Cole(66)

“Oh.” He wanted me to drive. Check. I could do that. I started to step outside, but he blocked me once more. His hand touched the door in front of me. “What?”

He didn’t answer, and I couldn’t see his eyes. The moon behind him cast his face in shadow. His voice was soft when he finally spoke. “I need you to keep your head down when you go out there.”

“Why?”

“Do you remember when they first started shooting?”

I nodded, but my mind was blank. I’d switched from panic to fear to ‘let’s get this shit done, whatever that shit is,’ and I was still in that mode. I could follow orders, but… I remembered now—they hadn’t shot into the barn. The horses would’ve bolted. What had they fired at…?

Carl.

My knees buckled.

Cole grabbed my hand. He pulled me toward him, adjusting so my back faced Carl’s car. “Don’t look. Please. I don’t want you to think of him that way.”

I lowered my head, but I wasn’t seeing Carl in my mind. I was back watching Liam. He was in the intersection, waiting. He saw the truck coming, saw me, and he mouthed, “I lo—“

“Addison.”

“What?” I looked up.

“You’re okay?”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen bloodshed.”

Cole winced. I caught the faintest glimmer of it before he turned and led me across the clearing to the second barn. I wanted to look, but didn’t. When Cole pulled me the rest of the way around the corner, I sagged in relief.

Cole had begun to limp. He directed me to the driver’s side of his car. “Can you drive?”

I nodded. “Yes.” My voice was so damned even. I wanted to fold, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.

Cole studied me, but my answer must’ve appeased him. He gave me a clipped nod and went to the passenger side. We both got in, and I started the engine as Cole gave me directions. When we were on a highway, heading back to the city, he got on the phone.

“I need you to check on the horses. We had to leave,” he said. There was a pause. “There was an incident. You might want to wait a couple hours for it to be cleaned up… Okay. Thank you.”

His second call: “We were attacked. I need you to take a team; clean up the stables… Yes, it’s the one outside the city.”

The third one: “We’re coming back. Have the med kit upstairs ready… Yes. I was shot. It went through my shoulder, but there might be fragments. My breathing is more labored than it should be.”

He was so calm. When I thought about why he shouldn’t be, some of my control slipped. My hands started to shake, and I glanced over.

He noticed my look. “You okay?”

I drew in a breath. His tone was so soft, so caring. It broke more of my wall down. I jerked my head in a nod, refocusing on the road again. “I’m good.”

“You’re trembling.”

I was? Oh, yeah. My hands. I clamped them tight to the steering wheel and forced a smile. “See? All better. I’m good to go.”

“No.” He pointed to the side of the road. “Pull over. I can drive.”

“You’re shot!”

“I can get us a little farther along. One of my men can meet us halfway.” He pointed again. “Pull over, Addison. Come on.”

“No.” I meant it. “I’m good.” I rolled my shoulders back, sat up, and shoved all that shit out of my head. “I got this.”

“Addiso—”

I shot him a fierce look. “I said I got this.”

Our eyes caught and held, and I swear I saw a new emotion unveil itself in his eyes. I blinked, feeling that emotion answer in me, but I couldn’t focus on that either.

I cleared my throat. “Just…help me out.”

“What do you need?”

“I—” What did I need? My body was going into shock. I had to think about something else. “Let me talk about something else. I can’t think about what just happened or my body will start reacting. I—”

“That’s fine.” Again came that soft tone from him.

My throat swelled, and I blinked, pushing the threatening tears away. That really wouldn’t help.

“Go ahead,” he added. “Whatever you want to talk about.”

I didn’t want to talk about anything real, so I began spilling every little detail about Sia. Her men. Her job. How I hated going to her events. Jake. That he was a good lawyer. That he was in love with my best friend.

Nothing was off limits.

Even Dawn. How she’d accused me of bringing Sia in on purpose, how they’d bonded over something called a cross-stitch, how I didn’t really remember what they’d bonded over. How she’d stolen Sia’s phone. How she was the building’s shut-in, and did he even know that?