Chapter Ten
Gavin
I shouldn’t have been so careless. If anything happened to Natalia, I’d never forgive myself. Zeke was a trained warning system, and one I trusted with my life. If he thought something was wrong, then something was wrong.
Quickly, I grabbed my phone and dialed Elijah. He answered after the first ring, “Yeah.”
“He’s here.”
“Shit,” his voice went on alert. “Which one do you think it is?”
“Natalia’s stalker wouldn’t have the resources to find the safe house.” I whispered moving to the front of the house, keeping my back to the wall and out of the site of windows. “Whoever they are, they’re here for me.”
“I’m on my way.”
“You’ll never make it.” I said, carefully peaking out the front blinds. To any untrained eye, nothing was amiss, but I saw what I needed to see—the snow was disturbed as if someone was trying to cover their foot tracks as they walked around the house.
I walked down the hall and brought up the security cameras on the TV in the living room. If I could find their point of entry, I could head them off. I cycled through the black and white screens and stopped.
“I’m five minutes away, Gavin.”
“It’s too late.” I muttered, watching the figure on the screen. “He’s already inside.”
I turned around, my gun held securely in my hands, the familiar weight of the weapon made it like an extension of my hand.
“I know you’re there, Roth,” I called out, Zeke was crouched low beside me, his teeth bared ready to spring forward if I gave him the word. I should have sent him into the bathroom with Natalia.
Instead, she was in there with Ian Roth. The man who betrayed his country.
The door to the bathroom opened, Natalia came out, arms to her side and fear in her eyes. My heart pounded in my ears, and I wanted to take the prick apart piece by fucking piece.
“You were supposed to be dead already, Gavin.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Come on you fucking bastard, I cursed knowing that this situation could get Natalia killed.
“Me too.” He wrapped his arm around Natalia’s waist and put the gun up under her chin, his head peaked out over her shoulder and I wanted to take the shot. My finger itched to do it, but I couldn’t not until she was clear and safe.
“Why’d you do it Roth?”
“You know why.”
“Money?”
“The money was a bonus, Kincaid. I did it because had your career handed to you on a silver fucking platter. Edwards took you under his wing, and you could do no fucking wrong. I wanted you taken down a few pegs.”
“Let the girl go, she has nothing to do with this.”
“No, brother. I disagree.” He lifted her shirt, exposing her body to both of us, his hand touched her thigh and she whimpered in fear. “Only you could fucking play dead and end up with Natalia fucking Van Buren.”
“It wasn’t planned.” I said trying to keep my eyes off the fact that his hand was hovering so close to the woman I love’s pussy. He was already a dead man. I was going to kill him for putting a gun to her chin, but because his hand was on her body—I was going to beat him to death.
“Let’s settle this Roth. Once and for all. No guns. No weapons. Just like we did in the academy.”
I knew he held a grudge against me when we were coming up together, but I didn’t know his hatred for me ran this fucking deep. Maybe I should have kept more of an eye on him over the years, but I truly forgot about the prick after we were assigned to different field offices. I guess he kept tabs on me and my career.
I loosened my grip on the gun and lowered the weapon, hoping my show of deference would get him to let her loose. It worked, his grip loosened on her, his hand moved away from her thighs. “Your bitch’s thighs are still wet. After I kill you, maybe I’ll take a turn with her.”
Natalia’s face crumpled contorted with fear and disgust, Zeke was waiting for the word to move, his eyes were trained on Ian.