Davis, Keyonna - Faceless Enemy [Pine Valley 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (15 page)

He wrapped his arm around Kerri’s neck and pulled her back into a corner. He thought over all of the terrain maps he had pulled for the areas and studied before coming here. He closed his eyes so he could picture the safest and fastest route out of here. He needed something easy because he had no doubt that he was going to have to drag Kerri out of there one way or another. Either it was going to be with her fighting him the whole way or him knocking her unconscious.

The hair on the back of Justin’s neck alerted him that he wasn’t alone anymore. He couldn’t see or hear anyone but he knew they were there and they could see him. His time had run out, and he had to make a decision. Hopefully whoever it was wouldn’t shoot with Kerri in front of him.

* * * *

Kerri sighed in relief when he relieved her of both guns but didn’t check her for more weapons. This guy was a jackass who had already made one mistake.

Never assume anything, and always check for yourself
, her father’s voice echoed in her head.

She still had the small blade strapped to her wrist and a knife tucked in her boot. That was exactly what she wanted. The guy pulled her over in the corner and held her in front of him in an attempt to use her as a shield.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Kerri, or I won’t hesitate to kill you right here,” the guy whispered into her ear.

Kerri didn’t know if it was the adrenaline or nerves, but suddenly something clicked in her mind. She recognized his voice. The man behind her was Justin Rawson. She remembered him. How could she ever forget those lifeless eyes? She wondered what her dad ever saw in the man because all she ever saw was a slimy creep. The day that he walked away from the company was the day that she breathed a sigh of relief that he was gone.

“Why on earth are you doing this, Justin? That is you, isn’t it? What could my dad have possibly done to you that was so bad that you felt the need to kidnap me as some sort of revenge?”

Kerri wanted to keep him distracted, so she kept on talking. She remembered that an accident had caused total hearing loss in one of his ears, so if she kept the noise up, then maybe he wouldn’t hear Chase. Judging by the way Justin’s muscles tensed and his breathing picked up a few moments ago, Chase was already there. Justin knew it just as well as she did. He was becoming jumpy, but he never took his eyes off the front entrance of the barn. This was another mistake on his part. Either he didn’t know there was a back entrance, or he just assumed that the threat would come from the front. Kerri guessed that he was using his good ear to detect movement from behind.

“You do know that you’re trapped, right? There is no way you are making it off this property with me. I suggest you give up this whole revenge mission, and you may walk out of here alive.”

“Shut up!” Justin practically screamed in her ear.

Way to go, idiot! If Chase didn’t know where we were by now you just told him.
Kerri had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Justin may have been a joke, but he was still dangerous, and she didn’t want to do anything to set him off before Chase got into position.

Justin was beginning to sweat profusely, and that let Kerri know that he was beginning to panic. He was like a cornered animal, and that meant this situation could go one of two ways. Either he would ditch his plan and try to save himself by making a run for it, or he would feel that there was no hope and go out with guns blazing. Kerri had a feeling Justin was the type of man to choose option two. If he had to go out, then he was taking as many people with him as possible. She hoped that she hadn’t made a mistake by using herself as bait.
Keep him talking. Buy yourself some time.

“The least you could do is tell me why you are using me to get to my dad. I think I deserve that much.”

“You don’t need to know anything. Your dad knows why I am doing this, and that’s all that matters. He will have to live with the consequences of his decision for the rest of his life.”

The entire time Justin was talking, Kerri was removing the small blade strapped to her wrist. She palmed the handle, but left her sleeve down to cover the blade. She felt that if she could just slice through the tendons on the wrist holding the gun, the he would lose his grip and drop it. Her aim had to be precise because if she didn’t sever the tendons, then he would still be able to pull the trigger and probably would.
Wouldn’t that suck?
Kerri managed to hold back the giggle threatening to escape. Leave it to my morbid mind to find humor in this situation, she thought to herself, trying not to laugh. It was either that or hysterical screams.

