Page 20 of Midnight Torment

I frantically searched for Megan, finding her crouched under the conference table at the end of the room, pale and shaking. Her huge blue eyes peered up and I was lost. My heart hammered in my ringing ears because I knew I would have been lost if she had died today. I held my hands out and dragged her against me, and my arms tightened around her as my chin propped up on top of her head. Her arms wrapped around my waist and she sank into me.

I didn’t have a single fuck left to give about the people gathering in the doorway to gawk at the devastation left by the hand grenade. It had been reasonably well contained, but there was still damage to the wall and the floor of the room.

Several of Flynn’s team arrived in police uniforms to herd everyone out of the room and take whoever that woman was into protective custody. She would never reach a police station or be charged with anything.

They proceeded to move people away from the conference room, putting scene tape up. I moved Megan to her office with Flynn behind me as he was technically a witness. Kerri sat at her desk, her hands shaking and lips trembling.

I messaged Ash and Xavier. We’d just finished putting everything into storage when Flynn texted me earlier.

Me:Attack at Megan’s office. Hand grenade. No injuries.

My phone blew up with incoming messages, but it was in my pocket because there was no way I was letting Megan go. Flynn nodded to one of his team, or technically my team, since I paid all their wages, and they moved to Kerri in the pretence of taking a statement and offering to take her home since she was in shock.

I stood beside the window, watching pigeons flying low in the London sky, while holding Megan. She never moved, her head buried in my chest. Anger burned low in my stomach, churning and growing hotter into a rage deep in my chest that threatened to explode and decimate everything around me.

“I thought she was going to kill you,” Megan whispered, her nails digging into my back. “I thought she was going to take you from me again.”

“Nothing could take me from you,” I said, kissing the top of her head.

Her body shivered against me, and I tightened my grip on her. “I had to live without you once and I don’t think I can do it again.”

I knew exactly how she felt because the memories of our time apart tore me to shreds. I wanted to track down every man she had been with and tear his throat out, starting with Mark.

Flynn walked into the office. “I got Pete to take Kerri home.” There was genuine concern in his eyes when he looked at Megan. She had that effect on people, her warmth dragging you closer to her. I nodded to the flower box still on her desk and he lifted it and removed it from the room without a word.

I lost track of time standing here with her, slowly moving my fingers up and down her back until she relaxed into me. I didn’t move even though a headache thumped at my temples following the blast. The only thing that mattered right now was Megan.

“What the fuck happened?” Xavier asked on his way into Megan’s office.

Ash wandered in behind him with his hands in his pockets. “You were lucky you got that behind the table. Nice touch with the coffee pot. It tempered the blast.”

Flynn followed them in and waved to Ash to follow him. He was probably showing him the flowers outside. My jaw bunched at the side at the image of that fucking box and what was inside it. Hatred bubbled like an effervescent cascade through my veins.

“Are you okay, Megan?” Xavier asked, stopping beside us. “Cassandra is crawling the walls and wants you to phone her.”

Her hands bunched my shirt up under my jacket and her emotions crashed into me as she slowly started to unravel.

Flynn reappeared in the room with Ash. “Our team has arrived to fix the damage. They’re dressed as forensics. My contact in the police has suppressed the phone calls coming in from the firm as hoaxes, and our jammers managed to stop the initial phone calls going out when it happened.”

This would have been easier to deal with if Kerri hadn’t followed me and started to shout. All we would have had to deal with was a body when everyone went home.

“I’m going to take Megan home,” I said to no one and everyone in the room. “This is her last day here. From now on, she is under constant protection.”

She stiffened and tried to pull back, no doubt to voice her protest.

I grabbed her face between my hands. “No more arguments. I don’t give a fuck who is divorcing who or if a dog is in a custody battle, you are sitting your sexy ass where I tell you and that is the end of it.”

Her lips pursed together even as the rebellion died in her eyes. The best way to protect her was for her to become a ghost. If they didn’t know where you were, then they couldn’t target you. Her eyes were huge in her pale face, filled with suppressed tears.

“Come on, we’ll stop and get walnuts for Simon on the way.”

She gave me a shaky smile. “He likes pecan nuts as well.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “I’m sure he does. The fucker is living his best life and getting fatter by the day.”

“Do I want to know?” Xavier asked.

“Nope,” I replied. “This is my own personal version of Purgatory in which I have to be nice to furry rodents.”

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