Page 124 of Knot for Me
My phone rings a mile from our house. “What?”
“She’s okay,” Amelie blurts, voice high pitched and frantic. “Beat to hell but she’s okay.”
“We’re almost there.” I hang up and tell the guys.
Lucas presses the gas down harder, tearing up our driveway fast enough to make me brace myself for an impact. There are three police cars, a SWAT truck, Amelie’s SUV, and an ambulance. The emergency vehicle makes my heart jump. Lucas hits the brakes hard when he realizes he doesn’t have enough room to stop without crashing into someone, the tires screaming as he yanks the wheel to the side and nearly flips us. The car rocks hard to one side once we finally stop.
“Jesus fuck, bro.” Marco smacks the side of his seat but Lucas is already up and out of the car.
“Let’s go,” I say, hopping out.
Marco and I are only a few steps behind Lucas. We shove past the people in uniform, not stopping for the captain who tries to explain the situation. We burst into the foyer. Reagan is nowhere in sight but there’s a puddle of blood on the white and black tile.
“I’ll fucking murder him,” I whisper, swinging my gaze around the room until they land on some handcuffed douchebag sitting at our dining room table.
An EMT is bandaging his arm and an officer is attempting to question him but the guy’s lips are sealed shut. It’s the guy from the security company. No wonder he got past the system, he’s the one who installed it. We’re lucky he didn’t disable the keypad before Reagan was able to call for help. My body starts to shake with rage and fear. She was closer to death than I thought.
“Don’t fucking help him.” I push by Lucas, storming toward the guy. “He can fucking bleed out.”
“Sir, I have to. It’s my job,” the woman says, softly but firmly.
Normally, I’d admire her courage. Today it only pisses me off. I scoot her out of the way and shove my foot into the asshole’s stomach. The chair tips over and I snarl at him when he gasps for air.
“Get back. This man is under arrest.” The officer steps between us, like that’ll keep me from the guy.
“He’s dead,” I say, lunging around the cop, but Lucas and Marco catch me around the waist, hauling me back. “Let me go. Don’t you give a shit about her? He doesn’t deserve to live.”
Lucas growls and slaps me so hard my head whips to the side. “Get it together. Killing him puts you in jail. How are you going to protect her then?”
The bastard has a point.
“Get him out of here,” the cop says, glaring at me. “Don’t make me arrest you.”
Huffing, I wrench out of Lucas and Marco’s arms and storm to the foyer. Where the fuck is she?
“Reagan?” My voice echoes in the big house, and I hear the officer mutter something rude under his breath. I don’t have enough fucks to give him any more of my time.
“We’re up here,” Amelie calls from the second floor.
Lucas and Marco beat me to the stairs, and we sprint up them like rabid dogs chasing after our next kill. Amelie presses against the wall as we rush by, holding her hands up to show she’s not a threat. Reagan is sitting on her bed, clutching two ice packs to her middle. Her lip is split and swollen. She starts to smile then winces, a fresh trickle of blood coating her mouth.
“All this fuss for little old me?” she asks with a half-hearted laugh. We stop in front of her, and she sighs, glancing at all of us. “So, plus side is I didn’t die, right?”
“That’s not funny,” Lucas scolds, dropping to his knees and putting his head in her lap.
She drops the ice packs and digs her fingers into his hair. “I have to laugh or I’ll cry.”
“You hurt him?” Marco asks, carefully sitting next to her on the bed so as not to hurt her.
“I slashed him a few times, head butted him, and kicked him. He still got me though. If it weren’t for Amelie and the security system, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“I kicked that fucker in the nuts so hard he won’t be able to have children,” Amelie says with a proud smirk. “If it weren’t for the cops, I would have chopped his dick off.”
“Did he?” Lucas asks, face almost broken as he looks at Reagan.
“No,” she says, shaking her head hard. “He didn’t want that. He just wanted to kill me is all.”
I clench my fists at my side, pissed that the guy even had a chance to get at her. We should have done a better job vetting the company and its workers. “Where’s Frank?” I ask, suddenly remembering he didn’t answer my calls.
