Page 45 of Hero Next Door
He also had a gun in his hand, though it was currently pointed at the floor, thank God.
I ducked back around the edge of the door, praying he hadn’t seen me, but kept my eye on the scene in front of me. Parker hadn’t seen me, or if she had, she was clever enough not to have looked at me directly.
Which meant Kevin himself had no idea I was here.
And I was going to use that to my advantage. Because there was only one person who mattered in there, and that person was Parker. I had to get in there, grab her, and get us both out again without either of us getting shot.
No problem.
CHAPTER29
Parker
I’d seen Dev come through the door of the kitchen, out of the corner of my eye, and fought really, really hard to keep from looking at him directly. This might be my first time having a guy point an actual gun at me, but I’d been in situations where men were trying to hurt me before. My body might be frozen but my brain was still working, searching desperately for a way out of this mess. Something that might distract Kevin long enough for me to get away.
I’d never had anyone who came to my rescue before. In the past, I’d always had to get out of the situation on my own. But I’d seen enough movies to know that if there was someone there to rescue you, you keep your eyes away from them. Do everything you can to keep from tipping off the bad guy.
Give the hero a chance to come up with a plan and get you out of there.
And yeah, I hated that I needed a hero like that. I really, really wanted to be able to take care of this on my own. But at this point I was also willing to admit that I didn’t have a single clue how I was going to get out of this alive.
I’d never been happier to see anyone than I was to see Dev when he came through that door.
Now I just had to wait for him to come up with a plan, while distracting Kevin. The longer I could keep him talking, the longer Dev would have to plan, and the better our chances were.
“Kevin,” I said reasonably. “You know you don’t have to do this. You’re going to shoot me, really? And then what? You know that won’t mean you automatically get the land, right?”
“It’ll go up for auction,” he replied, speaking quickly enough that I knew he’d done some research on this.
The thought made my blood run even colder. He’d beenplanningthis, and I’d giving him the exact opening he needed by sending Dev away and then walking over and telling Kevin to get lost because he’d never get his hands on my land.
God, I’d even told him that I didn’t think it was for sale anymore, because I was seriously considering staying. If it had still been for sale, he would have seen his chance to keep pestering me and wearing me down. Instead, he’d gotten desperate and started in on this crazy plan.
Where the hell was Dev? What was he doing back there, having a snack before he got back in here?
“Only after a long probate process,” I pointed out. “By the time it actually goes up for auction you’ll have lost whatever backers you have for this. They will have moved on to something else.” That was a guess on my part, but it seemed like a smart one. He was way too attached to the idea of this land to just be investing on his own. He acted like he was trying to please someone else. Trying to save a deal.
And I could see from the way his face changed that I was right.
“They’ll never quit,” he said hoarsely. “Which is exactly why I need that land from you. Are you going to sell to me?”
God, this was it. The point in a conversation where I had the chance to save myself by giving the right answer, and found that I just couldn’t do it.
Yeah, I’d been here before. I’d seen the light at the tunnel... and known I wasn’t willing to keep my mouth shut for long enough to get me there. I’d always had a quick tongue, and I’d never been able to keep quiet.
I always had to have the last word.
“I said no,” I told him quietly. “I said it about one hundred times. And the answer hasn’t changed.”
He sneered at me. “Wrong answer.”
I flinched, knowing that the blow was coming. But before he could do anything, Dev flew through the door, all swinging fists and sweeping, kicking feet, and I watched in absolute shock as he ducked down, swept his foot out, and took Kevin’s feet right out from under him. The man went down like a sack of potatoes, the gun going off on his way down. The bullet hit the ceiling and an explosion of plaster and dust rained down on us, making the scene even harder to track. I dove behind the island, searching for cover in case Kevin fired again, and by the time I came up again, Dev was on top of Kevin planting three quick jabs in his face until he was still.
I heard a shout from behind me and spun around to see a man I hadn’t even known was there, all baggy jeans and long, scraggly hair. And a gun. This one also definitely had a gun. Who the hell was this guy and where had he come from? My gaze shot to the door behind him and I cursed myself. Dev had told me to keep that locked and I’d blown him off, positive that I’d be just fine.
And now that door had let another guy with a gun into the house. And he was pointing the gun at Dev.
I leapt at him before I could think, unwilling to let him shoot the man I’d just decided I might love. I hit him low, around the waist, just like my self-defense classes had taught me to, but he was a whole lot bigger than I was and threw me off easily, planting a kick in my belly before I got too far away.
