Know Me Well (Wishful 3)

Liam did crush her to him then. “Oh God, oh God, I thought I’d lost you. You shaved at least ten years off my life.”

Riley wrapped her arms around him as the police arrived, spilling out of their cars. “You came.” She was shaking. Or maybe he was. Liam didn’t know.

“Christ Riley, how bad are you hurt?” Judd was already radioing for an ambulance before she could answer.

Riley eased away a bit, making a visible effort to pull herself back together. “Not bad. One of the robbers got shot. Bullet nicked the femoral artery. I’ve got a tourniquet on him, but he lost a lot of blood.”

“How many were there?” Judd asked.

“Two. After his partner got shot, he took the bag of drugs and ran. I don’t know which way. Um, white male. His shoulder came to the top of my neck, so, maybe 5’10” or so. Dark clothes. Ski mask.”

Judd radioed dispatch.

Two assailants. At least one gun. A dozen scenarios unfolded in Liam’s mind, none of them good. And yet Riley wasn’t the one who got shot. “He shot his partner, not you?”

“My fault. I stabbed him with an Epipen in the process of trying to disarm him.

“You—” He felt another five years shaved off his life as he imagined how that went down.

“I got the gun. Just like you taught me. Well, almost. I went down in the process and the other guy got away.”

“I’ll be proud of you when my heart starts beating again.”

“Oh, speaking of—Judd, the other guy won’t make it far. You should be looking for somebody sweating profusely, having massive heart palpitations. If he hasn’t had a straight up heart attack by now. He might show up at the ER, if he can get there.”

The police sprang into action around them.

Riley straightened. “You should probably let me go. I’m disgusting.”

Liam cupped her uninjured cheek. “Not a chance. I’m hanging on, and I’m taking care of you. And you can hate it as much as you want, but you’re going to have to learn to get over it.” Probably an ultimatum wasn’t the best tactic with a traumatized woman, but his own heart hadn’t slowed to anything resembling normal yet.

She let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “Liam I—”

“I need to do this, okay?”

Her lip wobbled but she held the tears back and nodded. “I’m sorry for the things I said.”

Liam shook his head. “None of it matters. You’re okay. That’s all I care about. Everything else can wait.”

As his mother’s car, the ambulance, and more police cars arrived, he thought it might have to wait quite a while.

~*~

The door slammed and Riley flinched, hearing again the shot that had so very nearly hit her. The shot that could’ve ended everything.

Liam pulled her closer, pressing a kiss to her brow. He’d stayed by her side, a rock, through the whole thing.

“We’ll need you to stay on-site, while we finish collecting evidence.” The agent from the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics offered her an apologetic smile. “And I’m sure we’ll have more questions.”

Of course you will.

“Fine.” She might have to bust out the No Doze to make it, but she’d do what had to be done and fall apart later. She was good at that. But she wished, oh how she wished, she could do more than wash the blood from her hands. Her clothes were stiff with it and the faint smell of copper coated the back of her throat, making her gag. She just wanted to go home.

“Have you cleared the apartment upstairs?” Liam asked.

“It was still locked, and a sweep didn’t turn anything up,” Judd said. “So yeah, it’s clear.”

“Then you can be done with her for long enough to shower.” Liam’s tone brooked no argument.