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Lucas didn’t blame her for using any method she could to get information. If he were in her shoes, he’d be doing the same thing. Still, he found it interesting that, rather than Deputy Walsh, she was coming to see him.
He tried not to sound too pleased as he noted, “So you thought you’d track me down here and I would?”
He would. He definitely would. There was something about Tessa Sullivan. Whether it was her beautiful face, her sweet outlook or the innocence he sensed deep within her that made him feel so protective toward her, he'd had the urge to look out for Tessa since the instant their eyes first locked. Caitlin never needed him to protect her, not really, and he found that it felt good to be so important to another person.
The jut of Tessa’s chin dared him to refuse her. “I thought— wait.” She spun around, took a step away from the building. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“I thought I heard a cat in the woods before,” she explained as she started down his driveway. She pointed at the trees. “The sheriff told me there aren’t any strays, but I know what I heard. That sounded different.”
Lucas started to go after her. “What did it sound like?”
“I don’t know. I thought I heard a click or something. Like maybe—”
At first, he thought it was a firework going off. A loud pop, the whizzing sound of the bullet streaking through the air, the slam when it struck the facade, chips of brick flying everywhere. But no one aimed fireworks at other people, and there wasn’t an impact if they did, more of a contained explosion. Lucas understood all of this in the split second after the shot rang out.
An instant later, he realized that someone in the woods had just fired a gun at them.
Like a deer caught in a hunter’s crosshairs, Tessa froze at the end of the driveway. She threw her hands up in the air, as if that would do something to ward off the gunshots.
Lucas was already moving. Before his brain fully grasped what the hell was going on, his arms were pumping, his legs flying as he ran to her, shouting, “Tessa, no!”
He grabbed her, tucking her under his chin as he wrapped his arms around her. He covered her entire body with his, making it impossible for her to be hit. The first shot was wild, striking the front of his office building. If the erratic shooter fired again, odds were that neither one of them would be struck. Lucas wasn’t a gambler. Zero odds were the best odds. He wouldn’t let her get hurt.
And that’s when the second shot went off.
Aim was better that time. The bullet came within centimeters of burying itself in Lucas’s upper arm. Heat flared across the skin where the bullet tagged him, followed by the warm rain of blood as it started to spill. He wasn’t shot, but he was definitely hit. Cursing under his breath, he tightened his hold on Tessa in case the gunman fired a third time.
Seconds turned to minutes without another pop. Lucas’s labored breathing filled the air, mingled with Tessa’s panicked mews. She clawed at his arms, trying desperately to escape the cage they made.
The tinny buzz in his ears cleared enough for him to begin to make out her words. She was talking to him, saying something. His arm stung like hell. It took everything he had to ignore the sudden excruciating pain and focus on Tessa instead.
“Let me go! Let go of me! You shouldn’t have shielded me. You’ve been hit, you moron!”
Not the thanks he’d been expecting, Lucas thought. Gingerly moving his sore arm, testing it, he kept her hidden in his embrace. “I know, but it’s better than you being shot. It was just a graze, I promise.”
“How do you know?” she demanded.
“Because I can feel it.” And it fucking hurt. “I won’t let you go until I’m sure there won’t be any more stray bullets coming at us.”
Tessa stomped on Lucas’s shoe. That didn’t hurt—she was barely more than a hundred pounds, his boots were reinforced, and, besides, the heat and pain radiating from his injured arm meant nothing less than a broken bone was going to distract him from it.
Still, the shock he felt at her attempt to disable him was enough for him to drop his arms in surprise. Taking advantage of his lapse, Tessa ducked out of his embrace.
“Where did you get hit? I want to make sure you’re okay.”
Leaving his bad arm hanging at his side, Lucas looped his good arm around Tessa. He hugged her close, tightening his grip when she struggled to get free. “I’ll show you,” he promised, “after we get inside. We’re sitting ducks out here. I don’t want either of us getting shot at again.”
Tessa wrapped her arm around his waist. Considering he was more than a head taller than her, he thought it was sweet that she was trying to help support him as they zig-zagged their way back inside the safety of his office. Once they were in, Tessa pushed the front door closed and locked it.
“The wound. Let me see.”
Lucas was already peeling off his lab coat. He had on a short-sleeved t-shirt underneath which meant that he only had one layer of fabric protecting him against the bullet. The graze burned through the white coat before taking a chunk out of his arm. He watched the blood drip down his skin with a profession
al eye. It felt a lot worse than the injury was.
He’d gotten very lucky.
