Necessary Risk (Bodyguard)

by Tara Wyatt

  The last thing she saw was the iron swinging down toward her.

  * * *

  Sean sat in the van, his hands clasped tightly in front of him, his shoulders rigid.

  Maybe he was being overprotective. Maybe he was letting his uncertainty over his future with Sierra color everything. Maybe he was assuming the worst-case scenario, being overly suspicious of what could potentially be a solid lead.

  His phone buzzed from his pocket and he fished it out, swiping a thumb across the screen to answer it.

  “Clay, what’s up?”

  “You need to get her the fuck out of there. Jack is Sacrosanct. He’s part of it. It’s been him this whole time.” A buzzing filled Sean’s ears, and he missed the rest of what Clay said.

  And then Sierra’s voice, shaky and high, came through the van’s speaker, and his heart plummeted into his stomach.

  “You know, fifteen’s my lucky number.”

  A muffled thud filled the speakers, followed by static. The earpiece was gone.

  “Fuck!” Sean pushed out of his chair and grabbed his gun from its holster, checking the clip. “I’m going in.”

  Antonio stood too, worry etched into his features. “You can’t just go in there guns blazing. I’ll call for backup and we’ll get her out of there.”

  Sean snorted and shook his head. “You’re fucking crazy if you think I’m going to sit here and wait around while she’s in trouble. I’m doing this my way.”

  “It’s not a good idea.”

  Sean slid his Glock back into the holster and pushed open the van’s door, meeting Antonio’s eyes. “Try and stop me.”

  “I’m coming with you.” Patrick hopped out of the van behind him, his Beretta in hand. They ran for the stairs, feet pounding on the concrete of the hotel’s parking garage, Sean’s heart beating so hard he thought it might explode. They tore up the stairs and burst into the lobby, earning a few curious stares, but no one moved to follow them. He put a hand on his father’s arm.

  “We can’t attract attention. We don’t know who Jack has watching the lobby.”

  Patrick nodded. “Elevators?”

  “You think she meant the fifteenth floor?”

  Patrick hit the call button for the elevators. “That’d be my guess.”

  “We’ll take the elevator to fourteen, take the stairs the last flight up.”

  The doors slid open, and Sean punched the button for floor fourteen. He paced in the small car, unable to keep his legs still as anxiety shot through him. He shoved a hand through his hair, trying to breathe. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to breathe until he got eyes on Sierra. Until he knew she was OK.

  He’d never felt so fucking frantic in his life.

  His father’s hand landed on his arm, and Sean stilled. “We’ll get her out. She’ll be OK.”

  Sean nodded curtly, not trusting himself to speak. Wanting to believe his father, but unable to escape the nightmare playing over and over in his mind. Blood everywhere, Sierra’s body limp and lifeless, and the knowledge that he’d once again failed to protect someone he loved.

  He couldn’t let it happen. It didn’t matter that she’d hurt him. He’d do whatever it took to save her.

  The elevator doors opened on fourteen, and they stepped out, running for the stairwell at the end of the hall, slamming into the door and pushing it open. They ran up the flight of stairs, and when they reached the door with a large 15 emblazoned on it, they stopped. Cautiously Sean nudged his shoulder against the door, easing it open a few inches, his Glock in his hands. Two men in black suits stood in front of a door at the other end of the hall, closer to the elevator. Not only did Jack have Sierra in the hotel room, he had the room guarded as well.

  “Here’s the plan,” said Patrick. “You go back down to fourteen and take the elevator up. They probably know what you look like, but not me. I’ll come out of the stairwell and make my way toward them like I’m a guest going to my room. When I hear the elevator doors open, I’ll take one, you take the other. We’ll have the element of surprise.”

  * * *

  Sierra’s head throbbed woozily as it bobbed against her chest, and she struggled to open her eyes. Pain threatened to split her skull in two, and a wave of nausea rolled through her. She tried to push her hair back from her face, but she couldn’t move her arms. The red-tinged fog began to lift, and she forced her eyes open.

