The One Who Got Away (Wilde Ways #12) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,66

on the damn light.” He didn’t recognize his own voice. Too guttural. Too dark.

“Yes. Antony, are you okay?” She touched him.

A shudder worked through his body. “He was shooting at you.” His fingers clenched and released. Bloody fingers. “You turned on the light. He fired at you—”

“Well, yes, I turned on the light.” Her voice was bemused. “I wanted him to fire.”

Wanted him to fire. The ringing got worse. He stared down at her. Slender body. Delicate build. She’d wanted the bastard to fire and send bullets hurtling into her body?

“I had to protect you.” The ringing faded for him to hear those words.

Protect me?

“That’s what I was hired to do, remember?”

More ringing. More rage. More fear. “You’re fucking fired.”

“What?”

Jacob coughed. “Uh, Antony, you all right?”

He was standing in the middle of hell. No, he wasn’t all right. “You turned on the light,” he said again. “You could have been killed.” Bullets ripping into her tender skin. The image played through his mind over and over again. “He could have shot you.” Antony wanted to yank her into his arms. Wanted to hold her and never let go. “He could have killed you and I—”

“Antony!” She’d locked her fingers around his arms. She shook him. Hard. “Are you hearing me?”

“Damn ringing.” It kept coming and going. Probably because a gun had fired right next to his left ear.

“I turned on the light, but I wasn’t in danger. I did that to lure out the shooter. So we could find his location. I put the phone on some crates. I stayed low and was covered the whole time. I only grabbed the phone from its position when Jacob came in and we rushed toward you—after you’d taken down the shooter. Look, my job was to protect you, to help you, so I did. Now calm your ass down! I love you, but you are about to drive me completely—”

He grabbed her. Hauled her flush against him.

“Yeah, sure,” Jacob announced to no one. “I’ll take care of the beaten and bloody perp on the floor. Don’t mind me—”

Antony’s mouth crashed onto Ella’s. He kissed her with reckless fury. Insane need. The stupid ringing made it hard to pick up everything, but he thought she’d said that she loved him. Ella might love him.

His mouth was hard. His tongue demanding. He wanted to surround himself with her and never, ever let go.

He wanted to get her the hell out of this nightmare scene and back to his place. He wanted to strip her. Fuck her.

Marry her.

His body jerked at the last thought. Sanity came back. A small bit, anyway. He forced his head to lift.

“The police are coming,” Ella whispered. Her body pressed against his. “An ambulance is on the way.”

He didn’t let her go. He should. He was getting blood all over her shirt. “You…you put up the light on crates. You weren’t in danger.” Just to be clear.

“I wasn’t in danger,” she promised. A pause. Then, “And I’m also not fired.”

On this, he wasn’t about to back down. “Yes, sweetheart, you sure as hell are.”

***

The parking lot was packed with cop cars. Men and women in uniform rushed around the scene. Yellow police tape flapped, and someone in white gloves snapped pics of the factory’s broken entrance door.

“You own the place, huh?”

Antony didn’t turn at the question. He’d felt Eric’s eyes on him. Eric had arrived on scene right after the cops. Eric and Niesha had come storming in to join their screwed-up party. Antony half-expected to see Dex popping his head in, too. But so far, the guy had stayed absent.

But Dex’s cop buddy, Detective Layla Lopez? She was there. He’d thought she was from the homicide division, but from the look of the scene, she seemed to be giving orders to the other cops. There were a few more detectives there, too. Hell, most of the department seemed to be running around out there.

Antony wasn’t surprised that Eric had discovered that he owned the factory. It had been a deliberate choice by the perps, Antony was sure. “Yeah. Bought it to convert and use with my company.” He’d actually been scheduled to come out to the site just the other day with Ross, but then Ella had been shoved down the stairs.

His plans for the day had changed after that.

“Did you realize where Cal was heading when you were tracking him?” Eric pushed.

Antony looked down at his hands. He’d gotten cleaned up, courtesy of the EMTs who’d wanted to