Tristan braced himself as everyone in the house scrambled to the front door. Thanks to all of Toni’s security systems and safeguards, they knew Manuel Grant was there long before he ever parked his car. By the time he reached the front door, Tristan pulled it open and was glaring at the man who had caused Shae so much pain. “I think you’re in the wrong place,” he said harshly.

Manuel blinked in surprise. He apparently wasn’t used to being threatened. Well, he was about to get a really intense fucking lesson on it.

“I’m here to see my daughter.” Manuel straightened his shoulders, showing that he wasn’t one to cower easily.

Tristan knew it wasn’t just him glaring down at the man. By now Hunter, Gage, Toni, and Scott were all there. It wasn’t just his daughter. He had to get through all of them first.

“Shae’s not here right now.”

“I can see her,” said Manuel.

“Like I said, she’s not here right now. At least not for you. Maybe try again later.” He started to shut the door, but Manuel stuck his foot out.

“Shae! I just want to have a few words. I’ll leave you alone after this. I promise.”

Tristan turned to look at her.

Shae took a nervous gulp. Tristan could tell she didn’t want to spend any time with her father, but he also knew Shae well enough to understand that she wasn’t going to say no. Between her desire not to let people down and her desire to be strong, she wouldn’t want to step away from this, even if it made her uncomfortable. “It’s fine, guys.” She stepped forward. Tristan didn’t move out of her way, though. Instead, he remained standing shoulder to shoulder with her. “I can spare him a few minutes.”

“Ummm, I think you guys are forgetting the bigger picture,” said Toni. “How the hell did you find us?”

“I always know where my daughter is.”

Tristan wasn’t sure whether that was supposed to sound reassuring, but to him it sounded creepy as hell.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” said Toni. “I want details. If you tracked us here, other people can too. People who don’t really care about the safety of their precious daughters.”

Shae frowned at that, but she wasn’t offended. By now she knew Toni couldn’t help the way she phrased things.

“Her phone.”

Toni scoffed. “That’s bullshit. I turned off the GPS on her phone myself.”

“That must be why I haven’t had signal lately. But after I heard about the shootouts, I checked in on the last registered location. Which is here.”

“Fuck,” muttered Toni. She turned to Scott. “We need to leave. Now.”

“No.” Manuel adamantly shook his head. “I didn’t tell anybody where you were. I promise.”

Toni scowled as she looked him up and down. “I thought you were supposed to be a big bad business guy. Are you really so naïve to think that you’re doing a deal with Damask and he’s not monitoring your every move? Especially now that he knows who your daughter is?” Toni paused for a second before her eyes widened in realization. “Scratch that. He’s always known who your daughter is. What do you want to bet that he offered to go into business with you around the time that she bought that house? You’re not a business partner to him. You’re leverage. So you two have a nice little chat and I’m going to go try to save our asses.”

Toni turned and walked away in a huff, leaving no doubt about her opinion of the man. Hunter and Gage followed her out. Tristan knew that the group would need help packing things up, but he wasn’t about to leave Shae alone.

He hated to invite the man inside, but if Toni was right about Damask and his men showing up any minute, he didn’t want to be out in the open. He stepped back and motioned with his head for Manuel to come inside. But he didn’t step back too far, leaving Manuel crowded against the door. Sometimes a little intimidation went a long way. Especially when dealing with a guy who wasn’t used to any intimidation at all.

“What do you want, Manuel?” asked Shae harshly.

Oddly enough, Manuel appeared almost... sheepish. Tristan had a feeling he’d come here not knowing exactly what to say. Or maybe he’d come with a plan to intimidate his daughter into submission, and that had all gone out the window once he had seen the mini army at the door. He watched Manuel’s mind work frantically to calculate where he was going with this. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Her house was shot up. Why didn’t you check on her then?”

“Because I believe that my daughter can deal with a lot. It wasn’t until I found out that it was Damask after her that I got worried. The man is dangerous.”

“Then why did you get in business with him?” she shot back.

“This isn’t about me. After what you did today, I don’t—I mean, what do you think he’ll do to you?”

