No. Not Chase. Grady couldn’t kill Chase.
Please help, she begged her Father above.
Yet she didn’t want Chase to come help. She didn’t want Grady to hurt him.
Maybe she could scare Grady off. He’d run the night he attacked her when he heard sirens.
“My guard,” she choked out. “He’s very close.”
“That guy? I snuck up on him and shot him full of Versed. He’s down for the count and you’re all mine. Aren’t you going to fight me, girlie?”
His heavy weight on top of her was cutting off her oxygen supply.
“You fought me plenty when you stole my son from me. When you took everything I cared about.”
The stench of rotten food and alcohol puffed on his breath, just as it had that horrid night. Fears and pain flooded her. She was weak. She was going to die, but …
Please, Lord, don’t let him hurt Chase.
Grady eased his weight off of her and flipped her over onto her back. She lay on the hard ground and looked up into his ugly face. He leered at her, clearly proud of himself. “Say something, gorgeous. Beg for me not to kill your man. Not to hurt you.”
Lizzy was horrified. Frozen. What could she say that would stop him from hurting Chase?
“Why are you here?” she managed to whisper.
“Revenge,” he snarled. “You ruined my life.”
She stared into his fathomless dark eyes and knew he believed that, but how had he made it here and taken out her guard? At the Hallstatt house, he’d had his Army friend helping him.
Was someone helping him now?
Chase had been concerned Brandon had sent the other attacker as a prank, but Brandon and Rockwell had sworn he hadn’t. Could somebody else be helping Grady hurt her and kill Chase?
That glimpse she thought she’d had of Darren today made her sick all over again. Could he be involved in this nightmare?
“Please don’t hurt Chase,” she begged. “You’ve got me.”
“You don’t make the demands. I do,” he yelled in her face, his rotten breath making her stomach churn.
“Help!” she screamed as loud as she could.
Grady clamped a hand over her mouth. “Shut up,” he snarled. “You and I are going back to your room, and your boyfriend is going to die first.”
“No,” she whimpered, the word muffled behind his palm.
Grady stood and dragged her to her feet. He whirled her to face away from him, one hand clamped over her mouth, the other over her chest.
She prayed desperately, pulse racing, stomach churning.
How could she protect Chase?
Grady was suddenly ripped backward, away from her. He hollered in surprise.
Lizzy almost fell to the ground. Her legs were too weak to support her. She forced herself to stay upright and turned to help whoever her hero was.
“Chase,” she half-sobbed.
Chase whirled Grady to face him and went to work like a professional boxer on the man’s face, chest, and abdomen. Grady threw hits back, but Chase dodged or deflected them as easily as if they had choreographed every blow. For the second time, she saw her gentle protector transform into a machine and dismantle his opponent.
