Page 61 of Under Her Protection

"Are you hit?” Leo asked her.

"No." Vivienne’s voice was shaky.

"Are you sure?”

"Yes,” she whispered.

"Any pain?” Leo continued.

"No."

"Breathe."

"I am breathing!” Vivienne was indignant.

"Breathe, Vivienne."

Vivienne breathed.

She breathed under the weight of Leo on her in the back of a car going south down the rue Saint-Antoine at forty kilometres per hour in a thin wet November at twelve forty-one on a Thursday morning, and the breath came in and the breath did not, quite, go out.

Two feet. The shooter had been good enough to put it two feet right of her ear and not closer, which meant the shooter had been good enough to put it through her ear and had chosen, on someone's instruction, not to. Lara, then. The signature. Not a miss. A measured distance, paid for at sniper rates, to make a point.

She had not, in twenty-five years, permitted herself to notice the possibility that someone would put a bullet into the air in her direction.

She had permitted the possibility of the empire falling. She had permitted the possibility of the board turning. She had permitted, at three in the morning in her own bed, the possibility of an open magazine with her private letters in it. She had not permitted the possibility of the stone chipping off the Maison Noire wall two feet from her right ear, and the fact that she had not permitted it was sitting on her chest now under Leo's weight, and the weight was the only thing keeping it there.

Her eyes stung.

They did not spill. She was not going to let them spill. She looked up at the roof of the black car, past Leo's shoulder, and kept her eyes on a point of stitching in the headliner, and she counted to six.

"Vivienne."

She murmured in response.

"I am not going to move,” Leo said firmly and it was reassuring.

"Good."

"I am staying here."

Vivienne was happy with that. The weight of Leo’s body on her own felt safe and grounding. And something more than that that Vivienne wasn’t quite ready to explore.

"Good."

"You are all right." Leo said, quieter.

"I am not." Vivienne said firmly.

"I know."

"Leo."

"Yes."

"Stay on me. Please.” Vivienne’s voice showed the first vulnerability it had in years.

Leo continued to lie on her.