him down with me. Aside from jarring my teeth, I wasn’t hurt, but was Holden hit? Where had the bullet gone?
“Holden? Holden!”
I heard a thud to my left and turned my head to see Eddie fall to the floor as well. I must have hit him too, in my lunge for Holden. My eyes went to his hands, which were empty. Where the hell was the gun?
I scrambled back, my gaze sweeping Holden’s body for signs of blood, then moving farther out, scanning the room for the gun. Eddie shifted, pushing up onto his elbows, and then yowled in pain as Frog jumped down from the bookcase and dug his claws into Eddie’s stomach.
Eddie screamed, and I winced in spite of myself. I knew from personal experience how sharp Frog’s claws were. Eddie flailed, shouldering into the nearest stack of books, which sent half of them toppling down onto his abdomen.
Frog bounded out of the way, scampering across the room, but Eddie wasn’t done flailing yet. He kicked out with his right leg. It connected, but unfortunately for him, it connected with the bookcase that Frog had sent wobbling as he’d jumped off it. Eddie’s kick only destabilized it further.
It wasn’t hard to see that the bookcase was coming down, books and all. On top of all three of us, unless Holden and I got out of the way.
“Holden, come on,” I yelled, pulling at his legs. He’d only just pushed himself up, rubbing the back of his head where it had smacked into the floor. He didn’t waste time looking at Eddie or anything else, though. He took one look at my eyes and lunged forward—and not a second too soon.
The bookcase teetered over and crashed to the floor, sending books flying everywhere and pinning Eddie neatly to the ground.
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
I wasn’t entirely sure one could survive a bookcase smashing into one’s internal organs, but at that moment, I didn’t particularly care. Eddie was pinned and he didn’t have a gun anymore. The rest could wait.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my hands going to Holden’s face as he pulled me upright. “Are you hurt? Did the bullet get you, are you—”
“I’m fine. Baby, I’m fine,” Holden repeated, but I wasn’t really listening. I couldn’t calm down until I’d checked his arms and legs, running my hands all over his body to look for bleeding. He put up with it good-naturedly, not moving until I was done.
Once I was satisfied, he walked over to check on Eddie, who moaned weakly but made no attempt to get up. Then he located the gun, which had skittered all the way over to the couch. He picked it up with a chenille blanket that was draped over one of the chairs and set it on the coffee table, then came back to me.
“I think your uncle’s going to need some medical attention,” Holden said, “but can you tell me first just what you were thinking, jumping in like that? You could have been killed!”
“So could you,” I pointed out. “I couldn’t let him shoot you, I couldn’t lose you.” Tears I hadn’t even realized I was holding back streamed down my cheeks, and my body started to shake. “He could have killed you, Holden. He could have killed you.”
“But he didn’t.” Holden’s voice was warm and steady. “It’s okay. We’re both okay. He didn’t get away with it.”
“But he—he could have—I don’t know what I would have done if I—”
Holden brought a hand to my cheek, cutting me off with a gentle touch. “My sweet Ari. Promise me you’ll never put yourself in danger like that again. I don’t care who’s pointing a gun at me. I’m not worth it. I can’t lose you.”
“And I can’t lose you,” I said, blinking through tears. “I love you, you idiot. Don’t you get that? I love you, and I can’t lose you, and I’m not going to. You can’t tell me what to do. Not when it means putting you in danger.”
Holden stared back at me in incomprehension. “You love me?”
I wondered, briefly, if I should have tried harder to hide that. But honestly, if you can’t tell the man you love that you love him right after your father’s crazy twin brother tried to shoot him in the thigh and abduct you, when can you?
“Yeah.” I smiled sheepishly, still shaking a little. “I’m sorry if that’s weird or too soon or if you just want me out of your hair after this.