Page 66 of Shadow Burn

Vivi exploded out the door and jogged toward them. “You’re bleeding on my driveway.”

Jasper glanced at the red drops on the gravel. “Minor.”

Katherine made a small sound.

Jasper holstered his weapon and checked her from head to toe. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Whatever fragile control she’d been holding cracked at the edges. “He shot you because of me.”

His fear finally found somewhere to go. “When I tell you to stay inside, you stay inside.” His voice came out low and rough, and he saw her flinch before he could soften it. He hated that. He still didn’t stop. “You do not run into open ground when I tell you to stay inside.”

“You didn’t know he was the man from my bedroom. I had to warn you.”

“I told you to stop.”

Her bottom lip quivered. “I couldn’t let you keep walking toward him without knowing.”

Garrett cleared his throat behind them. “Jasper.”

He knew the warning in Garrett’s tone. Back off. Not now. Not like this.

Jasper closed his mouth and looked away, jaw tight enough to ache. The adrenaline in his system had nowhere safe to land.

Katherine had almost been shot again trying to save him. Every part of him wanted to put her behind locked doors until the world learned to behave.

That wasn’t a simple protection detail. Not all of it. Fear was wearing his voice. He turned back to her. “I shouldn’t have said it like that.”

“But you meant it.”

“Yes.”

She nodded once, the movement small and stiff. “So did I.”

The words should have made him angrier. Instead, they landed on the part of him that understood exactly why she’d run to him. If their positions had been reversed, no order on earth would have kept him inside either.

Mack approached. “CB’s rounding up his club members. Blackridge PD is en route.”

Jasper glanced toward the road. “I hit his leg. He’ll need medical attention. Tell CB and Mallory to keep an eye on the hospital and clinic.”

Mack’s gaze dropped to Jasper’s arm. “You could use some medical attention yourself.”

“It’s just a graze.”

Katherine’s gaze snapped to Mack, then back to Jasper’s arm. “He needs a doctor.”

Thunder sounded again in the distance. It was going to rain and contaminate any evidence that might be present. Jasper shook his head. “I need to secure the scene before that storm gets here.”

Garrett stepped in, already marking the nearest shell casing with a rock. “I’ll secure the scene. Mack will coordinate with CB and Blackridge PD. After you’re patched up, you can gather video and audio and send it to Detective Mallory.”

Jasper started to argue. Garrett raised a brow. While Jasper technically answered to Vivi, when it came to operations, Garrett had final say.

More importantly, Garrett was right. Jasper didn’t need to bleed all over the yard and gate. That would be worse than the rain.

Katherine’s hands had curled into fists at her sides, and the bandage across her palm was lying on the ground behind them. She looked furious, terrified, and dangerously close to breaking apart because of him, and because the world kept offering her proof that nowhere was safe.