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Melissa glanced at me. “—okay! Can we at least have another couple of weeks? By then maybe they’ll find something. Something to prove he’s an animal.”
Matt sighed. “It’s your call, Melissa.”
Melissa looked at me and nodded. I stood from the couch and went to stand beside her. I looped an arm around her waist and held the phone between us. “All right, Matt. Two weeks. If we think of anything that might help, we’ll get in touch. Have your guys start putting together a plan for a safe house, round-the-clock security, never less than three armed guards on duty, preferably in the city. Nothing too remote. We don’t want to get swarmed—”
“I’ll get it together,” Matt said, cutting me off. “I’ll call if anything happens between now and then.”
“Okay.”
We clicked off the call without saying goodbye, both sides irritated with the other. We all wanted the same thing—and were on the same side—but emotions were high and answers were far from clear cut.
“I can’t even think straight anymore,” Melissa said, collapsing onto the couch. I went to sit beside her, pocketing the phone in my jeans before lowering down. I stroked her hair and she laid her head on my chest. “Is this ever going to end?”
“It will.”
“Do you think I’m making a mistake?” she asked, looking up at me with wide, worried eyes.
“No. I don’t. You’re doing what you think is best for you and Jackson. No one can say that’s the wrong call.”
She snorted. “Your brother certainly seemed to.”
I smiled at her. “Well Matt has flipped the switch over into lawyer mode. He just wants to keep you out of jail.”
“God.” She rubbed her hand over her face. “How did this become my life? I know I’ve asked that a million times but seriously? Kidnapping, hit men, jail time? Those are words that belong in pages of books or up on the big screen. Not words I thought would ever be attached to my name. My life.”
I smoothed my hand over her hair, gathering it all together and tugged it gently to pull her chin up. I captured her lips with mine and kissed her long and slow. She adjusted her body to face me and straddled my lap. The kiss deepened and I pushed past her shirt and ran my hands along the smooth, warm contours of her back.
“Mmm, let’s take this to bed,” I growled into her ear. I was all for couch sex, but I didn’t want to risk Jackson running out searching for Melissa.
“Yes captain,” she said, smiling down at me. She pushed off my lap and spun around. I reached down to flip off the TV as I passed by. I’d left it on but turned it on to mute once Jackson had gone to bed. The nightly news was playing and providing a flicker of light in the otherwise dark room now that the sun had set.
“Wait. Chase, wait!”
I froze in place, my finger on the power switch. “What’s wrong?” I followed her stare and my heart screeched to a sudden stop. “Is that…?”
She nodded and I lifted my finger off of the power switch. “What are they saying? I can’t understand.”
The TV had flipped over to the news and beside the news anchor's head, was a picture of Henry O’Keefe. The volume was still muted, so I turned it up. I turned around to see that Melissa was sitting ramrod straight on the edge of the couch and I took a seat beside her, leaning forward to hear what the anchor was saying in rapid fire Spanish.
“There was an FBI raid…today. O’Keefe was…”
I stilled as the anchor said, “Henry O’Keefe, real estate mogul, husband, and father of one has been shot and killed during a raid carried out by the FBI.”
“What? What did they say?” Melissa was frantic, her eyes darting between the TV and me. “Chase!”
I blinked slowly, holding my eyes closed for a moment.
“Chase?”
I turned away from the TV and met her eyes. I reached for her hands and clasped them in my own. “Wow. They said he was killed in an FBI raid. He’s gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean, gone?”
“He’s dead. They shot him.”
40
Melissa
The details of Henry’s death spilled from Chase’s lips in slow motion as he relayed each line the TV news anchor was saying. I heard everything he said but most of it didn’t absorb. All I could hear was the echoing words in my mind.
He’s dead.
Henry’s dead. Over and over again.
I could barely breathe as I listened to him speak. I felt like I’d been swimming and suddenly got sucked under and was now fighting for the tide to release me again. I kicked and flailed, trying to reach the surface again, to breathe, but all it did was pull me deeper underwater.
“Melissa? Melissa!” Chase’s voice finally broke through the chaos inside my head and I snapped to attention. “Talk to me. Say something. Are you going into shock?”
