Page 116 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

She pulled the blanket back to reveal swaths of bandages, all the way from her toes to her thighs.

“Itchy. They put cream on them and gave me something to help with the pain, but I still want to scratch my skin off.”

“Good thing they wrapped your legs up, then.”

“At least they let me take a proper shower first. They didn’t want to, but I begged.” Her face crumpled. “I smelled so bad. He kept us like animals, all in cages.”

“I saw, sweetheart.”

I sat on the side of the bed and wrapped Kim up in my arms as she cried against my shoulder. And while I knew we’d had the best outcome with Rania pulling the trigger because that had allowed Georgette to pass over or pass on or whatever it was spirits did, at that moment, all I wanted was to turn back the clock so I could shoot the son of a bitch myself.

“The fucker who took you’s gone now, and I’m not leaving your side. Promise.”

“Will you stay with me? At my house? I know the case is over, but…”

Which part of “not leaving your side” did she not understand? “Don’t you think this was a drastic way of getting me to move in with you? You could have just asked. We both know what the answer would have been.”

“You’ll stay permanently?”

“If you’ll have me.” A sudden shiver of worry ran through my torso. What if I’d jumped the gun and Kim had been thinking of a more temporary arrangement?

“Well, somebody needs to learn how to work the waffle maker, and it won’t be me, will it?”

Thank goodness. A hospital wasn’t the best place for a proper reunion, but I couldn’t resist one kiss. That bullshit in movies about melting hearts and fluttering pulses? It was all fucking true. Nothing else mattered when Kim’s lips met mine. She tasted of mint toothpaste and heaven, but I pulled away before my cock burst through my damn zipper.

“I can’t believe you found me,” she said, eyes teary. “Some of the girls had been there for years, and I thought—”

“Don’t think about it.”

“I still don’t understand how you knew where to look.”

“Rania spoke to Margaret, and she helped us to identify Peter Turner’s car. Then a friend of Will’s hacked into the British embassy’s computer system and found the owner.”

“Peter Turner?”

“Yeah.”

“Turner? As in Robert Turner?”

“Peter was his son by his first wife. The black sheep of the family, by all accounts. From what we can ascertain, daddy dearest just gave him money and otherwise pretended he didn’t exist.”

Too late, I realised what I’d said, but before I could apologise, Kim got in first.

“I know how that feels.”

“Sorry. I need to think before I speak.”

“It’s okay. I’m used to my father acting like that now, and I never got the urge to kidnap anybody.” She managed a flicker of a smile. “And he cares in his own strange way. I’m not sure what he plans to do back in Washington, but I wouldn’t want to be in Robert Turner’s shoes right now.”

“Maybe I should send him a thank-you card.”

“Uh, I didn’t tell him about us yet.”

That hurt more than it should have. A little stabbing pain right in my chest. Yeah, I knew I wasn’t the kind of guy a girl wanted to take home to Daddy, especially a girl like Kim, but—

“I didn’t want my father to scare you off. When I was eighteen, he interrogated my prom date so rudely the poor guy climbed out the window in the downstairs bathroom and didn’t come back.”

And breathe again.

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