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‘Was she hurt?’ I roared toward Cole who was standing right behind me.
‘She’s all right,’ he tried calming me down
Though nothing could really calm me down in those moments. ‘Who did this?’ I barked at Bea’s bodyguard.
The guard didn’t seem to know much, and neither did the police. The ony information I could find was that it was a caucasian man who fired the shot. His description was so random that it could have been any man in the city. And that was freaking the hell out of me.
I felt fucking disarmed in front of enemy lines because I could feel it in my guts that the attack had something to do with us. And if I had any doubt, Bea’s observation cleared things for me.
‘She was wearing my coat,’ she whispered without being able to hold back a sob.
‘Do you think the attacker could have mistaken her for you?’ I asked, but she didn’t get to answer as the sight of her friend’s father brought her to tears.
I didn’t really need an answer. I knew she was right. She was the target and as maddening as the thought was, I needed to remain calm and get to the bottom of things. To do that, I had to know she was safe and that left me no choice other than getting her away from the Academy.
Initially, I asked Cole to take her home, but he needed to stay behind and give some statements to the police about what he saw.
The job of taking her back to the mansion was left to me, even if I was a barrel of powder set ready to explode.
One of my men brought my car around and played driver. I wanted to stay in the back with Bea, although I had no idea what to say or do to stop her tears. Ferris would have been much better at this job, or even Cole, but they weren’t there for her. I was, and I needed to step up to the mark and really be there for her.
Speeches weren’t my thing, especially when it came to matters of the heart. My comfort came without too many words, yet with a special meaning. Borrowing her fragile hand, I made it my momentary prisoner just so I could sneak it under my jacket, right above my heart.
I couldn’t give her words, but I was giving her everything else in return.
I was giving her my heart, hoping deep down it was enough.
My gift didn’t stop her tears.
She just rested her head to the place she just laid her hand, seeking the refuge I was offering, even if it was only for the drive home.
I couldn’t remain back at the house with her. My role was different in this story. I wasn’t the one who could comfort her, but I was the one who could protect her — at least that was what I thought at the time...
Maybe leaving her with Ferris should have also left me at ease. It didn’t. Not because I didn’t think he was going to help her ease the suffering. It was because that I did.
One way or another, he was closer to understanding her pain than any of us could ever be. And that was distancing me and pushing Bea right into his arms, forming an unbreakable bond. I wasn’t willing to lose him over it, and I wasn’t going to lose her either. And that was tying us together... The three of us and Cole since he was a central piece in our lives lately, one way or the other. We might not have known each other since kindergarten as I did with Ferris, but he was certainly in for the ride of his live.
I returned to the Academy, though nothing was new there. Everyone saw the same thing and not a single new piece of evidence that could help us. It didn’t mean I would stop. It just meant I needed to go to the Pit. If anyone knew something, it would be there. Money gets the residents selling their own souls and for the rest of the day, I made sure my men were digging up anything that they could find as I put a bounty on the assailant’s head.
By the time I got back to Ferris’s place, my head was pounding with the strength of a drum. Everything that had happened that day was transforming me into a nervous mess and setting my rage outbursts back to life.
I needed something to calm me and luckily my personal Valium was close enough to touch... Even if for the night she was to be found in Ferris’s room.
I had no second thoughts about going there to check on her, although it was pretty late when I arrived and they were already in bed.
‘How is she?’ I asked Ferris as soon as I got inside the room.
Though instead of him answering, it was Bea. ‘Miserable.’
The perfect description of the fucking day from hell, and it hadn’t even ended for Bea. She couldn’t sleep and from her invitation to the king-size bed, she needed me there.
It wasn’t the right time to keep her waiting, so throwing my jacket on a chair, I found my place beside her as she was eager to learn what I had found out that day.
I wish I would have had better news, but the information was scarce and the progress limited. It didn’t take long for Cole to show up, and if Ferris and I were finding our places beside her, he found his between her thighs. How specific of him, even if for that night, her warm flesh was only reserved for sleeping.
I was a sinner, but the idea couldn’t stop from blooming in my mind. I just needed to put it in storage for a while.
We all drifted to sleep, recharging our batteries for the long days that were to come. The morning found us in the same position with Bea cuddled in my arms. I could have remained there for long hours to come, but the importance of finding the killer was well beyond my personal rest.
