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Her voice had risen, and Caroline could see the woman was shaking. Caroline gripped the edge of the sink, her eyes on the gun. “I know your story,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry for what happened to you. For what you went through.”
“I have had to live without my daughter,” Marisola cried. “I wanted justice, but your father denied me that. I’m glad now that he didn’t die when I shot him. I’ve had to suffer life without my child. Now he will know that same pain!”
With a hoarse cry, she raised the gun. Without conscious thought, Caroline grabbed the ice bucket and flung it at the woman. Ice and water flew everywhere, and Marisola flinched as ice cubes struck her in the face. There was a sharp retort as the gun discharged, and Caroline felt the air stir near her face before the mirror exploded behind her.
Marisola’s feet slipped on the wet surface of the floor, and her face registered her surprise as she lost her balance. Her arms pinwheeled as she sought to regain her footing. Caroline spun away as Marisola tried to aim the gun at her.
Then the door of the bathroom exploded inward, and Jason was there, his own weapon drawn, followed hard by Colton and the FBI agents. In an instant, Caroline was in his arms, and the three other men restrained the woman, knocking the gun from her hand as they bore her down to the floor and wrenched her arms behind her back.
Marisola was sobbing and screaming at the same time, deep, anguished sobs that were full of grief and fury. “My daughter is dead, and he didn’t care,” she cried. “It’s only right that he lose his daughter, that he knows how it feels!”
The two FBI agents hauled the struggling woman to her feet and dragged her, still screaming, out of the bathroom. Caroline clung to Jason, unwilling to let him go.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, setting her away from him and sweeping her body with one all-encompassing look. “Did she hurt you?”
“No, I’m okay.”
“Christ,” he muttered. “Thank God.”
He hauled her back into his arms, and she could feel the deep thump of his heart beneath her ear. His breathing was a little uneven, and when he finally pulled back to tip her face up, she realized his hand was trembling.
“I’m okay,” she repeated, humbled and chastened by his obvious fear for her safety.
His eyes blazed down at her, and now that she was safe, she saw the anger that had crept in. His fingers tightened around her upper arms where he held her.
“I want to throttle you, Caroline Banks. What in hell were you thinking? You know better than to go anywhere alone. We’ve been through this over and over. Jesus!”
He released her to jerk away, raking a hand over his hair. When he turned back around, he was clearly still furious but had managed to regain some control over his temper. He held his arm out to her. “C’mon, let’s go.”
She moved toward him, and he held her snugly against his side as he led her out of the bathroom. In the corridor, a crowd had gathered, drawn by the gunshot and Marisola’s impassioned screams. Caroline could see her being led away by two police officers. Next to the ice machine, the man with the flowers stood with his back pressed against the wall, his eyes wide with shock as he watched the scene. Jason led her away, walking with her until they reached a quiet spot with nobody else in sight. Only then did he push her up against the wall, pinning her there with the hard weight of his body. He bracketed her face in his hands, searching her eyes.
“I don’t ever want to go through something like that again,” he muttered. “When I think how close I came to losing you—”
“No,” Caroline said, covering his hands with her own. “You didn’t. I’m fine. She wouldn’t have hurt me. I’m strong, and I would have stopped her.”
He gave a huff of disbelieving laughter. “Caroline, she had a gun. She would have killed you.”
“But she didn’t.”
“And she won’t get another chance,” Jason vowed. “Officers are on their way to her residence right now to gather information. You’re not leaving my sight until we figure out if she acted alone, or if she had an accomplice.”
“My guess is that she acted alone,” Caroline said. “She was a grief-stricken mother who had lost her daughter through a fluke of nature. She had to blame someone, so she fixed her rage on my father. And when she failed to kill him, she refocused her anger on me.”
Jason bent his head to hers, his thumbs stroking her jaw, his fingers warm on her neck. “I never want to go through anything like that again,” he murmured. “When I think what might have happened— I love you, Caroline. I think I fell in love with you that night when you were sixteen.”
