“You let everyone else make themselves vulnerable but you’re too good for that yourself. Fuck you. You’re not going to take affection from Ruby without giving it back. It’s not only about getting off to her. I’m not your goddamned clean-up crew.”
Ruby lurched as if Ace had punched her in the gut. Was that how he’d felt last night? Like he’d had to tend to her after they’d had her fun. Was she some obligation he was too polite to ditch once he’d found relief?
“Are you talking about Ruby, or yourself?” Liam snapped, neither of the men even noticing that they had a growing crowd. “Don’t use her as an excuse. I told you, more is not possible between us. It’s fucking stupid and could get one of us killed.”
“You’re not going to have to worry about dying in the field if you keep taking advantage of Ruby. And, yeah…fine, me too. You giant fucking asshole.” Ace did take a swing then, but given it was his bad arm, Liam absorbed the impact, grunting without fighting back.
Ruby flew between them, Ace’s hand narrowly missing her cheek as he went for Liam again.
He froze, then turned a sickly shade of green when he realized that he’d nearly clocked her instead of his partner, whom he often scrapped with when practicing hand-to-hand maneuvers.
Legend and Tavish were only a few steps behind her. Legend grabbed Liam, who sagged, the fight going out of him as Tavish ushered Ace to the grassy edge of the lot where he looked like he might get sick. Left standing alone where they’d been, Ruby reeled.
It wasn’t until she heard the screech of tires that she realized the fight between the two men she’d enjoyed so thoroughly the night before wasn’t going to be anywhere close to the worst part of her day. A van sped down the alleyway behind the Shields’ headquarters and skidded to a stop in front of her.
Everything went into slow motion, the way Ace had once described missions to her when he’d been waiting for Liam to return and his arm to heal. She looked into JRad’s eyes long enough to see them bulge. He roared her name and pivoted, changing course from heading toward Legend to help with Liam and instead sprinting toward her.
It was no use. He was much too far away to stop the two men who spilled from inside the van. One snatched her up while the other aimed a gun directly at JRad.
Ruby thrashed. She kicked and screamed, terrified that she might watch her mentor’s skull explode like a ripe watermelon in the next instant even while she mentally rehashed every self-defense exercise Sola had ever forced her to endure.
“Try anything and I’ll kill him. Every last one of them,” her captor snarled in her ear as he dragged her backward to the yawning door of the van.
It might have been a threat, but she wasn’t going to risk it. Ruby went limp and the asshole hoisted her over his shoulder, tossing her into the backseat of the van before hopping in and slamming the door. Bullets pinged off the exterior as the driver gunned the engine. She lost her balance and crashed into the side of the vehicle.
Seeing stars, she rose to her knees in time to look out the rear window of the van.
JRad, Lucas, and Legend had guns aimed at the retreating vehicle. The instant they saw her peeking out, they pulled back their weapons and pointed them skyward. They wouldn’t risk her becoming collateral damage.
Fuck!
“Well, hello there.” Her masked captor’s smarmy greeting made her want to rage. But she stayed perfectly silent. “You can thank us later, Ruby. We’re about to make you famous. We’re going to make you disappear just like Satoshi Nakamoto.”
Ruby rolled her eyes at the reference to Bitcoin’s founder, who had mysteriously vanished. No doubt who had grabbed her. Her heart raced as she watched Liam, Ace, Legend, and Tavish vault into James’s absurd neon boogermobile as he tossed them the keys. They looked enormous wedging themselves into the car, which was oddly suited for a pursuit.
After all, the Hot Rods had worked on the thing no fewer than half a dozen times by now, each visit ending up in souping it up more while adding protections. So she only half-died when the asshole who’d grabbed her aimed his gun at the trailing vehicle and opened fire.
She cursed and threw her arms over her face to block the safety glass raining around her. The wind whipping through the void where it had been was deafening. And even still, she could hear the supercharged engine of James’s car racing after them.
Please, please, please. Let them catch us.
“What in the Go-Go-Gadgetmobile is that fucking thing?” her attacker grumbled as he unloaded on the car, which didn’t have any trouble deflecting the shots. At least the guys were safe.
Ruby hunkered down, making herself as small of a target as possible as she tried to remain calm and recall every bit of training Jordan had insisted she have even though she never worked in the field. She tried to get her bearings with quick peeks out the ruined window, preparing herself to dive through it at any hint of them slowing down for a red light.
Unfortunately, her kidnappers weren’t that foolish.
They plowed through the center of Middletown, horns blaring as they narrowly avoided a collision in the main intersection. As they flew past Devra and Morgan’s restaurant, a rumble joined the revving of James’s car. When she popped her head up for another glance, two motorcycles too fancy to belong to anyone other than the Hot Rides had joined the chase. Quinn. And Gavyn, she thought.
But still the kidnappers were taking pot shots out of the window.
Oh God. Unlike Liam, Ace, Legend, and Tavish, the guys on the motorcycles had no protection.
If someone—one of them or an innocent bystander in town—got hurt because of her, she would never forgive herself.
She waved them off through the back window. One of the assailants got lucky and took out a bike tire, sending Gavyn skidding to the shoulder. Son of a bitch!
Quinn looked at her then his friend and gave way, going to aid Gavyn. Liam sped up, his bumper nearly touching that of the van.