Page 153 of Triggered By Love
Except help was already with her, and he was kissing her and shaking her. Was she in or out of her body? She couldn’t tell.
“Avery, don’t leave me, please. We have so much to live for. So much to do.”
She forced her eyelids open and let his blurred image fill her heart with the pang of what she was leaving. A challenging life with a man who’d run roughshod over her if she let him. A man who ran toward problems instead of hiding in a hole. A man who if you told him something was hard or challenging, he’d insist on tackling it right away. A man who still felt the failings of others as his own, and most importantly, a man with a one-track mind and a one-track heart aimed solely at her.
A man who triggered all her most extreme emotions—from abject terror to rapturous joy.
She nodded, ever so slightly, fixing her gaze fully on him while black spots dotted her visual field.
He breathed into her mouth, keeping her oxygenated, and right before she saw black, she thought she heard him say, “Avery, don’t leave me. I love you so much. Come back, wherever you are. Your home is with me. Love me back, Avery.”
A man who’d love the most impossible woman he could, and he’d win, by golly. He would.
* * *
“This isa fine mess you got us in,” Chief Grimes yelled at Jason. “None of the suspects admit to injecting Miss Cockburn with the poisonous quill, and the surveillance camera was blocked by Blade’s big fat ten-gallon hat. What made you tell him to go in disguise?”
“He was off duty, and it was a private affair,” Jason said. “Did we get prints off the quill?”
“Are you kidding me? It’s a freaking quill dipped in poison. No prints.”
“Let me question them,” Jason insisted. “One of them will crack.”
“You’re on leave. Psych disability, remember?” Grimes pointed to his own head with a twirling motion. “Camden is in charge since this happened literally under his nose. What a shitshow. Now, get out of here.”
There was no use arguing with the chief, especially if he was covering up for one of the scions of New York society, either the Leaches or the Overtons or even the Cockburns.
How well did he know Damon and Chase? Why was it they’d left their sister at her most vulnerable moment? Damon chose to stay behind and schmooze with Alida while Chase went to get the car.
Could the Cockburn brothers have closed rank behind their father and sacrificed their wayward sister, the one who could cause him to lose the election if her escapades with the Leaches were exposed?
Jason wanted to beat them until they talked. Hit them hard, but he didn’t even have his badge or the authority to make an arrest. Pissed off beyond belief, he marched out of the police station where Finn was waiting for him in his car.
“Did you get anything?” Finn asked. “Did Saul spill or Ivanna? What was Trent’s story?”
“No fingerprints on the quill and no evidence any of them stabbed Avery. The only person they’re holding is Saul for calling in a false bomb threat at The Garden.”
“What about his camera? Did Blade capture it for evidence?”
“Blade says the memory card wasn’t in the camera. Saul must have slipped it out and discarded it. They’re combing the elevator and the entire floor looking for it. Blade himself put the camera in the evidence bag, so the card went missing between the time Avery was stabbed and Saul was caught. Ivanna and Saul were both searched, and no memory card was found. Saul claims he left the card inside the camera.”
“He’s probably lying,” Finn said. “Whatever is on that card is probably blackmail material, and those two grifters want to use it.”
“Or they’re covering up for their own guilt,” Jason said. “How’s Avery?”
“Let’s go back to the hospital. Kerry says Avery is doing okay. They gave her a blood transfusion and an antidote to get rid of the toxin, and she’s breathing on her own.”
“That takes a load off my mind,” Jason said. “Means we don’t have to go to the hospital just yet. I’m sure she’s busy with her family.”
“You don’t want to see her?” Finn sounded surprised. “The doctor says your mouth-to-mouth kept her alive until the ambulance arrived.”
Jason knew that already, but he wasn’t in it to get credit. He’d failed by the very fact Avery was attacked. He had to be missing something important.
“Later. Glad she’s doing better.” He had to keep his mind solely focused on the danger. Avery would be okay in the hospital and under police guard.
“What’s more important than Avery?” Finn’s voice grated on Jason’s nerves.
“Catching the killer.” Jason’s throat was as tight as gravel. “It’s one of the people in the elevator.”
