This man shouldn’t be here. Archer would have locked the door. This asshole shouldn’t have been able to get inside the building.
Cassie had faith in that as surely as she was still breathing. Her sweet, sexy protector would never have stepped foot outside the office if he wasn’t confident she’d be safe. And yet…
The man dressed in black straddled her jean-clad legs and dropped to his knees. Using the strength of his own legs, he squeezed her thighs together to keep them still.
No!
A floodgate of panic opened, and Cassie felt as if she were drowning in her fear. Twisting and thrusting her hips as hard as she could, she continued to fight with all she had. But her efforts were in vain.
Even if her movements weren’t still sluggish from being struck, the attacker was nearly a foot taller, and weighed at least a hundred pounds more. There was no way she’d come out on top in a physical match. And with her phone—and the only sort-of weapon she had—out of reach, she’d run out of all her options.
The man wrapped the rope around her throat. Twisting it behind her head, at the base of her neck, he stared down at her with a set of cold, blue, uncaring eyes.
Familiar eyes. Or so Cassie thought. But then he began to pull on that rope, and that was when she knew...
He’s going to kill me.
She began to fight again. Pointless or not, she was not going to lay there and just let this man steal her life.
Cassie brought her hands to her throat, her nails scratching against her own skin as she desperately tried prying the rope away. Intense pressure filled her aching head, and her legs involuntarily kicked as the man pulled that damn rope even tighter.
She couldn’t breathe. Her eyes felt as if they were going to pop clear free of their sockets. A low humming filled her ears, and every sound in the room—including the macabre noises sporadically escaping the base of her throat—vanished.
The man and everything around her grew dim as Cassie battled pure evil to stay alive. Her eyelids fluttered and started to close, and as the inevitable unconsciousness began to pull her under, there was only one face filling her terrified mind.
I’m sorry, Archer. I thought he was you.
She closed her eyes. A tear fell down across the same temple her killer had struck. And just as Cassie started to accept her pathetically twisted fate, Archer’s voice broke through when nothing else could.
“Get the fuck off her!”
Loud. Furious. Deadly.
Her savior’s words came, and a heartbeat later, her attacker—and the pressure around her neck—was gone.
On reflex, Cassie immediately began gasping in search of the air her burning lungs desperately needed. The precious organs rose and fell in rough, uneven breaths. As a struggle she couldn’t see took place a few feet away, she continued her fight to bring life-saving oxygen back into to her bloodstream.
“You son of a bitch!” The sound of skin hitting skin came from somewhere behind her. “You don’t hurt her!” Archer’s fierce growl, followed by another punch. “Not.” Punch. “Her!”
Cassie rolled over, her breathing finally,finallystarting to return to normal. Opening her eyes, she was struck by the stark difference between the man she saw now and the one she’d invited into her bed.
Hovering above her attacker, Archer’s fist came down in yet another powerful strike. The man in black was limp, now. He wasn’t fighting back, and after several clearing blinks, Cassie understood why.
The man who’d tried to kill her wasn’t trying to save himself from Archer’s murderous wrath. Because he couldn’t.
He was already out cold.
Pushing herself to her knees, Cassie took a moment to make sure she wouldn’t topple over before going any further. Still feeling severely lightheaded, she reached out to her left, her hand fumbling as she used the desk’s top edge to bring herself the rest of the way to her feet.
“Archer,” she croaked his name.
Her voice sounded rough and unfamiliar, but when she saw him hit the unconscious man again, she knew she had to intervene.
“Archer…s-stop,” she rasped, stumbling over to where he stood. “G-going to…k-kill…him.”
He froze mid-punch when she put a trembling hand to his shoulder. Swinging his head her way, she nearly dropped that hand when she saw the look in his dark brown eyes.
Lethal.