Page 11 of Love’s Strongest Soldier

The security ran over to the desk where the women sat. “She was in a shoot-out.”

Everyone’s eyes in the lobby fell on us. I knew once they heard shoot-out, they were being nosy, trying their best to figure out where I’d been hit and what happened.

One of the women jumped up from behind the desk and said, “Follow me.”

Ghost carried me over to the door that she used her badge to open, and just like that, we were in the back.

A couple nights later

Luxe was angry with me. For the past couple of days, I’d been keeping her in the house since her incident. It was the safest option at the moment. She might have been mad, but she was complying so far. The shit that happened at the restaurant was a close call. I wasn’t sure how the shooter missed their mark, but it was fortunate for us. Maybe they weren’t mature enough with a rifle. Shit, we might never know.

Before I even left the building, I shot Savion a text to alert him on what was going on. He had a team out there in no time to see if they could find the shooter. I didn’t have time to be searching for anyone when I knew that Luxe needed medical attention.

Ever since the incident, I’d been beating myself up because shit could’ve been much worse than that. I keep asking myself how I missed it. I was the type of person that was normally on my toes. Nothing got by me.

As I lay there in bed, I searched the security footage for Luxe and didn’t see her anywhere in the house. I switched to outside and saw her in the backyard digging in her garden. It was too damn late for her to be out there playing in fucking dirt. I’d noticed that she spent a lot of time out there in that damn garden. Luxe acted like an old-ass woman. At the rate she was going, she wasn’t gonna be the old lady with the cats; she was gon’ be the old woman with the garden.

Tossing the covers back, I climbed out of bed and slipped my feet into my slippers. Usually, if I was at home, I walked around the house without a shirt, but whenever I left my bedroom here, I tried to make sure that I was fully covered out of Luxe’s respect.

Grabbing my T-shirt off the back of the chair in my bedroom, I slipped it over my head and left the room. The house was still. It was so fucking quiet in here that you could hear a pin drop.

It was going on midnight. I’d been in my bedroom ever since dinner. Normally, I just waited until Luxe was settled for the night before I sat down and ate anything. After I showered and climbed into bed, I was under the impression that Luxe was in her bed, probably sleeping by then, but I guess I was wrong.

I followed the staircase down to the first floor and headed toward the kitchen where the back sliding doors were located for the backyard. I noticed the porch light on, which wasn’t odd. Luxe always kept lights on outside the house.

Opening the door, I stepped out onto the porch and found Luxe on her knees in her white robe, in the garden. She had a helmet on with a light attached to the front of it so she could see in the dark. As I closed in on her, she didn’t even bother to look in my direction, letting me know that she more than likely didn’t have her hearing aids in. I’d told her several times since I’d started working with her that it was too dangerous for her to keep doing that. She needed to be able to hear her surroundings in case something was to happen. Of course, Luxe wasn’t gon’ fully listen to me, because dealing with her was like having a toddler. They did whatever the fuck they wanted and dealt with the consequences later.

I stopped behind her. She turned to the right and grabbed a plant. I saw something pale sticking out from the dirt near where she was kneeled. From where I stood, I couldn’t really tell what it was, so I leaned down and grabbed it, just to find out that it was a finger. A fucking finger still attached to a got damn hand, which I knew was probably still on a body.

“What the fuck, Luxe?” I gripped her by the shoulder, and her head whipped in my direction. Her gun pressed into my dick.

“You gon’ make me blow your shit off. You gon’ be around here with a shit bag if you keep on.”

“Why is there a body in your fucking garden?” I signed to her.

Luxe’s eyes expanded. I guess she didn’t expect me to find out her lil secret.

“You want to join it or something? Asking me all these got damn questions.”

Gripping her by the forearm, I pulled her to her feet and dragged her lil ass right into the house. The bottom of her robe was the color of the dirt like she’d been living on the streets her entire life or something.

“Why is there a body in your garden?” I signed to her again.

Luxe sighed and removed the helmet from her head and then said, “He tried to kill me, so I killed him.”

“Tried to kill you when?” My brows snapped together.

“While you were in there sleeping. I handled it though.”

By this point, I was over all the signing. I swiped her hearing aids off the counter and politely placed them back into her ears.

“What the fuck you mean while I was in there sleep?” I ain’t even been to sleep yet. There wasn’t any noise in the house to let me know there was any danger. She must’ve killed his ass smooth as fuck to get past my radar.

“I caught him creeping around outside when I came down to make me some tea. I couldn’t sleep.”

Luxe really didn’t seem like she needed my help around here. From what I could see, she took damn good care of herself. They taught her well.

“The next time something like this happens, come and get me. It’s what I’m here for.”