Gage hated leaving Newton alone. He hadn’t wanted to. He had even tried arguing with Newton—something he never in a million years would have considered doing before today.

But nothing he said had made a difference. Newton had insisted on staying behind, saying he needed a little bit of time to collect his thoughts and pack his bags.

And even though Newton had been perfectly safe the night before up in his apartment, Gage still shuddered to think of what might have happened if that bastard Martin had decided to pay him a visit in the middle of the night.

Gage’s knuckles went white on his steering wheel as he put his Jeep into reverse and pulled out of the gym parking lot.

If that son of a bitch had laid a hand on Newton, Gage would have hunted him down.

Gage might do it anyway, just for all the shit Martin had done to Newton before this.

He still couldn’t even fathom the hell Newton had gone through. It was no wonder he’d been so skittish, so quiet and withdrawn, so slow to trust all the times Gage had told him he was beautiful and smart and amazing.

It was a wonder that Newton could trust anyone at all after the abuse he’d suffered.

And the thing that turned Gage’s stomach the most was that he could tell Newton hadn’t actually shared the half of it. The parts he’d told Chad while Gage had been standing there had been bad enough, but Gage knew Newton better than that. He could see it in his eyes that there was more.

Whatever it was must have been horrific.

Gage was so distracted by the thoughts of what he’d do to Martin if he ever caught up with the bastard that he almost missed the turn to Newton’s parking lot. Zipping in at the last minute, he pulled around the building and cocked his head to the side.

The first thing he noticed was the car he’d never seen before in the parking place where Gage usually left his Jeep. As many times as he’d been to Newton’s apartment over the past few weeks, nobody had ever been in any of the parking stalls directly behind the studio.

He looked up toward Newton’s apartment and squinted against the sun. Was the door slightly open? Was Gage’s imagination fucking with him now?

Gage’s throat went dry and the knot that had been tightening in his stomach all damn day was suddenly twice as big. Maybe he was jumping to conclusions, or maybe he was just unnerved by everything else that had happened that day, but the coincidences were adding up too quickly to actually be coincidences.

It wasn’t until he was pulling into the parking spot next to the mysterious car that he saw the license plates.

California.

“Oh, fuck,” Gage grabbed his phone and got ready to dial Newton’s number but thought better of it.

If Martin was up there, Gage didn’t want to give the asshole a heads-up. Instead, he dialed 911 and rattled off the address as soon as the call connected.

“And what is your emergency, sir?” the lady on the other end of the line asked, way too calmly.

“Robbery,” Gage answered, his eyes fixed on the upstairs door that was definitely slightly ajar. No way had Newton left it like that. No fucking way. “The guy is dangerous. Probably has a gun. Send every cop in town right the hell now.”

He hung up the phone as the woman was talking and got out of the Jeep without closing the door behind him. He needed to get up there as quickly and as quietly as possible. The fact that the guy’s car was still here meant there was a chance that Newton was still okay.

But that chance got smaller with each passing second.

Gage held his breath as he moved up the stairs, cursing his bulky body with every step that wasn’t completely silent.

Go. Go. Go.

Newton needs you.

The only thing he could think about as he got closer to the door were the words he’d said to Newton right before he’d left him here.

I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. I promise.

Gage intended on keeping that promise if it was the last thing he did on this earth.

If he wasn’t careful, it might be.

He could hear muffled voices on the other side of the door as he reached for the handle. Gage froze, trying to hear what they were saying.

The first voice was Newton’s, thank God. He sounded scared and quiet, but he was definitely alive and coherent. That was the part that mattered most.

The other man’s voice—fucking Martin—was closer, but his tone was still too low for Gage to make out the words. He knew the space inside the door was small, though, so if he got the drop on the guy, he might stand a chance.

It would at least draw the guy’s attention away from Newton, hopefully long enough for Newton to get into another room or out the door by the time the cops showed up.

His mind made up, Gage took a deep breath and swallowed hard. It wasn’t the best plan. It was probably dangerous as fuck, but he had to do something. He damn sure wasn’t going to leave Newton in there to fend for himself for a single second longer than he absolutely had to.

Pushing forward with all his weight, he burst through the door, feeling the satisfying thud as it connected with someone on the other side.

Adrenaline was coursing through his veins, and when he heard Newton cry out it pushed him past the point of no return. He tackled the large figure that had been standing just on the other side of the door, only belatedly realizing as he struggled with the man that he had a gun and that it was waving around dangerously close to Gage’s face.

Martin was surprisingly strong for being older than Gage and clearly more out of shape, but Gage was driven by rage and fear and the need to defend Newton, and Gage wasn’t about to let that fucker get any closer to his man.

He managed to stay on top of Martin, getting in a couple of punches as he tried to wrestle the gun away. In the background, he heard more voices, and then Newton’s voice cut through everything else.

“Gage, watch out!”

He turned his head to search out Newton’s face for just a split-second, but it was enough time to give Martin the opening he needed.

The gunshot went off just as Martin’s knee connected with Gage’s groin, an explosion of pain radiating outward and making his eyes water and his vision blur.

Martin’s gun was pointed at him again, and Gage wasn’t sure he had the strength to stop it this time.

Newton cried out again, and there was yelling behind him. The gun in front of him went off again, and Gage felt a searing pain in the side of his neck as another gunshot went off behind him.

His ears were still ringing several seconds later when he realized Martin wasn’t struggling against him anymore. The hands that were pulling him up off the ground weren’t Martin’s or Newton’s.

He had to blink hard to register that it was Chad’s face peering down at him, Chad’s lips that were moving even though Gage still couldn’t hear anything except the ringing in his ears.

Looking over, he saw Newton rushing toward him, disheveled and bleeding from his lip, but alive and moving.

Thank God.

Gage was trying to reach for him but couldn’t. He tried to speak but he wasn’t sure if any words were coming out. The last thing he saw was Newton’s sweet, sweet face.

Then everything went dark.