Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I was grateful I’d opted to leave the crew on standby until I called. I’d felt confident in getting her invitation to stay the night, but then again, I’d made plenty of mistakes with her.
Like leaving her alone in her destroyed living room. Where the fuck had that man come from?
As soon as we were out of her building, our suitcase wheels clacking over the pavement, she began to return to life. She slipped her arms into the jacket and zipped it up, hiding her blood-soaked shirt. She grabbed the handle of her bag from me, making it so we could move faster and allowing me to pull out my phone.
“Register a flight plan to Munich,” I said as soon as the captain answered my call. “We’ll be on board in twenty minutes, and I want to be in the air immediately afterward.”
“I can’t go to Munich.” Kara sounded like a ghost. “I’ve got a meeting at nine.” A nervous laugh trickled out of her, like she only realized the ridiculousness of what she’d said at that moment.
I shoved my phone in my pocket. “Once we get in the air, we’ll figure out what to do.”
Because I wasn’t sure myself. Thoughts of Juric out in the open left my brain sluggish. This had to be him—but why?
“I thought he was going to kill you,” she said. “He had the knife, and you were coming at him so fast.”
The truth was I’d been coming for her. There had been a lot of blood, and my stomach twisted just thinking about it now. Seeing the knife and the man who’d hurt her had filled me with blinding rage. I was going to make sure the man couldn’t use that knife on her again.
“He cut your throat, and you were worried about me?” I said in disbelief.
She didn’t answer. She kept her head down and the dishtowel around her neck like a scarf, and we didn’t draw much attention since it was getting late and a weeknight.
I carried our bags straight into the cabin to save time, and Victoria startled when she noticed the blood-soaked towel held to the other woman’s throat.
“Bloody hell,” she gasped. “What’s happened?”
I ignored her dismay. “Close the cabin door so we can get airborne and bring me the first aid kit.”
She didn’t bristle at me barking out orders. She followed them without question, and her footsteps carried her swiftly away.
Kara sank into the same seat she’d used on the flight here. Her eyes were blank. Empty. It was horribly unsettling, but then she blinked and focused on me as she pulled the towel away.
“Is it still bleeding?” she asked.
My stomach was lined with lead. I took a knee in front of her and set a hand on each of her shoulders. She angled her chin to give me a good view. The cut didn’t look deep or like it was weeping blood anymore. “I don’t think so.”
Behind me, there was a booming thud as the hatch slammed shut with force, and then a bin was unlatched, followed by rustling.
My hand on the shoulder opposite her wound slid up to hold her cheek. “Scheiße,” I swore. “Please tell me you’re all right.”
The icy silver of her eyes was magnetic as she slowly nodded.
Victoria returned with a white medical box in one hand and used her other to brace herself on a seatback when the plane lurched into motion. I took the box from her, popped the lid open, and paused. Blood streaked down Kara’s neck, over her collarbone, and soaked her shirt.
“What is it?” she asked.
I stood. “Let’s get you cleaned up in the lavatory first.” I turned back to Victoria. “Do you need us seated for takeoff?”
“Yes, sir, but I can have the pilots hold for a minute.”
I didn’t want to be on the ground another second, but I also wanted the constant, visible reminder of what had just happened gone, for both Kara and me. “Do it.”
“Shawn.” A cool hand grasped mine and tugged. “It can wait. I don’t want to stay here.”
My gaze snapped to Victoria, and she nodded immediately with understanding. Her fingers punched in the code to the cockpit as I took the seat beside Kara, her grip still tight on mine. The engines throttled up and we abandoned our hold only for a moment to do up seatbelts, and then she took my hand again.
“Tell me what happened,” I said.
She explained it in an unemotional voice while we climbed into the clouds.
“Where is Juric?” the man had said. “We know he was here.”
My bones felt like they were made of ice, the cold spreading outward. Juric had been to her place, or at least the man who’d attacked her believed he had. What the fuck was Juric doing anywhere near Kara?
The pilots hadn’t finished the climb to altitude when the sound of metal unbuckling came from Victoria’s station. She materialized instantly, a clean towel in her hands. “May I fetch you a new top from your suitcase?”