Page 59 of Inevitable
Even though it was late, neither one of us had been tired after Emma had finished her chat with Sara outside.
I’d grabbed Emma a glass of wine and another beer for myself before we’d headed out to the deck.
We were seated in the same loungers that Brock and I had occupied earlier.
“I’m working on it,” I assured her. “These bastards are slippery and the kidnappers aren’t talking, but I’ll find them eventually.”
Yeah, Nick was a friend and I cared about his safety, but my reason for tracking the kidnappers was intensely personal.
I wanted the assholes who had kidnapped Emma to get apprehended as quickly as possible.
“You’re working on it yourself?” Emma asked curiously.
“Of course I’m working on it with Nick,” I confirmed. “Do you really think I wouldn’t be doing everything I can to catch the men who nearly killed you, Emma? Nick is throwing all of his resources toward it in Lania, but his governmental agencies just aren’t as sophisticated as ours. Not to mention the fact that theUS Government takes the kidnapping of US citizens pretty damn seriously.”
“Do they know about the kidnapping?” she questioned.
I turned my head to look at her. With the porch light on I could see her puzzled expression.
“They know everything,” I said jokingly. “You just won’t always know what they know.”
Tracking the men behind the kidnapping was a huge priority for our government right now, but I would have been doing the same thing I was already doing even if they weren’t paying me to do it.
Lania had been a pain in the ass for the US for decades, and the last thing they wanted was more trouble and more kidnappings in the future.
“When I talked to Nick a few days ago, he didn’t sound like he was worried about his own safety,” Emma said unhappily.
“He’s not,” I admitted to her. “He’s more worried about the fact that they kidnapped you and he’s worried about the stability of his country. But he’s not taking unnecessary risks, Emma. His bodyguards are surrounding him all the time. You don’t need to keep fretting over his safety. They protected him from getting killed during the assassination attempt. The only one who suffered was you.”
“I’m fine,” she said dismissively. “He had his bodyguards. I had you and Last Hope to rescue me.”
“Are you really fine, Emma?” I questioned with a frown.
She acted like she’d recovered well from her kidnapping, but I was still concerned.
Emma nodded earnestly. “I really am fine, Colin. I think the only thing that still bothers me is that awful assassination attempt. I’m afraid it will happen again and Nick won’t be so lucky next time.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that you could have been killed by one of those flying bullets?” I ground out.
She shook her head. “No. They weren’t aiming at me. They wanted Nick.”
Christ!Her nonchalant attitude drove me completely insane.
Bullets could ricochet and misplaced shots killed people all the time.
Thoughts of Emma being killed during that hail of bullets fucking haunted me all the damn time.
Hell, maybe it was better if she didn’t know just how much danger she’d be in, but her offhandedness about her own safety irritated the hell out of me.
Just the thought of anything happening to her made my gut wrench.
“I’d prefer to never see you in that kind of situation again,” I informed her.
Thatwas putting it mildly.
I’d probably lose my shit if I had to go through that again.
Emma reached across the small table between us and put a hand on my forearm. “I’m safe, Colin. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen again.”
