“He … what?”
“Looks like the bleeding’s slowing, but?—”
“Holy shit. As in fighting?”
“Most likely,” he said absently.
“We need to get up there and stop them!”
“We should have Blake check you out.”
He helped me to my feet, which turned out to be more of a process than I’d expected. Maybe that hit had destabilized my inner ear because I was all sorts of dizzy.
“Dakota?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to lift you up now and carry you upstairs. You’re going to do that thing where you protest and tell me you can walk up there alone, but it’s not happening. So, just skip it. If you want to save your fiancé from murdering Mathew, we need to get up there fast.”
Well, that was one way to get a girl to go along with something.
So, I didn’t resist when Ryker scooped me up bridal-style and carried me through the lobby and into the elevator.
Once we were safely inside, ascending toward what I could only hope wasn’t a murder scene, Ryker growled, “Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Hell if I know. I stepped outside, something hit the side of my head, I went down.”
“Did you hear a gunshot?”
“No. I think it was a fist or maybe something small and hard. A rock maybe?”
“You see anyone?”
“A guy wearing all black. He ran off.”
“Fuck.” His jaw tightened. “Whoever did this is lucky I didn’t see him.”
I eyed him. “You’re a lawyer. You wouldn’t hurt someone.”
“Wouldn’t I?”
Okaaay …
“It’s against the law,” I pointed out.
“Really? Hadn’t learned that in my years of law school training.”
I bit back a laugh, shocked that anyone could get me to feel any ounce of humor right now.
“I’m sure it’s not the Romano family,” I said, trying to steer us back to safer conversational territory.
“What makes you say that?”
“Aren’t they supposed to be, like, ruthless? This seems really childish. Sucker-punching a woman in the head. I’ve seen this on the news. It’s probably just some stupid kid.”
“Yeah,” Ryker said. “Maybe.”
But he didn’t fully believe that. I could tell by the way his grip tightened around me.
