“Here they come,” Alex murmured to Connor.
Connor took a deep breath and squeezed Jessa closer.
“Everyone okay in here?” a voice called from the doorway.
Alex shielded his eyes against the flashing lights. “That you, Parelli?”
“Yeah, who do you have in there, Alex?”
“It’s just me, Connor, our waitress and six guys we would appreciate some help ejecting from the bar.”
Parelli chuckled and called orders to the rest of the officers on scene before walking inside the bar. Connor nodded a silent greeting to the middle-aged beat cop. Parelli was a good guy. He never gave Connor any crap about his past, unlike several of the others he’d dealt with in other situations.
“So, what happened?”
Alex quickly outlined their adventures. Connor remained silent, Jessa still wrapped in his embrace.
“You should go upstairs,” he murmured. “You can grab some of my clothes from the apartment and wash up.”
She fisted her hands in his torn shirt. “No, I don’t want to leave you.”
She could’ve demanded anything in that tone of voice, and he would’ve complied. Her soft eyes begged, and she was nibbling her lower lip. Connor suspected she was starting to come down from her adrenaline high.
“Your clothes are a mess,” Connor reminded her gently. “Just go up and get something to put on. You can come right back.”
She buried her face in his chest. “No,” she said, her voice muffled.
“Here, take this.” Alex shucked out of his pinstriped button down shirt and tossed it in her direction.
Connor started to pull away from Jessa. “No, she can wear mine.”
Alex shook his head and chuckled. Connor resisted the urge to hit him. After all, it wasn’t Alex’s fault that Connor couldn’t stand the thought of seeing Jessa wearing any man’s clothes but his.
“Your shirt is covered in blood and just as torn as hers, Connor. Get a grip, mate.”
Connor didn’t respond to Alex’s comment. But he backed away from Jessa long enough for her to pull Alex’s shirt over the torn remnants of her cotton camisole.
Blood, bodies, and a woman in his arms, how accurately could history repeat itself?
“Connor, you feeling okay? You look like you could use a medic,” Parelli drawled as he approached, clipboard in hand.
“Just some blood and dirt, Parelli, you know how it goes.”
The beat cop smiled, “Yeah, all in a day’s work for Connor Archuleta and his Phoenix Rising.”
“So, what do you think?” Alex prodded.
“I think I’m going to have to ask all three of you to come down to fill out a statement.”
Connor and Alex exchanged glances.
“I’ll lock up and follow you two down,” Alex murmured.
Jessa’s hazel eyes were wide with fear. The knuckles clutching the front of his shirt were white. When Jessa nibbled her lip, Connor realized how pale she’d gone.
“Hey.” His gravel voice rasped through her tension. “They just want a full statement of what happened so they’ll know what to do with those pieces of shit.”
“Are you sure?” she whispered, casting an uneasy glance at Parelli. “What if they try to put you in jail?”
“Don’t worry sweetheart, I was just doing my job. This is all routine, I promise.”
Parelli offered Jessa a warm smile. “We aren’t going to lock him up, Ms. Kincaid. I’ve known Connor a long time. We’re well past all of that.”
Chapter Nineteen
Connor grimaced as an EMT probed the cut over his eye. The man was trying to decide if Connor needed to drop by an emergency room for stitches. Jessa paced anxiously nearby, wringing her hands.
There weren’t words to express how sorry Connor was that Jessa had to go through all of this.
“He’s going to be just fine,” the middle-aged EMT assured her.
The sound of torn adhesive made her pause in her energetic trek across the room. Connor winced as the edges of his skin were pulled together. Gentle fingers applied the steri-strips to keep the cut closed. Connor sighed. At least there wouldn’t be a need for sutures.
Connor was grateful for the EMT’s understanding nature. He’d asked Jessa a few very probing questions in quiet tones before reassuring her that there wasn’t going to be any need for an invasive rape exam. Connor had been more relieved than Jessa to hear that bit of news. If she’d actually been raped on the floor of his bar, the beast screaming inside Connor’s psyche would’ve torn the station apart trying to kill the bastards who’d touched her.
The EMT snagged Jessa’s hand on her way past and tugged her into the seat beside Connor. “Relax honey. I’m going to go report back to Parelli. I’m sure he’ll be along in a few minutes to finish up.”