Page 105 of Beautiful Killer

I woke slowly, blinking the heaviness from my eyes. I was in a hospital room. I worked that out right away. Gas wasn’t burning my nostrils anymore, so I knew I’d also been washed. My body ached everywhere.

The baby.

I started to struggle and realized someone was holding me. I looked down. I was sitting in a bed, but someone had pulled me into their lap. I stilled and tilted my head back, though I didn’t need to look to know who it was. Zeke was looking down, eyes on me.

“You’re okay, Sunshine. You’re okay now.”

His hold was gentle, warm, comforting. “The baby,” I whispered.

He brushed my hair back from my face. “The baby’s fine, darlin’.”

I felt a tear streak down my cheek.

Zeke swiped it away with his thumb. “You’re battered and bruised, but our peanut will be just fine.”

I blinked up at him, the tenderness I heard in his voice taking me by surprise. “Our peanut is actually the size of a bell pepper.”

He swiped another tear from my face. “Yeah?”

I started to nod, then it rushed back, what happened in that warehouse. “Van. Is he going to be okay?”

Zeke dipped his chin. “He’ll be sore and he lost some blood, but he’ll be okay.”

“What about Julia? Did Bobby hurt her?”

“She’ll be okay, too.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. “She wanted me to give you this.”

“My mother’s bracelet.” I stared down at it stunned.

“Bobby’s gambling problem was out of control. After he blew through Julia’s money, he started borrowing from people, forcing her to come to you and ask for more. She did what he asked because she was terrified of him. She’d been to your place, watched you enter the security code, memorized it, came back while you were at work. She took the bracelet, a few other things that she pawned, some cash, but she couldn’t bring myself to sell that.” He motioned to the bracelet. “She was afraid she’d lose you if she told you what Bobby did, afraid of what he’d do to her, to you.” He shook his head. “But she never thought he’d try and kill you.”

Bobby had been a despicable human being, and I believed that she was terrified. Maybe I should be angry, but I couldn’t hold this against her, not now, not after everything we’d both been through to get to this point.

His fingers toyed with my hair, his gaze moving over me, over my face. I never wanted him to stop. I wanted to stay right here, in his arms forever. “I can’t believe you shot Van,” I said, and there was no mistaking the disbelief in my voice for anything else.

“I wasn’t going to lose you,” he said. “If I hadn’t shot him, I would have lost you both.” Another brush of his fingers through my hair. “And Van trusted me not to shoot anything important.”

I should make him put me down. I couldn’t allow myself to depend on him, even if he had just saved my life. “You did the right thing.” I forced myself to lift my head, to meet his stare. “Thank you, for saving me.”

“Don’t fucking thank me, Sunny . . .”

I rested my hand on his chest. “Zeke, I’m okay now, thanks to you. You don’t need to stay. I know you feel responsible for me, but you don’t need to . . .”

He cupped the side of my face, silencing me. “I will always feel responsible for you, Sunny.”

God, I hated that. I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me. “Zeke, please . . .”

“Look at me,” he growled. “I need you to look at me and listen to what I’m saying.”

I didn’t want to, but I forced myself to do as he asked. I owed him that after what he’d done for me.

“I feel a lot of things for you,” he said, eyes now fierce.

I changed my mind. I couldn’t listen to this, hear him tell me that he cared . . . just not enough. “Please . . . don’t . . .”

He held me in place more firmly. “I feel protective as hell. Possessive, too,” he said, talking right over me. “Shit, I hate the idea of another man even looking at you.”