“I think I have better chances now than I did sitting around waiting for him to kill me.”

“I don’t understand. What does he have against you?”

“That’s the million-dollar question,” she muttered. “I never did anything to the guy. He wants the house I bought for some reason. Enough to kill for.”

“Have you gone to the police about this?”

“Of course I did. They don’t care. Besides, he isn’t trying to kill me personally. He sends his budget mercenaries for me. They’d probably all be too terrified of him to name names if they got arrested.”

“Damask can kill people even behind bars,” pointed out Tristan.

“I’m not stupid, Dad. I’ve exhausted every legal option I have.”

“But you didn’t come to me. You came to these... cretins. You know I have certain influence.”

“Like the influence you used to sabotage my first job? I’m sorry if I don’t think you’re my ally here.”

“I did that to protect you.”

“Your protection leaves a lot to desire.”

Toni called from the living room. “We’re out of here in fifteen minutes, everybody! If you don’t have all your shit together, you need to get to getting!”

Tristan hated to invite Manuel farther into the house, but Toni was right. He motioned with his head for them to follow, and Shae didn’t question it.

Therefore, Manuel followed Shae. “I know we’ve had our issues, but you never should’ve thought I abandoned you.”

Tristan couldn’t take any more. “You didn’t abandon her. You were actively working against her. You purposefully made her life harder. The opposite of what parents are supposed to do.”

“If you felt that way, you should’ve come to me.” Manuel’s voice rose in irritation.

Tristan knew people like him were never usually called out on things they’d done wrong. He was the boss. People worked for him, to make him more money, to make him more profitable, to make him more efficient. He didn’t have anyone giving him periodic reviews, telling him how to improve. This was a guy who was used to succeeding in everything he did, but here Tristan was telling him he was failing at the most important job a person could have. Tristan didn’t mind Manuel getting defensive, but if he found one more way to blame Shae, he was going to get a fist in his face.

“Dad, did you come here to yell at me? Because, as you can see, we’re kind of busy here. You can take your comments and get the fuck out.”

Atta girl. Tristan was happy she wasn’t just taking it because of who was dishing it. She was a fighter. It was one of the things he liked about her. One of the many, many things he liked about her. They reached their bedroom and walked in. There was an empty bag next to the bed. Tristan assumed that was what had delivered the clothes she was wearing. She got to packing the few belongings she had—her cell phone that wasn’t on, the suit she’d worn earlier, and the sundress. He had considerably more to pack. He started by grabbing his tools.

Manuel eyed the two of them as they were busy working. “You two share a room?”

“You hardly have a right to judge my dating habits. I’ve seen pictures of you in tabloids with girls younger than me.”

“You kept up with me?”

“For goodness’ sake, you’re my dad. Besides, I didn’t know at first who was trying to sabotage Seaside Escape. When that first brick came through the window, I thought it was you.”

For the first time, the anger fled for just the tiniest bit and was replaced with a flash of guilt. Good. He should feel guilty for what he did.

“Come with me,” said Manuel suddenly. “Don’t leave with them. These aren’t your people. You belong with me. The world you were born into. Not this riffraff.”

“This riffraff is taking care of me. They saved me, and they believed in me when no one else would. Sorry, Dad. I don’t hate you. I want you to know that I don’t hate you. But I hate what you’ve become, and I don’t want any part of that. I’m not going to be complicit in the things you do and the things you allow. I was born into your world, but I get to decide where I live. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to leave. I’m not telling you where we’re going, and you’d better not try to track me. I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

It was meant to be a harsh goodbye. Possibly the last words she ever said to her father. But all of a sudden Manuel stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Shae. She stood still for a second, as stiff as a board. Tristan could see her eyes narrowing as though she was trying to determine whether she was imagining this. Finally, she lifted her arms up and hugged him back. Her eyes closed as they squeezed each other. For the first time since her father showed up, Tristan felt awkward. Less like he was protecting Shae and more as if he were invading her private moment. Just as quickly as it started, the hug ended. She picked up her bag and walked out of the room.

