Page 103 of Nothing to Fear

Fast. You need to be faster than you’ve ever been.

Gideon pulled out the hammer and let the ticking beat in his head propel him.

In a round-robin smackdown, he alternated walloping each guy. He delivered lightning blows and kicks, striking any flesh within reach. The mercs were fast and organized, and each threw hard, well-timed punches and knees in turn.

Gideon headbutted Mustachio’s face, crushing his nose, and punched his exposed throat, sending him sprawling to the floor, out cold.

But taking down one man had left Gideon vulnerable to the other.

Omega launched himself, lowering his shoulder, and slammed it into Gideon’s chest like a battering ram, lifting him off the ground. The hit was worse than anything he’d endured in college football, bringing them both to the floor with enough force to dislocate Gideon’s spine. Only the angle or luck had saved him that misery.

Without thinking, without feeling, Gideon drove his elbow into Omega’s head, knocking the bruiser off him. It was muscle memory. Pure survival instinct.

Omega scrambled from the floor, grabbing a knife along the way, and reached his feet at the same time as Gideon. Thank God he could stand.

But if Omega charged with that weapon right now, Gideon wasn’t sure he had the strength to take him. His blood chilled at the split-second thought—at the idea of failing Willow.

Blinking it away, he dug deep and braced himself.

Movement grabbed both of their attention. Willow stood in front of a dressing room, holding the Maxim 9.

A low, distinct pop whispered in the air. The hot slug would’ve hit Omega in the forehead, but he threw a mannequin between them. Willow’s bullet struck the figurine’s chest.

Omega didn’t give her a chance to fire a second round. He ran, barreling through a door in the corner of the shop. Gideon swiped the gun from Willow and pursued.

Putting an end to that man now if possible was best. Gideon followed him into a back office that led to a small storeroom filled with neatly stacked boxes.

Omega flicked the lock off an exterior door and charged into an alley. By the time Gideon made it to the doorway, Omega was hopping over a six-foot brick wall.

Every instinct and years of training tempted Gideon to track the threat and eliminate him, but leaving Willow alone, unprotected, wasn’t a mistake he’d repeat.

He hustled back into the main shop.

A rush surged through him at the sight of her. She ran to him, wrapping him in a desperate hug, whispering his name over and over again. Her trembling body was crushed to his as he held her back. The hard knot in his chest loosened.

“I thought I was going to lose you,” she said in a frantic voice.

He didn’t want to entertain what might’ve happened if she hadn’t fired the gun. “I’d die before I let anything happen to you, but I told you, I’m hard to kill.”

Stroking her hair, he soaked in the smell of her—the unique scent that was all Willow—her warmth, her tenderness filling him with a deep rush of gratitude that he’d never known before. Exhilaration welled until he thought his heart might burst from joy. Nothing in the world had ever felt better, and everything else fell to the wayside.

They were nowhere near out of the woods. They still had to prove her innocence, and that bastard Omega had gotten away.

Ben’s old warning came back to him: Better to put a bullet in a threat than give it another chance to put you in the grave.

There were no truer words. And they had a monumental task ahead of them.

But for a few precious seconds, having Willow in his arms was all that mattered.

39

Grand Cayman

Monday, July 8, 10:31 a.m. EST/11:31 a.m. EDT

A familiar heated prickle of warning raced across Gideon’s forearms like fire ants crawling under his skin as he sensed them closing in. He whirled, gun at the ready, shielding Willow behind his body.

Maddox was on point, leading the way. The rest of the Gray Box’s black ops team hurried inside the store behind her. Relief dripped through him—a conditioned response to familiar faces—but he stayed wired tight in case he had to fight friendlies.