“No.It was perfect.You were perfect,” she whispered, meaning it, every single damn word.
“Been waiting for that, for you, for a long time, baby girl.”
She gulped.The term of endearment was silly, but he was from the South.It fit, and for him to call her anything other than her nickname, El, meant a lot.
More than she could even say if she were being honest.
“I—”
Before she could continue, a loud blast boomed in the near distance.
Before he’d been her guard, he’d been a soldier.And the explosion had Shawn rearing up onto his knees then scampering off the bed.Before she knew what he was about, he was pulling on clothes and yelling at her, “Stay the fuck here, El!”
She stared at him in a daze.
This was LA.The Hills, even.One of the richest residential spots in the country, not downtown Baghdad.
What she heard couldn’t have been a bomb.Could it?
She gulped.
It just couldn’t have been.
She eyed her limp, satiated form, and quickly scampered off the bed.Dragging the sheet off the mattress, she covered herself in its voluminous folds, toga style, and headed to the window.
What she saw made her realize this was no joke.Nor a prank or practical trick.
This was...real.
Smoke blossomed and bloomed, swelling overhead in a mushroom of disaster.Fires licked at vehicles as their alarms beeped through the fury of what had just happened.
She could see the shells of two vehicles, but the cavalcade of cars contained five or six in total.
Six cars?
Hell, did the President travel with that many?
She ran a hand through her hair, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
Trouble was, last night she’d attended a special event within the Pride and her whole life had come tumbling down around her ankles.
Trying to figure out what the hell was on the schedule was a little hard when she was completely at a loss.
Blowing out a breath, she tried to reason what was happening, then a thought occurred to her.
Marc had only just left her bedroom a handful of minutes ago.
But what about Trip?What about Ryan?
She gulped.They weren’t...
They couldn’t be out there.
Not in one of the cars.
Not in the blast.
Before she could stop it, before she could even control her vocal chords, a howl escaped her.