Tristan sighed as he finished collecting things. He wanted to protect her, but how could he protect her from that? In some ways, his family situation was easier. The last time he saw his father, he was drunk and sleeping in a puddle of his own vomit. Not exactly a nice last image. Not as nice as a hug. At least he didn’t miss the guy. At least he had no doubts that his father didn’t love him. In some ways that was better. Easier.

Suddenly Manuel reached out as if to grab his arm, but stopped when Tristan gave him a dirty look. “You and my daughter.... Are you serious?”

Great. Now he was getting the father talk. “I don’t need to tell you anything.”

“I know. But I’m asking you genuinely.”

“I’ll take care of your daughter.”

“That wasn’t an answer,” pointed out Manuel.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t a lie. Consider yourself lucky.” Tristan lifted the duffel bag to his shoulder and headed out to the hallway. Shae was already out of sight, so he quickened his steps to reach the living room.

The computers would take the longest to pack up, but they didn’t need them all. Toni and Scott had more than enough money to replace everything there. The only things she’d need to save would be a few choice hard drives. Monitors, wires, chairs and all the other miscellaneous stuff was expendable. But when he got there, he noticed Shae was gone. “Where is she?” he demanded.

Toni bent down to look at the one monitor that was still running. “I sent her off with Hunter. I don’t want her here if shit starts going down.” Her face darkened as she stepped away from the monitor. “Just in time, too,” Toni muttered. “We’ve got company.”

Tristan straightened. Fan-fucking-tastic. The most experienced marksman among all of them was driving Shae off the property right now. On second thought, that was a good thing. He’d rather her have as much protection as she could get. Everyone here could handle themselves. Except maybe Manuel. “Dammit,” he muttered. He turned to Gage and handed off his bags. Gage would normally be super pissed off about Tristan expecting him to be his luggage boy, but considering the circumstances, Gage didn’t say anything.

Tristan ran for the front of the house and saw Manuel headed to the front door. As soon as he caught up with him, he grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back right as he saw the van pull up through the front windows. The van parked sideways behind Manuel’s car, blocking off one of the exits. And then another van came up, and parked behind the first. There were still plenty of places to get out on foot, but Tristan wasn’t in a walking mood.

He pulled Manuel farther away from the door and leaned forward just far enough so he could see people unloading from the van. It was like a damn clown car as a bunch of guys in full body armor got out. He could tell by their tentative steps and the unprofessional way they held their guns that these were no cops. “Looks like your business partner sent backup.”

Manuel’s brows drew together in confusion. “I don’t understand. How did he find me?”

Tristan couldn’t deal with this right now. “How the hell did you find Shae? Your phone, dumbass.”

Tristan didn’t have his gun on him, so he wasn’t much good at the moment. A few seconds later, he heard the tiniest creak in the floor and looked over to see Gage. The duffel bag was gone and replaced with a gun in his right hand. At least one of them was prepared.

Gage stood with his back against the wall in the entryway. “How many?” he mouthed.

“At least sixteen that I can see. Probably more inside the vans.”

Gage nodded. “We can handle that.”

“People aren’t as easy to hack as a keyboard,” muttered Tristan. They had all trained under Slade, so each of them had a fair bit of hand-to-hand combat training, and they were pretty much all marksmen. Hunter had always had the advantage over them, since this stuff was his specialty. As they were talking, Tristan could see the guys spreading out. They weren’t going to all slam the front door. They were spreading out to take on multiple entry points. He wondered whether they knew they were being watched. He wondered whether they knew this wasn’t exactly a surprise attack.

“Head to the back,” said Gage. “I’ll handle the front.”

“We’re going to escape out the back?” said Manuel hopefully.

Tristan rolled his eyes. “No, we’re going to stop anyone who tries to get inside this house.”

Manuel scoffed. “Why would I help you?”

“Because these men aren’t here for us. They’re here for your daughter. And if they can’t find her here, they’re going to torture us until they get a location. So I think it’s your highest priority right now to make sure every one of us makes it out of here safely. Don’t you think?” Tristan walked away, giving Manuel a chance to answer for himself. But a few seconds later, he heard the footsteps following him.

