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Just the world’s hottest man wearing only a pair of pants and a murderous glint in his eyes as he takes in the scene all around us.
“What the hell are you doing, Cole?” I still have the bat in my hand and I almost take him out at the knees. Luckily, I’m able to stop the momentum of the bat, or I’d be calling an ambulance.
“I heard you scream,” he says helplessly. Then his eyes land on the man on the ground. “Who’s he? Did you kill him? If you did, I’ll help get rid of him. I don’t know if we can hide a body here though. Somehow, I’m sure we can get it figured out. Even if I have to bring in Emmett to help get it done.”
He steps between me and the unconscious man, taking control of the situation with a few words. I do my best not to fall apart. All the bravado and courage that had pushed me just a few moments before vanishes, and I’m suddenly exhausted. Not only that, but I don’t have to do it alone.
I’m not alone.
Without me having to ask, here comes Cole Morgan as my own personal half-naked white knight, offering to help me hide the body.
“He’s not dead,” I say woodenly, trying to get rid of the image in my head of disposing of a body with Cole like we would be on a date. “Unconscious and probably out for the count, though. I caught him trying to rob my dead sister’s house.” The words are bitter, and it makes me sick even saying them.
I sit down on the edge of the couch and try to take a deep breath, but the walls are caving in around me. Paint and empty space crowd my vision until I can’t breathe because they’re pressing against every part of my body. There’s nothing I can do to stop the panic attack from kicking into high gear. My chest aches, heart races, and I can feel my pulse beating in my ears and there’s nothing I can do except fade into the pain.
Until Cole’s there, pushing his way into my line of sight, putting one hand on either side of my face, saying something to me that I can’t hear. The edges of my vision are growing fuzzy and I can’t remember the last time I filled my lungs with oxygen. Until he presses his lips to my ear and then speaks slowly, making it impossible not to hear what he is saying.
“Breathe.”
I try. Really. But I can’t catch my breath. The panic has officially set in, and there is nothing that can get rid of it.
“Breathe, Casper.”
Slowly, ever so slowly, I calm down. The entire time, Cole is there, throwing everything I thought about him for a loop. He doesn’t freak out or move a muscle as I come out of the attack. He holds me close, breathing deeply so that I have something to concentrate on matching.
“You know, we should call the police if we’re not gonna be burying a body.”
The way he says it, completely serious, has me laughing even though I was freaking out a few moments ago. Even with the idiot burglar still passed out at our feet, I feel safe with Cole. I don’t even know the real him, but I know that I feel safe when he envelops me in his presence.
“My phone is upstairs.” I turn so that I can go grab it and swear I hear Cole inhale sharply. That’s when I look down and realize that I’m not wearing any pants. Which means that my shirt has ridden up on my hips and I’m not wearing anything underneath it.
“Nice ass.” He whistles.
Embarrassed and honestly a little turned on, I practically run up the stairs and grab my phone. While I call 911 and report the break-in, I also grab a pair of shorts and pull them on. After I give the police the address and tell them who’s in the house with me, I hang up.
Just a few seconds of peace, that’s all I need.
Breathe, Casper.
A knock on the doorframe has me spinning around and almost falling on my ass. Cole is standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, a wry grin on his face.
“Don’t get dressed on my account. I promise it’s not hurting my feelings to watch you.”
When I look over his shoulder, Cole knows exactly where my mind has gone, and it’s not back into the bed where we would both have a blast.
“He’s tied up with one of the curtains that was on the other side of the couch. I wanted to make sure you were okay. Oh, and that you didn’t change your mind about burying the body. He’s still unconscious. Breathing, too. I checked.”
“No.” I push him out of the way and walk back downstairs before I change my mind and jump on him. “The cops are on their way.”
Cole follows, and I have this crazy feeling that he really is trying to protect me. It’s a little too late to tell him that there is nothing for him to protect me from, though. I’ve already lost the most important person in the world to me, and there was no protecting me from that.
“Holy shit.” Cole stops at the bottom of the stairs where there is one picture still on the wall.
The last picture we’d ever taken together before Cassie’s accident. The one I haven’t been able to bring myself to pull down from the wall. Every time I try, I feel like I am losing the last piece of her all over again. The last piece of her soul that lives in her house. I know why he stops. Why he says what he does. Even before he says anything.
“She looks just like you. I don’t know why that surprises me, but it does.”
I don’t answer, though, because there are flashing red lights shining through the windows.
