Page 35 of A Shot at Love
“Breathe.”
Her shoulders lifted as she inhaled deeply, then let it out.
“Answer me,” he said when she focused on his face. “Are you all right?”
Her lips trembled and she bit down on them to quell their quaking.
“No,” she confessed, the word small and hollow to her ears. She swallowed, her gaze glued to his. She hated she’d admitted it. Experience had taught her to never show or admit any frailty. Never give a man the power to see you as weak. It was a rule she’d lived by all her adult life. Trapped in the searching heat of his gaze though, she found she couldn’t hide the horror pounding through her. “This is all my fault.”
The words caught in her throat, a sob mortifyingly breaking through.
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yes. It is. Can’t you see that? Jon got shot because of me.”
“Not because of you. Jon got shot doing his job. A job he agreed to. A job he loves.”
How his voice stayed so calm and even she couldn’t begin to fathom when every inch of her being wanted to scream and rail.
“What else can I think?” she yelled, her raw nerves finally snapping, the emotions she’d curtailed unable to be contained now. She knew she was in danger of becoming hysterical, but couldn’t find a way to restrain herself. “If Jon hadn’t been protecting me from a maniac, he never would have been shot. I’m the reason. Me. My God, if he dies—”
She choked on the word and pushed against him, forgetting what a solid wall of concrete he was made of. Ky’s hands gripped her upper arms and gave her a shake.
“Lower your voice.” His clipped command snapped through her, anger at him now clawing through the fear. His fingers squeezed through her skin, a single stab of pain shutting off her words. His eyes were flat and hard as he continued to look at her. “You’re not responsible for any of this. Not for Jon getting shot, not for witnessing the execution, nothing. Do you understand? Ritandi is. This has his stench all over it. He’s responsible for it all, not you.”
She glared at him, tasting bile again as she tried to clamp down on her fury.
“I need you to calm down and focus,” Ky said, freeing her arms. He stayed rooted, in front of her, his expression tight. “Jon will be taken care of. It’s you I have to worry about.”
He turned away from her, went over to the window, and pulled the curtain back a little. He dropped it back in place after a moment. “We can’t stay here. I don’t think we were followed, but I can’t take the chance. It’s impossible to keep you safe here.”
“Then why did you drag me to this dump? Why didn’t we just stay put?” Her voice rose again as her anger overtook her fear.
“I asked you to lower your voice. These walls are paper thin.”
Gemma’s mouth clamped shut.
He stared at her a moment, as if waiting to see if she’d comply. “We couldn’t stay at the house. I had to get you out since I had no way of knowing if more of Ritandi’s men were coming. Jon and I took out two of them. Would you have preferred to wait and find out if there were more?”
The words sliced through her like a hot serrated blade. Not trusting her voice, she shook her head.
“I didn’t think so.”
“Why didn’t we take the car, then? Or call someone to pick us up? It would have been faster and we wouldn’t have to be…here.” She swiped her hand around the room.
“Think that through. If they knew where we were keeping you,” he shook his head, “they probably knew what our vehicles looked like, or even the license plate numbers. I couldn’t take the chance we’d be followed by using one of our cars.”
It made sense. She hadn’t considered there might have been more men in the background waiting for them.
A deadly chill iced down her spine.
“Now, please just give me a minute,” Ky said. “I need to think.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and ran a hand through his hair from temple to nape. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, hands crossed together, almost in prayer, lost in thought.
Gemma’s adrenaline surge finally wore off. Her legs began to tremble and she was afraid she’d slither down to a puddle on the floor if she didn’t sit. The sparsely furnished room was devoid of a table and chairs. The only place to sit was on the bed next to Ky.
