my resolve, and the temptation to snuggle into his big chest caught me hard. I shook my head. “No, just cold.”
A frown settled between his brows as he pulled a stick out of my hair. “Where does it hurt?”
Everywhere. “Um, I may have a couple of bruises.”
He grasped my wrists with the lightest of touches, turning over my hands. Raw, red scrapes slashed across both palms, even though they’d been treated at the police station.
Everything around him stilled. Even the air. I gulped.
He lifted his gaze, a muscle spasming in his jaw. “Where else?”
I shrugged. Aiden angled his head to the side, staring at my legs. My knees started to tremble.
His eyes fired. “Do I need to kill somebody?”
I huffed out a laugh. He didn’t even smile.
“Um, no.” He had to be joking. Didn’t he? It figured his time of being my hero was long past. The hint that he’d like to be one again gave proof to Nick’s analysis of him. Just great.
“What happened, Angel?” Aiden asked.
The trembling moved north until even my shoulders shook. “I don’t think I can talk about it.” Yeah, I wanted to trust him. At this point, I couldn’t trust anybody. Except maybe Detective Pierce, and we didn’t even like each other.
Aiden nodded once. Not like he was agreeing; more like he was having an internal conversation. “We’ll see. Are you in danger now?”
“Right this second?” Not if Aiden wasn’t a threat.
“Yes,” he said, his voice low and smooth.
“No. The police arrived in time.” I didn’t like this conversation. “Of course, maybe you know the guys who chased me. They were the men from the brown van who shot at us the other day.” Then I watched him closely.
Just surprise and then something darker crossed his face. “I don’t know them.” His thumb ran through the mud on my chin. “You weren’t followed home?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” Kind of. If they’d wanted to stop me from identifying them or saying they were at Melvin’s today, it was too late. There was no reason to seek me out now. “Are you sure you don’t know them? I mean, you described them well, and maybe they were shooting at you?”
He straightened. “No. They were shooting at Randy Taylor.”
“Either Randy or you, Aiden.” I studied his face for any hint of a lie. “They were at Melvin Whitaker’s house today. You know him, right?”
“Why were you at his house?” A muscle ticked in Aiden’s jaw as he didn’t answer my question.
Wrong place and wrong time? “Just doing my job.”
“That ain’t your job, and you need to stick to the courtroom. For now, I’ll find out who they are,” he said.
“Not your job. Bad guys are bad guys. I can handle it.” I just didn’t have the energy to question him right now. “Aiden, I’m freezing. Pour the wine, I’ll be right back.”
He paused. “People aren’t all good or all bad, Anna. Ever.” He released my hands.
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.” My job depended on it. I hobbled through the great room, my bedroom, and into the bathroom. I gasped in dismay at my bathroom mirror. It was even worse than I’d feared.
My hair frizzed around my face in frightening angles, loaded with sticks and bark. Mud smeared across one of my cheeks and down my windbreaker. A jagged rip ran through my jeans, and my remaining sandal was filthy. Bark and clumps of bushes stuck haphazardly throughout the mud, completing the disastrous look. My eyes were wide, frightened in my pale face.
I shimmied out of my wet clothes, and hopped in the shower, moaning as hot water cascaded over my battered body. My shoulder and hip already sported deep purple bruises, and one leg held raised red abrasions. Scratches and long cuts stung my knees and hands. But the water balmed some of the hurt.
I hurriedly washed the mud out of my hair before turning the shower off. Then I let myself turn the shower back on, sit on the floor, and then bawl. Everything hurt, people were trying to kill me, and I just couldn’t handle it.
Finally, I wound down, feeling somewhat better. Lifting my face to the cooling spray, I settled my shoulders. All right. I’d been kidnapped at ten and had survived that.
I could survive this.
Turning off the cool water, I stepped out of the shower and dried off with a fluffy white towel. Then I wrapped it around me while walking into the bedroom. There I threw on panties and