“This is a screen capture from three days ago when I talked to her.”
The woman looked like hell, but Sage committed the picture to memory. He pulled through the intersection and looked right. “Aw, shit.”
“What? What’s happening?” Jewell asked frantically.
Sage swerved to the right, almost taking out another truck before slamming on the brakes. His truck hit the curb and jumped it, landing on the sidewalk. He jammed the truck into Park before getting out and bellowing, “Hey!” Sage moved toward the fat biker who had Honor. The man sneered and let her go, dropping her to the sidewalk. She fell like a dead weight.
Sage saw the other two motorheads move to flank him. Bring it on motherfuckers. “If she’s hurt, you’re dead.”
The man who had Honor reached out with a massive boot and flopped her out of his way. “You got a death wish, boy?” The man walked toward him as the others moved with him.
Not a time for words. Sage advanced quickly and throat-punched the son of a bitch. He swung around and ducked a slow and poorly aimed fist from the man on his right flank. Sage powered through with an uppercut to the man’s gut. He felt two meat hooks grab his biceps, pinning his arms to his side. Sage leaned down and reared back as hard as he could. The crack of his head against the man’s nose loosened the grip immediately. The one who’d had Honor was still on the ground, choking and turning a deep shade of red. His two other attackers kept their distance.
“Call an ambulance.” If you want that fucker to live. Sage said as he picked up Honor and tossed her over his shoulder. He drew his weapon from his shoulder. The forty-five-caliber lifted as a covey of men busted out of the bar entrance.
Sage swung the gun to the lead man, moving toward his truck as he spoke. “They started it. I finished it.”
Hands went up in the air. The man leading the charge out of the bar looked around. “Ah, fuck. Man, we don’t ride with these guys, but be warned, they have friends with bad attitudes. Everyone, get back inside the bar. Not our fight.”
Sage held the gun on the crowd until they were inside, and he heard a siren’s wail getting closer. He managed to open the passenger door and flop Honor onto the seat while still holding the gun on the three original attackers. Then he made his way to the driver’s side door and got in. He was out of there two seconds later.
“What’s going on?” Zane’s voice demanded an answer.
“She was in trouble.” Sage pulled around the corner, reaching for Honor as he spoke. He found her neck under the tangle of hair and sighed with relief when he found a pulse. “She’s alive. Bikers had her cornered.”
“Damn it,” Zane swore before commanding, “Get her out of that town.”
“No,” Jewell said emphatically. “Wait, you have to go back to her house. Her computers. Don’t leave without them.”
Sage shook his head. Computers can be replaced.
“Zane, please,” Jewell pleaded.
Bengal sighed. “Go back to the apartment.”
“The police. I might have killed one of them,” Sage said but hit the blinker to turn right. “Throat punch.”
“I’ll have someone handle that,” Zane said. “She’s a programmer, dude. Those computers are essential.”
“Machines,” Sage mumbled as he turned the corner again. He could see DPD patrol cars in front of the biker bar as he parked. An ambulance whizzed by him as he turned off his truck in front of Honor’s building. Honor jerked and gasped, careening off the seat toward the floor before pushing herself up and grabbing her head. She looked around, saw him, and slammed backward, grabbing at the door handle.
Sage held up his hand. “I’m Guardian.”
“He’s with us. This is Sage. I told you he was coming to help you,” Jewell confirmed from the speakerphone.
The woman glanced toward the bar. “He was going to rape me.”
Sage backed up a bit. The woman’s breath reeked, but he tried not to let her see his reaction. They needed to get the computers and get out of dodge. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore. You’re safe.” Sage turned off the vehicle, grabbed his phone, and got out of his truck. Walking around, he caught Honor as she almost fell from the vehicle. “Where’s your apartment?”
She pointed down the stairs. Sage walked beside her as she pushed through several garbage bags placed around dumpsters outside her door. She turned the handle and walked inside.
“You didn’t lock the door?”
“I don’t know.” The woman’s despondency was at odds with the quick and alert way she’d woken up. He stared at her and then past her for several seconds before he realized what he was looking at. Shit. “Place is trashed.”
“Someone broke in?” Jewell said from the phone.
Sage nodded even though they couldn’t see him. “Think so.”
“No one broke in,” Honor grumped before moving into the kitchen and lifting empty bottles.
God, the place was a mess. Sage moved to a clear spot on the linoleum flooring and watched as the woman moved crap around. “What are you looking for?”
“My ring.”
Sage watched her move bottles and trash around. “What kind of ring?”
“A wedding ring. Gold with three diamonds.” She kept moving trash and bottles.
He glanced around him and listened to yet another siren warble by. Man, we need to get gone. Sage walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. Good God, by the number of empty vodka bottles in the house, he’d be surprised if the woman had a liver left. He flipped the switch to turn on the light. “Power is out.”
“I didn’t pay the bill.” The response came from the kitchen in between clunks, clanks, and tinkling noises. “It’s not here.”
“I can fix the power issue,” Jewell said.
Sage looked at the phone and then at the mess. There were two laptops on the coffee table among a collection of bottles. “Are these your computers?”
“Two of them.” Honor’s voice came from behind him.
He twisted around to see her in the dimness of the front room. “There are more?”
“One.” She moved to the closet and opened it. Pointing to the ceiling, she said, “My primary is up there. I’ll get a chair.” It was then he realized how small she was. He was six feet two inches tall. She couldn’t be much over five feet. As he looked down, the anger and anxiety drained, and a need to protect her rushed through him. She seemed so slight and vulnerable, more like a bird ravaged by a storm than a person. Someone needed to shield her from harm until she found whatever she was searching for at the bottom of the bottle.
Shaking off the thought, Sage moved over, making out a small hole in the ceiling at the top of the wall. “Let me see if I can get it.” He stood on his toes and could just finger the computer to the side and then was able to grab it. He put the … box—because it wasn’t a laptop—beside the other two computers. “Is there anything else?”
“Like what?” Honor turned around and looked at the cube on the table.
“A computer?” He pointed to the other laptops.
“No, that’s all three of my computers.”