Billionaire Protector - Alexa Hart Page 0,74

it with Timmy so... You really think they won’t hunt you down? You think because you and your po-dunk cousin can entrap a young single mom and a dumb, rich hick like me that you can also get away with first degree murder times three and kidnapping? That’s a pretty big order to fill, Kate. You sure you got the supplies?”

“I know exactly what I’m doing! I know exactly how to handle this! I will move on from this – with Murphy – and we will be happy! Happier than any of you could ever imagine! I’m strong! I’m strong!”

The fingers of the hand that wasn’t holding the gun went to her temples. She started massaging and humming something very quietly, and then she was rocking back and forth – eyes closed, and The Rainbow Connection now clearly coming from her vocal chords.

She actually wasn’t a bad singer.

But she was clearly insane. How had I not seen this? Kate had always been kind, gentle, patient with me... I hadn’t had a clue of the fault lines running through her brain. But now they were combusting, and Kate was at the apparent start of a full-blown mental breakdown.

This was Penn’s shot. Possibly his only shot.

He charged, staying low. I knew he needed to knock the gun from her hand but also somehow ensure that it didn’t fire off when it landed and kill one of us, which was quite possible.

Only one of those things was somewhat within Penn’s control. He did knock Kate down and she did lose the gun.

But it fired immediately when it landed and a bullet pinged off of the cement wall wildly.

Knowing no one had been shot, Penn focused all of his attention on overpowering Kate. Simply getting her to stay down was looked surprisingly difficult.

Crazy apparently made you strong as shit.

But he did eventually get her down, using the full weight of his body and all four limbs to lock down hers. He had to be covered in scratches and claws marks at this point, but the first obstacle had been passed.

Kate wasn’t armed, and she wasn’t moving anytime soon.

The problem being that neither could Penn, if he wanted her to stay down.

“You gonna stay like this for the rest of your life, Penn Hardick? Because so help me God, when you get up, I am going to kill you. I am going to kill you! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!” She was attempting to kick and pound her fists on the ground like a toddler mid-tantrum.

“Ya know, for some reason, I feel like you want to kill me, Kate.” Poor timing for humor, but Penn apparently couldn’t help myself. He glanced at me just long enough to catch my eyeroll and appeared to be fighting with himself to not actually laugh.

This couldn’t be funny yet, because it wasn’t over yet.

If he could somehow knock her out... but how exactly did he do that at such range and also ensure that he didn’t actually kill her? And God... even now, I could tell that the idea of actually hurting a woman was utterly deplorable in Penn Hardick’s eyes.

Kate was more monster than woman at this point, but still...

Suddenly, a very familiar voice from the doorway sounded off. “Wow, Penn. What’re you doing with that lady? I thought you were a one-woman type of guy.”

Preston.

“Shut up, asshole. We’ve got a situation here, in case you hadn’t gathered that.” Penn still sounded like he was walking a fine line between serious and laughter, and I wondered if he was possibly experiencing a bit of shock at the extreme nature of the situation.

I personally wanted to smack Preston and hug him. Possibly at the same time.

“Uh yeah, I’m aware. I knew something was up by the way you sped off from the ranch, that’s why I followed you. And I met part of your ‘situation’ out back. He was just coming to his senses.” Preston’s voice was unaffected, like this was story time at the library.

“And?” Penn demanded, his muscled arms locked tight as he continued to hold Kate’s freakishly strong body to the floor.

“I don’t know. He looked like trouble. I got a really bad feeling about that one. So when he managed to sit up, I gave him a bit of a kick to the head. Dude went straight back down.”

“You kicked a guy in the head – that you didn’t even know?” Penn’s voice was full of reprimand, but personally, I was pleased. And a