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“When you hire a PI…” Hunter continued, voice still low, rasping.

Still no response from her.

“You need to tell him that you’re in mortal jeopardy.”

She didn’t even blink. Just kept staring at the glass doors.

His eyes narrowed on her. His right hand still held the cloth tightly to her arm, but his left rose. He touched her hair, pushing it back lightly.

She flinched. Her head whipped toward him.

Her hearing aid was gone. The small device that had curled over the shell of her ear was missing, and dammit, it had probably fallen off when he’d tackled her on the street. No wonder she hadn’t responded to him. He’d been trying to be quiet and not let any of the curious onlookers overhear him, but she hadn’t realized he was talking to her.

“Baby—” Whoops. Nope. She was not his baby. His mistake. And, of course, that part would have come out loudly. And it would have come out when she’d just angled her body so that her good ear was closer to him.

She blinked.

“Uh, Shelby.” Way safer than baby. That had been a major slip. His bad. He’d work on not letting that slip happen again. Maybe. His left hand fell away from her. “You lost your hearing device.”

She bit her lower lip. “Must be on the street.” A little furrow of her brows that just made her look cute. “Is it safe to go back for it?”

“Fuck, no.” His instant response.

Her eyebrows arched up. She stopped biting that delectable lower lip. “I…I heard you ask who was trying to kill me.”

Oh, she’d caught that part?

“When we first came inside,” she added quickly. “Did I miss something after that?”

She’d missed the part where she should mention being in mortal jeopardy.

“No one is trying to kill me.” A shake of her head. “This is—this is all wrong.”

Well, the scene certainly wasn’t right.

A siren screamed outside. The cops, rushing to the scene. An ambulance would not be far behind. As soon as Hunter had burst inside the hotel with Shelby, he’d demanded that the concierge call nine-one-one. When Hunter had seen her blood, he’d had two priorities.

One, get her to safety.

Two, find the jackass who’d hurt her and annihilate him.

She was currently safe. Would be safer when the cops were at her side. Then Hunter could go out and find the man who’d shot her. But, hell, he hadn’t even been able to look around for the shooter when he’d been outside. Hunter had been completely focused on getting to Shelby. Covering her with his body. By now, the punk would have probably fled the scene.

There are traffic cams in the area. Plenty of people on the street. Surely someone saw something? And if the witnesses weren’t useful, then that just led back to the traffic cams. He could hack into the system, take a look at them himself. Find the bastard. “Someone just shot at you. Call me crazy, but that seems to imply an individual wants to take you out. Now, tell me—who the fuck is it?”

Her eyes were wide. That startling shade of green seemingly even more intense than before. She shook her head once more, sending strands of dark hair across her cheeks. “I don’t think—no.” Another shake of her head. More definite this time. Her hand rose and pressed over his as he held the cloth to her arm. “This wasn’t a specific attack on me. It was just—just random.”

He didn’t buy that. “Try again.”

“No one is trying to kill me!” But her words were ragged. “There was a whole group of people on that corner. I wasn’t the only one there.”

Nope. She had not been. However, “You were the only one who got shot.”

“A-a stray bullet? I heard there was a shooting on Canal Street last week.”

That shooting had been connected to a drug deal gone bad. Every instinct Hunter possessed said this was something different. You come to me. Hire me to look at the past and not five minutes later, someone is taking a shot at you?

A uniformed cop burst into the hotel. An EMT holding a big, blue bag rushed in on the cop’s heels.