LITMIR.BIZ

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in the doorway to the house. She was screaming, he realized—it wasn’t just his ears ringing. Carlton had his arms wrapped around her, lifting her off the ground, but not moving as she swung her feet frantically, trying to escape.

      Fury lit Marcos, and it seemed to intensify the pain in his head. He must have swayed on his feet, because the guards both moved toward him at once, smiling, and Marcos recognized his chance.

      The first guard swung a fist. Instinctively, Marcos ducked, then stepped forward fast, getting close enough to slam an uppercut into his chin.

      The guard’s head snapped backward, but Marcos didn’t waste time with a follow-up punch. He twisted right, bringing his palm up this time, right into the second guard’s nose. Blood spurted, spraying Marcos as the guy howled and staggered backward, his hands pressed to his face.

      In his peripheral vision, he could see Carlton’s surprise as he let Brenna go. She stumbled, losing one of her shoes as she came running toward him. Behind her, Marcos could see Carlton’s hand reach behind his back—surely where he had his own weapon.

      He opened his mouth to warn Brenna to duck when the first guy he’d hit shoved himself to his feet. Marcos barreled into him, taking him to the ground hard, his only hope to grab the guy’s weapon and shoot first.

      It was a desperate move, and unlikely to work, but he didn’t even have a chance to try, because the second guy pulled a pistol that had been hidden under his T-shirt. He was swinging it toward Marcos when Brenna slammed into him, taking the guy down despite the fact that he must have outweighed her by a hundred pounds. They fell to the ground together, but Marcos didn’t have time to do more than say a silent prayer neither of them had been shot as the guy underneath him suddenly rolled, bucking Marcos off.

      He shoved to his knees, ready to slam into the guy again, but he’d somehow managed to yank his AK-47 up toward Marcos.

      Marcos’s breath caught and then a gunshot rang out.

      Shock slammed through him, and it took several seconds before he could process it. He hadn’t been hit. The guy in front of him was down, though, eyes staring blankly at the sky, gun lying uselessly at his side.

      Marcos glanced over at Carlton, but the man looked as surprised as Marcos felt. Carlton’s weapon dangled in his hand, like he’d been getting ready to use it but hadn’t been fast enough.

      Swiveling to stare at Brenna, Marcos watched as she slowly lowered the weapon she’d somehow gotten away from Carlton’s other bodyguard. He lay half underneath her, moaning in pain.

      She was breathing hard, blinking rapidly, and he knew instantly that she’d never killed anyone before.

      Marcos saw movement from the corner of his eye, and he knew before he looked up that Carlton was raising his gun hand. Marcos gauged the distance to the nearest AK-47, but it was too far, and he knew it even before Carlton barked, “Don’t even think about it.”

      His gaze lifted, and he readied himself for a second time to be shot, but Carlton wasn’t pointing the pistol at him.

      He was pointing it at Brenna.

      * * *

      “DO YOU HAVE some kind of death wish?”

      Carlton’s voice, usually loud and boisterous, was scarily quiet. But the menace came through as clearly as if he’d screamed at her as he pointed the gun at her head.

      Brenna realized her mistake instantly. She shouldn’t have lowered her weapon. She should have swung it toward Carlton.

      But she’d never shot anyone before. Sure, she’d fired a weapon hundreds of times. In practice. She’d even held a weapon on resisting suspects before. But she’d never had to use it to protect herself or someone else.

      Until now.

      There was no question Carlton’s bodyguards were going to kill Marcos. Nothing she’d said had swayed the drug lord. And when he’d released her, she’d acted on instinct. Instinct and fury, and something fiercely protective that scared her.

      And afterward, when the man had dropped to the ground, no dying scream, no time for surprise to register on his face, her hand had just gone slack on her. She hadn’t even consciously decided to kill him and now it was over.

      She’d just killed someone. Regret hit with the force of a tidal wave, but there hadn’t been any other way. She couldn’t just stand by and watch Marcos die.

      Pushing the emotions down, Brenna tried to focus, telling herself she could deal with her regrets later—assuming she lived through the next few minutes.

      “Carlton,” Brenna said, her voice shaky. “I was just trying to—”

      “You’d die for this man?” Carlton boomed, making her flinch. “After just a one-night stand?” His eyes narrowed, and he glanced from her to Marcos and back again, but too fast for her to lift her own weapon.

      He suspected she and Marcos had a deeper connection than the lie she’d given about picking him up at a bar. And Carlton was right. But she and Marcos had only known each other for a few months. A few months of the worst pain in her life. A pain that had brought her here.

      Resolution overtook her fear. She’d come this far. She wasn’t going to die without a fight.

      And with Carlton, she knew her best weapon wasn’t her fists or the gun clutched in her hand. Tossing the pistol away from her, she lifted her hands in the air and got slowly to her feet, stepping slightly away from the bodyguard moaning on the ground.

      Her hair was a disaster; pieces of it stuck to her lipstick, more of it was in her eyes. Her knees were skinned and bloody, her dress hiked up way too high. She ignored all of it, locking her gaze on Carlton and tipping her chin up. “You read my file, right? You know about the fire?”

      She sensed Marcos tense, but she couldn’t dare glance at him as Carlton gave a brief nod.

      “Then you must know the rest of it, too.” Her voice hitched, remembering the things that had come after that fire, when she’d been sent to other foster homes. Places without smiling boys with dimples to greet her and hold her hand, but older boys with a scary gleam in their eyes.

      Carlton’s eyes narrowed even more, but she could tell he was listening. Maybe he even cared.

      “If you really looked, then you know this isn’t about Marcos. Marco,” she corrected herself. “It’s about me. I’m here because I want a different life from the one I grew up with. I want security. I want to feel safe.” She let the truth of those words ring through in her voice. “So, I’ll work with you, but you don’t own me. If that’s what you want, I’m not interested.”

      A smirk twisted his lips, then faded, and she wasn’t sure if she’d just signed her death warrant or gotten through to him.

      Beside her, the bodyguard she’d knocked to the ground pulled himself to his knees, snarling at her. For a second, she thought he was going to jump up and tackle her, when Carlton fired his gun, making her jump.

      His bodyguard slumped back down, dead.

      She stared at Carlton, speechless, and he shrugged. “He failed me. Kind of like you, Brenna.”

      She hadn’t gotten through to him. Brenna took a breath and closed her eyes.

      “This is supposed to be a business arrangement, right?” Marcos spoke up.

      Brenna opened her eyes again, glancing at him, wondering if it was smart of him to remind Carlton of his presence.

      “Because I’ve got to tell you,” Marcos continued, getting to his feet, too, and leaving behind the bodyguard’s weapon, which had been at arm’s length away, “this is how my family did business. All these feuds. It’s derailing their business. Why do you think I want to branch out on my own?”

      His family? Brenna frowned, wondering what game he was playing. Some of the kids in the foster homes she’d been to

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