Page 105 of A Little Naughty

“I thought something happened to you,” I whisper.

I want to hold her in my arms. I never want to feel that terror again, but I’m so damn exhausted.

“Are you in pain?” Her pretty brow wrinkles, and she touches the wetness away from the corners of my eyes.Am I crying?

“No, beautiful.” I manage a smile. “Not anymore.”

Her face relaxes and tears shine on her cheeks. She kisses my lips, my cheek, my temple. Her warmth, her smell of jasmine. She’s here, and the relief is so intense, I feel myself fading.

Not yet.

Lifting my hand, I thread my fingers in the length of her hair. “You’re okay?”

Her lips press into a smile, and she leans closer, hugging me again as she whispers, “I am now.”

* * *

“Your brotherand the rest of the men are being held on charges of human smuggling.” Aiden is in my room, and I’m sitting up in bed a million times stronger than I was when I woke up two days ago.

I’m ready to get out of here.

Jemima hasn’t left my room since I woke—hell, according to the nurses, she hasn’t left my room since I got out of surgery.

Every night, she sleeps on that sofa, and every day, she sits at my bedside holding my hand and talking to me about everything I missed.

Bender got to the house at the same time as Bill. He found Porkchop out cold and couldn’t tell if he was dead or injured. Luckily, he was only sedated, which I know means Bill had been watching our house.

He knew we had a dog, and he was ready to sedate him, which means even if I hadn’t been at that dock, he was planning to show up at our place that morning.

I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.

As for what happened to me, I was shot in the abdomen, just missing my stomach but nicking my right kidney. They were able to repair the damage, but I’ve got several weeks of recovery ahead of me. In the meantime, I can’t lift anything heavy, and I don’t know how that’s going to affect my work.

“He tried to say you were involved in the job, but I told them you were working with me.” Aiden is in his uniform standing at the foot of my bed. “I said you had an inside connection, and you tipped me off as soon as you knew for sure the exchange was happening. Still, the Feds might want to question you.”

He clears his throat, and I wince, unsure how I feel about this not-quite-accurate cover story.

“Technically, it’s the truth.” Jemima’s voice is quiet, as if she can read my thoughts. “As soon as you knew what was happening, you called Aiden and told him. Then you raced back to protect us.”

“I shouldn’t have been there at all.” My tone is flat, guilty.

“If you hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have stopped them, and who knows where those people would be?” Aiden shakes his head. “Now they’re at least going through the proper channels and not being victimized.”

“It’s true.” Jemima moves closer, putting her hand over mine on the bed. “You stopped a crime from happening.”

It’s not the greatest excuse, but I have to concede it’s something. “What about Bill? Is he still threatening to take Nikki?”

I pull Jemima closer to me, putting my arm around her waist, wanting to protect her from any fallout from my actions. I was supposed to be helping her adopt Nikki, not making it a million times harder.

“Bill is dead.” Her voice is quiet. “I thought you knew.”

“What?” My eyes fly to Aiden.

“It was a clear case of home invasion.” I can see he’s more confident in this part of the story. “Bill shot you. Hell, he was about to kill you, and he was taken out in self-defense.”

“By who?” I look at Jemima and back at Aiden.

He shifts on his feet. “It wasn’t clear at first who fired the kill shot until ballistics came back. Bender was using a different pistol from the Glock Jemima fired.”

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