Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(36)

Grant had his gun drawn and raced toward Anthony’s car as the front door was kicked open and a man crawled out. His face was burned from the airbag and his lip and nose were bleeding, but he was standing and he was armed.

“You picked the wrong guy to fuck with tonight, you asshole,” Anthony yelled until he saw the gun Grant had pointed at him.

“No, you picked the wrong woman to take.”

Grant watched as Anthony Gomez’s dark brown eyes processed what he was saying. He gave a small half laugh of amusement. “This is over Valeria? The bitch is dead and soon you will be too.”

The sound of grunting drew both men’s attention as a tussled Valeria wobbled to stand. The trunk had been thrown open during the crash and Valeria had rolled out as if the back trunk’s hood were a slide. Grant would have laughed if his heart weren’t so relieved to see her alive. Her wig was falling off, her breast was hanging out of her skewed top, and she was giving Anthony a death stare.

“Aye, she does look like death, but she’s mine nevertheless.”

Grant kept his eyes trained on Anthony as Valeria began a hunched bunny jump toward him. When she stopped next to him, he reached out without looking at her and ripped off the tape from across her mouth.

“Follar una carbra! Pinche pendejo,” Valeria spat in Spanish.

“Give me the handcuff keys, and I won’t let the lassie kill you,” Grant called out over Valeria’s constant stream of cussing. She was working her way through Spanish and heading straight into Gaelic.

“Who are you?” Anthony asked, not bothering to move to hand over the keys.

“Doesn’t matter who I am. It matters that you’re helping Manuel Hernandez, and you had Valeria fired from the DEA.”

“I don’t have time for this. I’m just going to shoo—”

Bang!

Anthony let out a scream as he fell to the ground. “Don’t talk about shooting someone, just shoot them,” Grant said, finally shutting up Valeria’s rant. He stepped forward, and as Anthony raised his gun to fire, Grant shot again. He may be trained to save lives, but Grant was trained to take them as well. He was an elite soldier trained to enter hostile fire and fight his way to the target.

However, a shot to the knee and a shot to the hand wouldn’t kill Anthony. Grant bent down and picked up Anthony’s dropped gun, then reached into the man’s pocket. He pulled out the key ring and walked back to where Valeria stood, shooting daggers at him.

“I wanted to shoot him.” If her arms weren’t cuffed behind her back, he figured they’d be crossed over her chest as she glared at him.

“I can’t let you have all the fun, now can I?” Grant was so relieved to see her safe. The agonizing drive, the fear she’d be dead when the car flipped . . . it was all too much. He lifted his hand to her face and cupped her cheek. Instead of pulling away, she leaned into it. “I’m glad you’re all right, lassie.”

“Thank you for coming after me.”

“I’ll always come for you. Now, let me get your hands free.” Grant stepped behind her and unlocked the cuffs. Valeria shoved up her skirt and Grant got a nice view of her ass.

Bang!

When Grant looked up, Anthony was leaning back against the car with a bullet to the head. A second gun was in the dirt on the ground next to his hand.

“Well, now it’s my turn to thank you. Are you hurt?” Grant asked as he bent and cut the tape from her ankles, trying not to ogle her exposed cheek. When he ripped the tape from her skin, she grunted with a mixture of pain and anger.

“Just stiff and pissed. I should have found a way out of this situation before it got to this point.”

“Sometimes you can’t do everything on your own. I thought we talked about this,” Grant said with a little smirk to let her know he was teasing.

“He was there with Manuel. Did you get him?” Valeria asked as she slowly stretched her neck and then her arms.

“I don’t know. I came after you. Lizzy and Dalton went after Manuel, Roland, and Sebastian. What is going on with them?” Grant asked as he pulled out his phone.

“I think Sebastian just joined Mollia Domini. They were asking him for money.”

Grant nodded. “They need someone to fund the operations since Alex shut down Manuel’s money outside of Mexico. We better duck.”

“What?” Valeria asked as Grant shoved her to the ground just as the Bentley exploded. Grant shielded her body with his as debris rained down near them. His body fit snuggly against her as the curve of her ass cradled his quickly growing erection—one he’d fought since the lass wasn’t his to have. She was in mourning, and he was a real arse for thinking of what he wanted to do with her naked body in this position.

“Well,” Grant said, sitting up and putting some space between them, “we need to start walking. My phone blew up in the car and the nearest town is seven or so miles away. We don’t want to be found here by anyone and have to explain why there’s a dead body.”

Valeria’s brow creased as she stared at him over her shoulder. She gave her head a little shake. “Then we better get going.”

Grant stood up and held out his hand for her. She placed her hand in his, and he pulled her up. She tucked herself back into the dress and looked at her spiked heels. “Here,” Grant said, holding out his hand for the shoes. “I can help with that.”