He could see it was Bella, but that wasn’t what made him run faster.
Instinct told him that it was Kate who was in trouble somehow.
He’d put his life on the line if that’s what it would take to keep Kate safe.
He couldn’t do anything else.
Because it was in that moment of time that he realised just how much he loved her.
10
‘Connor…’ Bella was sobbing. ‘He’s trying to kill her.’
Connor didn’t even slow down as he reached the door. ‘Who?’
‘Her father.’ Bella was fumbling for her phone, trying to flip it open.
There was the sound of glass smashing within the lab. Connor pushed the door open with a bang and then stopped to get his bearings and see what was going on.
Kate was behind an island bench. The intruder was on the other side, using his arm to sweep a microscope and racks of glass vials to the floor with a vicious jerk of his arm. Then he saw Connor. ‘Who the hell are you? Get out. This is between me and my kid.’
‘Deal with Kate and you deal with me,’ Connor told him.
‘Ooh…’ The sound had an unpleasant, suggestive tone. ‘Fancy her, do you? You’d better watch out. She’s a bolshie little cow. Just like her mother was.’
Raising his arm, the man hit the side of the bench with something he was holding in his hand. A bottle. Connor could see the jagged edges of the weapon like knives protruding from shreds of brown paper. He waved it in front of him, jabbing towards Connor. And then his head turned towards Kate, and Connor knew what he was planning.
‘Get down, Kate,’ he yelled. ‘Get on the floor.’
He couldn’t stop to consider her aversion to being shouted at or ordered around. This was for her safety, for God’s sake…
Except she wasn’t moving. She was staring at Connor and he could see the desperation in her face. Without thinking, he launched himself into a rugby-style tackle that would have earned praise on a football field.
He wasn’t tackling the angry, drunk man, however. Connor launched himself at Kate. He reached her and caught her body, taking her with him for the rest of the fall, just as the half-broken bottle was hurled at the space she’d been standing in. He felt the buttons pop off the white coat she was wearing and knew her glasses had gone flying.
He heard a howl of rage from the man and new missiles were being found and thrown. Connor kept his body on top of Kate’s. Holding her still. Something hard hit him painfully on one shoulder and he tried to curve himself to cover more of Kate. She lay rigid beneath him. He would have to let her go so that he could get up and deal with their attacker, but not just yet. Not until there was a pause in this ferocious onslaught.
And then Connor heard new sounds. Shouting and banging. He raised his head to see two burly security men storming into the lab. Bella was peering round the edge of the door behind them, her face as white as a sheet. It took only moments for the security men to overpower the man.
‘Who is this creep?’ one of them asked. ‘And how the hell did he get down here?’
‘It was my fault.’ Bella wasn’t crying now. She looked agonised as she crept into the lab. ‘Kate? Where are you? Oh, God… are you alright?’
Connor eased himself off Kate but didn’t take his weight completely off her body. He knelt over her, reaching for her face with his hands. Holding it so that she had to meet his searching gaze.
‘You’re safe,’ he said softly. ‘You know that, don’t you?’
* * *
She felt safe.
How ridiculous was that? Her worst nightmare had just happened, having to confront her father again in one of his blind, drunken rages. He was still there, breathing the same air that she was. Connor had yelled at her. He’d thrown himself at her and it should have felt like a physical assault, and yet Kate felt completely safe.
Because it had been Connor who had grabbed her. Because he was here. Because he was looking at her like… like her safety was the only thing that mattered in the whole world.
And you could only look like that if you loved someone.
As much as she loved him?
