As I slid down to the floor, concern flashed across Bronson’s face.
Standing had stopped being an option. The adrenaline was hitting me in waves, disorienting me, and my whole body was trembling.
Bronson crossed the room and crouched in front of me, keeping one eye on the intruder, now hog-tied on my living room floor.
He pulled me into a quick embrace, grounding me, and I clung to him like he was my lifeline.
“Look at me,” he rumbled.
I looked at him.
“You’re safe with me. Nobody’s touching you while I’m breathing.” His voice came out like a low growl.
Visions of the gun pointed straight at me flashed through my mind, panic rising again.
“You’re okay,” he grunted. “It’sover. Say it.”
“I-I’m okay. It’s over.”
But just like that, I lost control. My hands fisted into his faded Johnny Cash shirt, and I pressed my head against his chest as violent sobs broke out of me.
That’s when he hugged me for real, tightening his grip around me as his lips scraped against my ear, “You did good, Lucy. But I need you to hold it together long enough for me to find out who hired this man. Can you do that for me?”
He was so solid and unshakeable that my tears started to slow.
Bronson had saved my life.
I became aware of him in a way that had nothing to do with fear. This man of granite held me there on the floor until reinforcements arrived. First Cal and his men, then the police.
And he kept holding me as the others interrogated the man. Until I was able to stand on shaky legs.
He led me to the bathroom, his body firm around mine, holding me upright. Then he drew me a bath.
When he saw that I was still in shock, he stripped my clothes off gingerly and helped me into the tub, a bloom of hunger in his eyes that he worked to suppress.
“I’ll be back shortly,” he rumbled, stroking his fingers across my cheek as his eyes burned into mine. “I need to talk to the men.”
A few minutes later I heard men leaving, followed by Bronson and Cal’s hushed voices in the hallway.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“Yeah. She’s just in shock.”
Then Cal said, “We’ve been digging around and I’m almost certain it’s Jimmy.”
“Yup. I know it’s him. She’s a fucking angel, and no one hates her, except that one singer online.”
My heart sank.
It couldn’t be Jimmy.
I’d spent twenty years of my life with that man.
But if Bronson and Cal were convinced, I had to consider that it might be true.
I shook in the tub despite the warmth, feeling my heart crack in two.
There was no love left between Jimmy and me, if it had ever existed at all, but knowing he could betray me like this still made me ache.
