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“Brother.”
Brother. That cuts me. His grief cuts me. I delivered the closing that launched my career with this case, and in his eyes, I’m the one who set the killer free. Only he wasn’t a killer. “Our client needs to be alerted of trouble. He’ll be a target.”
“We’ve tried to reach him by phone,” the officer says. “We have a car being sent to his residence to ensure he’s well.” He reaches in his pocket and hands Cole his card. “For the restraining order and if you need me.”
“Can we go now?” Cole asks.
“Of course.”
Cole turns us away from the officer and Savage is waiting a few feet away. “Has Reese been notified?” Cole asks the minute we’re in front of him.
Reese, I think, of course. He’s Cole’s partner. He could become a target.
“Yes,” Savage confirms. “Our team alerted him. He and Cat are going to meet you at your apartment. We have a vehicle waiting just outside the door.”
We head that direction and I swear when we step outside, I feel like bullets will fly, which is silly. This was one man in the midst of protestors. It’s over. Cole helps me into the back of a black SUV and the minute he joins me and the door shuts behind him, he pulls me to him. “You scared the hell out of me,” he murmurs before his lips come down on mine, and he’s kissing me like he’s trying to breathe me in, like he might never kiss me again.
The front door opens and he tears his lips from mine, pressing his cheek to mine and whispers, “You will not leave me. Ever.” The depths of that guttural, illogical demand that is about death, and nothing but death, ripples through me with heartache and pain.
My hand settles on his face and I whisper, “Same goes for you,” but when he pulls back and looks at me, the depths of torment in his eyes tell a story, and it’s not one I’ve heard. There is more to Cole’s worry and fear. Something that triggered his instincts before we came home, and that’s clearly what happened. He felt something was coming.
We settle into the seat side by side, our legs pressed together, and Cole wraps his arm around my shoulder, holding me close. He and Savage talk, and I hear every word they speak, but my mind is on Cole, not me. Cole, not that man. There’s something I don’t know and it’s cutting him right now; deeply and in every possible way. I’m worried about the man I love, not me, and this has me lacing my fingers with his and holding on tight.
It’s a full forty-five minutes later when we enter our apartment building, which is thankfully free of protestors. I step into the elevator with Cole on one side of me and Savage on the other, but I’m still not thinking about me and my attack. I’m thinking about Cole. It’s really then that I realize that this is how I felt with my mother. I left law school to protect her. Now I want to protect Cole, but the difference is that back then my mother couldn’t protect me. Now, Cole wants, needs, and can protect me, while I just want to do the same with him. I need time alone with him. I need to talk to him. He needs this, too.
None of us speak on the ride up or the walk to our apartment, and the minute we’re at the door, it opens and Cat is pulling me into a hug. “Thank God you’re okay.” She pulls back to look at me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m good.”
She gives me a skeptical look and covers my hand with hers, dragging me inside the apartment where Reese is hovering, looking big and brooding in black jeans and a T-shirt. “You okay, Lori?” he asks.
“I’m okay,” I say again. Everyone wants to know if I’m okay. I just want Cole. Alone.
“Lori,” he says from behind me.
I turn and his hands come down on my shoulders. “Reese and I are going to take care of the emergency restraining orders. Stay here with Cat and Savage.”
“Savage needs to go with you.”
“Smith is going with us,” he says. “I want Savage with you.”
I have no idea when this was decided, but I don’t like it. “I saw what Savage did in that bathroom. He needs to go with you.”
Savage clears his throat. “Smith is a badass,” he says. “He’ll kick ass if he needs to.”
“Can I see you alone?” I ask Cole.
“I need to go do this,” Cole says. “Let me go and just get back.”
“Please, Cole. I need to see you.”
His jaw sets hard and he takes my hand, leading me down the hallway, past Reese and Cat, guiding me through the living room and into the kitchen. The minute we’re inside, alone, I whirl on him, grabbing his belt buckle. “Talk to me.”
“What does that mean, Lori?”
“Exactly. You are not you right now. You weren’t you in our final moments in Paris last night. You’re out of your own head.”
His hands slide under my hair, to my neck. “My wife was just attacked. Right now, the only place my head is, is making sure that man never gets close to you again.”