Just as Kerri was about to take a swing with the knife, her dad came strolling through the doors with his hands out by his sides, signaling that he was unarmed. She couldn’t say that she was surprised to see him here. Her dad always found a way, and she had a feeling that there was nothing that was going to stop him from missing this confrontation.

* * * *

When Daniel saw Kerri slip the knife out of her sleeve, he knew exactly what she was planning to do. There was no way he was going to let that happen. If she missed, then Justin could and probably would pull the trigger. Daniel trained Kerri and knew that she had the skills to pull the move off, but he had no intentions of letting her put her life in danger any more than she already had. Daniel did the only thing that he could, and that was to reveal himself. From the look in Justin’s eyes when he stepped through the door, he was not expecting Daniel to be there. The man knew that he was screwed, and the desperation showed on his face.

“Come on, Justin, why don’t you let her go? I’m the one you really want. Your grudge is with me, not her.”

Daniel casually leaned against the door and crossed his legs at the ankles. He pretended that he didn’t have a care in the world, but on the inside he was boiling with anger at the sight of the gun pressed against his daughter’s head. He wanted to march over and rip the gun out of Justin’s hand and beat him with it. He wouldn’t kill him right away. That would be too easy. He would make him suffer for a while before he slowly killed him. Daniel hated that side of himself. He tried to keep the side that was blood hungry hidden, but he wouldn’t have survived as long as he had without it. He never wanted his daughter to see that side of him, but he had a feeling Kerri would tonight.

“You think you are so special. You took everything from me, so now it’s my turn to return the favor,” Justin spat. “All my life all I’ve ever wanted to do was be a soldier. When I got too old for that, I thought I found my dream job working for you. You took that away from me when you fired me. Now I’m nothing.”

“I didn’t fire you. You chose to leave,” Daniel said.

“It doesn’t matter! You refused to let me back out into the field. Do you think some desk job made it all better? I’m not made to sit behind a desk, and I didn’t want your pity.”

Daniel watched Justin wave his gun around as he talked. He was getting careless, and that’s what Daniel wanted. He was positive Chase was in position by now, and when the time was right, Daniel would give him the signal to take Justin out. Chase wouldn’t kill him, just wound Justin enough to put him out of commission for a while. The honor of killing the man belonged to Daniel. He tuned back into Justin’s rants only to hear the tail end of his statement.

“…that is why I am going to take away that which is most precious to you.”

Daniel watched in horror as Justin pressed the gun against Kerri’s temple and began to squeeze the trigger. His eyes connected with Kerri’s for a split second before he watched her right arm come across her body and swing down. She then dropped to the floor and rolled. When she came back up, she was positioned on one knee in front of Justin with a knife that she pulled from her boot and imbedded in Justin’s stomach.

The whole world seemed to freeze and go quiet at that moment. It seemed everyone was in shock. None more than Justin. Everything happened so fast that he didn’t know what hit him. His eyes just kept tracking from his gun on the floor, to the knife in his belly, and back to Kerri. She still had the small blade in hand, held out and ready to defend herself. The world took a collective breath and began moving again when Justin lunged at Kerri. He didn’t make it a step before two gun shots and a sickening, wet thunk sounded. Justin was dead before he hit the ground. Daniel’s bullet had hit him in the chest, Chase’s hit the back of his head, and Kerri had managed to throw her blade, lodging it in Justin’s throat. It wasn’t the slow, painful death that Daniel was hoping for, but it would do. He looked at Kerri, still kneeling on her bad leg, and felt a rush of pride. He was proud, not only because she actually listened and took all of his lessons to heart, but because she had the courage to do what had to be done without hesitation.

