with Daniel, Kate and her grandfather looking on.
The food had given her the strength to make it this far, and a lighter dose of pain medication didn’t make her head fuzzy. She almost felt normal. Almost as if her world hadn’t been upended and thrown her off-kilter.
A grandmother and three uncles. And all this time she’d thought it was just her and her grandfather against the world.
Patrick signed one last form and turned toward the exit, his gaze zeroing in on Kate. She stood looking cool, calm and confident in her gray suit, her hair short and stylish with just a hint of frost at the temples. No dyes and highlights for her. And she didn’t need them. She was beautiful, even in her late fifties, the lines by her eyes adding character.
Shelby didn’t want to like the woman, didn’t want to believe a word she said. Not when she’d abandoned her own daughter and then claimed she hadn’t known she was alive. How does a mother not know her baby was alive?
Patrick’s face gave him away. He might have said he was over Kate a long time ago, but the way he looked at her at that moment said the opposite.
“Oh, dear.” Her heart aching for her grandfather, Shelby pressed a hand to her chest.
“What?”
“This isn’t right.”
“What isn’t right?” Daniel asked.
She tried to think of something to say that would make it better. “We don’t belong with the Winstons. My grandfather and I should just go home. We can manage on our own.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Daniel captured her arm. “You were almost killed. Those men who kidnapped you are experienced thugs. What training do you have to defend yourself against them?”
Her back stiffened. “I took a self-defense class one semester during my undergraduate degree.”
Daniel snorted. “And how’d that work for you?”
Shelby opened her mouth to give him a sharp retort, but she didn’t have one. The reality of the past two weeks sitting in the dark wasn’t something she wanted to happen ever again. “I’ll be more aware.”
“When you’re outnumbered, outweighed and outgunned, being aware may not be enough.”
“It will have to be.” She smiled at her grandfather as he closed the distance between them.
“Ready?” he asked.
“I am. But I think we should go home.”
Her grandfather’s brows drew together. “Shelby, honey, after what happened, I don’t think it’s safe. I can’t provide the kind of protection Kate can.”
Staying at the Winston Estate would be as hard on him as it was on her. They didn’t belong with these people. The Winstons traveled in an entirely different circle from the folks at the O’Hara Bar and Grill on the Outer Banks where she and her grandfather lived and worked.
The worried look on her grandfather’s face made her reconsider for the moment. She stepped outside the hospital where two long black limousines stood waiting at the curb.
“Tell me we’re not going in those,” she said.
Daniel’s mouth twitched into a grin, although his eyes were invisible behind his mirrored sunglasses. “Then I won’t tell you.”
Thad walked up behind them. “If we could move it along, the cars have been waiting for thirty minutes in a no-parking zone. The hospital security staff would like us to get going.”
Her father hooked her arm and led her toward the limo. The chauffeur opened the back door for her.
The closer she got to the dark interior, the faster her heart raced. “No.” She braced her hands on the roof of the car and refused to step inside.
“Is there something wrong?” Kate asked.
“I can’t get in. It’s too…”
“Too what, dear?” Kate laid a hand on her arm.
“Too dark,” Shelby whispered.
Kate’s hand gently smoothed over her arm. “It’s okay. You don’t have to ride in the limousine.” She turned to the driver. “Take it back to the estate. Miss O’Hara will ride with Trey in his vehicle.”
The driver nodded, rounded the front of the vehicle and got in.
Kate’s brows rose as she directed a glance at her oldest son. “You don’t mind bringing the O’Haras and Mr. Henderson, do you?”
“Not at all, Mother.” Trey turned away from the hospital. “If you’ll follow me to the parking lot—”
The limousine engine revved and died. The driver cranked it again and the same thing happened.
“What do you suppose is wrong with the limousine?” Debra frowned, making a note on her smartphone. “I have it serviced regularly.”
“Not good.” Daniel gripped Kate and Shelby’s arm. “Get down!”
Trey spun Debra around, shoved her behind the open door of the Jeep and shielded her with his body.
Before Shelby could react, Daniel pushed her to the concrete. Kate dropped to her stomach beside her and Daniel threw himself on top of both of them.
Shelby struggled to get up. “What the hell—”
An explosion rocked the ground beneath her, blasting her eardrums. She fought to breathe beneath the weight of Daniel lying across her as metal shards fell on her legs and arms.
His ears ringing and pain knifing through his leg, Daniel rolled off Shelby and Kate and leaped to his feet.
Smoke poured from the limousine’s engine. The hood had been blown off and had landed several yards away in the middle of the driveway. The windshield was completely shattered and the driver was slumped against the door.
Daniel limped to the limousine and tried to open the driver’s door to get him out. It wouldn’t open, and the acrid scent of gasoline and smoke made him pull harder.
Bracing his foot on the side of the vehicle, he pulled on the door handle but it wouldn’t budge.
Shelby helped Kate up on the other side of the vehicle.
“Get the hell away!” Daniel called out. “There’s gas leaking out, it could go up anytime.”
Shelby hooked Kate’s elbow and tried to hurry her toward the building.
Kate pushed her hands away. “No, that’s Carlo. We have to get him out.”
Thad ran toward Daniel,
