“You’re right. I’m starving now.”
I gave him a glass of water and flipped open the pizza box. We didn’t bother with plates. We just sat at my two-person dining table and ate the pizza straight from the box. When we’d satisfied our hunger enough to slow down, I tried to convince myself to bring up what would happen the next day when Remington returned. It wasn’t like me not to attack a problem head on, but with this one there were too many variables and too much need for diplomacy.
Suddenly a sound outside drew our attention.
Twenty-Five
Corbin
“What was that?”
“I don’t know.” Beau held up a hand. “Wait here.”
“No way in hell are you going after whatever might be out there without me.”
He extracted a gun from a kitchen cabinet and stuck it in the waistband of his jeans. “I don’t want you in danger.”
“I keep telling you I can take care of myself.”
We heard another sound—breaking glass. “We need to go now,” I insisted heading for the door.
Beau grabbed my arm, pushing me behind him. “You need a weapon.”
I pulled a gun from the pocket of my sweatpants.
“Where the hell did that come from?”
“Did you honestly think I was going around unarmed?”
“You’ve had that on you every day in the shop?”
“This is one of the weapons I’ve had on me every day at the shop. Now let’s go.”
As we headed down the steps, I was impressed by how silently Beau moved. He had his gun in his hand when he opened the door at the bottom of the stairs. I was ready to jump into a fight, but I didn’t see anyone.
I thought the sound I’d heard was a breaking window, but all the windows along the front of the office building were intact.
Beau tilted his head toward the door, and I nodded. We were going to have to head out front and look around.
I didn’t like how exposed all the windows across the front of the building left us, but I followed Beau anyway, forcing myself to keep my attention on our surroundings. If anyone hurt him, they would die in the most painful way I could dream up, and I knew a lot of ways to torture people. That might not have been my role in our family, but it didn’t mean I hadn’t listened to satisfy my curiosity about the darker side of things.
As soon as we stepped outside, I realized the sound of breaking glass had come from a window in Beau’s car, his beautiful car that I knew he loved. Someone was going to regret that sooner rather than later.
I kept close to the edge of the building, and when I reached the corner, I saw a flash of movement near the second workshop. I tapped Beau on the shoulder and pointed. The person moved closer to the building. I started moving in that direction. Beau made a low growl of disapproval behind me, but he didn’t reach for me to hold me back.
We moved closer and closer, keeping cover when we could. Something must have alerted the person to our presence. They started to run. I took off.
Beau was right behind me, but I was faster. I caught the man just as he reached one of the cars parked at the back of the property. Did he actually think he could hotwire it and drive out of there before I caught him?
I gripped the back of his shirt and used my momentum to pull him down. He rolled over and came back up, ready to fight, but as I’d expected, he was nowhere near as fast or as agile as me. People underestimated me because I was small, but I was powerful and had taken my training seriously.
I delivered a kick to his midsection that had him doubling over. He rushed at me, and we both went down. I flipped him over and rolled off him. He reached for me, and we tangled. This time, I managed to lock my legs around his head. “This only ends one of two ways—with you dead or unconscious. Take your pick.”
The guy clawed at my legs, trying to pull me off, but I knew he didn’t have much time left. I applied tighter pressure to his neck, and his body went limp as he lost consciousness.
I stood up and kicked at him until his limp form rolled over and he was face down in the dirt.
I looked up to see Beau standing by with his gun trained on the man. I didn’t think he’d need to use it. The guy would be out for a while. “Got some rope or zip ties? Anything we can use to restrain him?”
Beau stared at me. “How the fuck did you…” He shook his head. “I really did think you needed protection.”
“I told you I could take care of myself, but sometimes I like being protected.”