He crossed through the living room, where it looked like Toni was finishing packing up. He had no idea how she expected to get any of her equipment out of the house, but he’d learned it was best not to question Toni. As soon as he saw her, she started in on what the plan was.

“They’re splitting out into three teams,” she said. “Gage is clearing the way to one of the vans. Take care of your guys at the back entrance, and meet me in the van on the west side of the driveway. Then we’ll get the hell out of Dodge.”

“What happens if they follow us?”

“Well, we have two options. We can either make sure none of them are in a condition to follow anybody, or we can disable all the cars. I’m going to be disabling all cars; you make sure no one can follow us. I like having all of our bases covered.”

“You’re going to kill them?” said Manuel in a surprisingly shocked voice.

Not exactly the ruthless tyrant Tristan was expecting. “We’re going to incapacitate them,” said Tristan. He wasn’t going to promise not to kill anybody, because he wasn’t in a position to make that promise. What he couldn’t have was Manuel getting a bleeding heart now. They had Shae leave because they didn’t want to have a liability on their hands. She was inexperienced and, to be honest, too nice for this kind of work. Manuel was also a liability, but it came with the added benefit that no one here really cared whether he died. But after witnessing the little reunion Shae had just gone through, he knew she would care. Which meant his job was doubly hard. He’d be guarding a door on his own and making sure Manuel didn’t get himself killed. Oh, the fun never stopped.

Tristan reached into one of his bags and pulled out a Glock and three extra magazines. He slipped the magazines into his jean pockets and raked the slide back on the Glock until he heard a bullet load in the chamber. He headed toward the back of the house and stood just out of the line of sight of the two giant French doors. It was the easiest entry to the back. The windows around the house were all reinforced glass, so it would take a bullet to break them, and he’d hear it. The French doors, however, were as delicate as they looked. It would take about two seconds for these guys to kick them in.

“Maybe I should go,” said Manuel with a tremor of fear in his voice.

“You stay here,” said Tristan in a hushed whisper. “We’re taking care of these men and then we’re going around to the front. I can’t go looking for you when we need to leave. You need to be here.”

“But you said there were sixteen guys. Doesn’t that mean we’re outnumbered by at least five to two?”

“We’re outnumbered five to one. I don’t think you’ll be much help.” Tristan didn’t say it to be mean. He wasn’t expecting Manuel to pick up a gun and start shooting. Manuel’s only job at the moment was to not get himself killed.

“Is this what you do? You do shootouts and kill people for a living?”

Tristan growled. This wasn’t the time for this conversation. This was time for silent contemplation before he started shooting people. “No,” he said between clenched teeth. “I’m a thief.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

Tristan took his eyes off the French doors to glare at him. “Does it look like it’s my job to make you feel better? The only reason I’m not letting you die is because I’m worried it would make Shae feel sad for some stupid reason. Now, every second I’m looking at you and not that door is a second longer it takes me to react. You know how long it takes for someone to fire a bullet?” He didn’t wait for Manuel to answer as he turned to look to the door again. This time he saw a flash of movement. He steadied his grip on the gun and prepared himself.

He went through the different scenarios in his head. Five against one was never ideal, and he knew there could be more than five depending on how they split up. As soon as he started shooting, they’d return fire. They’d be sitting ducks. He saw one of the guys approach the doors and give a little hand signal to the guys behind him. That was important. They had an agreed-on hand signal, which meant this probably wasn’t a random mishmash of guys that Damask put together. This was probably a team. Teams were good, because you learned to work like a well-oiled machine. He knew that from working for so long with Gage, Hunter, and Slade.

But it was also a disadvantage. If you worked in a team, you didn’t want your team members to die. Pesky little side effect of having emotions. He’d use that against them. The guy at the door punched through a pane of glass as if it were made of sugar.

Tristan could feel Manuel tense behind him, and he leaned forward. “This should be a good time to start shooting.”

“I got this,” whispered Tristan.

“But—”

Tristan shoved his elbow back, hitting Manuel squarely in the gut. The man grunted and finally shut up. The first assailant reached through the broken pane of glass and turned the lock, which allowed him to open the door. Two of his guys followed him in; there were now three inside that Tristan could see.