  Her head bobbed down again, and she discovered why she couldn’t move. She was tied to the desk chair, her arms pinned painfully behind her, her ankles fastened to the chair legs with coarse rope. Everything hurt. Her head, her face, her ribs. Hot, terrified tears stung her eyes as she struggled uselessly against the rope holding her in place. She’d been gagged with a piece of fabric, and she forced herself to breathe through her nose, trying not to choke on the cotton wad stuffed into her mouth.

  Jack emerged from the bathroom, a cloth pressed to his face.

  “You know,” he said, wiping at his face, welts visible on his cheek and jaw from where she’d nailed him with the iron, “my original plan was just to kill you quickly and get it over with, but after that little demonstration back there, I think I’ll take my time. I’ve always wanted to teach you a lesson.” He smirked, and her blood ran cold. He stuck his head out the door. “Have you got my kit?”

  Someone passed him what looked like a leather briefcase. With calm, sure movements, he set it on the bed and opened it. Her entire body shook, and she tried to scream around the gag, her eyes bulging as Jack pulled out a cordless drill with a long, sharp spiral bit attached. She choked on her scream and pulled frantically against her ropes, feeling the tiniest bit of give.

  Pain throbbed through her head as the same horrifying thoughts chased each other around in circles.

  He’s going to torture you and kill you. You’re never going to see Sean again. You’re going to die, horribly and painfully, and you’ll never get the chance to make things right with him.

  With an almost painful flash of clarity, she knew that Sean was the love of her life, and she’d do anything to fix what she’d broken.

  A silent sob racked her, and Jack laughed.

  “Poor little self-righteous princess.” He shook his head in mock pity.

  He pulled the chair closer to the bed, and then he sat on the corner, the drill clutched in one hand. A gun lay on the bed beside him. He stroked his fingers over her cheek, and she recoiled from his touch, her mind reeling, trying to make sense of everything, trying to figure out a way out of this. Without a word, he set the drill down on the bed, raised his arm, and backhanded her, hard. Lights flashed in front of her eyes as her head snapped back.

  “You were always such a stubborn bitch.” He stroked her face again, her skin stinging under his touch. “If I take this gag out, do you promise not to scream?” He ran the tips of his fingers over the gun. “You’re not stupid enough to scream, are you?”

  She shook her head, the room blurring around her, and he pulled the fabric out of her mouth. She sucked in several breaths, her blood rushing through her ears and throbbing against her temples.

  “Why, Jack?” she croaked out. “I just want to know why.” If she could keep Jack talking, maybe there was a chance Sean could find her before it was too late. She wouldn’t have thought she had room to feel anything beyond the terror clogging her senses, but a shard of guilt pierced right through it. He’d been against the plan from the start, and she’d gone around him and hurt him in the process. And now look at what she was putting him through.

  But she knew he’d come. Despite the shit between them, he’d come for her. She knew it the way she knew her name, the way she knew the sky was blue.

  Jack picked up the drill, examined the bit, and then set it down beside him. He braced his forearms on his knees and leaned forward, a cold, sadistic smile on his face. “Is this the part where I tell you my evil plan?” He shook his head, laughing at her.

  “If you’re gonna kill me, I at least want to know why. Is t
his because of us?”

  He rolled his eyes as if he were placating a child. “Don’t flatter yourself. It’s about money.”

  “Money?”

  “Well, we couldn’t let Choices get that grant.”

  “We? Jack, I don’t understand.”

  “The Pregnancy Support Center. Or I guess I should say Sacrosanct. They are the same thing, after all, although that’s a secret, so you have to promise not to tell anyone.” He pressed a finger to his lips, laughing at his own morbid joke.

  “And you’re part of it?”

  “Sacrosanct recruited me years ago. I’d like to think I’ve been a good asset for them, with my political connections. Probably why they put me in charge.”

  Her mind spun, and she felt as though she were wading through mud, trying to understand. Jack was in charge of Sacrosanct, and Sacrosanct was behind the Pregnancy Support Center. All of this had been about the fifty million dollars.

