Maybe it would have been better if that bullet had hit me. It would have ended the threat to his life and erased all pain from mine.
Zane crosses the distance and kneels in front of me. His strong hands grip either side of my face. “You’re safe.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about! How can you not see that! You almost died!” I scream because I can’t do anything else. Because, once again, I’m the target of someone else’s fury.
“But I didn’t. I’m okay, Tessa. And so are you.”
I close my eyes and shake my head. “You’re bleeding.”
“This is hardly the worst thing that’s happened to me,” he says.
Opening my eyes, I stare into his. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“Yes.” He drops his hands from my face. “Police are on their way, okay?”
I nod. As much as I don’t want to talk to the police, there’s not much choice now. I just have to hope that they can figure out who came after me before they succeed. It’s not like hiding will do me any good. They clearly know I’m here. And if they tracked me here, then they know my real identity.
Would running even help? Will anywhere ever be safe?
Officer Alan Leopold may be eighteen years older and have quite a few new strands of silver in his dark hair, but I’ll never forget the man who didn’t put me in handcuffs even though he had every reason to.
He gave me a chance to turn my life around.
And I wasted it.
He and Zane are standing in front of where I’m sitting on the bumper of an ambulance. They flushed and re-bandaged my thigh, and now that the adrenaline has waned, the throbbing is back with a vengeance.
“Did you get a make and model of the vehicle?” he asks Zane, who shakes his head. There’s a bandage on his cheek where the bullet grazed him, and every now and again, I catch myself staring at it.
He came so close to dying.
Centimeters off and that bullet would have stolen the very beat of his heart.
A vise clenches around my own, and I let out a ragged breath. You’re both alive, Tessa. Keep it together.
“We didn’t see it. As soon as they started shooting, we took cover.”
“We’ll run ballistics,” Leopold replies. “Whoever did this—” He turns toward the house that is now riddled with bullet holes. “This wasn’t their first time.”
The storm finally let up, leaving a muddy ground that’s rutted with tire tracks. I’d watched the CSI team take pictures and imprints of them in hopes they could find something to help identify the person who tried to take our lives.
“No,” Zane says as he turns toward the trailer. “It wasn’t.”
“So, I need to ask. With your job— Is it possible there’s someone after you?” he asks Zane. “I don’t know exactly what it is you do, but is it the type of thing that could cause something like this?” He gestures toward the trailer.
“Possibly.” Zane glances at me. “But I believe it’s Tessa they’re after.”
Officer Leopold turns toward me. “Any ideas who or why?”
I shake my head and cross my arms, debating getting up so I don’t feel so small. “I was attacked outside of my apartment in Savannah, but I assumed it was a separate incident. Now, I’m not so sure. But I have no idea who or why. I haven’t done anything.”
“Is Savannah where you’ve been?” he asks. I don’t miss the sharpness in his tone. He’s angry that I left without a word, too. And why wouldn’t he be? Given he’s a cop, I bet he spent a lot of time trying to find me.
“For the last few years, yeah.”
“And you don’t have any enemies?”
“None that are walking free.”
