Page 28 of Owned (Office Intrigue Duet 8)
“The men who ran me off the road…” I said, turning back to the guy who’d helped me.
“I took care of them.” He didn’t sound affected by the fact he’d shot a guy in the head.
“And you are?” I coughed, which only made the pain intensify, causing darkness to crowd my vision.
“Zion Sisk,” he said. “Talon sent me.”
“My sister,” I demanded, fighting the blackness that threatened to take me under again.
“She’s safe, Ransom. She’s with Talon.”
Those were the last words I heard before I stopped fighting.
*
ZION SISK
“Hey. Tell Talon I got him. He’s in bad shape, though,” I explained when Tiegan answered the phone.
“How’d you find him?”
“GPS on his phone.”
Note to self: make sure he doesn’t have that damn phone.
“Oh.” She sounded surprised. “What happened?”
“Couple of guys were chasing him. Ransom’s car went off the road, kissed a tree.”
“Where are you now?”
I had to admit, it was odd yet reassuring to hear the concern in Tiegan’s tone. Not that I could let her know that. It would only piss her off. Everything I did seemed to piss her off.
“Gonna load him into my truck. Meet you at the airstrip.”
“How long until you get here?”
“Are you worried about me?”
“Not even a little,” she countered hotly. “Talon’ll want to know.”
Of course he would.
“Half an hour. Three quarters, tops.” I smiled to myself when she sighed. “Ransom’s in bad shape, but he’ll live. Got some bumps and bruises, definitely a concussion, maybe a broken bone or three.”
Another sigh. “You’re just trying to get on Talon’s shit list.”
“Yes, yes I am.” I rolled my eyes, staring up the embankment to where my truck sat waiting. “That’s what I live for, love.”
“Don’t call me that,” Tiegan hissed. “Is Micah with you?”
“He is,” I confirmed, referring to my male possession who went wherever I went. “Is Memphis with you?”
“Screw you, Zion,” she bit out before disconnecting the call, something she seemed to like doing to me.
Speaking of Micah…
“You stay right there for a sec,” I told an unconscious Ransom. “Don’t go anywhere.”
I made the trek up the embankment, slipping a few times before reaching the top.
Opening the driver’s door, I spoke directly to Micah. “Need your help.”
Without hesitation, he was out of the truck and at my side.
Returning to where Ransom was lying, I glanced around, wondered what the hell I could use as a brace so as not to jar him too much. We were royally fucked if he had a neck injury, because I’d already manhandled him in an effort to get him out of what was quickly becoming an inferno. Damn good thing it had snowed recently and the ground was still wet or we’d be fucked.
A groan sounded, and then Ransom was rolling to his side, attempting to get to his knees. I noticed his shoulder buckled, and he cursed loudly before retching.
I gave him a minute, but only a minute.
“Let us help you,” I told him. “It’ll hurt like hell, but it’s better than the alternative. Think your legs are broken?”
“No.” He grunted. “I can walk.”
“Good. You haven’t got much of a choice.”
Nodding for Micah to get on Ransom’s other side, the two of us managed to get him vertical, learning some interesting and rather creative curse words from Ransom while doing so.
He took a hesitant step forward, then another.
“You got your phone on you?”
Ransom frowned over at me like it was the stupidest question he’d ever heard. “It’s in the car. Why?”
“Good. Let’s get the hell outta here before they send backup.”
I’d already killed two men tonight. Didn’t need to add any more tick marks to my already lengthy list.
SEVEN
Braelyn
At some point I would probably wonder why I allowed a man I did not know to usher me out of the house where the New Year’s party continued to rage on as though the world hadn’t started tipping on its axis.
Granted, it was merely my world that was off-kilter, but still. As overwhelming as this was, shouldn’t everyone be feeling what I was feeling?
I hurried along, attempting to keep up with Talon’s long strides, but my sore feet, likely sporting some fairly good gashes thanks to my ten-mile dash through the ice and snow, had me taking hesitant steps. I didn’t even want to know what they looked like, and I feared if I stopped walking on them for too long, I’d be useless.
I ground my teeth together, not wanting to make a sound. I refused to be some damsel in distress, and I sure wasn’t going to let this man see what a wimp I was. Not after he’d already witnessed my crying jag.
“Where are we going?” I asked through clenched teeth when Talon led me out of the warm house and into the brutally cold night.
Because there’d been so much adrenaline flooding my system, I hadn’t registered the cold earlier. Now that I was calmer, its icy fingers seemed to slap at my overly sensitive skin, causing goose bumps to form on my flesh as I shivered.
