Page 90 of The Fix Is In (Torus Intercession 4)
I understood that. Hard to watch someone else living a life with the person you loved. It had to be agonizing.
“You can’t have him,” Justin declared, raising the gun again, having lowered it while we were talking. “When he sees me shoot you, he’ll know I’m the alpha male, not you.”
“Listen,” I began softly, “I think we––”
“Justin!” Benji shouted.
He turned and fired at the same time, and I grabbed the gun, wrenched it out of his hand, nearly breaking his wrist if the scream was any indication, and elbowed him in the face. He fell back, hands over his nose, which I’d certainly broken. After checking him quickly, patting him down, confident the gun was all he had in the way of weapons, I ordered him down on the floor. Rounding on Benji, I found him peeking out from the fifth step up which was behind a wall. He was wearing sweats and a T-shirt, and his feet were bare.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, like we were hiding.
“Wait,” I ordered, needing to give the gun some attention, doing a clearance check before shoving it into the waistband of my jeans to keep it close and safe. “Okay, now,” I allowed.
But he wasn’t looking at me anymore, instead clucking over the bullet that was lodged in the wall, not happy at all.
“Hello?”
“How long will that take to be fixed?” He sounded distressed.
“Look at me,” I snapped.
He turned around and regarded me and I could tell from his expression, and crossed arms, that he was upset, and annoyed about the bullet in the wall.
“What the hell were you doing?” I yelled at him.
“He was going to shoot you. I had to do something,” he grumbled. “And not that I thought he could actually hurt you,” he clarified, “but what if he shot wide and hit Kevin?”
“You were worried about the cat?” I was incredulous.
“And the house,” he lamented, “which was clearly a valid concern.”
“You weren’t worried about me at all?”
“Well no, not really. I mean,” he gestured at me, “you’re the hero, my darling.”
I was his hero. I could roll around in that knowledge for the rest of my life. I was terribly pleased with him, so I growled a bit because he’d scared me. If Justin could aim at all, Benji would be dead. “Did you call the police?”
“Of course I called the police,” he grumbled, glancing back over his shoulder at the wall. Funny that the rental in Rune had been in disrepair, but our house he wanted pristine. This was what he looked like when he cared, and I loved that he was possessive of our home. “What do you think this is, the first time someone’s threatened me in my own place?”
The words took me a moment to parse. “The hell does that mean?”
He grimaced and bent down to pet Kevin who was just walking though. “See, the truth is, I used to see clients in my condo, and it turns out that’s really not such a good idea because sometimes––”
“Benny, I love you!” Justin shouted from behind me.
Benji gasped, not scared, more startled, and I pivoted to face the man who’d forced his way into my house at gunpoint. I couldn’t ever remember being so furious. He could have killed Benji with a lucky shot.
“Sit down on the floor or I will break your neck this time,” I made known, my voice booming angrily before I turned to Benji. “Please go grab me a dish towel.”
Justin sat down fast, like a marionette who had his strings cut. I stepped back so I could see both him and Benji, who returned quickly with a really ugly green towel I had no idea I still owned. I was sure it had been used to clean up cat barf years ago and tossed.
“Where did you find that?”
“Everyone keeps the gross ones at the bottom of the drawer,” he explained, passing it to me. “I figured that’s where yours were too.”
I beaned Justin with it, and he tipped his head back and held the towel over his nose. It looked like the bleeding was already slowing, so that was good. I didn’t want him to bleed out—though it was highly unlikely unless he was a hemophiliac or something—and not go to jail.
Benji was watching him, and the longer he did, the more upset he looked.
“You’re okay,” I promised him. “We’re both okay.”
Lunging at me, he wrapped both arms around my waist, and only then did I realize he was trembling hard.
“What’s got you all scared now? Your only worry a minute ago was about the cat and maybe the plaster,” I teased him.
He inhaled shakily. “I just realized; he could have killed you with a lucky shot.”
My thoughts exactly, but reversed. I was scared Benji could have been the one dead. “No,” I soothed him, stroking his hair as he held on to me. “I wasn’t going to let him shoot me, or you, or Kevin. No one gets hurt on my watch. I’m a bodyguard for heaven’s sake.”