Daniel went over to help Kerri up, but was beaten to her by Chase. He stepped back and watched Chase run his hands over her, checking for injuries. When he didn’t find any, he pulled Kerri to his chest and hugged her tightly. Daniel could see tears in the big man’s eyes and watched as his body trembled. This told Daniel everything he needed to know about Chase’s relationship with his daughter. No man would be this shook up if it wasn’t love. It saddened Daniel that he was no longer Kerri’s protector, but he knew that she was in good hands with Chase. Justin was right about Kerri being the most precious thing to him, and he was willing to trust Chase with her.

Daniel stepped in as Kerri stood and hugged his daughter. “Hey, pumpkin, are you okay?”

Kerri shook her head. “No, but I will be.”

She gave him a crooked smile, but Daniel knew that she was more affected than she let on. It was one thing to train for combat, but it was completely another to put that combat to use. He suspected that when Kerri came down from her adrenaline rush, the whole situation was going to hit her hard. Daniel looked over at Chase and saw the same look of concern in his eyes. He was thinking the same thing.

“Take her home, and get her taken care of. I will handle this mess,” Daniel said as he toed Justin’s body

Chase nodded, and without another word, swung Kerri up in his arms and carried her out of the barn.

* * * *

Chase took Kerri to the house and straight to the bathroom, sitting her on the counter and turning the shower on. While he waited for it to heat up, he went to the closet and opened the door to the safe room. Duncan met him at the top of the stairs with a sleeping Cane in his arms. Logan followed close behind with two smaller bundles in his. They both wore huge grins. Chase quickly filled them in on everything that happened while they were busy delivering babies.

Once they left to get Cane and the babies checked out at the hospital, Chase went back to the bathroom. Kerri had stripped and was standing under the spray with her head hanging down. He had removed his shirt and was unbuttoning his jeans when he saw her shoulders shaking. Chase forgot about the jeans and climbed in the shower behind Kerri. He wrapped Kerri in his arms and held her. He knew that she had to work through her feelings by herself, and there was nothing that he could say to make the situation better, so he stayed silent as she cried. As he held her, he thought about the events of the night. He could have lost her. If things had gone differently, then it was likely that he would have. He stopped that line of thought quickly in its tracks. Things went the way they should have, and he wasn’t going to worry about what could have happened. Still, he thought his heart had stopped when he saw Kerri twist in Justin’s arms and swing that knife at him. From his point of view, Chase never saw the blade that she was carrying, so he didn’t know what she was doing. His heart hadn’t started beating again until Justin lay on the ground, dead. Chase didn’t know whether to be angry at Kerri for putting herself in that situation or to be awed at her strength and courage. He would tell Kerri how proud he was of her, but later when she was ready to hear it. When her tears dried up, Chase washed her from head to toe and turned the water off. Once he had them both dried off, he carried her over to the bed and climbed in.

“Sleep, little bit. I will be right here if you need me. Tomorrow we will go see Cane and the babies and start living our lives.” Chase felt his adrenaline crashing, causing him to quickly follow Kerri into sleep.

Epilogue

Kerri sat slowly back in the chair, trying not to wake the baby in her arms. She held her breath as the baby squirmed and settled back down. The twins were gorgeous, but Kerri didn’t understand how something so small could be so loud. She held Michael, who took after the Matthews men with his curly, black hair. He was only happy when being held by women. Kerri snorted. Mikey was going to be a heartbreaker when he got older, and the eyes were going to bring women to their knees. He took after his momma with his eyes. One eye was light amber, and the other was pale blue. The eyes together with the black hair made him breathtaking. Kerri looked across the table to Chase and smiled. He looked perfect holding Madison. She was the complete opposite of brother. She had all the Matthews men wrapped around her tiny little finger. When she batted those long, pale eyelashes they came running, especially Chase. Maddy took after her momma with her white hair. It hadn’t completely grown in yet, so it stuck up, spiked on the top of her head. When the hair was added to her bright-emerald-green eyes, she was stunning, like a tiny pale fairy. Kerri felt sorry for whatever guy felt he was good enough to date Maddy when she got older. Her daddies and uncles were already very protective of her.