Page 12 of Too Guarded to Love

“Help is five minutes out.”

“Roger that.” He turned Olivia onto her side, his hand still firmly pressed into her shoulder. Grabbing the sweatshirt on the back of the chair, he packed it against the exit wound on her back.

Soft moans and warm breaths tickled his neck. Blood from his shoulder dripped onto his steel hand, between his fingers, and into her wound. Christ, he hadn’t known her an hour and they were already mixing blood. If they were vampires, they’d be mated or something. But then again, she’d been about to give him a blow job. That had to count for some sort of bond in some world.

God, he had to stop reading those romantasy books Valentina had introduced him to. The Mexican drug cartel princess who’d surrendered herself and secrets to VIPER in exchange for immunity might look like an exotic pixie, but her mind was dirtier than her fighting. He wouldn’t want to be the hero who tried to tame her.

He didn’t want to be any woman’s anything beyond a good time. Somehow he’d let Olivia lead him into a sex scene that ended with a bullet. Had the shot been meant for her? No, he had to have been the target. There was no other explanation.

Unless…

Memories of another bleeding woman ripped through his psyche. His steel arm and leg erupted in agony as if they were the flesh-and-blood ones that had been crushed in the Middle East. Cringing, he held Olivia closer to his sweaty body like she could shield him from the phantom pain and flying sand the impending flashback conjured.

He breathed in for three counts.

Held it.

Exhaled for five.

Did it again.

Nightmares were one fucking thing, but battling flashbacks during a crisis were unacceptable.

Focus.

He scooted his fingers to Olivia’s neck and checked her pulse. It raced under his steel fingertips as she murmured something he couldn’t understand.

“Help is two minutes out,” Ryan said. “Who are you with?”

“Olivia. Her rental got a flat. I got her out of the rain. Clothes came off. Things started. Bullet ended it.” And now she was bleeding out on the floor, and he might damn well be the reason why.

“What was the rental’s plate number?”

Nic rattled it off. The tow truck that should be taking Olivia out of his life, and out of his realm of responsibility, pulled to the curb. Yet, the protective beast inside him raced at the thought of interrogating the monster who shot her.

It also scared the shit out of him.

Ryan whistled. “Oh damn. A bullet wound is the least of your problems.”