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My body began to tremble, and I felt like such a wimp. I’d already known Patrick wasn’t a good man. I’d witnessed him murdering someone, and I knew I was a target. There was no reason for me to suddenly feel worse about all of it.
In the next instant, I felt strong, protective arms wrap around me. Kane curled me into his body, and if it weren’t for the fact that I felt so disturbed by the situation with Patrick, I might have given myself the opportunity to really relish in the feel of being in his arms.
“He’s not going to have the chance to lay a finger on you, Ellery,” Kane promised.
“You can’t be certain of that,” I argued. “Anything could happen.”
Frustration washed over him. I hadn’t meant to point it out, so that he felt like I was questioning his ability to keep me safe, but the truth was, he couldn’t refute my point. Anythingcouldhappen.
“That’s why I asked Leo to do what he’s doing on this case,” Kane explained.
I didn’t understand.
Him asking Leo to look into Patrick didn’t equate to me suddenly being safe from my husband’s wrath.
I quickly glanced at Leo and said, “No offense to you, but I’m not sure I understand how that helps.”
Leo smiled. “No offense taken. I’m happy to explain. Essentially, while we can’t predict what Patrick might do over the coming days and weeks that could jeopardize your safety, I’m fully prepared to state confidently that I don’t think Kane’s going to allow anything to happen to you. My job right now is to build an airtight case. Your husband has two separate issues, at a minimum, that he’s dealing with right now. There’s the fact that one of his men was picked up with illegal weapons, and that man could easily be traced back to him. The other issue is you. Right now, Patrick needs to decide what’s more important to him. Does he want to focus his efforts on protecting his business interests, or does he need to put in the effort to locate you?”
Shooting him a look of indifference, I noted, “I think he might consider locating me to silence me one of the ways that he focuses on protecting his business interests.”
Leo nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Ellery?” Kane called from beside me.
“Yeah?”
“You were smart,” he said.
“What?”
His gorgeous eyes sparkled as his features warmed and softened. “I’ve already told you a lot of what you did when you got yourself out of that situation was smart. Maybe he’ll want to make finding you a priority, because he knows that you have the power to bring him down. But what you’ve got to realize is that you already knew so much of what to do to keep yourself safe. Creating a fake persona, opening a separate bank account, staying at a place he wouldn’t expect, and most importantly, coming to a place where you’d learn the necessary skills to defend yourself. We can’t say where his search will lead him, but you should feel confident about the job you’ve already done and how difficult you’ve already made things for him.”
That was nice to hear.
It was also reassuring.
Because this was the kind of thing that Kane did for a living. If he was able to view what I’d done as smart, perhaps I’d done a lot to increase my chances of survival. But I wondered what would happen if Patrick managed to get lucky and did locate me.
“Okay, but what if his search happens to lead him here somehow?” I asked. “What if there was some small detail that I overlooked?”
Leo was the one to answer those questions. “Since that is a possibility, we’re going to do everything we can to ensure there’s a rock-solid case against him. We’ll gather everything we can before we hand the information over to the necessary individuals. If it’s more than one or two illegal guns, which is what it sounds like based on what you’ve shared about the night Ivan was killed, you are going to be your husband’s last concern. He’s going to have not just his local police department breathing down his neck, but the ATF is going to come knocking, too.”
My eyes widened.
Obviously, that would be the case. But it wasn’t until Leo said it that it even dawned on me. I thought the worst of the charges that Patrick could be facing would be related to murder. I wasn’t sure it was the way it should be, but I had to wonder if selling hundreds—if not thousands—of illegal firearms would be a bigger legal problem for him.
God, I was glad I got out when I did.
“This is going to be a disaster,” I declared.
Kane and Leo both nodded their heads at me, but it was Kane who spoke. “Yes. But let’s hope the worst of it is already over for you. Until we know for sure, we’ll do everything possible to keep you safe from harm.”
I didn’t know what to say.
If I took a moment to consider everything, there was no question I felt an immense amount of relief compared to how I’d felt when I first arrived in Steel Ridge. And I was grateful that Kane, Leo, and everyone else who might be involved at Harper Security was willing to jump in the way they had.
It seemed a bit crazy to even believe it was possible, but given how quickly Leo had already turned up what he did without any information from me, and with the way that Kane had just asserted himself as my protector, I was beginning to wonder if maybe I would be able to get out of this whole mess with my life still intact.
