Page 59 of Just One More Moment

The guard fidgeted, unable to meet Remy’s angry glare. “I got a phone call from my wife. My kid was rushed to the hospital and I stepped away for a second so I could take the call and hear her over all the noise.”

A muscle throbbed in Remy’s temple, the beginning of a painful headache caused by his feeling of impotence. “So you left your post and now the woman you were assigned and paid to watch is missing!” he yelled.

“I’m sorry. It was an emergency—”

“So you don’t know where Raven is, do you? You should have had eyes on her the second she stepped outside!”

The man winced, clearly contrite, but Remy didn’t give a shit. “You took a call and walked away at the same time we had a bomb scare that in all probability was a setup?” Remy shook his head in disgust. “By tomorrow you’ll be out of a fucking job.”

He spun around and stalked back across the street in time to see a woman run out of an alleyway, two blocks away. From her black clothes and ponytail, he thought it was Raven. The moment she screamed for help, her voice confirmed it.

As he ran toward her, a man grabbed her ponytail and she tripped, falling onto her knees on the hard concrete, only to be pulled by her hair once more. Remy picked up speed. Before he reached her, a stranger yelled and shoved the man who had to be Lance away from her. He stumbled and fell into the street at the same instant the ambulance, siren on, slammed into him, sending him into the air before he hit the ground and lay motionless.

“Raven!” Remy reached her seconds later and she threw herself into his arms.

“Tell me you’re okay,” he said into her hair.

She sniffed and tilted her head back to look at him. Red marks marred both sides of her mouth and he gently ran a finger over the bruising, anger welling inside him.

If Lance wasn’t already injured and surrounded by police, Remy would be pounding the bastard’s head onto the pavement.

“What happened?” he asked quietly, knowing they had just minutes before the police walked over to question her.

She shook her head, obviously not ready to explain, so he ran his hands along her arms to calm her. “It’s okay. But you are going to have to talk to the police. We need to get your statement on record before Lance regains consciousness and talks.” No doubt the asshole would spin his own tale.

Remy also wanted her cared for by a doctor.

“He’s high,” Raven said, her teeth chattering, shock obviously setting in. “And he has a gun.”

“Couldn’t ask for anything better,” Remy said. Nothing had gone as planned today but Lance had sealed his own fate. “Are you hurt anywhere else?” he asked.

She shook her head and he took comfort in the fact that she was still fully dressed in her work clothes. She might be traumatized but she hadn’t been raped, and for that he was grateful.

“Miss?” A uniformed cop Remy didn’t know walked over. “This gentleman said you ran out of the alley screaming and the guy who was hit by the ambulance was chasing you and had a gun.”

Remy and Raven glanced at the man who’d saved her and Remy gave him a grateful nod.

“Can you tell me what happened?” the officer asked.

Remy held up a hand. “Can’t she get checked out by the paramedics first?”

Beside him, she trembled but said, “I want to get this over with.”

Remy glanced at the officer. “Then can you at least get her a damn blanket first? Her teeth are chattering.”

The officer inclined his head and extended his arm, gesturing toward the second ambulance with an open back door, and they headed that way.

The female EMT took one look at Raven and ducked into the back, returning with a mylar blanket and wrapping it around Raven’s shoulders.

When Raven smiled at the paramedic, Remy was able to breathe for the first time.

He waited beside the ambulance, pacing as Raven had her palms and knees treated by the female EMT with whom she’d bonded.

Garrett arrived and took his place by Remy’s side. “You okay?” he asked.

Remy rolled his neck, rubbing the tense muscles with his fingers. “Not sure. Those minutes where I couldn’t find her were endless.” He hadn’t been sure his heart would survive it. “When I saw her running from that bastard…” He shook his head.

“She’s tough,” Garrett said. “And she’s okay.”

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