be able to have kids now.”
Kayleigh didn’t know what to feel or believe. She was with a stranger, in a strange place, hurt and alone and…she’d watched her boyfriend get shot earlier that same day, and run from men who wanted to kill her. It had been one hell of a day and she’d never been so confused or at a loss for what to do in her life. Lowering the useless gun, she said, “I’m sorry, at least if what you’re telling me is true. I woke up and didn’t know where I was and couldn’t remember what happened…I still don’t, but I guess if you wanted to beat the hell out of me, you had ample opportunity out in the woods where you found me. Damnit,” she said, limping over to the bed and dropping down to sit a foot or so away from him. “This is so fucked up.”
He sighed, mopped his face again, and said, “It’s true. I’m sorry I hurt you, but I do believe you’d be dead if I hadn’t tackled you out of the way. I know you said they want you because you saw them shoot your boyfriend…but does all that cash have something to do with it too?”
She shook her head slowly and sighed. “I’m not sure. I thought it was about watching them shoot Bobby…but maybe the money is theirs, too. I found it in my bedroom, but it’s not mine. Bobby’s family is rich, and I guess I just thought he got the money from them…that’s stupid though, right? He wouldn’t keep it in bundles in the closet.”
“Your old man, was he in a club?”
“No. But he’s been acting really strangely lately. He disappears all hours of the night, and strange-looking people have been coming by the apartment looking for him. He always has more money than he should, but like I said, I thought his mother was giving it to him. I’ve been making excuses for him for a long time. I’m an idiot.”
“You followed him this morning, right? Obviously, you knew something was off.”
“Yeah…look how that turned out. They shot him, and I left him there…all alone, to die!” Suddenly the emotions overwhelmed her. She’d been so busy trying to save herself that she hadn’t thought about Bobby. Not the Bobby she was pissed at, but the man she loved…the man she’d let die there alone while she ran to save herself. This time she was powerless to stop the grief that bubbled up in her chest and began to roll like waves through her body. She was engulfed suddenly in a torrent of tears that she couldn’t stop and the pain on the inside of her chest matched the pain on the outside every time she pictured Bobby’s handsome face and thought about what had happened to him. He wasn’t perfect. As a matter of fact, he could be a real asshole. But despite his shortcomings, he didn’t deserve to die alone, on the cold concrete floor of a warehouse.
Kayleigh didn’t process for several seconds that Razor had moved over close to her. Cautiously, he slipped his arm around her shoulders. His arm was so big that it was like a weight across her neck, but he had a presence about him that made her feel safe, although she wasn’t ready to admit that. She didn’t pull away though and before long his white t-shirt was soaked with her tears. She had no idea how long they sat there like that, but she was still shaking and trying to wipe what was left of the stinging tears out of her eyes when she pulled away and looked up at him. “Jesus. Sorry about that,” she said, hiccupping back another sob as she spoke.
“It’s okay,” he said, softly. “You’ve had a pretty shitty day. You’ve got a right to cry.” Then with a little grin he said, “Hell, if it was socially acceptable, I might cry myself. I think I did a little when you kicked me in the balls.”
Kayleigh smiled at that. The man was an enigma to her. It was hard to reconcile his gentleness with his appearance. He wasn’t a bad-looking guy. His hair was kind of a mess, long, black, and unruly, but he had beautiful, expressive blue-green eyes and his smile was nice too, when he wasn’t being a sarcastic ass, that is. But the man wasn’t just big, he was huge. He towered over her in height, and if Kayleigh lay