He backed away, taking a deep breath. I could tell he was frustrated by me when he raked his hands through his hair.
I took a deep breath, not doing so to follow his orders, but for my benefit. “Where am I?”
“A safe location. That’s all you need to know.”
“Why am I here?”
“Because it was necessary to bring you here.” He kept his heated gaze pinned on me and I could swear he was undressing me with his eyes.
“For what reason?” I demanded, yet I heard a distinct quaver in my voice. Maybe because my head was killing me or even worse. The same attraction I’d felt for him remained.
“Your safety. You exposed the gunman. I assure you that in doing so, you placed your life in danger.”
“I didn’t see anything. He came in from behind me.”
He laughed, the dark and sultry tone skittering all the way down to my toes. There was something exciting about him, his aura more like a savage animal than a man. “Let’s try that again, since he was the same man you served coffee to minutes before.”
A wave of fear rushed into me. This was really happening. I was being held prisoner by a man I barely knew, someone I’d thought had a shred of decency in him. I’d been so wrong. His glare remained hard and cold. Squeezing my eyes shut, I took several deep breaths. “Fine, it was the same man, but I certainly don’t know him. I really didn’t see anything of use. I mean he had soulless eyes and a tattoo on his neck. But…”
I moved backward until the back of my knees hit the bed. He took a long, heated gaze down to my bare feet, his nostrils flaring. Why was it that the sight of him was like a physical blow?
“That’s more than enough to make you worth killing. I assure you he wasn’t planning on leaving any witnesses. Plus, you did see his entire face, Josette. You’ve already admitted he was the customer you’d just served and if your actions were any indication, he’d been in your store before.”
“Do you know how many people come into my store on a daily basis? He was no one special and certainly not memorable.”
“As I said, you noticed enough. And you don’t have as many customers as you would like me to believe. You’re bleeding money from your accounts, Josette, and don’t try and lie to me. Let’s put that aside for now. Did you have a conversation with the man? Did you recognize him from somewhere else? Do you know him personally?”
“What did I just tell you? No. I don’t know anything about him. What in the hell are you trying to insinuate, that I planned the attack?” Oh, my God. I could tell by the hard clench of his jaw that he was accusing me of planning for some crazed gunman to attack me.
“Well, you did make contact with him after I walked in.”
I glared at him, my mouth likely gaping open. “What? Are you fucking out of your mind? I just said I don’t know him.”
“Then what were you doing, Josette? What are you hiding?”
A flash of memories from the past crawled into my mind like cockroaches on a feeding frenzy. Was there any chance I’d been found? No. Impossible. I’d never seen the man before. But the pictures. I’d only managed to see one and that was enough to know I’d been right about the feeling of being watched.
“You fucking asshole. You goddamn fucking asshole. Here you are some monster, a man who kills for a living and you’re accusing me of some horrible crime. You’re right. My business is failing and I’m working my butt off to try and keep that from happening. Damn you for insisting I’m the bad guy.”
He took a deep breath, walking closer. While I flinched, I didn’t move until he rubbed a single finger across my bandage. Then I snapped my hand around his wrist.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t you dare touch me.”
His look of annoyance was followed by a shake of his head. “You were very lucky the assailant only knocked you out instead of pulling the trigger. Fortunately, the doctor said it doesn’t appear you have a concussion.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No, he managed to get away because I was worried about you.”
Wait. A doctor had seen me. Maybe there was hope the cops would break in at any minute. Oh, who was I kidding? He likely owned a staff of doctors willing to look the other way. This was a total nightmare.
“Indiana.” A horrible sounding sob erupted from my throat.
“What?”
“Indiana is all alone. You can accuse me all you want and keep me here, but he’s alone all by himself. He needs to go potty. He’s hungry. Remember, some asshole ran into him with a car so he’s still recuperating. When you saw me with my phone, I was checking the doggy cam I have installed.”
He narrowed his eyes like he didn’t believe me. “A doggy cam?”
