Page 39

“All right then, we’ll get out of here.” His hand grips my shoulder and squeezes. “Call if you need anything. Official or not.”

Nodding, I murmur, “Will do,” as Brooke pushes off the couch, drawing my attention. “Lock the door on your way out.”

“Sure. I’ll call after Doc does his assessment of⁠—”

“Don’t bother.” I don’t take my eyes off Brooke as she makes her way to the bathroom. “Unless the fucker escapes or dies, I don’t think we need to know what’s happening.”

“Not the best approach.”

My gaze snaps back to Asha. “I’ll call and find out once I know she’s going to be okay. I don’t give a fuck about him except to know he’s locked up and can’t hurt her anymore.”

“That I can guarantee, and after today he’s going away for a long time.”

“Good.” My eyes move back to Brooke to find her at the sink washing her hands. At the rate she’s scrubbing, she’ll be lucky if she doesn’t remove skin. “Talk later.”

I don’t bother looking back when I head for Brooke. Asha has been here enough times to know how to get out. My sole focus is the woman in the bathroom doing her best to strip the last hour from her skin.

“Hey, hey,” I say as I get up close enough to wrap my hands over hers. “You’re going to hurt yourself⁠—”

“I feel dirty.” Her gaze meets mine in the mirror but her eyes still have a vacant look to them, the usual bright green gone in a swirl of murky sage.

“You are not dirty.” I pull her around and use my hold on her hands to slowly pull her against my chest. I ignore the water soaking through my shirt and make sure those dull eyes are on mine. “But I understand why you feel that way.”

With a strangled sob she burrows into me, presses her nose against the skin of my neck and breathes deeply a few times before speaking in a whisper full of held-in tears. “Are you sure I didn’t kill him?”

“Positive. He was awake and complaining about being under arrest before they removed him from the house.” I don’t tell her he was also yelling about being in pain and that she tried to kill him. She doesn’t need to know he’s suffering or throwing blame because there is no way my soft-hearted Brooke wouldn’t take that on.

“Oh.” Her shoulders lower and her arms slip around my waist, her hands fisting the back of my shirt. “I don’t care if I did.”

Ah, now we’re getting to the heart of her daze. She isn’t upset she hurt him, it’s the fact she isn’t that has her almost catatonic. “You have every right to feel that way.”

“Do I?”

“Yes. He came here with a gun. Whether his plan was to shoot you or me doesn’t matter. Just carrying that weapon and breaking into our home showed he intended to do harm to one or both of us.”

“I hate that he broke your window. You’ll have to pay to get it fixed.” Warm breath washes over my skin when she sighs. “Like my car.”

“I’m glad the only damage he did is to material things. We can replace those. We can’t replace us.”

Her arms tighten. “I thought he was going to shoot you.”

“He didn’t.”

“He could have.”

“I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

“Me either.” She tips her head back until our gazes meet. “I would have hit him again if he didn’t stop.”

“Thank you.”

“No. I should be thanking you. You put yourself in harm’s way for me.”

“I’d do it again if I had to.”

“Why?”

“I think you know why.”