Tristan backed a little farther into the hallway so he wouldn’t be seen. Of course, this meant he couldn’t see the guys anymore, but he could hear their footsteps clearly. Tristan took a few deep breaths, but wasn’t afraid. The situation wasn’t ideal, but he’d faced worse odds. All he had to do was wait for two. More. Seconds....

The first guy walked by the hallway, and Tristan bolted into action. He stepped out and slammed his fist to the first guy’s face while at the same time wrapping his gun arm around the man, using him as a human shield as he turned to face his comrades. They hesitated to shoot through their friend, and that was all Tristan needed as he opened fire. He only had a limited number of bullets, so he made them count. Normally he’d aim for center mass, but because they were wearing bulletproof gear, he aimed for the shoulders instead.

The two men immediately went down, and Tristan smiled. Suddenly the odds were looking much more in his favor.

––––––––

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Shae’s head fell back against the seat. “Do you think they’re okay?” When Toni told her that Damask’s men were close and ordered Hunter to take her away, she hadn’t put up much of a fight. She wasn’t looking forward to being in another shootout. However, on the way out, they were passed by two windowless black vans. Nothing good ever happened in a windowless van.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” said Hunter. She glanced over at him. They’d been in the car for about fifteen minutes, and she swore that was the most he’d said to her in that time. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine.”

“You know, that’s usually what I say when I’m not fine.”

“Well then, I guess that makes you a liar, doesn’t it?” She immediately felt bad for snapping at him. “I’m sorry you got stuck on babysitting duty.”

“No, it was a good choice. Hart knows that the team is capable of handling a lot, and your safety is a priority right now.”

“My safety is a priority? I thought your number-one priority was clients.”

“I think you can consider yourself one of our clients now. We’re all invested in keeping you safe.”

She shook her head. “We still don’t know why Damask is trying to kill me. This whole thing makes no sense.”

“A lot of times murder doesn’t.”

“No. I’ve seen a lot of crime shows. The murder usually makes sense. There is a motive—there’s a reason. Like, there is such a thing as random joy killings. Maybe teenagers who get bored and decided to see what it feels like. But they don’t hire a bunch of guys to do their dirty work. I’ve never met Damask before a few months ago, and all of a sudden I’m right in the middle of all this shit.”

“What changed a few months ago?”

“I guess he got in business with my dad at some point, but it’s looking like he did that to get to me.”

“Well, if you’re right, and I think you are, there is a reason. Once again, what changed? Did you piss someone off? Did you have any shady business dealings?”

Shae rubbed her forehead. Hunter really didn’t know her if he thought she was getting involved with shady business dealings. Hell, she even drove the speed limit when she wasn’t frantically trying to get away from a shootout. Before she met Tristan, she pretty much never did anything illegal. The product of being the daughter of a man who took a few too many liberties with the law. “The only business dealing I’ve have had lately is buying Seaside Escape.”

“He wants the property then.”

Well, duh. “I know, I know. I just can’t figure out why. I mean, it’s a nice house, but the land is small. You don’t usually get a lot of land with beachfront property, you know? It’s not like he can redevelop it into anything. And I’m not like all the people he steamrolled out of their houses. I’m not even close to going to foreclosure.”

“Maybe you’re thinking about it wrong. You see him as wanting your house for business. Maybe this is personal. Considering how little the property is worth relative to how much most of his properties are worth, it’s not about money.”

“If he wants me to leave so badly, why doesn’t he just burn it down? I don’t have enough in savings to rebuild the entire house from scratch.”

“Do you think he hasn’t thought of that yet?”

“No, it has to be something else.... If he didn’t burn down the house, that means....” Shae’s eyes widened. She didn’t know why she hadn’t seen it before. If he didn’t burn down the house, that meant there was something inside that he wanted. “Oh my God. I have to go back.”

“There’s no way in hell I’m taking you—” At that moment, a cell phone rang, and he immediately answered. “Yep?” She noticed he didn’t give his name. The bare minimal information, even on a burner phone. “Sounds good.” He hung up the phone and looked over at her. “You want to rob a bank tonight?”