Page 74 of Life

“She’s not the one who has a maniac after her.”

I close my eyes. I’m getting so tired my eyes are closing on their own as if disconnected from my brain. “True. Can you just kiss me anyway?” I mumble, and then I feel the delicious press of his mouth to mine. For a second, I touch my tongue to his lips to appreciate his manly taste.

“Yum.Te amo,Cazador.” The pain takes its toll, and everything goes black once again.

Chapter Eighteen

Murmuringvoices bring me back from the fog of sleep. Without opening my eyes, I assess my body, moving fingers and toes. I shift around, and a dagger of pain rips through my left shoulder, spindles down my arm and out my fingers. I clench my fist and a warm, familiar hand surrounds it. Eli.

“You done faking, Spicy?” I blink my eyes at Eli’s familiar rumble, the fogginess and heaviness slowing my eyelids.

I smack my chops and grimace at the cotton mouth. He hands me a pink cup, and I suck down the heavenly water. It’s cold, refreshing, and exactly what I need.

“Gracias.”

“Doc says the cut is clean and the wound didn’t go deep enough to harm anything important. Mostly a surface wound. Still, you need to take it easy with the arm. You got twenty stitches though.” His mouth tightens into a thin, white line. “You got knifed, babe. What were you thinking?”

I take a breath, close my eyes, and open them, to be seared straight through my heart by his worried green ones.

“It was dumb. I knew we should have called the car. Gillian forgot, and we could see Jack just up the block. We didn’t…” I sigh and shake my head. “We didn’t think it was a big deal, but I knew. I felt the lick of evil at my heels with each step. I should have listened to my gut. Next time, I will.”

He brings my hand up to kiss it. “There won’t be a next time. You’re going to be under lock and key until we figure this out.”

“Cazador, you can’t make me a prisoner.”

“The fuck I can’t, if it keeps you safe.”

I grip his hand and bring it to my chest. “I love you, but that won’t work with me. I have to live. The second I let Antonio take that away, he wins.”

Eli lowers his head to his chest. His shoulders seem to drop down in defeat. “I wasn’t there. He could have had you. Killed you right on the street.”

I put my hand into the long, dark layers of his hair. “But he didn’t. I’m still here, fighting and surviving like usual. Only this time, I’ve got you in my corner.”

“Damn straight.” He brings my hand to his chest. “I don’t like this. Him attacking in daylight, right on the street? And how did he know where to go?”

I shrug and then wince as the pain shocks me. I hiss, unable to contain it.

“Easy girl, easy,” Eli coos, rubbing my scalp in a soothing pattern until the pain subsides.

“Maybe he, uh…” I cringe, trying to manage the pain now throbbing down my arm. “Maybe he knows where Kat lives?”

“Definitely possible. If he’s watched you, he’ll know you visited her in the hospital.”

“Hospital? Did anyone matching his description get admitted to any of the local hospitals for a gunshot wound?”

He shakes his head. “Not yet. The San Francisco PD is on it. Chase updated the chief. Says he’s sending a couple units to Antonio’s place to check in on him.”

He won’t be there. I know him too well. If Antonio wants to be found, he will be. Until then, he’s in the wind.

“There was enough blood at the scene of the attack to determine he was indeed shot, but we can’t be sure how much damage or where. Jack thinks he got the arm holding the knife, which is why your wound wasn’t fatal. He was aiming for the side your heart is on.”

“And Jack didn’t see where he went, or if he got into a car?”

Eli shakes his head. “No. His orders are to protect Gillian at all cost. He had her in the limo before he could even assess whether or not you were alive.” Eli’s face hardens into a mask of anger. “Fucker.”

I pat his arm. “Hey, he’s just doing his job.”

“Yeah, but you were the one attacked and the person of interest. He should have moved you first.”

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