I stood. “Let’s get you cleaned up in the lavatory first.” I turned back to Victoria. “Do you need us seated for takeoff?”
“Yes, sir, but I can have the pilots hold for a minute.”
I didn’t want to be on the ground another second, but I also wanted the constant, visible reminder of what had just happened gone, for both Kara and me. “Do it.”
“Shawn.” A cool hand grasped mine and tugged. “It can wait. I don’t want to stay here.”
My gaze snapped to Victoria, and she nodded immediately with understanding. Her fingers punched in the code to the cockpit as I took the seat beside Kara, her grip still tight on mine. The engines throttled up and we abandoned our hold only for a moment to do up seatbelts, and then she took my hand again.
“Tell me what happened,” I said.
She explained it in an unemotional voice while we climbed into the clouds.
“Where is Juric?”the man had said.“We know he was here.”
My bones felt like they were made of ice, the cold spreading outward. Juric had been to her place, or at least the man who’d attacked her believed he had. What the fuck was Juric doing anywhere near Kara?
The pilots hadn’t finished the climb to altitude when the sound of metal unbuckling came from Victoria’s station. She materialized instantly, a clean towel in her hands. “May I fetch you a new top from your suitcase?”
Kara nodded. “Yes, thank you.”
I took the offered towel, helped Kara out of her jacket, and led her to the lavatory at the back of the plane. The small room was difficult to maneuver in even when the door was open, so if I ever needed to change, I didn’t do it inside there. I’d have the privacy curtain installed, but it was clear she didn’t want to wait.
One glance in the mirror and the sight of the half-dried rivulets of blood streaking down her neck had her reaching for the hem of her shirt. There were no words. She simply lifted the bloody garment over her head and set it on the sink, revealing the simple black bra beneath.
There was nothing sexual about it, and I handed her the towel before pulling my gaze away, letting her get cleaned up. My nerves were jagged, the effects lingering in my system. I took the shirt Victoria had selected.
“Wine, sir?”
I nodded, and she went back to her station.
“Can I have that?”
Kara’s soft voice drew my gaze, and that was a complete mistake. She’d wiped away the blood, and other than the thin, angry line where she’d been cut, she looked fine. Back to normal. Which meant she was standing in front of me with no shirt on.
“You’ve never seen breasts before?” She pulled the shirt from my grasp.
I dropped my guilty gaze to the floor. “Not yours.”
God, I was such a bastard. She’d almost died, and here I was, lusting after her. I went back to my seat and sank into it, resting my elbows on my knees, fingers laced behind my neck. We’d be forever bound by this night, the night she’d killed someone. To save me.
I hadn’t heard her approach. She lifted my head in her hands, and then she kissed me, the first time she’d initiated it. She kissed me so softly it almost tore my heart in two. When I pulled her down into my lap, she didn’t protest.
“Shawn.” Her hollow voice filled me with concern.
“Are you all right?”
“I can’t tell. I feel . . . empty.”
I kissed her again. It wasn’t passionate or dominating. I tried to make it about comfort, to show her she wasn’t alone. I was vaguely aware that Victoria stood motionless at the edge of the partition with our wine, not wanting to disturb, so I reluctantly ended the kiss, a hand still buried in the soft hair at the nape of Kara’s neck.
She sipped the wine with a shaky hand while I put the bandage on her neck, and then I called Jason and broke the news. Juric was alive. People were looking for him, and those people believed he’d been at Kara’s apartment.
“Where do we go?” I asked. “We’ll be on the ground in thirty minutes. Should we come to you?”
“No, I can’t risk anyone following you here.” Jason hesitated. “Shit, you can’t take her to your place, either. It’s the first place Juric will look when he finds out an Osterhägen plane landed in Maastricht and then departed for Munich.” There was a sigh. “Take her to the corporate room at the Palace tonight. They won’t register her passport if you’re there with her, and I’ll send the backup team to meet you.”
The idea of sharing a room with Kara tonight was appealing, but for an entirely different reason than usual. I didn’t want her to be alone after what had happened. Didn’t want her out of my sight.
