Page 94 of Staying for You

“He’s known for his assassination skills. Dude’s a contract killer.”

“What. The. Fuck.”

Sawyer nods, sits down in the chair across from me again and leans in close. “This dude, he’s bad news. He makes killing someone look like it was an accident in a way that he’s not caught because he stays clean enough. But as with most criminals, they tend to slip up enough here and there that they get watched. This guy’s been watched for a while, just haven’t had a chance to pin anything on him.”

“I think I’m going to throw up.”

“That sounds about right.”

“Holy shit. I’m going to throw up.”

He springs from his chair and rushes around me to grab the plastic pan off the counter and hands it over. And I throw up everything I ate for breakfast.

Once I’m done, I stand up on one wobbly leg and use my crutches to go to the restroom, cleaning up and brushing my teeth. I lean over the counter in the bathroom and try to get myself under control.

This feels extreme. Like some sort of movie set I just walked onto. Where the woman I love, and I do love her, has a psychopath ex-husband who was plotting to have her killed.

I come back to the room and he’s sitting back down.

“Sorry about that.”

“No worries, man. I would have done the same if I’da just found out my girl was living with a guy like that.”

“What do we do now?”

“Let me take care of it and I’ll keep you in the loop. Get your girl safe. We’ll be watching. Trust us to handle it and do it well to the point where she and you both can rest easy.”

“You think I’ll rest easy?”

“If your girl’s beside you, yeah.”

I hope she is my girl. And that she is beside me. Because right now, I can’t think of an alternative that I’ll be able to accept.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Owen

“You have a couple visitors,”Autumn says, knocking lightly.

A couple? I thought Ethan and Olivia were at The Escape?

But then I see her and whoever she brought with her, who I assume is probably Gretchen, isn’t even a thought because Cami’s here and I can breathe easy for the first time in eleven days. Especially after the news that Sawyer just laid on me.

“Cami,” I breathe out her name and she rushes to my side, working hard to be as gentle as possible when she sits next to me and wraps her arms around my shoulders, burying her face into my neck as she starts crying.

“Owen,” she cries. Shoulders shaking and body quaking, she clings to me and holds on tight. Man, it feels good to hold her. I needed to feel her body against mine, see her face, know she’s safe. She touches my shoulder gently, looks at the sling that’s aiding in the healing process then down to my leg that’s in a cast from below the knee down. I’m lucky the break in my leg happened there and not higher so at least my cast isn’t a full leg cast. She then gingerly runs a hand over my head, as if she’s going to be able to feel for a lump that caused the concussion.

“It’s on the back,” I tell her and her eyes widen when she feels it.

A throat clears next to me and I know Sawyer’s grinning widely without even looking at him.

“I take it this is your girl,” he rumbles.

Cami startles, and looks around. Obviously, she was focused as well because she didn’t even see the enormous African-American cop sitting next to my bed as she ran to me.

She turns slightly, sitting next to me on the bed while keeping her arms around my shoulders and looks at Sawyer then startles again. I get it. He’s not small and he’s a little shocking. Reminds me of that dude onThe Green Milewho made everyone around him look tiny.

She whispers, “holy shit,” and I chuckle in her ear, not able to stop myself from kissing her cheek. I might not have the right to kiss her anywhere else, or even on her cheek right now, but I need to feel her skin against my lips, even just briefly.

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