Counting On Cole (Wilde Ways #8) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,90
“But those idiots Robert and Stephen took you! They screwed things up! It should have been easy, it should have been—”
Harrison lunged at her.
He grabbed for the gun, but Gia fired.
She screamed when he staggered back. Evie could see the spray of blood on his white shirt.
“Harrison!” Evie yelled. She tore from behind Cole.
Gia’s head whipped toward Evie. “This is your fault!” She raised her gun—
Too late. Evie fired at her. She squeezed the trigger, and the bullet tore into Gia’s shoulder. The gun fell from Gia’s hand even as she screamed over and over again.
Cole rushed to her and kicked Gia’s weapon away.
The bodyguards outside burst in.
“Call nine-one-one,” Cole shouted at them. “Now!”
Evie shoved her hands over Harrison’s side. His blood seeped through her fingers. “You’re going to be okay,” she told him, frantic.
His terrified gaze met hers.
“It’s just a flesh wound.” She had no idea if it was or not, but people said stuff like that on TV shows all the time.
Cole eased beside her. He lifted her hand. Studied the wound. “It really is a damn flesh wound.”
Evie’s breath left her in a relieved rush.
“And, Harrison,” Cole added roughly, “you have some serious bad taste in women.”
Harrison groaned in pain.
“You’ll also be spending the next fifteen years apologizing to me, got it? Because I am like a dream family member compared to the woman you were dating.”
Another groan.
But Harrison also nodded. “S-sorry…”
***
“Your brother will be fine,” the doctor promised Evie. “He’s stitched up, secure, and he’ll be released by tomorrow. We’re just keeping him for observation.”
“Observation.” Chase lifted a brow and nodded. “Because the guy’s crazy ex-girlfriend tried to kill him.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Evie replied quickly. “Can I go see him?”
“Of course.” But he frowned at Chase. She’d noticed that most people tended to frown at Chase.
They were in the waiting room. She’d been pacing like mad for the last hour.
Chase and Cole had been watching her.
After one more frown at Chase, the doctor hurried away.
Chase waited just a few moments then… “So…she did it. She was our missing piece. She killed the parents—Jesus, sorry about that Evie,” Chase added quickly. “I know that must be hard as hell for you to handle.”
“Hard isn’t quite the word I’d use.” She hired someone to kill my mother and step-father. She wanted me dead. She shot my brother.
Cole’s gaze stayed on Evie. “Gia confessed. Wilde is pulling more evidence on her, too. Once we start digging, we don’t stop. She’ll be going away to prison for a very long time.”
Not like that would bring Evie’s mom back.
I miss her so much.
As if sensing her pain, Cole took a step toward her. “Baby…”
She swallowed.
“What can I do?”
Those four words tore right through her. She’d been trying to keep her shit together, been trying to keep her chin up and her spine straight in the waiting room, but now… “Take me to my brother.”
He nodded. Without another word, he took her hand and guided her down the hallway.
A tear slid down her cheek. “Gia hurt so many people.”
He stilled, then turned toward her. “She will never hurt you again.” His left hand rose and brushed away the tear. “No one will, I swear it.”
A weak laugh slipped past Evie’s lips. “You can’t protect me from the world.”
“Can’t I?”
“Even you’re not strong enough to do that.”
His face was dead serious. “I will protect you from every threat, and I will gladly do it for the rest of my life.”
Her breath caught. “You put yourself in front of me. When Gia pulled her gun, you moved in front of me.”
A nurse bustled past them. Chase had stayed in the waiting room. Thankfully.
Cole nodded. “Damn straight, I did. You think I’d let a bullet hit you?”
She yanked her hand from his and jabbed her finger into his chest. “Don’t you ever do that again!”
His eyes widened. “I’m the bodyguard, Evie, it’s my job—”
“No.”
Now his brows shot up. “It’s…not my job?”
“Your job—” God, she was going a little crazy. Or a lot crazy. “It’s not to die.”
“Okay.”
Okay? Good. “It’s not to get hurt.”
“How about I just hurt the other people? The bad people?”
A passing doctor frowned at him.
Evie ignored the doctor and jabbed her finger into Cole’s chest again. “Your job is to stay alive. To stay safe. And to always love me.”
“Oh, that’s easy. I will love you until I die.”
“You will not die!”
His hand curled around her jabbing finger. “I love you.” His expression had softened.