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  I knew firsthand the sort of distress she was experiencing, having lost my father to murder, but I couldn’t let her risk her life. “Emerson and Hunter are with her. They’ll do all they can. But you can’t go back there. Not until we know it’s safe.”

  It didn’t take long for us to hear sirens, and by the time the police and ambulance arrived, I was pretty sure the shooter was gone. Once the police cleared the area and the ambulance was allowed to pull up to the gallery, I escorted Izzy to her mother, relieved that Elena was still alive.

  With tears rolling down her freckled cheeks, Izzy grabbed her mother’s hand, as they wheeled her toward the ambulance. “I’m right here, Mum… It’ll be okay.”

  But they needed to race Elena to the hospital as she faded in out of consciousness, leaving Izzy behind to follow, since there was no way she was going alone, and we couldn’t all go in the ambulance.

  It was still pure chaos as the police tried to figure out what happened and whether there was still any threat, but from what Emerson had said, there’d only been a single shot fired, and I had no doubt that it had hit its intended mark. We touched base with the police to let them know where we’d be if they had questions for us, and then Izzy and I quickly piled into the back of the vehicle, with Colton sitting in the front, before rushing to the hospital so she could be there for her mom.

  The poor girl was shaking like a leaf, and though I knew I shouldn’t, I couldn’t keep myself from pulling her into my arms and holding her close as she curled up against me, seeming small and fragile, like she might break into a thousand pieces.

  “What if she doesn’t pull through, Slater? What if I lose her too?”

  “You need to stay positive, Izzy. Seattle has some of the best doctors around, and they’ll do all they can to make sure she pulls through.” I didn’t know how serious Elena’s injuries were, but like I’d told Izzy, we had to stay positive.

  “We never should have gone to that gallery opening. You and your cousins…you all said so and you tried to warn us. But we didn’t listen, did we?”

  We had indeed tried to warn them that the area would be exposed, but it was understandable that our clients would want to live their lives, especially when, before tonight, nothing had come of the threats.

  Except tonight changed that, and now Elena might pay with her life.

  Chapter Eight

  Isabelle

  I sat in the waiting room, desperate to hear news about how my mother’s surgery was going, even though I knew it would likely be hours before we heard anything from her doctors. Yet each minute that passed felt like an eternity, as I tried to keep from thinking the worst, knowing that I had to stay positive.

  It was times like these that made me realize that I had far too few people who I could truly call my friends. Almost everyone I knew was no more than a social acquaintance. There were none that I would truly call friends, and the rest were employees. My boarding school years hadn’t really helped foster any lasting friendships, and my shy awkwardness certainly hadn’t helped matters any. No wonder I was far more comfortable alone in the lab than trying to make friends and meet new people.

  Luckily, I had Slater by my side, helping me through this ordeal. And though I knew he was here because he was part of my security detail, I preferred to think that he would’ve stayed even if I hadn’t been paying him. It may be wishful thinking on my part, but at the moment, I was falling apart and would allow myself this little fantasy since it made me feel like I wasn’t alone in the world—even though I was.

  Colton approached, crouching down to my eye level as he offered me the drink he was holding. “I thought you could do with a cup of hot tea. But if there’s anything else you’d rather have, just let any of us know. No matter what you need, we’re here for you, Izzy.”

  I nodded, thanking him as I looked around the waiting room filled with the men who’d been hired to protect us. No one else had come, and I had no one else to turn to. And though I could be angry that my mother was hurt while under their watch, I knew that they’d realistically done all they could, given the circumstances. No one could stop my mother from doing what she wanted. And they had tried to warn us of the inherent danger involved in going to a public place where security would be difficult to control. Yet we’d gone anyway, ignoring their warnings.

  I took a sip of the hot tea, savoring the warmth that filled me on what felt like such a cold and dreary night. The police came to ask me questions, but I had no answers for them. Whatever information I had, I had already given them. I didn’t really know what the threats were about, beyond referencing the injustices of the poor versus the rich, nor did I know what they wanted from us. I just hoped the authorities would find the sick and deranged person who had carried out this attack, before they came after my mother or myself again.

  My one constant in this whole ordeal was Slater, who had stayed by my side the whole evening, and was still here, waiting faithfully should I need him. From the very start of this ordeal, he’d been a shoulder for me to cry on, and when I needed comfort and support, he’d been there with a kind and encouraging word. But more than anything, I was grateful to have him by my side as a grim-looking surgeon approached me.

  When I stood and swayed, Slater steadied me, and though I probably shouldn’t have, I reached out and grabbed his hand for support, ready to hear the worst as the doctor stopped before me. “Ms. Rutherford? Your mother’s out of surgery. We were able to repair the damage done by the bullet, though it was extensive. The bullet fragmented, nicking her spleen and stomach. She’s still under heavy sedation, and the next several days will be critical. She’ll be unconscious and resting for several more hours, so I suggest you try to get some rest. We’ll let you know if anything changes.”

