To save my life.
Alexander studied me, his eyes shifting back and forth. The agony was too much to bear. I’d be forced to do my job, to have him arrested. But I…
“And I would do it again if it meant saving you.”
As soon as he started to walk down the stairs, I reached out. Maybe the illusion had been fractured, broken into tiny little pieces, but the desire and the need to have him in my life was strong.
“Alexander.”
His body tensed and very slowly he looked at me once again, the eruption of longing unmistakable.
Just before he gathered me into his arms, I realized how much we were alike. Broken yet stronger when we were with each other.
CHAPTER 20
Catherine
“Find out who that man is. I don’t care what skeletons you need to unearth. Do it.”
His voice boomed throughout the downstairs, powerful enough to create prickles all across my skin.
I held my arms, staring at the doorway, remembering the harsh words he said to the man he’d killed as well as the excitement I’d felt from him saving me. The decency inside me was gone.
When he threw me a quick look, his chest heaving, I was as locked in the moment as I would be in a concrete prison.
Alexander could see what no one else could see.
A darkness in me begging to be freed.
My heart thudded with an intense craving as the predator barked out orders standing only a few feet away.
I looked away on purpose, struggling in my mind with what the stranger had told me. He wasn’t anyone I recognized. Home? What the hell did he mean by home? My mother was living in another state, finally happy again. She certain didn’t act as if she needed me in her life. So much of me wanted to tell Alexander what he’d said, but I knew exactly what the powerful man would do.
He’d hunt down all those responsible, using the violence he so coveted. Maybe this was a puzzle I needed to solve myself. Nothing made any sense. How in the hell could I do that when I doubted Alexander would allow me out of his sight?
I closed my eyes, controlling my breathing as I tried to weed through the muck, my anger growing exponentially. I was also forced to accept I’d wanted the man who’d hurt me to die. God. I no longer recognized myself. The question Alexander had asked about how far I’d go to protect someone I loved weighed heavily, a boulder threatening to drag me under.
And yet the need for Alexander only continued to grow like a flower in the spring given water, nurtured and loved. I laughed to myself, sipping the drink he’d placed in my hand almost as soon as we’d returned to his house. He’d said little during the drive, his anger turning into a quiet, more deadly rage.
After the incident, there’d been no question about us staying any longer. I was cradled next to him with several of his men surrounding us as if we were rock stars needing protection from a throng of hungry, screaming women. Once inside the car, Alexander had driven in excess of ninety miles an hour, weaving past every car on the interstate with the entourage struggling to keep up.
He’d narrowly avoided two crashes, dozens of horns honking and tires squealing heard over the wail of heavy metal music he’d pumped into the cab of his sports car.
I’d been breathless the entire time, gripping the dashboard while every inch of my body had tingled from both the stress of what I’d just experienced and the excitement of being with him.
In the very world he’d tried to shield me from.
The cherry had been popped, my sense of duty starting to fade even though the killing remained fresh in my mind.
Yet could the death be classified so harshly? I wasn’t certain. The man had attacked me. Alexander had come to my rescue. Would any court in the land defy the truth?
Yes, they would.
He’d be tried and convicted long before facing a jury because of the other murder charge.
That I was firmly convinced he hadn’t committed. Now more so than ever with the threat I’d received. By whom? I’d yet to tell Alexander for fear he’d rip the city apart. There was no way of knowing who the man had worked for. I’d overheard at least one of the men talking about being unable to find identification or a vehicle. If he’d purchased a drink, there were doubts he’d used a credit card.
“Get the men on the streets and keep them there until you find something. Understood?” I heard Alexander’s booming voice all the way from where I stood pacing in the living room in my bare feet.
