Page 68 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Bodyguard

I pulled my Glock from my waistband, ready to take out the perp. I assumed it was Skeeter. What the actualfuckhad happened to my agents? I clocked all the women inside screaming, crying, and running around. Nadine was sitting on the floor, clutching her throat. It was obviously red and looked to be developing bruising. But I didn’t see Jess. Anywhere. I searched the entire area quickly.

“Byron,” Nadine croaked from the floor when I made a second sweep. Reynolds sat on the floor holding her in his arms. “He’s gone. He took her. He took Jess.” She broke into tears. “I couldn’t stop him.”

“Shh. Honey, it’s okay. We’ll get her back,” Reynolds was saying as he cradled her.

I looked around. Nia’s eyes were wide and she was totally silent—no tears, nothing. I saw the signs of shock immediately. Iswiveled until I saw Jelly. She was pissed.That’swho could help in this situation.

I pointed to Glory, who had also kept her head. “Call 9-1-1 and tell them we need at least one ambulance, possibly more. Tell them the mayor is involved.” I knew they’d get here quickly for that.

“Jelly—show me where they went.”

She nodded and ran towards the back, responding quickly, just as I thought she would. “He took her and dragged her this way, but thought she was going too slow. He flung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and walked out the back door. I… I went outside.” Her face, always on the pale side, was ghostly white now. “There’s a dead guy back there.”

I was still on the move, never stopping. “You’re sure he’s dead?” Too late, I remembered she was a physician’s assistant. Yeah, she knew if someone was dead or not.

She didn’t bother to answer that question. She barreled through the door after me and pointed at the skid marks. “From those and the sounds I could hear inside the spa, I think they went that way.” She pointed in the direction of the bay.

“Gotcha.” I concealed the Glock again and sprinted towards my car. I glanced from right to left and saw my other agent. He was down, too. From this distance, I couldn’t tell if he was alive or not. I looked over my shoulder to see Jelly running after me.

I pointed at the agent. “Help him,” I yelled, and she immediately switched directions.

I made it to my car. I was inside with the engine started and backing out of my parking space withing seconds.

And almost ran over Reynolds and Nadine. I slammed on the brakes. “What the hell are y’all doing?” I yelled as Reynolds got in the passenger seat and Nadine threw herself into the back seat as I put the car in drive and burst forward.

“We’re going with you,” Nadine croaked out.

“Don’t talk unless you have to. I don’t like the looks of your throat,” I said.

I assumed Skeeter would want to get as far away from West Bay as possible. I was about to ask Reynolds what the quickest way out of town was, when my phone buzzed. I tossed it to him.

He frowned at it. “It’s from Jess—it says, ‘don’t talk.’”

The phone started ringing.

“Answer it, put it on speaker, but say nothing. Don’t make a sound.”

He nodded and did as I asked.

At first, all we could hear was a lot of noise. Then I vaguely heard her saying something about her nose.

I frowned, slowed down, and pulled to the side of the road.

I saw Reynolds open his mouth to say something, but Nadine thunked him in the back of his head. He covered his mouth to hide his sound of pain. In case she hadn’t gotten the point across, I put a finger to my lips. He nodded.

That’s when she said something about caves being flooded. It was much clearer, like they were protected from the wind a bit or had slowed down.

Reynolds’ eyes opened wide and he pantomimed him taking over the driving. We got out and ran around to the different sides quickly and then he pulled back into traffic going in the opposite direction. It wasn’t long until he pulled down a side road and then stopped as it ended at the ocean. He got out and motioned for us to follow. I grabbed the phone and hurried after him, making sure Nadine was between us. I didn’t want her to suddenly pass out from her injury and us not realize it.

The whole time we were jogging, we were listening to Skeeter describe the cave. Reynolds gave a huge head nod, pointed, and quickened his pace. We were headed in the right direction.

Nadine and I followed Reynolds who kept turning around and making weird hand gestures, widening his eyes, andpointing to himself. Nadine and I exchanged a quick glance and she rolled her eyes.

We both knew he was trying to make sure we were aware that his boring stories about the West Bay pirates had come in handy.

He did it enough that Nadine finally made a sweeping arm gesture to get his attention and then drew a finger across her throat to get him to stop. She winced as she touched her bruised skin, and I wished there was something I could do for her.

But then we heard Skeeter asking Jess if she was into me because of the eyepatch. I shook my head as both Nadine and Reynolds had to stop walking a moment while they did everything they could to keep from bursting into laughter. It didn’t help that Jess then talked about having a thing for pirates.