AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You better get going if you don’t want to be late.” Erin put her hand on my shoulder before leaning against me the way she’d been doing since we found out Kelly made it through surgery. Like she needed whatever strength I could offer her just to stay on her feet.
Wasn’t going to let her down either. May not have been close with my own family, but there was no doubting how much this little family depended on and loved each other. I’d be there for them too. I was beginning to love Erin and Donovan like they were my own.
“Take care of her.” I wrapped my arm around Erin’s shoulder, pulling her into a hug.
She nodded, then peered up at me through watery eyes. “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
“Mom!” Kelly drew the word out, and the sound had both Erin and I laughing.
“There’s my baby girl,” Erin muttered under her breath.
Kelly rolled her eyes at her mother, but there was no hiding the upward tilt of her lips. “He’s not leaving forever.” Her grip on my hand tightened, like she didn’t believe her own words. Her eyes met mine. In them, I could see her anxiety like it was a sentient being.
“I’ll be back this afternoon. Soon as my meetings are over and I get a few things done at the office.” When her grip tightened more, I added, “I promise.”
Both Erin and Kelly were slow to let me go, but I wasn’t exactly rushing them. There was enough time before my meeting, I made sure of it. ’Cause I knew exactly how hard it was going to be to walk out of her hospital room knowing I wouldn’t be seeing her again for hours.
I lost count of how many times I’d almost turned around and ran back to her side once I left her room. Even going to the cafeteria, I always had either Erin or Donovan with me. The only time I’d been alone since the moment I stepped foot inside the hospital was when I jumped in the shower this morning or when I took a piss.
Fuck.
Leaving was hard.
Staying away was even harder.
Pulling up outside my office and opening the door to my Jeep was even worse. There was no going back now. Not until these meetings were over. Not until I met with these potential clients and tried to tell them how Bridgewater Security would put their needs first, when my needs were back there in that hospital room, struggling just as much as I was with this distance.
Finally, after I couldn’t take it anymore, I got out of the Jeep and walked to the front door. Joss greeted me with a smile, a fresh coffee, and a stack of papers. Hadn’t gotten more than a sip from my cup, or a single page flipped, when the front door swung open and all fuckin’ hell broke loose.
“Lee Bridgewater?” an unfamiliar voice called out. I turned from the front desk, damn near spilling my coffee when I found Special Agent Hernandez and five other men barging in.
“What’s going on here?”
Hernandez pulled to a stop in front of me, her mouth set in a hard scowl as she tilted her head back to look up at me. But it wasn’t her who spoke. It was the same voice who’d called my name, belonging to some prick in shiny black dress shoes and a fancy ass coat.
“Rylan Dennis? You’re both under arrest for the murder of Donald Baker.” He only glanced at me briefly before turning to face the hallway leading to our back rooms and motioning to the men behind him.
“The fuck are you talking about?” Barely got my coffee set down before one of the cops was rushing to me, one hand on his gun and a set of cuffs in the other. With more force than was needed, he turned me around and slapped the metal bracelets on my wrists, muttering my rights under his breath.
Wasn’t fuckin’ paying a lick of attention to him, though. Instead, I was watching as Rylan nearly fell to the floor as another cop tried to arrest him, too. One of his crutches clattered to the ground and he reached out to steady himself.
Only to grab the cop’s arm.
Guns were drawn.
Rylan’s other crutch tumbled on top of the first as the cop tossed him off his arm. My injured employee lost his balance, dropping to the floor before he was piled upon by at least two cops while another held a gun to his head.
“Watch out!” I yelled, desperation pulsing through me, my cuffs tearing at my wrists as I struggled against them. “He’s injured, dammit! He can’t even fuckin’ walk! Get off him!”
Somewhere, someone screamed. Time slowed until the world around me felt like it’d been paused, inching forward a millisecond at a time. My ribs pressed against my lungs, strangling me, the bone seeming to bite into my chest the way the metal cuffs cut my skin.
My thoughts turned to Kelly, and a new worry popped up.
I’d promised I’d be back this afternoon.
There was no way that was happening now.
30
