Page 18

The tall man stood, his arms out, both like he counted on needing to spot me and catch me as I fell from the unsteady balance on my own feet and like he was anticipating the need to ward me off as a wild animal.

Shock sliced through me as I clumsily dropped back down, my ass hitting the floor.

He was so big, at least a head taller than me, his shoulders so wide. All those muscles and lean lines on his chiseled face and⁠—

I sucked in a panicked inhale. My lips remained parted as I stared at him.

“Do not scream,” he ordered again. His brown eyes narrowed as he watched me try to retreat. A thick shock of brown stood up, almost in a mohawk fashion, but the beard on his face was what cemented his bad-boy appearance.

His bad man appearance.

This killer, this intruder, was no boy. He was all man. Dangerous testosterone oozed from him. Masculinity radiated from him as he slowly stalked after me.

“I—” I sucked in another breath. Unable to think. To speak. All I was capable of was scooting back and following this survivalist instinct to distance myself from danger.

“Shh.” He held up his hand, again in that dual warding-off and offering-help stance.

I crawled back more, but the second my hand touched the foot of one of the men he’d shot dead in my apartment, I inhaled a sharp breath to scream.

Dead.

He’s dead.

There are dead men in my home!

He lowered to cover my mouth. In the same swift crouch, he holstered his gun under the suit jacket he wore. “Shh…”

I strained to swallow, staring at him in disbelief. In shock.

The breeze from the window wisped over my face, and that was the only way I could clue into the fact that tears were falling from my eyes.

The shock. The stress. The sensation of fearing for my son and the experience of my life flashing before my eyes with a gun aimed my way.

“Shh…” he repeated as he took his hand away.

“Who… What…” I whined, too panicky to speak yet as I dared to look at the two men he’d killed.

He’d killed them. Not me. But he had a gun. He’d come here to do violence too.

“How—”

“Shh…” he repeated.

“No.” I ignored how close he loomed over me and slapped my hand against the wall for purchase. I leaned on the solid surface for assistance to stand. “No. I won’t shut up. I… I… What is going on? Who are you? Who are they?”

Again, I swung my gaze to the other wall. Both windows were open. From the fire escape route, the windows had been slid apart, and that had to be how they’d gotten in. The only other way in was the front door and Carly had been there.

“How—”

I swallowed hard again. How could he have known those two men would be here and waiting to kill me as soon as I came in?

“What—”

I choked on my words again, overwhelmed.

“Mama?”

I froze, twisting in place to see Brady walking out of his room, rubbing his face as he opened his sleepy eyes.