Page 25 of Some Like It Deadly
Men in dark suits swarmed onto the sidewalk and Richard recognized them as Armand’s security force. He’d thought as much when he’d noticed the same car following them on their way into town. When he’d made Kate pull over to get flowers, it had been so he could confirm it.
“Mr. Prentiss?”
“Ms Braddock?” Five of them in all—though Richard had only seen two in the car. This close to the tower, the others had probably come down to see what the holdup was.
“I’m fine.” Tabling his rage for the time being, Richard ran his hands up and down Kate’s arms. “Are you hurt?”
“We should get off the street.” She glanced at the men surrounding them and her composure seemed to be waging a comeback. One of the men caught her arm and helped her up. Richard accepted the hand of another guard and then tugged her away from the suits. Water trickled across his hand. He glanced down.
It was red.
“Kate?” His gaze went to her wet shoulder.
“I’m fine, we need to go.” Cool, collected and offering him direction. “Someone was shooting.”
“We can handle the police.” One of the suits stepped forward, but Richard ignored all of them and pushed her blazer off her shoulder. It wasn’t soaked with water at all.
Blood trickled down her arm.
A man closed the gap and between them. They got the blazer off and he held out a cloth to put pressure over the wound.
“It’s a scratch.” Cool as cucumber, Kate’s mouth tightened at the pressure.
“We need a hospital.” He looked at Armand’s team. One thing he could count on them for—they would make it happen. They complied, hustling them both into the backseat of an SUV.
“Richard—” She started to cut him off.
“Shut up.” He wasn’t playing and he wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her closer so he could keep up the pressure on her arm. “You’re going to the hospital. Understood?”
Her eyebrows rose, but she nodded once. “Understood.”
Heart hammering, adrenaline raced through him. He should have just confronted Armand at dinner rather than trying tomake a point. If he hadn’t made Kate pull over, if he hadn’t tried to prove the men were following him—fury poured through him.
“I’m okay, Richard,” Kate murmured in a very soft voice and he knew it was for his benefit—the others were focused on the road.
“Shut up,” he repeated the words, but softened his harsh tone. He tucked her closer. She’d gotten shot at because she was with him. She washurt.
An hour later he stood in the waiting area, hands in his pockets, and staring hard at the wall. Two of the men in suits had stayed with him after he’d ordered a third one to stay with Kate. The doctors had taken her down for an x-ray despite her continued insistence that she was fine. When more dark suits filtered into the waiting area around him, he knew Armand had arrived.
“How is she?” It was a testament to their friendship that Armand asked about his assistant first.
“The bullet didn’t penetrate anything vital as far as they could tell, but they took her for x-rays.” It took effort to keep his tone calm when all he wanted to do was punch something.
“Good. How are you?” Concern echoed in the question.
“Trying to decide if I want to kick your ass or shake your hand and say thank you.” He read the other man’s face clearly. Armand wasn’t remotely sorry about the security despite Richard ordering him to take the detail off him. “I stopped because I spotted your guys.”
“Then they didn’t do their jobs well.” There was no apology in his voice. “Because you were shot at.”
“It could have been a drive by. Those happen in L.A.” A sad fact of urban life—not everything was a damn conspiracy.
“Except it was a single shooter. Reports said the man pulled over, got out of his car and opened fire. Descriptions vary. Thepolice will want to talk to you and Kate to see if they can get a more accurate description.”
The problem was Richard hadn’t seen anything. He’d been too busy looking at Kate. She’d turned him down at the house and he’d agreed to respect that decision. It was the smart thing to do and then someone shot at him—at her. “Why the continued detail? I thought I told you I didn’t want them around anymore.”
“No, you said you were tired of them being under foot. So I had them pull back.” A warning note echoed in Armand’s voice. “A decision I am currently rethinking.”
“No.” Richard shook his head. “I don’t need babysitters and I don’t need an armed force walking me in and out of the places I have to go.” Despite no one being close enough to listen, he kept his voice low, then bit off the next words on the edge of his tongue. They weren’t friendly and Armand didn’t deserve the biting edge of his temper—even if his best friendhadoverstepped. An armed cadre of men might look safety to some, but they’d do nothing but terrify others.
