THOMAS
Three hours and fifty-five minutes. I’d checked the time and the tracking app on my mobile so often that my client remarked on it before leaving my office.
Fuck him.
Katie’s safety was my priority. She was working on a charitable project and having dinner with her collaborators at a filming studio in Lower Manhattan. I planned to pop in and see for myself that she was all right.
No evidence of the assassin’s presence in the vicinity had turned up. I’d still taken precautions and set up safeguards. Studio management had agreed to lock down the building and call in the overnight security company. Along with other measures, I’d hacked into the city’s camera system.
Carl had driven Katie and would stay with her. He was a capable man. A former sergeant in the US Army, he’d completed two tours in the Middle East and taken part in the raids at the Iraq-Jordan border during the Gulf War.
“I’ll get the details sent out to legal and text you later with the time for tomorrow’s conference call with the attorneys,” Janie said. “Would you like me to copy Mr. Hastings?” My brother, she meant.
“Quite right. We’ll keep him in the loop for now.”
Will had started picking up the slack for me once I took Katie into my custody.
Setting down my cup of tea, I angled my wrist to see the time. The tracking app again. They were already moving, headed back to the Upper East Side. I quickly logged in to my penthouse security system.
Without looking up from my monitors, I said to Janie, “Post the Jensen files to the server once they’ve been updated. If anything else pops up and you judge it to be urgent, call me directly.”
Janie agreed and excused herself.
Cameras covered the driveways out into the street, so I could see my car exit the garage on the recorded video surveillance as I reversed the footage. All points were secure. But right then, dread twisted in my gut. My instincts were innate and never wrong. My life and now Katie’s depended on that.
Rewinding the video further, I revisited the time stamped thirty seconds before Katie and I had appeared in the garage. Carl waited by the Escalade. I closed Katie in. They had driven away. The Escalade came into view on the feeds, one by one as they passed each of the high-definition cameras. The images were clear. Nothing would slip by unnoticed.
Movement on another camera feed caught my eye. I’d put my attention on the Escalade as it had left the garage, but after setting the video back again, I focused on the surroundings.
I couldn’t see where the fuck that bloody arsehole I’d hired to keep watch in the garage had been standing.
At the same moment Katie had climbed into the backseat of the Escalade, a man had been watching us from another location. I followed his movements, how he’d slipped through the shadows and waited in his car. When the Escalade had pulled out onto the street, the man had followed. I tracked him down the street until I ran out of surveillance.
Adrenaline rushed through me. I leaped out of the chair to open the wall safe where I kept one of my handguns. I had to get to Katie. Cut through the traffic. Get to her before he did. She was all that existed.
A racing pulse surged through me as I sprinted to the garage and sped off on my motorbike to catch the Escalade. They had a considerable head start, but on my bike, weaving through traffic gave me an advantage. The car finally came into view, spinning through an intersection, narrowly missing a pileup.
Carl maneuvered out of the intersection, and because he then led his tail into an alleyway, I was certain he’d spotted me.
I sped up as the Escalade slowed. The other car braked and maneuvered round to the left side of the Escalade. It was too close. The fucking driver accelerated and gained on Katie’s side, moving in on her window.
A flash of metal. The barrel of an assault rifle.
Anger and violence raged inside my soul as the bastard got closer to her. The training, my father’s cruelty—I could finally channel it into something of worth. Katie’s life.
Everything Will had done to protect Ellie took on a new meaning for me inside a transient moment. It was sacrifice. He’d taken a bullet meant for her. She was his life, and he would have nothing if she were gone. I finally truly understood their connection.
I drew my gun and shot three times. The first bullet shattered his rear window. The second disabled a tire. And the third …
I waited for his car to falter, and as I passed, I pointed my gun directly at his open window and pulled the trigger. Blood splattered. Not enough. I should stop. Finish the job. But sirens were already wailing, and Katie needed me.
I waved my arm for Carl to continue along the alleyway and followed until he pulled over in a quiet residential location. In seconds, I was off my bike and had the car door open.
Katie clung to my neck as I scooped her out of the seat and held her against my chest. I pressed my lips to her forehead while closing my eyes, forcing back the rage, confining it to the bottom of my soul.
I dropped my mouth close to her ear. “Do you hurt anywhere?”
She lifted her chin. Our eyes connected. A gray storm. No tears. “I’m not hurt. Thank God you’re here.”
I set Katie on her feet but couldn’t let go, and she lay the side of her face on my chest. I willed my heartbeat to slow.
Always, I wanted to tell her. I would always be there. Always keep her safe.
Not yet. I couldn’t say it aloud quite yet.
Instead, I nodded and placed a protective kiss on the top of her head.
She was lovely and brave. The truth was, she owned me. Admitting so was painful and beautiful. Like my heart had been brutally ripped from my chest, only to rest on a velvet cushion for Katie’s pleasure and her pleasure alone.
“Nick of time, Mr. Hastings,” Carl said, assessing the damage to the Escalade. “Did you take care of the aggressor?”
“He’s wounded. I didn’t get a direct hit.”
Katie jerked her head up, touched my face. “Are you all right?”
The corner of my mouth twitched. A suppressed ego-driven smile. “I’m quite all right. Can you ride?
She nodded. I guided her to the bike and placed my helmet on her head.
Once seated, I said to Carl, “Clear out before authorities find you. Take the Escalade to the office garage. I’ll send you a car.”
When Katie and I entered the parking garage, I nodded at the security guard, now positioned properly and alert. Later, after Katie settled in, he would lose his post for the critical mistake he’d made. He’d be lucky to leave my employ alive.
Katie’s knees buckled as she dismounted. I caught her, and she bent at the waist, twisting round in my arms to vomit.
Pulling back her hair while holding her in my other arm, I spoke softly to reassure her. “It’s all right, baby. Let it out. I’m here.”
Shock. I’d expected it once her mind had time to consider what had happened.
After finishing, she collapsed against me. I lifted her trembling body into my arms and carried her to the lift and then down the corridor to her bedroom.
Marta followed and fussed and even cursed at me, but I sent her away, making my position clear. She wasn’t to enter the room without my permission. Not anymore.
Katie was mine, and I would take care of her.
“So cold,” she whimpered as I put her down on the bed, her lips quivering.
“I’ll get you warmed up.” I removed her shoes and tucked her in beneath the quilt.
“Don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone.”
“I’m not leaving this room tonight, Katie. I promise.” I took off my boots and climbed onto the bed, wrapped my arms round her, staying on top of the quilt, and pulled her back tightly against my body.
She’d no longer sleep alone. I would hold her every night and be her shield. Against fear, loneliness, the darkness of night. The truth was, I needed her just as much as she needed me. I needed to know she was safe. Needed to feel her warmth.
“Undress me, Thomas,” she murmured, sliding my hand from her waist to her breast. “Please.”
She wanted to make love. I understood that. A near-death experience could do that to a person.
No. There would be no kissing. No sex. I’d hurt her.
I took a deep breath and strengthened my embrace. “I won’t touch you like a man touches a woman, Katie. But you’ll not sleep alone as long as I’m near.”
She turned round to face me, touched my cheek, held on to me tightly. “This is enough for now. But I do want more.”
I kissed her forehead.
“Please see me, Thomas. I’m not a delicate little flower.”
“I see you. And you’re wrong. You’re quite like a wildflower. Beautiful. Unexpected. Strong-willed.”
What was more, she was my salvation.
She closed her eyes with a smile on her lips.
Before allowing myself to drift along with her, I stared at her sweet face, vowing silently to do everything in my power to deserve her …
And to find the motherfucker who had tried to hurt her and give him a slow, painful death.