  I thanked the doctor, my eyes stinging with tears as a wave of relief swept over me. I knew my mother wasn’t out of the woods yet, but I was just so thankful that she’d made it through surgery. I turned to Slater, swallowing down the lump in my throat. “I know it may be some time before my mother awakes, but…I’m not going home. I want to stay here and wait. No matter how long it takes. I know your shift ended hours ago, and I can’t thank you enough for staying with me. You should go home, though. There’s no reason for you to stay here.”

  There wasn’t. I knew that. And he’d already gone above and beyond. Yet I hated the thought of being without him—and it went well beyond simply being alone.

  “I’m going to send someone to get you some more comfortable clothes to change into. But I’m not going anywhere, Izzy. I’m staying here with you.” He gave my hand a squeeze, his blue eyes locked on mine. “I’m not letting you out of my sight until whoever’s been threatening you is caught.”

  “Do you think he’ll come back?” I’d been so worried about my mother that I’d forgotten that the psychopath who’d shot her was still on the loose. “And my mother…who’s watching her?”

  I didn’t know if the killer would come back to finish the job he’d started, but we couldn’t take any chances.

  “We have our men stationed outside her door. No one but the doctors and nurses will be allowed to see her. You have my word, Izzy…we’ll keep her safe.” There was a certain heaviness to his words, like he felt responsible for what happened. Yet I didn’t blame him when they’d warned us of the risks. If anything, I was grateful that he’d kept me safe and sane through it all.

  “I know you’ll keep her safe.” I took a deep breath and steeled myself. “I want to see my mother and wait there in her room. I don’t want her to wake up alone.”

  “Of course, Izzy. As you wish.”

  Chapter Nine

  Slater

  I got Izzy settled in her mother’s room and then stepped outside to speak to my cousins, knowing damn well that we all felt bad about what happened to Izzy’s mother. Izzy may not blame us, but Elena had been shot on our watch.

  “Do the cops have any leads? This is turning into a cluster-fuck, and we can’t let things
get away from us again. From here on, we can’t let them take any risks.” There was no way I was going to take any chances and let anything happen to Izzy. I didn’t care if I had to drag her off to the middle of nowhere until this was resolved.

  Emerson ran a rough hand across his clenched jaw, his entire body tense. “The police will now have more leads and evidence to work with, so I’m hoping this will all come to an end soon. But from here on out, we’re locking this shit down. Home, work. Work, home. That’s it—and they’ll be lucky if they even get that, since I want to limit any exposure to the outside world until this bastard is caught.”

  I couldn’t blame him for putting his foot down, after what had just happened. I knew he felt responsible—we all did. And we couldn’t let this happen again. “I’m staying by Izzy’s side until this fucker is caught. I don’t know who else you want to schedule, but I’m still going to be there.”

  Emerson tilted his head toward the hall, motioning for me to follow him, which I did since it was clear he wanted to speak to me away from the others. And if I had to guess, I was about to get my ass chewed, and would rather not have an audience for it. Not that there was a snowball’s chance in hell that I was backing down when it came to Izzy.

  Emerson took a deep breath, his eyes pinning me to the spot, though when he spoke it was with a calm and understanding tone. “Look…I get it. The girl is smart, sweet, and pretty. But she’s also our client. You can’t go there, Slater. I’m sorry, but you can’t. Not even if this thing between you is the most irresistible thing in the world.”

  “I know—and I’m sorry if I’ve put you in a difficult position. But I’m not backing down, which is why I’m quitting.” It fucking sucked, and I didn’t want to disappoint Emerson, but I could see no other way around this. There was something about Izzy that had stirred up emotions I’d never felt before, and though I knew she was in a vulnerable position, I just wanted to be there for her beyond my capacity as her bodyguard. But that also meant I couldn’t be dragging my cousin’s firm into my actions. “If I’m no longer an employee of Blackthorn Security, then you’re no longer responsible for my actions when it comes to Izzy. The decision will be hers to make as to whether or not she wants me around, and if she does want me around, then it won’t be as her security detail—though I’ll keep her safe in any way I can.”

  He shook his head, his hands on his hips as he looked at me in disbelief. “Are you sure this is what you really want?”

  “I’m not saying I won’t keep my distance, since I’d be nothing but a fucking asshole if I tried to pursue her with everything that’s going on. But I want to be there for her and not just until my shift ends.” The girl had brought out my protective streak, and it wasn’t something I could just switch off when I clocked out for the night. I needed to make sure she was okay, and I needed to be there for her, no matter what she needed.

  I’d heard my brothers joke about how when a Blackthorn fell for a girl, he fell fast and hard—and I’d always laughed it off, thinking it’d never happen to me. Yet now…I let the thought drift away, not ready to go there just yet.

  “Look…I get it. I really do, especially after what happened to your father. Which is why I’m not letting you quit—at least not yet. Like you said, this isn’t going to go any further anytime soon, given the current circumstances. So stay on until this gets sorted, and if circumstances change and you have to quit, I’ll accept your resignation then.” Emerson clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Right now, she needs you to be there. Nothing more. So go, and keep her safe. And Slater… Keep a clear head on your shoulders. This asshole’s dangerous.”

