it. Get Eileen, or I’ll do it.” He started down the dark hall, knowing the way to Eileen’s room, and ready to carry both women out the back door if necessary.
Catherine could fight him all she wanted, but he’d have his way in this.
They were going to his place until the police cleared the explosive.
Maybe for longer.
Obviously, a security system hadn’t deterred Catherine’s attacker.
“I’ll get her. If you walk in there, she’ll be mortified.” Catherine brushed by, her body sliding along his. He felt every touch, every sigh of breath, every trembling muscle.
And he knew he was in trouble. Knew he was being pulled deeper than he wanted to go.
He’d come to Pine Bluff to settle in and settle down, and that was all he wanted. Not a relationship. Certainly not a relationship with someone like Catherine. Someone who had trouble seeping from every pore.
She walked into Eileen’s room, her gentle whisper carrying through the silent house. Outside, men and women shouted warnings and directions, but here, in the dark old farmhouse, time seemed to stand still, the scent of illness and cigarette hanging in the hot air.
He’d give the women ten seconds, and then he was going in.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
“It’s not going to matter that your hair is a mess if you’re dead, Eileen.” Catherine’s words carried clearly this time, her exasperation obvious.
Six.
Five.
“We need to go. Now. Not in a minute.”
Four.
Three.
Bed sheets rustled. Footsteps padded across wood flooring.
Finally, the two women appeared, Eileen tottering a little, drowning in an oversize night dress, Catherine a step behind her.
“So, the hunky hero has returned to take us to safety, huh?” Eileen put a hand on his arm, her skin cool and dry, her fingers trembling.
“I’m not sure hero is an accurate description. I’m just a neighbor trying to help out,” he responded, moving as quickly as her frailty would allow them to. Down the hall, into the gutted kitchen and out onto the back deck.
It took too long to get her down the deck stairs. He wanted to pick her up and carry her, but she swatted his hands away. Finally, they were down, and she paused for breath, her narrow shoulders heaving as she shivered in the moonlight. He pulled off his jacket, wrapping it around her, expecting Catherine to be right beside them.
Or maybe he didn’t.
Because, he didn’t feel at all surprised when he looked and she wasn’t there.
“Is anyone else in the house, sir?” a uniformed officer called out as she rounded the side of the house.
“One person. I’ll get her.” He jogged back up the stairs, his leg nearly giving out, pain shooting from the stump to his hip.
It hurt, and that pissed him off.
Catherine pissed him off, because she didn’t seem to understand the kind of danger she was in.
Or didn’t want to understand.
Or, maybe just didn’t care.
He ran into the house, ignoring the officer’s command to wait. He’d find Catherine and drag her outside if he had to.
Because, as irritated as he was, he couldn’t leave her behind.
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