Page 80 of Too Guarded to Love

Covering his head, sand and blood stinging the cuts on his face, he sprang to his feet and ran toward her.

“Rachel.”

A second explosion shook the ground as he launched himself at the woman he was responsible for. Before he hit the unforgiving earth, fiery debris ripped through the side of his body. He landed on top of her, blood mingling with hers as pain burned a path from his shoulder to his toes.

As he covered Rachel’s head with his arms and prayed she didn’t bleed out, another explosion pitched the earth. He felt the craggy slope at his side tremble. Curled his body tighter over Rachel’s as he heard stone scrape against stone. Before he could roll them away, several boulders big enough to crush a man came crashing toward them.

Ryan’s voice dragged him back to the present.

“Shooter is fleeing on foot. Linc is in pursuit. Get Olivia to the hospital.”

Nic sprung to a crouch and lifted her into his arms. Sprinting the few feet to the car, he yanked open the driver’s side door and shoved her in.

She scrambled into the passenger seat. “Are you okay? You were shot, weren’t you?”

Head on a swivel, he climbed in after her. “I’m fine.” Throwing the sedan into drive, he sped down the sandy road and thanked God Joe had left the car running.

Olivia ran her hand over his thigh. “How can you be fine? I felt the bullet hit your steel all the way in my bones.”

“I got hit in the back of my thigh. It didn’t hit any skin.” But the impact still reverberated like somebody had used his steel as a gong. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, but…” She turned her body and looked out the back window. “Those men? Are they okay? None of them were moving after you and Linc did…” She shook her head. “We’ll talk about that in a minute, but first we need to go back there. Those men need medical attention. What if some of them are dead?”

Nic clasped her arm and tugged her back into the seat. “Trust me, they’re not dead. Linc and I made sure to just put them out of commission long enough so we could get you safely out of there. Whoever sent them will come back and clean up.”

She looked behind her again. “But⁠—”

“But nothing.” Whipping the car onto a paved road, he acknowledged a mind comms message from Linc as he clamped his hand on Olivia’s knee. “Those men you’re worried about were hired mercenaries sent to do a job, and it wasn’t to welcome us. Focus on the reason we’re here, okay?”

“Okay. Are you sure someone will come for them?”

They could bleed out for all he cared. She was safe, and that’s all that mattered, yet despite what she’d just gone through, she’d been concerned about him and a bunch of mercenaries before herself. While her compassion was just one of the qualities that made her irresistible, it also made her reckless. He was quickly learning one was a product of the other, and he was falling for the sum of everything about her.

“Nic, were those men sent by the Diablos?”

He thought about saying he had no idea, but she deserved to know the truth. “Yes.”

Her eyes widened to the size of the full moon. “I didn’t want to believe that Jonathan was working with the cartel, but this proves it, doesn’t it?”

He took her hand. “Looks that way.”

“I’m scared, Nic.”

As he sped toward the hospital, he fought the urge to turn around and finish the fuckers who’d terrified his girl.