Page 112 of Obsession

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” I say to Hunter, but he isn’t listening. Instead, he has a strange expression on his face as he continues to study the cuts on my palms and arms.

“Hunter?” I ask again. “Shouldn’t we – Wait, were you shot?” A hint of fear creeps into my heart. “Are you hurt?”

I can’t control the way my eyes fill up, and the look on his face gets harder, and his voice is deep and gruff. “Stop crying. I’m fine.”

“I’m not crying,” I sniffle, wiping my tears with the backs of my hands and wincing at the movement as the shards of glass still stuck to my wrists move in deeper.

“Stop moving,” he orders angrily. “Why don’t you ever listen to me? I told you to get out of the apartment.”

“And leave you there?”

“It’s my job to keep you safe, Megan, or is having a man protect you a foreign concept?”

I think about what he just said.It’s his job to protect me?Does he mean that as my boss or as something else?

“He’s gone!” Lars’s voice comes as he exits the room with Parker on his heels.

“Yeah, it’s all clear, boss,” Parker adds. “We’ll go check the roof.”

“I’ll go with you,” Christian says.

“I’ll stay here,” Vaughn adds.

I plop myself down to the floor of the living room as the adrenaline levels slowly subside in my bloodstream.

“Go put some clothes on, man,” Vaughn tells Hunter. “I’ll work on sweeping up some of that glass.”

It’s only then that I realize that Hunter lost his towel a long time ago and has been stark naked since the shooting started.

“Come,” Hunter sticks out his hand, and I grab it. “Let’s see about cleaning you up.”

Then, the weight of everything that just transpired hits me like a ton of bricks.

We could have been killed.

And I fall apart.

Hunter sweeps me up in his arms and pulls me into his very tight, naked body, telling Vaughn as he carries me, “We’re going to be a while. You got this?”

“Take care of her,” he says. “I got you."

Chapter 40

I Won’t Go

HUNTER

Megan has never looked younger than she does right now, sitting before me on the closed toilet seat as I carefully pluck out the tiny shards of the glass stuck in her arms and hands. She’s trying to be brave, but every time she flinches, I have the urge to put my fist through something. Lars offered to do it because he had the training, but as gentle as his touch was, I could see the pain in her eyes, so I told him I’d rather handle it.

Her wrists are so delicate as I hold them. It would be so easy to break her in two. For a woman so tiny, she has this fierce spirit inside of her, which is like a flame that refuses to damper even when it’s on its last flickering ember.

I expected her to run.

I expected her to scream and escape like any sane person would have done.

But once again, she defied my expectations.

What she did was a dangerous move, but I’m pretty sure it saved both of our lives. However, she shouldn’t have put her ownlife in harm's way. I can’t even imagine the hell I would unleash on this city if something more violent had happened to her other than the glass in her hands.

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