Billionaire Protector - Alexa Hart Page 0,70

keep using your middle?

I lifted my hand to knock and realized that Anne’s door wasn’t even completely closed. That didn’t seem like her at all.

“Anne?” I called it out lightly at first, and then louder. “Anne?” Figuring that decorum no longer mattered, I pushed the door completely open and walked in.

Tidy. Small.

“Anne?” Still no response.

This wasn’t right.

I walked through the rest of the apartment, which was only a bedroom and a bathroom, and checked every closet.

The only object in the entire apartment that caught my eye was a roll of duct tape sitting on the kitchen counter. All by itself.

My heart was pumping overtime.

Was it too much to hope maybe Anne just had a really, really sick sense of humor and was trying to freak me out?

Kate’s. I could go over to Kate’s. Anne had told me that Kate lived directly above her store.

In fact, Anne being the reactive little firecracker that she was, she’d probably thought I wasn’t coming – was standing her up or something. She’d more than likely gone to Kate’s for consolation, albeit premature.

I trampled down the stairs, eyeing the identical stairs one building down that had to lead to Kate’s apartment. I was on the first step when a crashing sound came from inside the supply store.

Shit.

Immediately I ran to the side of the building and stood flat against the wall, trying to hear any other sounds possible. Muffled voices. But so muffled that I couldn’t even tell if they were female or male.

Anne and Kate. Females. Duh.

Someone had dropped something. That was all.

I turned toward the back door of Kate’s Supplies, took a deep breath, and crept stealthily towards it.

The door was slightly ajar, which was again creepily alarming. People didn’t just leave doors slightly open all the time. They either didn’t have a chance to close the door – which in this case, was terrifying – or...

It had been left open on purpose.

I was being led. But to what.

I looked around frantically until I spotted something that might work. Just a giant metal pipe, leftover tubing from a remodel, maybe, but I saw it amongst a pile of weeds and immediately grabbed it.

Now it was showtime.

Ducking down into a crouching stance, I used the pipe to push the door open, without moving from my spot against the wall.

Boom! Boom boom boom boom! Boom!

“I got ‘em, Katie! Motherfucker’s gotta be deader than a doornail!” It was a man’s voice, and not one that I recognized in the slightest. But it did have a rather thick southern, backwoodsy accent to it.

“Well how about you check and make sure, Tim?” That was Kate’s voice.

Katie. Kate. Tim. Fisher.

They knew each other.

My initial plan had been to clonk whoever came out of that doorway with the pipe as soon as they popped their head out. But Tim’s shock at realizing he’d only blown the back door to smithereens sent him running into the back alley in a panicked frenzy.

He didn’t even notice me.

I ran up behind him and swung the pipe at his back, knocking him clean to the ground.

He howled and rolled, looking up at me with the most hateful eyes I had ever witnessed in my entire life.

“Who the fuck are you?” Tim asked me angrily. He started to stand up, but I shook my head and pointed at the pipe.

“Stay down, and kindly tell me who the fuck are you?” I was aware that the whereabouts of his gun were completely unknown to me at that time, but we’d get to that.

“I’m Timothy fuckin’ Fisher. I came here to avenge my brother. And I’m guessin’ you’re that fuckin’ Hardick shit Katie said was tryin’ to get all over Val. Nice to meet you.” He smiled then, showing me just how many teeth were no longer present in his mouth, and I nearly hit him again out of pure disgust.

“Anne didn’t kill your brother,” I said firmly, not looking away for a second.

“The fuck she didn’t. What, just cuz somethin’ pretty sucks your cock and tells ya she’s innocent, you believe her? Are you stupid, boy?”

I wanted to kill him. Dead. Right there.

“Where’s Anne?”

“Her name is Valerie, you douche bag. See? She’s a liar, that one. She’ll lie and lie and lie until one day you just up and accidentally find yerself at the bottom of a gorge!” Tim was growing angrier by the second, and I had a feeling that his adrenaline was going to send him straight toward me in an animalistic rage very