Beneath the Burn (31 page)

With all the people in the street, it was taking an eternity to make their way back to the parking lot. He stared at the nasal spray in his hand, needing it to numb the rage that sent his jaw into enamel-grinding spasms.

“Yes, Mr. Mayard.” Tony held his gaze. “I’m aware of this as you advised me of your priorities before we left the apartment. I made the mistake in assuming a sniper aiming for your head superseded Miss Grosky’s security. I apologize. It won’t happen again.” Her glower didn’t look sorry.

Colson slammed on the brakes. Jay’s knees smacked into the console and his blow flew under the seat. Fuck the drug. She was out there alone. Every second counted. “Let me out.”

Too many bodies blocked his view. Bodyguards inside the car. Lollygaggers outside. “Can you see her? Let me the fuck out.”

A gunshot cracked the air and, for the second time that day, heart-stopping fear ripped his anger asunder.

Tony jumped out first, hand at the gun at her hip. Everyone but Colson followed.

In his hurry, Jay stumbled onto the pavement and slammed into a wall of fleeing people. They parted around him, spun him the wrong way, and holy shit, they were running
away
from him. He turned back and jerked to a stop a few feet short of Charlee.

She stood over a man, who lay face up on the ground. Roy Oxford? He looked paler in person than on TV and a lot less put together. Maybe because she pointed a gun at him as he pawed at a dime-sized hole in the chest of his leather jacket. His breath was ragged yet he longingly stared at her as if oblivious to the gun she aimed at him or the bullet she’d already delivered.

Red clouded Jay’s vision. This was the piece of shit who had raped her more times than she could count. His thirst for blood swelled at the epicenter of his rioting emotions. “Pull the trigger, Charlee. Finish him.”

Three men emerged from a break in the crowd. They wore common clothing—jeans, t-shirts—but the guns they pulled from their open jackets were big, scary, and probably illegal. The hostility in the air that followed them emulated their bloodthirsty eyes and hard features.

The parking lot exploded in a frenzy of screams. Not the squeals of fan girls. These were the oh-shit-save-yourself kind of screams.

The mayhem of the bolting crowd crested as two officers sprinted across the lot with guns aimed at Charlee. “Drop your weapon. Hands in the air.”

Shit. Jay locked his legs in an attempt to stop himself from lunging for her. “Don’t do it, Charlee.”

The gun didn’t twitch in the cup of her hands as she glared at Roy. “Don’t drop it? Or don’t shoot?”

She was wielding a gun in public, and the cops weren’t shooting her. Nor did they spare a glance at the three gunmen, which meant Roy was lining their pockets. They were still NYPD and, Christ almighty, she’d already killed one person. The last thing she needed was a prison sentence for killing another in front of the police. “Don’t shoot, but don’t drop it either.”

The cops jogged closer and one shouted, “Sir, do not engage the shooter.”

Roy’s goons closed their triangular formation around him, Charlee, and Roy until they were about six-feet away. Jay vibrated with the need to move behind her and wrap her in the shield of his body. If he reached out and stretched his arm, he might’ve been able to touch her, but there were too many fingers on too many triggers. The slightest movement would endanger her.

Something caught his eye on the far side of the lot.
Oh Shit. Nathan
. Jay kept his gaze on Charlee but could make out the movement in his periphery. Nathan head-butted some guy and chopped his hand at the throat. Jay refocused on Charlee. “Talk to me.”

She didn’t shift her eyes or the gun from Roy. “I shot him in the chest. Why aren’t you bleeding, you…you bloodless monster?”

Roy rolled his head back and released a laugh that tumbled into a hacking cough.

Maybe the blood was pooling unseen beneath his bulky jacket.
Bulky jacket.
He would bet his Martin Acoustic there was a bulletproof vest. “Take off your coat.”

A gunman with a missing earlobe angled his barrel at Jay. “How should we precede, Mr. Oxford?”

Roy’s exhale whistled past his clenched teeth. He unzipped his jacket and pushed back the sides to reveal a black tactical vest rising and falling with his wheezes. Sharp edges protruded from the dimple left by the bullet. “What are you waiting for, Charlee? You can still shoot me in the head.”

Fuck. Jay wanted to grab the gun and do it for her.

She shifted her aim from his chest to his face. “If I shoot you, your Craigs will shoot me. If I don’t shoot, I get to ride down to the police station. Except we both know that ride will take me to San Francisco and I’ll end up chained to your bed by morning.”

Roy scraped his curling fingers along the pavement. “Oh, it’ll be the stockroom for you, darling. I’m hard just thinking about it.”

Jay’s adrenalin rushed to murderous boil.

“I choose death.” She squared shoulders.

Not going to happen. Jay forced a calmness he didn’t feel into his voice. “Give me the gun, Charlee.” He would start with Roy’s nutsac. A bullet in each testicle. Then he’d shove the barrel in his rectum and pump it with enough lead to shred his innards from sphincter to esophagus. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“I earned that privilege.” She adjusted her finger on the trigger.

The sudden rigidness of the gunmen strained the tense atmosphere to the edge of snapping.

Jay needed warp speed to shield her in time. Even if he had the speed, the firepower that would unleash from the surrounding gunnery would tear through him and hit her anyway. “Wait.”

She glanced up without moving her head or her trigger finger. Looking into her eyes was like watching a storm roll over the horizon and devour the blue skies. It was magnificent. Unstoppable. And deadly. “I have to end this, Jay.”

“There’s a better way.” He hadn’t worked out what that was yet, but he’d make damn sure it was a solution she would walk away from.

