted as he bent down in front of me and began to fiddle with the ropes. “… aware, Trevino.”
“Chancey-boy,” JJ called, sliding a pocketknife across the wooden floorboards before turning and running back the way Talia had gone.
It hit Chance’s booted foot within a second. His shoes were bigger, clunkier than JJ’s.
“You came,” I whispered, smiling at the bleeding man in front of me as he sawed through the ropes around my ankles.
“Whatever it needs to be, darling,” he said, looking up at me under heavy, pain-stricken lids.
“Even if it means you playing superhero?” I stretched out my legs, rolling my ankles to wake them up so we could get the fuck out of here and I could get Chance to the nearest hospital.
“Especially then.” He pressed a soft, tender hiss to the back of my neck as he cut through, layer by layer, of the rope that bound my hands. “I’ve got you, darling.”
A muffled voice came from nearby as a light flashed. A phone screen lit up with an active call. Chance shoved it into my hands when he’d finally freed them. Three white zeros stood boldly on the screen. Hope bloomed in my chest. I opened my mouth to start shouting instructions down the line, starting with JJ’s address and finishing with, ‘Get the fuck here now!’.
“Hang up the phone.” That cold, cunning, malicious voice.
I’d been cut off. Painfully, piss-poor-timingly cut off.
Chance’s face hardened to stone, and I knew Randy had the gun held to my head.
Chapter 64
Chance
Iwasn’t even touching the gun and I could feel how fucking cold it was. Despite the warm blood trickling against my hand, ice-cold rage poured itself through my veins.
I’d fucked up, been careless and gotten so lost in Mari that I’d forgotten about themysteriousmanwitnesses had seen Talia lurking around with. Now Randy fucking Rager held a gun to Mari’s head.
My woman’s head.
Nothappening.
I’d cut his hands off before he could even think of pulling the trigger.
That icy swell pumped its way through my body, igniting the fight response that was so conditioned in my brain. I clenched my hands, digging my blunt nails into my palms, forcing my brain to slow down and think.
Fucking think, man.
I pulled the phone from Mari’s hand, letting my probing fingers skim her cheek. Being careful not to press the hang-up button, I tossed it to the ground then slowly kicked it away, attempting to buy us as much time as possible.
“Get your hands up.” He wrapped an arm around Mari’s chest, holding her back to him, the gun still pointed at her temple.