  “I’m not letting her out of my sight.” We headed back to Elena’s room, and I sat by Izzy’s side, saying nothing, though I did take her hand in mine, letting her know that I was there for her, should she need anything. And when she could no longer keep her eyes open, I was there to offer her my shoulder, as I continued to watch over them both, the silence of the room interrupted only by the muted yet constant beep of Elena’s heart monitor, turned down low.

  Yet by morning, Elena still hadn’t awoken. Izzy finally got changed out of her dress and heels and into a comfortable sweater and pair of jeans, though there was no remedy for the worry in her green eyes or the dark circles that left her looking haunted. Colton brought us all donuts and coffee from one of the local coffee shops, though Izzy didn’t touch any of it, leaving me even more worried about her.

  “You need to eat something to keep your strength up, Izzy.” I handed her a cup of coffee, hoping that she might drink it if she was holding it, and if nothing else, it would warm her hands and give her a small sense of comfort.

  “Thank you.” She took the cup from me and took a sip, before holding it in her lap, her head hung low, looking defeated. “She looks so unlike herself, Slater. So weak and lifeless, when she was always such a force to be reckoned with. Shouldn’t she be awake by now?”

  “I don’t know… I think it changes from patient to patient, depending on the injuries. My father…” Fuck. I hated that the mere thought of my father’s murder could still make me so emotional. “It took my father some time to finally wake up. He…he’d been targeted. His vehicle was hit at full speed…”

  “Oh, Slater…I’m so sorry.” Izzy’s eyes glistened with tears, as I was left feeling like a shit for making her feel bad when she was already dealing with her own problems. “I hadn’t realized. But…he was okay afterwards?”

  “He was.” Until his murderers came back and finished what they’d started, though I wouldn’t tell her that. She needed to hold onto whatever hope she could find, instead of having me bring her down and make things worse.

  Yet she was too smart for her own good—or I was really crap at hiding my feelings. “What happened?”

  Fuck. I didn’t want to go there, but I knew I had no choice. “The men who’d hit him eventually came back. At least we think it was them. He was ready to come home, and then all of a sudden he was gone. The doctors said it was a heart attack, but…it wasn’t. They somehow managed to get to him.”

  “I’m so sorry, Slater.” Her tears rolled down her freckled cheeks as she reached out and gave my hand a squeeze. “I don’t even know what to say.”

  Chapter Ten

  Isabelle

  “It’s okay, Izzy.” Yet the sigh Slater let out, even as he pulled me into his arms, told me that he was still hurting from losing his father.

  My heart broke for him. I had no idea that he’d been through so much. Yet knowing that he’d been through something so similar to what I was now experiencing only made me feel closer to him, despite the short amount of time I’d known him. I swiped at my tears and slowly sat up out of his embrace just enough to look at him, the air between us sparking with energy.

  He was so close…and it’d be so easy to lose myself in him and forget all my problems.

  But then he was pulling away, the spell broken as I was left feeling disappointed and even more distraught. What the hell had I been thinking anyway? I was in my mother’s hospital room, for fuck’s sake. And it’s not as if he was interested in me anyway.

  Then the unthinkable happened.

  My mother’s monitors went crazy, her heartbeat erratic as her blood pressure dropped. I stood there, helpless, even as a team of doctors and nurses rushed in. Slater pulled me aside, holding me to him, cradling my head against his chest as my eyes squeezed shut against the river of tears. Because I knew that she was gone…just as the flat, monotonous tone of my mother’s heart rate on the monitor signaled her death.

  They tried to shock her heart back to life. Tried it again and again. Yet the tone ringing through the room persisted until someone eventually turned off the monitor and the doctor finally approached me.

  I knew my mother’s doctor was speaking to me…knew that he was telling me that my mother was gone. He said something about her likely suffering from a blood clot that traveled to her brain, a result of her extensive injuries. Yet the w
ords barely penetrated the fog of my grief as I lost the only family I had left.

  I wept in Slater’s arms, grateful that he was there for me when I had no one else. At some point, he steered me into a car and took me home, though it was all a blur. I knew there was so much to do, to plan, but I couldn’t string together a coherent thought beyond the fact that my mother was dead.

  She was dead, and I was alone.

  I spent the next few weeks burying my mother and dealing with her lawyers to settle her estate. It had all left me emotionally drained and spent, my body hollow and my soul broken. Not that the police had figured out who was behind my mother’s murder. Whatever leads they’d had, had run cold, which meant that I still had Blackthorn Security watching my every move—for which I was grateful.

  Through it all, Slater and Colton had been by my side, not just guarding me and keeping me safe, but doing their best to keep me sane when all I wanted to do was crawl under my blankets and never come out again.

  “I think you need to have a little bit of fun. Or at the very least, you need to get out of the house—even if you just head to the lab. Or…maybe I could take you for a ride along the coast? There are some gorgeous little towns, and the views are breathtaking.” Slater took my hands and pulled me up off the sofa. “You’ve been dealing with a lot, but you need to remember that you still have a life to live.”

  He may be right, but it was still too soon, my guilt too heavy to bear. I had been in my mother’s hospital room, sitting there in his arms, hoping he’d kiss me, while my mother’s life had been slipping away. How the hell was I supposed to live with myself? Yet Slater…he’d been my rock these last few weeks.