Keep (Command #2) (28 page)

Seatbelt buckle. Door handle. Freedom. She dashed out on the cobblestones, ignoring the startled people on the sidewalk. Where was the other car? It had slammed into a concrete barrier on the other side of the road fifty yards down from her. Jason was already running towards her with a gun in his hand.

But Juric was out of the car now too, with his own gun, and in between her and Jason.

Go,
the voice in her head commanded. She’d seen how fast Jason could move. He could catch Juric before that monster caught her.

She slipped while running on the cobblestone. Her shoes didn’t have any traction. Plus, the drugs lingered in her system, making her slow. She willed herself to move.
Get away. Keep going.

Kara turned down a narrow street and tore past shops, screaming in English for people to get out of her way. It had to be quite a shock, because most of them simply froze in place, dumbfounded. She didn’t look back to see if he was following. Surely he was. And a moment later, she heard Juric yell her name.

For a split second she thought about bolting into one of the shops that bordered the cobblestone, but she worried she’d get trapped.
Just keep running.
Even as her lungs burned and everything ached. As she ran, she tried not to think about Shawn or what had happened to him, but a sob bubbled in her chest.

There was an alley up ahead, and she collided with the wall on the far side as she took the corner too fast. It slowed her down, but there was a stack of wooden crates and she hurled them behind her, tearing down the alley towards what looked like a clearing.

She had been wrong about who would reach her first. Five feet into the city square she ran straight into a hard wall, covered with fabric, and it closed around her waist. Arms. Shawn’s arms.
Oh, thank god.
He must have cut through a side street rather than follow Jason.

“Kara! Are you all right?” Shawn’s eyes were filled with worry, but it made him no less handsome. And it was worry for her and her heart ached for him.

“You’re here,” she replied, echoing the first thing he’d said to her the night the bombs had gone off and she’d set this terrible chain of events in motion. She put a hand on his face and wanted to say more. She wanted to kiss him and tell him how overwhelming it was to be in his arms. To tell him that she —

The blur of movement just outside the focus of her vision said that Juric had caught up. The gun he pointed toward them created chaos, clearing a wide circle of panicked people from the market. Shawn didn’t move; only his pupils dilated with alarm.

“Get over here,” Juric snapped at her.

“No,” Shawn replied, tightening his hold just as Jason materialized from the crowd, his aim set on Juric. Ethan was right behind, along with the man who’d been sitting in the passenger seat in the Range Rover.

“Put your gun down,” Jason said.

All Juric did was laugh. And then his face went horribly dark and it reflected the monster on the inside. “Come here now, Kara.”

“Wait,” Shawn’s voice was urgent but steady when he spoke. “I have money.”

Juric sneered. “So do I.”

“I have connections. I’m a powerful man, and I can get you anything you want.”

Juric blinked. Like he considered it for a moment and then the decision had been made. The monster wasn’t interested in bargaining. “The only thing you have that I want… is what’s in your arms.”

A shiver ran down her spine. Her heart beat a thousand miles an hour, slamming in her chest and it felt like everything was slipping away. If she didn’t go to Juric, he’d kill Shawn. When she began to struggle against his hold, he tightened his grip.

“Stop.” Although Shawn’s plea to her was hushed, it was as if everyone in the world could hear them. Not a soul was breathing in the square.

“Put your gun down.” Jason’s tone was far more threatening this time.

Juric’s gaze remained locked on hers. “She’s coming with me.”

“No,” Shawn said. “No.”

The cold, blue eyes clouded with anger and rage, but whether it was the word he hated or Jason’s steady advance, she couldn’t tell.

“Are you prepared to watch your brother die, marshal? Because if you take one more step toward me, that’s going to happen.”

Jason hesitated. “Put your gun down… and let me take you in alive.”

Shallow breaths were all she could manage. There was no way that would happen. If Shawn wouldn’t let her go, Juric would shoot. It was all too apparent that he wouldn’t go willingly.

His jaw set, and he gave her a final, cruel look.

“If I can’t have her,” the monster’s focus went to Shawn, “neither can you.”

Shawn turned and wrapped his body around her, blocking her from Juric. Blocking her from the damage his gun promised. There was one gunshot and then instantly another, and she was falling backwards, Shawn’s body pushing her over.

Even as she fell, as she struggled hopelessly to get her arms free and break her fall, the only thought in her mind was that Shawn had just been shot. That he’d taken the bullet to save her. And then the full weight of his body drove her down onto the brick and cobblestone pavement, slamming her head back into it.

Shawn had once asked his brother how it felt to be shot while wearing a bulletproof vest. Unfortunately, now he knew firsthand. It hurt like fucking hell. The impact sent him forward, crushing her beneath him to the ground.

“Kara,” he said as soon as he could speak again. The bullet’s impact against the Kevlar had knocked the air from his lungs. He scrambled off and knelt beside her. But she didn’t move and her eyes stayed closed, even when he grasped her shoulder and gently shook her. Her head lulled to one side, and he saw the blood beneath it.