  “But why target me?” She had a feeling she knew the answer, but she wanted to keep him talking. Her pulse throbbed in her throat.

  “Because you were our biggest obstacle. You were the one gaining support for Choices. Initially the plan was to scare you into shutting up, you know, because I did like you once, but as I said, you’re a stubborn bitch. Stubborn to the point of stupid.” He shook his head and sighed happily. “Now that you’ll be out of the way, the grant will be ours.”

  “You think turning me into a martyr will hurt Choices? You’re delusional.”

  “I think killing you will devastate the organization and completely derail them, leaving the fifty million dollars for us. No hard feelings, though. I just really need this money.”

  “Sean is going to beat the shit out of you when he gets here.”

  He raised his hand to hit her again, but froze when the unmistakable sound of gunfire erupted in the hallway outside.

  She smiled.

  Sean.

  * * *

  The elevator doors slid open, and Sean emerged just as his father took a flying leap and tackled the guard closest to him. They hit the ground with a crash, grunting as fists swung. As they struggled on the ground, Sean charged at the second guard, who leveled his gun at Sean. He ducked into a doorway, his back plastered to the door, as two bullets disappeared into the wall a few inches from his head. He stepped out and fired two shots, narrowly missing the second guard, who was raising his gun to return fire. Sean stepped into the doorway again, adrenaline surging through his system. The second the gunfire stopped, he charged out from the doorway and fired again, managing to hit the second guard. The man stumbled backward, his hand clutched to his shoulder. His father, who’d beaten the other guard unconscious, kicked his gun away and trained his Beretta on him.

  The hotel room door opened, and Jack stuck his head out. Anger beat hotly through Sean’s veins, and Jack’s eyes widened. Leaving his father with the two guards, Sean barreled into the room, his only thought getting to Sierra and getting her the hell out of here. Jack tried to shove the door closed, but Sean kicked it open, sending it slamming into the wall. Jack scrambled backward, grabbing for a gun lying on the bed, and Sean chased him into the room, desperate to get to Sierra.

  She sat tied to a chair beside the bed, her hands bound behind her back, wriggling furiously against her bindings. Sean raised his gun and trained it on Jack just as Sierra managed to tip her chair over, crashing to the floor. With a glance at Sean, Jack leveled his gun at Sierra. The sight of the gun pointed at her caused Sean’s heart to stop, fear pulsing through him.

  Sean dove, launching himself between Jack and Sierra, and Jack fired.

  Chapter 29

  Sierra stared in horror as Sean dove in front of the gun, her heart clenching as he grunted in pain and landed with a heavy thud on the floor, blood flowing from his left arm.

  “No, Sean!” she screamed, shaking as she watched her worst nightmare come to life. Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes, guilt, regret, fear, and misery all swamping her and obliterating everything except his name, beating through her brain in time with her frantic pulse.

  Sean pushed quickly to his feet, seemingly indifferent to the fact that he’d been shot in the arm. He’d dropped his gun when he fell, but he lunged for Jack, tackling him to the floor and slamming his face into it, wrenching the gun free from his hands, and landing a few bone-crunching punches in the scuffle. The gun skittered away, and with one more hammer-fisted punch, he knocked Jack unconscious, leaving him limp on the floor.

  Sean rushed over to her, his face tight with worry, and undid the knots still holding her to the chair. Carefully he helped her up from the floor, his hands skimming everywhere, over her bruised face, her arms, and her torso, and up and down her back.

  She couldn’t hold back the sobs, and he pulled her into his arms, not saying anything. She gulped in breath after breath, trying to calm down enough to talk. “I’m so sorry for dragging you into this, Sean. I know you’re furious with me, and you should be, but I need you to know how grateful I am. For everything. For you.”

  “I know.”

  She glanced up at him, trying and failing to read his expression. Blood still flowed from his arm, and she pulled away, grabbing a pillow and pulling off the pillowcase. Wadding the fabric, she pressed it over his arm, trying to stanch the blood.

