Relief washes over me, and I’m able to get a full breath. But I still can’t get the fucking door open.
“Unlock the door, baby.” I yell.
The closer she gets, out of the shadows, I can see her skin is flushed red all over her body from sitting in the heat, waiting for me. My heart breaks as I watch her, she seems to move slower with each step, her beautiful eyes locked on mine.
Her hair is stuck to her skin around her face, and I can see beads of sweat rolling down her chest and stomach. As soon as her finger slides the lock down, I shove the door open. All of her strength seems to have left her, and she falls into my arms.
The panic that was pulling me tighter with each passing minute eases as soon as I touch her. Her body is like a rag doll from weakness and slippery with sweat, and I have to hold her tight against me to stop her from sliding through my grip.
“I got ya, baby.” I grab her around her back and slide my arm behind her knees to scoop her up. Her skin is burning up, so I walk right to the pool and down the steps to squat down and immerse her in the water. The blood in the t-shirt around her foot creates a cloud of red hanging in the water.
She sucks in a breath from the cold and lets her head rest on my shoulder. “What took you so long?” Her voice is weak, but next to my ear.
“I came as soon as I saw you on the camera, babydoll. Are you hurt anywhere besides your foot?”
She shakes her head against my shoulder and wraps her arm around my neck. “You need to work on your response time, Special Agent. I’m okay now you’re here.”
I suck in a deep breath and hug her close to me.
This was too fucking close.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
RHYS
CORBETT ANDI stand outside the ER room Kinley is sleeping in. The doctors gave her an IV for fluids after they said she was dehydrated and had mild heatstroke. They had to stitch her heel and said she has to stay off of it for a week or so.
“So, no one knows where Sanders is?” I ask Corbett.
The beeping of machines and a patient down the hall yelling for a nurse make the whole area almost chaotic. The smell of astringent brings back feelings I like to keep buried.
I fucking hate hospitals.
Corbett shakes his head. “We found his locked government-issued SUV at a gas station parking lot in West Tulsa. His gun and badge were in the glove box. He left the keys with the clerk in the store and told her we would be there to get it.”
He would leave everything and take off like a chicken-shit.I never liked him. At least now I know for sure he is working against us.
“What about his phone? We should be able to find him with his phone.”
“He’s turned it off.”
Looking over his shoulder, I cup my jaw as I fight the anger. I can’t believe this happened at my house. That fucker walked right up to my door and tried to kill my coworker and the woman I love.
Idolove her.
When Conway said it, I couldn’t put a name to it, but as I flew across town during the lunch rush in a panic, almost causing accidents to get to her, I know what it is now.
I love her.
As I paced outside her room while the nurses and the doctor took care of her, I’ve thought about when she first got under my skin, and my thoughts keep going back to that first night when she offered to give me a twenty for the shirt she spilled water on.
I had trouble admitting it to myself, but when her body melted into mine as I kissed her in that corner outside the club, I wanted her then. Her refusal to back down and her sass had me that night. I knew when I sent that order to the judge that I was in trouble, but I couldn’t help myself.
I’ll do anything for her. Anything to keep her close to me. Anything to see those beautiful hazel eyes look at me like she has the past few days.
Swan is in a different part of the hospital, in surgery. One bullet just missed his heart, and the other punctured his lung. He’s one lucky son of a bitch. I glimpsed his wife when she ran into the ER in a panic, but the nurse took her through a door and I haven’t seen her since.
I turn toward the nurses’ station when I hear a familiar voice. “I’m looking for my daughter, Kinley Harlow.”
