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“Where’s your daughter? Tia said you have a baby.”
Celine ran a weary hand through her thick wavy hair.
“She’s with her father for the weekend. Do you think all this will be over by Monday?”
Knowing that my brother wasn’t going to let Tia go back to her brother, I had my doubts. Because Arjun was a vindictive bastard, and he wouldn’t let it drop so easily. But I didn’t know how to say that to the woman who was basically an innocent bystander in all of this. None of this was Celine’s fault, and yet, she was the only one who was paying for it.
“I don’t think so, Celine. Can you stay with your family or with a friend for a while? You need to lay low and hope Monani forgets about you.”
She snorted in derision.
“He’s not going to forget anything anytime soon,” she said with a heavy sigh. “I’ll find somewhere to hide.”
“Are you sure?” I asked reluctantly.
I knew I should head out, but I didn’t want to leave until I was sure she had somewhere to go.
She nodded.
“I’ll be fine, but thank you for checking on me, Marcus.”
She looked up at me as she said this, her hazel eyes fixed on mine. A man could get lost in those eyes, I realized slowly. I swallowed hard and looked away.
“Alright. Take care, Celine. And here’s my card. Call me if you need anything.”
She took the card from me and walked me to the door. But before I could open it, there was a loud crack and almost instinctively, I threw Celine against the wall and covered her with my body.
“Was that…were those…” she asked shakily.
I nodded and kept my eyes trained on the door next to me.
“Gunshots,” I whispered. “We’re not safe here. Where’s your bathroom?”
She nodded to the door on the far side of the room. Dammit! To get there, she’d have to crawl all the way across the room, past the windows, and risk getting shot at.
But we couldn’t stay here and be open targets for the shooter. Although, now there was complete silence from outside. I didn’t know if that was because the shooter had left, or if he was waiting to get a shot at us from a different angle.
“Take my phone and call 911. Tell them your address. And then I need you to crawl over to the sofa and stay behind it. Can you do that, Celine?”
She nodded and took my phone from me. Her fingers trembled as she keyed in the number, and she sounded close to tears as she told the operator that someone had shot at her house. The operator assured her that help was just a minute away, and asked her to stay on the line until they arrived.
Barely a minute later, three cop cars pulled up sirens blaring and someone banged on the front door.
“Ms. Kramer, are you okay? Coming through,” called a loud voice before the door was thrown open and a team of first responders ran into Celine’s house.
“I’m fine. We’re both fine,” she said, as the paramedics insisted on checking both of us from head to toe.
“Did you get them?” I asked furiously.
“No, sir. There was no one around when we drove up. It looks like a drive-by shooting,” explained an officer. “We’ll need to take your statements.”
Celine looked at me doubtfully and I nodded.
“You need to tell them, Celine,” I said softly. “This has Monani written all over it.”
She shook her head, looking frightened.
“He’ll kill me, Marcus. He’ll go after Rose. You know how vindictive he is.”