  “I’m so sorry, Sean. I never meant for any of this to happen. I’m so sorry.”

  “I know. Shhh. I know.” The tiniest hint of a smile quirked up the corner of his mouth, and a seed of hope took root deep in her chest.

  “I should’ve listened to you. I should’ve trusted your judgment. And now you’re hurt because I didn’t. I was trying to protect you.” She swallowed thickly, adjusting her grip on the fabric. “For what it’s worth, I knew you would come. I at least trusted that much.” A sense of just how close they’d come to catastrophe rocked her, and the room spun for a second as the adrenaline started to wear off.

  “Of course I came. I love you.”

  The seed of hope bloomed. “Even though you got shot because of me.”

  He looked down at his arm and then placed his hand over hers, a familiar gleam in his brown eyes. “Worth it.” He brought his mouth down to hers and kissed her so gently that her heart broke open, leaving her completely vulnerable and exposed.

  “I love you so much, Sean. I’m so sorry that I…I ruined things between us.”

  “You didn’t. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got you.”

  * * *

  Sean sat on the edge of the ambulance, grimacing as the paramedic cleaned the bullet wound.

  “You’re lucky. It didn’t hit the bone, and the damage seems to only be to the muscle. You’ll need surgery, but you’ll live. You need a tetanus booster and antibiotics too.” He finished dressing the wound with gauze and helped Sean fit a sling around his neck, easing his injured arm into it. “I can take you to the hospital now, if you want.”

  “Do you mind waiting just a minute? I need to check on my girlfriend.” His entire body vibrated with the need to get eyes on Sierra, even though he knew she was only a few feet away in another ambulance. Before he could stand, Patrick approached, fresh stitches above his eye, his bottom lip split and swollen.

  “You did good today,” his dad said, laying a hand on Sean’s uninjured arm.

  “Thanks. And thanks for your help. You kicked some ass back there. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  Patrick smiled and shook his head. “That was more fun than I’ve had in years.”

  Sean laughed. “You have a fucked-up sense of fun.”

  “Oh, probably.”

  A silence hung between them for a moment before Patrick spoke again. “None of this is your fault, you know.”

  Sean sighed heavily, nodding slowly. “I know.” Objectively he knew that, but he still felt responsible for the fact that Sierra had gotten hurt. Still blamed himself for what had happened.

  “Just like the accident wasn’t your fault.”
Patrick sat down in the ambulance beside him, looking straight ahead. “I was lost when she died, but I never blamed you. I’m truly sorry if you felt that I did. I didn’t, and I don’t now. You take things, and you carry them, Sean. It hurts to watch. You need to forgive yourself, and you need to let go. And so do I.”

  Sean took a deep breath, turning his father’s words over in his mind, examining them. He decided he wanted to keep them instead of rejecting them. They felt good. True, even.

  “I’m proud of you.” Patrick clapped him lightly on the back and tipped his head toward Sierra, who was making her way over from the other ambulance. “I think someone wants to talk to you.”

  Before he could slip out of the ambulance, Sean caught his father’s arm and met his eyes, the same shade of brown as his own. “Thanks, Dad.”

  Patrick nodded, a wistful smile on his face. He stepped away from the ambulance and headed back toward the cluster of police officers several feet away.

  “Hey.” Sierra’s voice was quiet as she sat down beside him, clutching a blanket around her shoulders. She had a bruise on her cheek, and another at the corner of her mouth. Her wrists had been rubbed raw by the rope and were now wrapped in gauze.

  Then she smiled, and relief filled him, mirrored back to him in Sierra’s eyes. For a moment they just stared at each other, drinking each other in. They’d gone through hell together, but in the end, it’d been worth it, because they’d found each other.

  “I’m so sorry for putting you through all of this, Sean. Really, I am.”

  “I know. And I get why you did it. But for future reference, I like it a hell of a lot better when we’re a team.”

  Her face lit up. “Future reference, huh?”

  With his good arm, he pulled her closer. “Damn right.”

  She stared at him, wonder in her eyes. “I can’t believe you took a bullet for me.”