“I have a . . . gift, you might say,” Lazaroff continued, “for finding the weakest link. It’s come in helpful over the years.” He paused. “Two men invade my place of business, hack my computer system, and overall seem quite competent. So why bring along two females?”

This didn’t look to be going anywhere good. I squinted, my cheeks still wet from my teary eyes, and saw his head turn my way.

“Bring me that one,” Lazaroff said, pointing at me. Two men immediately closed in.

Kade’s arm tightened, yanking me closer. “I don’t think so,” he said, his voice like ice.

I panicked, knowing that resisting could very well get Kade hurt, maybe killed. “No, don’t!” I said, pushing against him to free myself. “You’ll just get hurt.” Kade made a grab for me, but I backed away just as the two guys got between us.

I stumbled back but caught myself, blinking fast to try and clear my vision. I wasn’t thrilled with being called the “weakest link,” but considering the four of us, I couldn’t disagree.

Warily, I approached Lazaroff, stopping when I was just out of reach, but it didn’t matter because a guard grabbed my arm and yanked me right up to him.

“What’s your name, milaya moya?”

I didn’t know what to say. Should I tell him the truth? The guard twisted my arm hard, up behind my back, and I cried out.

“Name,” Lazaroff repeated.

“Kathleen,” I gasped. “Kathleen Turner.”

“And why are all of you here, Kathleen?”

Well, I certainly couldn’t tell him that. I pressed my lips closed because I knew what was coming wouldn’t be pleasant.

“We’ll tell you,” Blane said. “You don’t have to hurt the girl.”

Glad to know he still cared.

“Ah, but what if I want to hurt the girl?” Lazaroff replied. “By the looks of you two, hurting you might prove somewhat arduous. Whereas hurting the girl”—he reached out and gripped my jaw—“is much easier, and highly effective.” He hit me without any warning, the flat of his palm striking my face with enough force to knock me down had the guard not been holding me up. As it was, my knees buckled, which put more pressure on my shoulder, with my arm still twisted up behind me, and a whimper escaped as I tried to regain my shaky footing.

It was immediately apparent that Lazaroff’s actions had provoked a response, because I could hear Blane and Kade yelling and cursing. I shook my head to clear it, only to have Lazaroff grab my jaw again.

Then I hauled off and kneed him in the nuts.

Smart idea? Probably not, but I wasn’t about to be a punching bag just to torment Blane and Kade. I’d been hit twice tonight, and I thought I’d better not start keeping count or things were going to get really depressing, really fast.

Everything seemed to stop as the guards looked in horror at what I’d done. Lazaroff was bent over, his hands cupping his abused crotch.

Then all hell broke loose.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I heard gunshots and the man holding me suddenly let go. I fell to the floor, my arms instinctively coming up to cover my head. I couldn’t make sense of the forms swirling around me—they were moving too fast and my vision was still too blurred by the tear gas. I prayed while I made myself as small as possible on the floor, then realized that Lazaroff was lying next to me . . . and that he was dead.

It was all over in a few minutes and I lay amid the carnage of dead men. Someone’s hands landed on me and I cringed in terror.

“It’s me, baby,” Kade said. “It’s okay.”

I threw my arms around his neck and clung to him. His hands settled on my waist as he lifted me to my feet.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked. “Blane and Branna, are they hurt?”

“We’re fine, Kat,” Blane said from behind me. Kade released me and Blane pulled me close, his lips brushing my forehead. “Jesus, Kat,” he said. “I think I lost a few years off my life when you kneed him like that.”

“She gave us the opportunity we needed,” Branna defended me.

I blinked blearily, wishing I could see properly to make out their faces. As it was, everything was a blur.

Kade pulled me back from Blane, an arm resting protectively behind my back.

“Let’s get out of here before more of them come,” Kade said.

I wasn’t sure how they knew the way out, but they did, finding a stairwell behind a door that dumped us into a dark alley. I half walked and was half carried by Kade.

“Follow me,” Blane said. “I’m not staying in some fleabag dive tonight, and neither is Kat.”

Kade didn’t argue. He had me buckled inside his Mercedes in a flash and we were driving down the street.

I closed my burning eyes, settling back against the leather seat with a deep sigh. Kade found my hand resting between us and laced our fingers together.

We pulled up to a hotel whose sign I couldn’t quite make out, but I could tell the place was expensive. The lobby seemed deserted at this hour and I was glad for that, since I for one looked a mess.

The four of us had adjoining rooms, and the first thing Kade did once the heavy door swung shut behind him and me was take me into the bathroom and sit me down on the closed toilet. He then doused a washcloth and patted gently at my eyes.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I’ll be okay,” I said. The water felt heavenly.

After a few minutes, I felt well enough to wash my eyes out in the sink. Ten minutes after that, I could actually see again, but then I wished I couldn’t.

The skin around my eyes looked like I’d been burned. My eyes were bloodshot worse than the most awful hangover I’d ever had. My face was blotchy and I had an angry red welt on one cheek from Lazaroff.

I came out of the bathroom, toweling my face dry, then stopped short in shock.

Kade had been beat up, with blood from his nose and his mouth now dried on his face. The skin across the bridge of his nose had been sliced, more blood oozing from it, and there was a long cut by his eye.

He’d broken open the minibar and was drinking whiskey straight from the bottle.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, hurrying to him. “They did this to you?”

He caught my hand in his as I reached to touch his face. “It’s okay, princess. I just didn’t take too well to Lazaroff hitting you. Neither did Blane.”

I knew then that he and Blane must’ve gone for broke to get us out of that mess, and that it had been a near thing.

Going back into the bathroom, I got a fresh washcloth and wet it. Making Kade sit on the bed, I knelt next to him and tried as carefully as I could to clean him up. There was a lot of blood, more than the last time I’d cleaned him up so long ago at The Drop.

“Did we get what we needed?” I asked. Was what we’d gone through worth it?

Kade nodded. “Yeah, we did.”

I gave a sigh of relief. “Let me rinse this out,” I said. “You’ve got a lot of blood on you.” I moved to get up, but Kade grabbed me, his mouth settling on mine in a fierce kiss.

I dropped the washcloth as Kade’s hand cradled the back of my head. His tongue stroked mine, the slight tang of blood reminding me of how close a call we’d had, and suddenly I was kissing him back just as hard.

My fingers tore at his shirt, his jacket already discarded, and in moments I had it off him. He pushed the top of my dress down to my stomach, freeing my breasts. I climbed onto his lap, pushing him down onto his back. In seconds, I had his belt and pants undone, and his hard cock in my hand.

He groaned, tugging the bottom of my dress up until it was around my waist. I shoved my panties down and settled atop him, his erection pushing inside me in one smooth thrust.

I bit my lip at the sensation, my eyes sliding shut. His hands settled on my hips and instinct took over as well as a little madness. We both could’ve been killed tonight, and somehow that fact made it more urgent, more desperate.