Colson remained in the driver’s seat with the engine running. The bodyguards had spread out, but not one was in sight. Where were—

Nathan poked his head around the SUV nearest to Charlee.

Jay tried not to fidget or make eye contact. No one looked in Nathan’s direction. Was the rest of the team hiding? Planning an attack from concealment?

His muscles tensed in readiness. His pulse fired with purpose. An idea played out in his head. It could work. Adrenaline flooded his body with instant energy.

Roy shifted to a sitting position in a cautious stiff movement. His breathing was quieter, steadier, as he looked between Jay and Charlee. “You lied.” His eyebrows lowered over his narrowing eyes and his nostrils flared. “You’re fucking this lowlife?”

Jay’s fist clenched. “That’s rich coming from a rapist.”

Charlee snorted. “There’s a hell of a lot of horny girls willing to
lower
themselves for Jay Mayard.” She shrugged. “He’s a wet-panty dream. I’d do him.”

Was the casual disregard in her voice and posture enough to convince Roy? The man’s blank face revealed nothing. Jay burned to put a bullet hole in it.

“Put your guns on the ground.” Tony stepped from around a parked car. Nathan, O’Neil, Vanderschoot, and Edison rushed in from nowhere and everywhere. Five on five, each of his team covered the three thugs and two cops.

Jay released a breath, but anticipation billowed in the wake of relief. With her gun leveled on one of the officers, Tony looked at him out of the steely eyes of a Marine and waited for his signal. She was prepared to fight this with muscle and gunfire.

And Charlee stood at the center of the web formed by the projectile paths of ten guns if they went off.

Jay’s plan would ensure her safety. He was used to being the coward, the social retard, the pain in the ass. That was his go-to. He would fight this with evasion and bullshit. “Roy. Got some bad news for you. My team leader just gave me visual confirmation that you are being recorded.” He jerked his chin at the SUV they arrived in that morning and at the backup vehicle they had returned in. “They activated video and audio equipment on the dashes when we arrived. The recordings are fed live to my team in L.A. If anything happens here, it will be broadcasted.” He held Roy’s glare and made sure he didn’t miss a single word. “Charlee will
never
see the inside of your stockroom again.”

Unease rippled through the gunmen. Roy rose to his feet and held up a hand to stay them. “Miss Grosky shot me. Did you record that? Are you recording the weapon she’s aiming at me now?”

“Of course, she
wants
to shoot you, you rapist motherfu—”

“When we pulled into the lot,” Tony said, “we logged Miss Grosky defending herself during an attempted kidnapping.”

A shiver ripped down his spine. If that was true, how close had he been to losing her? “This ends now. Charlee is going to holster her gun, and I am going to escort her to my car.” He captured her huge eyes. “Go ahead. They’re covering you.”

The cop at the business end of Tony’s Glock kept his own gun trained on Charlee. “We can’t let you leave, Miss Grosky.”

The pressure in the air was going to pop. Any second, someone was going to pull a trigger.

Tony was the calm in the eye of the storm. “What’s it going to be, Mr. Oxford?”

Roy watched Charlee with an infatuation that consumed his entire demeanor. “Stand down, officers.” When they lowered their guns, he said, “Your turn, Charlee.”

She inhaled through her nose, flicked the safety on, and tucked the gun at the small of her back.

Jay wiped a sweaty hand on his shirt and offered it to her. She grabbed it so quickly a thrill rushed through him. He waited for his shadows to crawl out of their holes and chase her away, but as Nathan joined them and they walked her to the SUV, he only felt her hand. Her essence. His Charlee.

“You want to know how it feels?” Roy’s query tingled over Jay’s shoulder.

His gait faltered. Would Roy call his bluff on the recording? How many guns were pointed at their backs?

He pulled Charlee closer and picked up his pace. Nathan positioned himself behind them.

Roy let out a mirthless laugh. “Imagine losing your fame, your money, your drugs, your band…whatever it is filth like you values.”

Determination powered his strides. His blood pumped with one intent. Get her the fuck out of there. Ten more feet…eight…six…

“Imagine watching the most important thing in your life walk away.” Roy raised his voice. “When I find out what that thing is, you’ll know exactly how it feels.”

Don’t engage him. Keep walking
. The backs of his ears burned. His teeth ground. He held his breath until Charlee was safely inside the armored vehicle. Then he turned and looked Roy in the eye. “She’s not a thing, you fucking prick.”

42

She’s not a thing.
Jay’s words resonated, loosening the knot coiled in Charlee’s belly. She wanted to crawl into his lap and envelop him with comfort. But the tic in his cheek and his wooden posture suggested he might need more than a handless hug.

Nathan followed Jay in, putting Jay in the middle, and Tony climbed in the front seat. When the last door slammed shut, the knot unclenched.

She met Nathan’s eyes over Jay’s slumped head and saw her relief reflected there. “So you disarmed that Craig in the parking lot, I assume?”

He held the gun on his lap, his eyes glassy and locked on his fingers as clicked the magazine in and out, checked the safety, went back to the magazine. “Had to time it right.” He glanced at her. “I didn’t want to force Roy’s hand.”

“Nothing
forces
him to do anything.” Recalling the things Roy had done to her produced a dull ache in her chest, but watching Nathan avert his eyes at the memories sucked the air from her lungs, strangling her.

As Colson merged the SUV into traffic, the gravity of Roy’s threat knocked her in the gut. She turned to look out the rear window. At the center of the standoff between his men and Jay’s remaining bodyguards, Roy stared directly at her as if he could see through the dark tint.

A shiver penetrated deep in her bones. On its heels was the incessant hum for vengeance. Did she just walk away from her only opportunity to kill him?