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Now, as her step off the curb faltered, everything crystalized in front of him.
The bright morning sun glared off the Mercedes’s front window. The smell of burning rubber filled the air with the acrid smell of evil intentions. People screamed, hands covering their open mouths and their children’s eyes.
He lunged for her, extending his arm every millimeter it would go until he wrapped it around Sylvie’s narrow waist. They went down in a heap, but he kept his wits about him enough to twist at the last moment so she’d land on top of him instead of against the unforgiving concrete. The street met his back, knocking the breath out of him, leaving his lungs empty and aching.
Tires screeched as the Mercedes peeled off down the street.
Sylvie lay sprawled across him, the back of her head on his shoulder. The sweet curve of her ass brushed a part of him that had no business waking up at the moment. Her honey-brown hair had come loose from her ponytail, a few stragglers tickling his collar bone. The smell of her lavender perfume surrounded him.
His arm kept her tucked close, but she wouldn’t be safe for long if they stayed on the ground and the perp came back to finish the job. Shaking off the sensual impact, he rolled their bodies to a sitting position while still holding on to her…and couldn’t help relishing the feel of her weight against him.
Though he sure as hell didn’t want to let her go, he brought them up to their feet and forced a foot of daylight between their bodies.
As he regained his ability to breathe, she lost hers.
Her breath came in short, shallow gasps punctuated by coughs that shook her shoulders and left her unable to do anything but fight to pull in enough air while staring out through wide green eyes.
“You’re going to be okay.” Tony pushed a confidence he didn’t feel into his words. “Just hold your arms up above your head.”
She complied, but her frantic gaze wouldn’t stop moving all over the ground and the cars lining the busy street. The gasping and coughing continued, making her eyes water.
“Do you have asthma?” he asked, guessing at the cause.
She nodded in a jerky movement.
“Is your inhaler in your bag?”
Another nod.
“Okay, folks,” he hollered at the gawkers crowding around. “The lady is having some trouble breathing and needs her inhaler. Please look around on the ground for her bag. Check under the cars, by the curb.”
People scurried around them, but Tony stayed put. Another set of coughs wracked her petite frame as she frantically watched the flurry of activity.
He grasped her hands in his, maintaining eye contact. “Don’t worry about them, just look at me.”
Panic filled her green eyes, but she turned her focus to him. He folded up the worry eating away at him and stuffed it in a back corner of his mind. He’d learned when he first walked a beat that freaking out wouldn’t do anyone any good. He given up the badge, but he’d never forgotten the lesson.
“It’s going to be okay,” he declared. “I promise.”
One short, firm nod from her.
A commotion sounded behind him.
“Is this it?” A skinny eight-year-old boy in a soccer jersey ran up with a yellow purse.
She pulled out of Tony’s grasp, snatched the bag out of the boy’s hands, pawed through it, and then yanked out a small asthma inhaler that she immediately put to her lips. She closed her eyes, threaded the fingers of her free hand through his, and squeezed.
Tense and needing to help, Tony was powerless to do anything but watch.
He despised every second of helplessness.
At last, her shoulders rose as her lungs took in a deep breath. A tiny smile curled the corners of her raspberry lips, which parted the slightest bit to exhale a sigh. Her long dark eyelashes fluttered before opening to reveal eyes so bright they reminded him of the green in the Italian flag hanging outside his Poppi’s house.
His dad had once warned him that the most dangerous women in the world knew exactly what they wanted and were smart enough to get it.
“What’s wrong with that?” his fifteen-year-old self had asked.
His dad had leaned in so his mother wouldn’t overhear. “Absolutely nothing. I don’t know about you, but I like a little danger.” His dad had laughed then, catching his mother’s attention.
