Rules of Protection (Tangled in Texas #1)(19)

“Oh,” was all I said as he pushed himself off me.

He stood at the end of the bed and looked me over again, shaking his head with a smirk. His pants were undone, hanging loosely onto his waist, and the black boxer briefs outlined his raging hard-on.

Hmmm. Impressive.

Jake watched me lick my lips. “Hold that thought,” he said, then stepped out of the room. Several minutes went by before he returned—with his pants buttoned. He snatched my clothes from the floor and threw them at me. “Get dressed,” he ordered.

“What’s wrong?”

Jake pulled his T-shirt on. “We’ve got company.”

My first thoughts were that our escorts had returned to check on us, or maybe my babysitters had arrived early. Then Jake grabbed his gun off the table and stuffed an extra clip into his back pocket. I threw my clothes on faster than he had pulled them off me.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but they aren’t FBI or U.S. Marshals.”

“How do you know?”

“Because they’re walking the perimeter of the house, looking through windows,” Jake said in a low voice. “Any agent would know doing something stupid like that would get them shot.”

“Are you going to call in backup?”

He shook his head. “Too far away. I need to concentrate on getting you out of here alive first.”

“Are we safe as long as we stay inside?”

“We’re sitting ducks. If we can get to the Explorer in the garage, then we’ll make a run for it. If nothing else, I’ll pick them off one by one.”

“What if they pick you off first?”

He stared at me point-blank for a moment. Though he didn’t say the words, I read his thoughts. Then we’ll both be dead.

“Jesus,” I said with exasperation. “Your crime prevention program sucks!”

Jake clamped his hand around my wrist, pulled me to the bedroom door, and peeked down the dark hallway. He gestured for me to stay quiet as he yanked me into the hall, keeping me behind him. As we got near the stairs, Jake lowered into a crouch, so I did the same. He looked around constantly. I leaned into his back, crowding him, and tried to look over his shoulder.

“Any sign of trouble, I want you to run to the garage and take the vehicle,” he whispered. “Don’t wait for me. You understand?”

I nodded, though I knew I wouldn’t leave him behind. I didn’t want to be left completely defenseless. And I didn’t want Jake to die.

We flattened ourselves against the wall and tiptoed down the stairs. Jake peeked around the corner, then motioned for me to follow. We went through the dining room and into the kitchen, where the door to the garage was located.

As we rounded the corner, a gun became visible. A man in the kitchen pulled his weapon up to shoot us. Jake reacted with speed, grabbing the gun and pointing it away from us as the gunshot rang out. The bullet went wild, ricocheting off the stainless steel refrigerator and embedding into the tile over the kitchen sink. They each fought for control of the gun, bumping into me and knocking me backward onto my butt as the man aimlessly fired again.

I’d hit my lower back on the counter and tweaked my ankle as I went down but ignored the pain. I crawled around the island to the other side, ducking my head. I could no longer see what was happening.

Both men breathed heavily, grunting and fighting, until another round fired and someone landed with a thud on the kitchen floor. I was afraid to look, afraid of what I might find if I did look. What if Jake was the one who…? No, I couldn’t finish the thought. It wasn’t Jake. It couldn’t be.

I scrambled to my feet. Jake stood over an unknown man slumped on the floor near the island. A dark red stain on his chest grew larger by the second, like a rose blooming in the midday sun. Still alive, his eyes were open. He gurgled frothy-looking blood from his mouth.

Jake barely glanced at me when he lifted his gun and pointed it at my head. Surprised by the quick movement, I didn’t have time to flinch. He pulled the trigger, and a shot zinged past my ear. A loud crash came from behind me. I spun around with wide eyes to see a man lying on the floor with a knife in his hand and a bullet hole in his head.

Gunfire erupted through the kitchen windows, and Jake lunged for me, knocking me back to the floor. In a split second, our safe house had turned into a house of horrors, a dire situation filled with incalculable risks. He covered my head with my face turned toward the dead man. I got an up-close view of the bullet hole, which made me gag.

Once the shooting stopped, Jake ran for the nearest window, keeping himself to the side and peering out. I rolled away from the corpse.

“There must’ve been only three of them,” Jake said. “Someone jumped into a car and is driving away.” Jake walked over and checked on the man with the chest wound. “He’s dead, damn it!”

“That’s a bad thing?” I asked weakly, having a hard time finding my voice.

“It is when you need to question someone. Dead people have a tendency not to answer.”

I kept my eyes on the window. “Is he coming back?”

“Doesn’t matter. We aren’t staying to find out. Your location’s been compromised, so my main concern is getting you out of here. I’ll go upstairs with you and stand guard while you throw some things in a bag. You’ve got two minutes.”