“A black eye is nothing. Wait ‘til I use my knife on her.”
“I dare you to use your knife. You don’t have the stomach for it.” Jill laughed.
What the fuck is she doing?
“Don’t you see what I’ve done to that bitch Lesley? I guess you need a lesson. Listen to this, Angela.”
Law rushed the van. He had the back door yanked open in a heartbeat, and then his heart stopped beating. Tim was straddling Jill, blood was on her shirt, and Tim had the tip of his knife pointed at her stomach. Tim looked up at the back of the van. Law took three shots—head, heart, head.
Jill screamed.
Lesley screamed.
Tim never made a sound.
“What’s going on?” A man’s voice he didn’t recognize came through his earbud. He yanked it out of his ear and skidded on his knees to Jill.
“Why the fuck did you taunt him to use a knife?”
Why is Law yelling at me? She hurt bad. And the man she loved was yelling at her. She couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. She knew she had blood and brains sprayed all over herself.
“You could have gotten yourself killed!”
“I was saving us,” she whispered. She wanted to wipe the gunk off, but Law’s arms were holding her down as he searched her for injuries.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Woman?”
“I’m fine. Call an ambulance.”
“Ash and Kane are on it. Where are you hurt? There’s so much blood, I can’t tell.”
“Not my blood and guts.” Jill heaved up and lunged for the bag of rags. She wiped her mouth and spit as she pulled out a rag.
“Hey, I’ve got that,” Law said softly, as he gently wiped her face and neck clean. When her eyes were clear and she could finally see into his, Jill saw that beneath the anger there was fear.
“Law, he had a gun. I had to get him to put it down so you could save us. I knew that you and your fancy friends were behind Angela calling Tim. I knew it.”
Law nodded. “That’s true.”
“That also meant you were listening in to the conversation.” Jill took another rag out of the bag and wiped her tongue.
“Yeah, we all were listening.”
“So, how were you going to know when it was safe to come and rescue us? Tim had just talked about shooting us. He couldn’t hold the gun, knife, and the phone. You’d know that. So, I had to taunt him into using his knife, and then you’d know you could come to the rescue.” She heard sirens. She wiped her tongue again and started to gag. Jill turned her head and vomited onto the floor of the van. When she was done, she turned back to Law.
Jill gave Law a watery grin. “See? Easy peasy.”
Chapter 15
“I fucking love that you’re calling it the ‘Battle of the Van’,” Eden said as she took another sip of her beer.
“I don’t,” Law glowered. He pulled Jill a little closer to him on the patio love seat on Jill’s deck.
“Was it the part where you took control, or the part where you almost died, that he has a problem with?” Asher asked.
“I’ll never have a problem with Jill’s take-charge attitude,” Law said.
“Yeah, it’s true. But if I get a sliver, he goes nuts.” Jill grinned at Law.
“Sounds like his brother,” Eden said as he smiled up at Asher who returned to hand her a plate of food.
“What sounds like me?” Asher asked as he took a seat beside her.
“You kind of get bent out of shape if I get hurt.”
“That’s a given,” he smiled at her warmly. “What brought that up?”
“Jill was telling me about the ‘Battle of the Van’.”
“I hate that phrase,” Asher said vehemently. “Jill could have gotten herself killed with the stunt she pulled.”
Jill caught Eden’s eye and tried not to laugh when the woman winked at her. She was outrageous. Luckily, neither of the Thorne brothers caught it, or if they did, they ignored it. Law kissed the top of her head, and she damn near melted into his side.
“Let’s find something else to talk about,” Law said. “How about the trip to Belgium, did you see the dates I e-mailed to you? Can you make any of those three work?”
Jill sat up straighter. She was both excited and nervous at the idea of meeting Law’s mother. The excited part was spending ten days in Europe with Law, the nervous part was meeting his mother. This was serious, serious. Of course, he had met her parents three weeks ago when they had trekked through Southern California on their way up the Pacific Coast Highway to see the sights. She’d been impressed by how well he’d done, not just with her mother and father, but with their cats.
She watched as Eden and Asher looked at one another, and Eden nodded. “Four weeks before our wedding should be perfect,” Asher said. “That way, Maman can meet Eden in person, ahead of time before the big event.”
Law frowned. “But she and aunt Claire are flying over for the wedding, right?”
“Absolutely,” Asher confirmed.
“It’s not like we haven’t met,” Eden said. “I’ve Skyped with your mother a few times. She’s a doll.”
“Do you mean without Asher?” Jill asked.
Eden nodded as she ate the last bite of her hamburger. After she swallowed, she elaborated. “I’ve been on so many assignments lately away from Ash that I couldn’t rely on joint calls. I think it makes it easier because I speak French.”
“How many languages do you speak?” Jill asked.
“Seven.”
“That’s amazing.”
“I was lucky, I got introduced to Chinese, Spanish, and English from the start. I was
