Page 64 of Night Watch
“Ah, so that’s your real reason.” Drake’s snarky grin irritated Kennedy, but he was right on target.
Sure, she wanted to help if she could. She really did. She also wanted to make sure Erik was all right. But she hadn’t seen him in over six hours, and she missed him. She didn’t know what was going on with him. With her. With them.
Oh, she was pitiful. Her mind was a mess. Waffling one minute and the next, desperate for something that would never happen again.
She steeled her resolve to hide her feelings and shifted to stare at the terrifying-looking vehicle as she approached him. They’d been inside the SUV that now sported bullet holes too numerous to count. She had the urge to touch one of the cavities, just to be sure the shooting had been real, but the terror deep in her soul told her it was real. Told her that someone tried to murder her and Erik.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach and faced him.
“You didn’t have to come out here,” he said, but he didn’t sound like he was unhappy with her presence.
“That’s what I told her.” Drake cast her another snarky look.
She ignored him. “I wanted to see if I could do anything to help.”
“I appreciate that.” Grady gave her the same warm smile he’d offered when she’d met him before he’d left with Erik. “But with the armor plating, the removal is going to be tricky, if not impossible, without taking the vehicle apart.”
“It’s probably going to be an all-nighter.” Sierra yawned. “And I, for one, am not going to help. Asher awaits me.”
“Thanks, Sis.” Erik bit his lip as if he wanted to say a whole lot more.
“I’ll get the slugs to you for printing and DNA before I analyze them and obscure anything,” Grady said without looking up from his camera. “But I have to say, I can’t guarantee I won’t smudge anything with how embedded some of them are.”
“You recovered what?” she asked. “Over sixty casings? If the guy left his prints or DNA, we should be able to get what we need between the bullets we recovered and that quantity of casings.” She picked up her case. “Okay. I’m out of here. Night all.”
“Thank you for your help, Sierra,” Kennedy said.
“Any time, but please don’t go out and get shot at again.” Sierra wrinkled her nose and pressed her fingers on the biometric reader by the door, which popped open for her. She disappeared inside the building.
“If you don’t need me to babysit Kennedy any longer,” Drake said. “I’ll take off too. Need my beauty sleep.”
“No amount of sleep is going to fix that ugly mug.” Erik chuckled. “But seriously, thanks, man.”
Drake gave Erik’s shoulder a playful punch and strode off in the same confident way all the Byrd brothers moved. Their dad had the same way about him. They’d also picked up a sensitive side from him, not that a one of them would admit that. Well, except Erik when they’d been together. He’d often been tender. Mix that with the assuredness and protectiveness, and it was a trifecta of attraction that left Kennedy’s heart pounding.
“You two should take off too,” Grady said. “There’s really nothing you can do here. I need to remove these slugs.”
“I’m trained to remove bullets,” Kennedy said.
“Sorry, but I’m a control freak. Especially in a tricky situation like this one. And one that involves people we care about. So…” Grady shrugged.
“I could help take the vehicle apart,” Erik offered.
“I can handle it.” Grady shifted his gaze between Erik and her. “Besides, you look like you’ve got something you might want to talk about.”
If Grady was picking up on her emotions when he was busy doing the thing he loved the most, she wasn’t hiding her growing feelings for Erik very well.
“Then we’ll head out,” Erik said. “Call me if you need me. Or if you want to stop by, I’m bunking with Drake.”
Grady’s rust-colored eyebrow rose, but he quickly turned his attention back to his work.
Erik spun, and Kennedy headed for the door. In the hallway, he strode past her to the elevator keypad to call the car.
“It’s going to take a boatload of cash to fix the SUV,” she said, preferring to keep the charged atmosphere in control by sticking to business.
“Aiden assures me that our insurance will cover most of it.” The elevator car arrived, whooshing open, and he held the doors for her.
“I’d like to cover any deductible.” She entered and leaned against the back wall.