“Jason.” There was no response from his brother. In a panic, he looked up —

Jason hadn’t moved from where he stood. His gun was fixed on the heap of body by his feet, blood and flesh littering the cobblestone around the head. Around what had once been Juric’s head.

Dead.
It had to be the thought repeating through his brother’s mind, that it was finally over. It should have given him satisfaction, but Jason had that empty look on his face he got when he was unable to process emotion.

“Jason,” Shawn said again, urgently. “She hit her head when we fell.”

His brother snapped back to reality and scrambled to them, assessing her quickly. “She’s breathing.”

Shawn assumed she was dying.
Well, fuck that.
She’d fought through too much to have it end this way. He ignored the crowd that had gathered around them, some videoing the scene with their phones, and lifted Kara into his arms.

“Hospital?” Shawn demanded of the man standing closest in the crowd with a voice that would not be refused. It didn’t matter if it was fifty kilometers away, he’d use the cash in his wallet to buy the next car he saw, or else the SIG tucked in the waistband of his pants to persuade.

The man replied that it wasn’t far, and he would show him.

“Go,” Jason said, his voice empty, “I have to… stay with the body.”

Shawn didn’t consider what that meant. All he was worried about was the woman in his arms, the woman he loved.

-18-

Her eyelids were heavy, but Kara fought them open. She’d been in and out of it for what seemed like weeks, but now she finally felt lucid. The hospital room was small with floor-length blue curtains framing a window that announced it was night outside. Beneath that was a couch. Jason sat upright on it, his head resting on the back of the couch, asleep. Laurel was curled up in a ball, dozing with her head on his leg.

Kara cracked a slight smile at this, but it was difficult to focus on any one thing for too long. Her mouth was a desert. Her head ached and rolled back to face forward. Only one dim light above her illuminated the room. She was in a hospital gown, an IV in an arm, and there was a steady hum of her pulse monitor. Then, a chime that she knew wasn’t related to her hospital equipment and her breath quickened. Her head moved right so she could see him.

What version of Shawn would she get? He wasn’t looking at his phone. No, his gaze was set on her, making it difficult to think.

“Hi.” Her voice came out breathy and hoarse.

He was wearing a suit without a tie but otherwise looking the same as the morning she’d been recovering from the hangover. Gorgeous, dangerous, seductive. But this time there was another layer to it. Relief? Love? She lifted a hand to brush the hair out of her eyes —
but froze.

“I know you probably don’t like that,” he said hushed, as if not wanting to wake their siblings, “but this floor has a family-only policy. It’s the safest, and… that was the only way for me to be here.”

She resumed tucking her hair behind an ear and tried to sort through her competing feelings about the two rings on her left hand. Part of her was angry about it, but the crazy part of her… didn’t hate it so much, the idea of being married to him.

“Are they real?” They certainly looked real. The large, clear stones glinted in the light. “Or are they going to turn my finger green?”

He gave her a hint of a smile. “Leave them on and you’ll find out.” His eyes were warm again, so different than the last time she’d seen him. “How do you feel?”

She couldn’t help but be honest. “I feel like shit.”

“I’ve certainly seen you look better.” It came out concerned and not teasing.

She tried to remember everything leading up to this moment, but it was hazy. “Is Juric dead?”

“Yes.”

“Did he shoot you?”

“I was wearing a bulletproof vest.”

She nodded, remembering that now. “So, you’re okay?”

His eyes were inescapable, shining in the low light. “I am now.”

She sank back into the bed, letting her eyes fall shut. “How long have I been here?”

“Two days.”

Then she asked the question she’d been wondering since she’d faced him on the lawn seconds before the bag had been put over her head. “Are you mad at me? At what I did?”

He didn’t answer. Her head snapped up and eyes flew open, worried —

Shawn stood over her, only an inch from her face and set a hand delicately on her cheek, giving a sweet smile. “I’m furious,” he said against her lips, just before he kissed her gently.

He must have mistook her soft sigh for pain for he pulled back, but she latched onto him, dragging him into the kiss, deepening it, forcing him to sit beside her on the bed. She didn’t care that he was sitting on the cords to her blood pressure cuff. Or that she surely looked like hell while he looked so damn good. He was kissing her and that was all that mattered.

She clung to him, taking fistfuls of his expensive suit in her hands, trembling.

“You’re safe,” he said, stroking a hand down her back.

A heavyset woman in her mid-forties entered, wearing medical attire. She gave a polite smile to Shawn and Kara, obviously not wanting to interrupt this private moment, but she had rounds to do. She was the night nurse just coming on shift, and didn’t speak English, so Shawn would have to translate.

There were routine questions, such as her pain level, any alarming symptoms she’d noticed. Then, the nurse began talking about administrative things. After a while, Shawn stopped translating and just took over answering everything he could. Kara didn’t argue with him about it; in fact, she was relieved. This was an extreme circumstance, and for once she’d allow him to make decisions for her.

“Tell me what you need,” he said, when the nurse was gone. “Tell me what I can do.”

She took a deep breath. “I want to go home.”