The Mogul and the Muscle: A Bluewater Billionaires Romantic Comedy(80)

Oh hell yes. I was going to.

He cut the rope on my other leg, then freed my arms and pulled the last of it off. I winced at the burns, raw and stinging.

Reaching around, he grabbed something from behind his back—pulled it from a belt loop—and handed it to me.

My shoe.

“Thought you might want that back.”

My lower lip quivered, and I had so many emotions swirling through me, I didn’t know what to feel first.

“My parents died when I was three and I feel guilty because I don’t remember them,” I blurted out.

“Cameron, honey, this isn’t exactly the time.”

Jude moved to Inda and started cutting her ropes while I put on my shoe and stood, noting the unconscious forms of the Russian henchmen.

“I know, I know. I just have so much to say. And for a second I thought I might never have the chance.”

It was about then that I realized Nicholas was here, standing next to… was that Bobby?

I glared at him and at least he looked guilty—and terrified. I didn’t know why he was here—or if he had anything to do with Jude finding us—but I was going to bury that little shit when this was over.

Inda got free and ran to Nicholas, landing in his arms, while Jude took my hand and hauled me against him. A second later, Bobby flinched, jumping sideways a full foot further into the room. Nicholas moved fast, swinging something large in a tight arc. Was that a skillet? It hit with a low metallic bang and another body crumpled to the ground just inside the doorway.

“Nice,” Jude said. “My parents live in Minnesota, but we’ve never been close, and I only see them once every couple years. I think I kind of scare them. Let’s go.”

Nicholas and Inda had barely had a chance to hug, but Jude led the way, clasping my hand tightly in his. We stepped over the unconscious man slumped on the floor—he was going to have one hell of a headache—and crept into the hall.

We only made it a few steps before two more men came around a corner.

Deftly maneuvering me behind him, Jude darted forward, shockingly fast. He delivered two swift jabs to the first guy’s face, knocking him out cold. Before the second could react, Jude kicked, knocking him off balance. Then he swung around, grabbed the man’s gun, and hit him in the nose with it. One more strike from Jude’s fist and the guy fell.

“Holy fuck,” Bobby said.

“Keep moving,” Jude ordered.

He took my hand and led me forward, with the others at my heels.

“Does your fist hurt?” I asked.

“It will later. I really did learn Russian from YouTube. Or at least, that’s how I got good at it. I started studying it when I was in the Marines. I wanted to learn it because I thought it sounded tough.”

“Milton Spencer paid for me to go to private school starting in second grade,” I said as we rushed down the hall. “I went to school with Bobby and he bullied me for being tall and for having red hair.”

Jude glanced over his shoulder at Bobby and growled.

“I was messing with you because I liked you,” Bobby said.

“You were a dick,” I said over my shoulder. “He stopped in eighth grade when I grabbed his nuts in front of his friends and squeezed until he apologized.”

“God, you’re amazing,” Jude said, opening the door to a stairwell.

“There’s an elevator,” Bobby said.

Jude’s eyes were hard as solid amber. “Stairs.”

Everyone filed in and we started going down.

“I took the elevator up to save time, but I don’t want to risk us getting stuck if they know we’re in there,” Jude said. “This building is a death trap. And I moved to Miami because I grew up in the Midwest, and once I spent a winter stuck in the Ural Mountains and I never want to shovel snow again.”

I laughed, turning at the next landing to keep going down.

“You really are good in heels,” he said.

“It’s unnatural,” Inda said behind me.

“I wear heels all the time because kids used to make fun of me for being tall. So fuck them.”

“That’s a good reason,” Jude said. “Plus they’re sexy as hell on you.”

He stopped us on a landing and held a finger to his lips. Nicholas and Inda waited on the stairs, Bobby right behind them. Nicholas still carried the skillet, and I had a feeling Bobby knew he’d get whacked in the head if he tried to run. Or maybe he was afraid he’d get shot by one of the Russians.

Jude put his ear to the door, then lowered his voice to a whisper. “We need to wait here for a minute.”

I didn’t ask why. He knew what he was doing.

“My grandparents raised me and they were wonderful,” I whispered, close to his ear. “It was really hard on them, though, because they didn’t expect to be parenting a young child again. But there wasn’t anyone else. I didn’t have any other family. They did their best, but I was alone a lot.”

“What happened to them?”

“They both died the same year. Grandma first. Ovarian cancer. Grandad didn’t last long after she passed.”

He gently touched my face. “Oh, Cameron.”

“That was when I quit my job. I wanted to do something my grandma would have been proud of.”