NO SAFE ROAD

Brought to the Door pt2

The back hallway was dim and narrow, the smell of old wood and bleach cutting through the tobacco-thick air. Tessa pushed open a door at the end and shoved Mara inside before stepping in after her.

It was a small room. Office, maybe. Or storage. One desk, one chair, a safe tucked into the corner, and a single cracked window too high to climb through.

Tessa shut the door and locked it.

Mara turned on her at once. “You cannot seriously expect me to sit here while—”

A violent bang shook the building somewhere behind them.

Tessa didn’t flinch. “Yes. I can.”

Mara stared. “He’s out there.”

“I know.”

“And you’re acting like this is normal.”

Tessa gave her a flat look. “Honey, in this room? It is.”

Another sound followed—muffled shouting, a crash, the scrape of something heavy dragging across the floor.

Mara’s stomach dropped.

Tessa watched her for half a second, then looked away as if to spare her the pity she clearly wasn’t going to offer.

“You want to help?” Tessa said. “Then breathe.”

Mara laughed once, sharp and disbelieving. “That’s your advice?”

“It’s not advice. It’s instruction.”

For one impossible second, Mara almost hated her.

Then the room shuddered with another impact, and whatever the men outside were doing got much louder, much closer.

Tessa moved to the desk and opened the drawer.

Mara’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”

“Preparing for if this goes bad.”

“That’s not comforting.”

“It’s not meant to be.”

Tessa pulled out a handgun and checked it with practiced ease.

Mara went very still.

Tessa caught her expression and lifted a brow. “What?”

“I thought this was a clubhouse, not a war zone.”

Tessa gave her a look that suggested Mara was adorable for thinking there was a difference.

“Sit down,” she said.

Mara didn’t.

Another shout rang through the hall.

Then, unmistakably, Cole’s voice—hard, sharp, carrying through the walls.

“Back up!”

Mara’s heart slammed once against her ribs.

Then another voice. Derek’s.

Clearer now. Closer.

“You should’ve let me take her.”

Mara’s breath vanished.

Tessa swore.

The room went deadly quiet for half a beat.

Then the sound of a body hitting the wall exploded through the hallway outside.

Mara took one involuntary step toward the door.

Tessa caught her by the shoulder and shoved her back. “Don’t.”

Mara’s eyes burned. “That’s him.”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t understand—”

The hallway erupted again. Someone shouted. Something shattered. Men were moving. Fighting. The sounds came hard and fast enough to make it impossible to tell who was winning.

Tessa’s face had gone hard as stone.

“Stay here,” she said.

Then she opened the door.

Mara grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?”

Tessa looked back at her once. “Making sure none of them die stupid.”

And then she was gone.

Mara stood alone in the office, every nerve in her body screaming at her to go after them, to see, to do something, anything. Her hands shook so badly she had to clamp them together just to keep them still.

Outside, the noise rose and fell in brutal bursts.

Then, suddenly, something changed.

The shouting stopped.

Not gradually. Not after a struggle.

Stopped.

Mara listened, frozen.

A heavy breath. Footsteps. Then Cole’s voice again, low and controlled, from somewhere near the hall.

“Open the door.”

Mara couldn’t move.

The knob turned.

Her pulse went wild.

The door opened inward.

Cole stood there with blood on one knuckle and a bruise already darkening along his jaw.

For one stunned second, she could only stare at him.

Then she saw the look on his face.

Not anger.

Not relief.

Warning.

Behind him, in the hall, two of his men were holding Derek Shaw by the arms.

And Derek was smiling.