The Cunning Thief (Stolen Hearts #6)(16)

Shae fell into the sand, taking in deep gasps of air. She didn’t know whether she was out of breath from running on the sand or whether the shootout had left her hyperventilating. Something cold pressed into her hand, and she looked down to see that Tristan had given her his keys.

“Get in the car,” he ordered. He wasn’t gasping for air. He didn’t seem scared at all. In fact, he looked utterly calm. “Get to the car, and drive fast and as far away as you can.”

Her fingers closed over the keys as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. “Wait, you’re not coming with me?”

“I’ll find you. Go.”

She sat still in shock, and he gave her a little shove. It sent her sprawling on her ass, but also managed to burst her out of her shock bubble. She gave Tristan one last look before she started to run. Shots rang out behind her, and she flinched with each one. By the time she reached the McCormick house, she turned back but didn’t see Tristan. Where had he gone? There were more shots, but she couldn’t see anyone. There was too much brush and hills of sand between her and wherever the shooters had gone to. There had been four of them, and only one of Tristan. He had to be low on bullets. She couldn’t leave. She couldn’t just let them kill him. But what could she do? She didn’t have a gun. She could maybe grab a knife from the kitchen, and that would be it.

And so Shae did what she was told. She ran to Tristan’s little yellow sports car and jumped in the driver’s seat. She gunned it, breaking every speed limit, and she drove out of the upscale subdivision, down the streets of St. Pete. It wasn’t until she reached the main highway that she felt the tears streaming down her face.



Tristan dove on his side and his shoulder came in painful contact with the sand beneath him. It might feel soft under his feet, but landing on the stuff sure as hell wasn’t comfortable. His heart was beating hard from all the running, but he forced his breaths to go slowly. He was nearly out of ammo and didn’t want to give himself away. He reached down and looked over at his watch. On the screen was a simple message. Three minutes. Toni had given him the handy little stress beacon a while ago, but he’d never used it before tonight. As soon as he saw the men approaching on the beach, he’d hit the little button on the side that signaled he would need backup. He wasn’t convinced it would work before, but he supposed this was the confirmation that it did. When did it first start saying three minutes? Was it three minutes ago? Or was it now? It wasn’t as if he’d been paying attention during the gunfight.

He was pretty sure he had hit one of the guys in the shoulder, but it was hard to tell. There wasn’t a lot of light, and his main focus hadn’t been to kill. It had been to distract them from Shae. He had been half convinced she was gonna come out of her house any second and start fighting the guys off her property, but it seemed as though she really had driven off.

Good. In situations like this, he didn’t need an untrained variable. He wanted someone who followed orders and did what they were told.

He heard footsteps approaching and held his breath. He found a decent amount of sand to crouch behind. All he had to do was stay still and quiet, and the guys wouldn’t discover him. He might be able to take them all down. His time working for Sterling and training under Slade had taught him more than a few ways to kill a man. He had maybe two rounds left. If he was smart about it, that would be two men right there. And he’d taken on two men in combat before.

But that was a route he didn’t need to take. Toni would be here soon, and she would want these guys alive if possible. If Blackthorne had sent them to kill Shae, then they should have some idea of why he wanted her gone, depending on what level of henchmen they were.

The footsteps approached faster. There were only a few inches away from his face, and he prepared himself for the worst, bringing the gun up in the ready position. Three more seconds and he was going to—

The footsteps started to run away. Something had spooked them, and he had an idea he knew what. He sat up just in time to see two familiar dark forms running along the beach. They went off after the guys as Tristan stood and wiped the sand off him.

“So what happened this time?” asked Toni as she approached.

“Hell if I know. I was having a pretty nice night and they decided to pop in. You got here fast.”

“All the traffic lights were on our side.”

Tristan didn’t want to think about how she’d accomplished that.

“What about the girl?”

“What about her? I sent her running the second the goons showed up on the beach.”

“And how did she seem?”

Tristan rolled his eyes. “How the fuck do you think she seemed? She was terrified.”

“So you don’t think she’s used to things like this?”

“Four guys just came down the beach with guns and started to shoot at us. No, I don’t think she’s used to this.”

“They started to shoot at you?”

“They were drawing their weapons, but I fired first. I needed some sort of advantage.”

Toni nodded. She didn’t seem to be upset about anything, just working her way through the facts. “Bad guys like Blackthorne don’t usually try to kill people for no reason. If he was harassing her before, and now it’s escalating, what happened?”

“I don’t know.” Tristan didn’t have time for this. “I was trying to find out, but we got interrupted.”