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Shane pushed her back down. “Not now. Stay down.”
“How many shooters?” she asked again, her hand now gripping his arm.
He actually appeared shocked. He blinked, looked back at her. “Only one, so far. And if you’ll let go of my arm, he won’t be around much longer.”
“Are you going to kill him right here?”
He watched the still room for movement. “Would you prefer I take him out back and throw him to the hogs?”
“There are no hogs in downtown Austin,” she replied, her words growing stronger. “But I know where a mean, old bull lives.”
He shot her a worried smile. “You’re in shock. It’ll pass.”
“I am not in shock. I’m mad,” she said on a hiss of breath. “And I’ve got a cramp in my foot.”
“Well, I wish that’s all you had to worry about, Katherine. Now let go of me and stay down and we’ll talk about the mean bull later.”
She finally released his arm. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m not quite sure,” he whispered back. “I’m making it up as I go.”
“Some bodyguard you are.”
“Yes, right on that.” He flipped the table onto its side so fast she didn’t even see it fall. A few people down around them gasped but Shane held up a hand to silence them. “Get behind this and stay here. Do not move.” And then, in a flash of black, he was rolling away from her and gone.
“Shane?”
He didn’t answer. She heard people whispering in fear all around her then glanced up for the first time to find Trudy huddled with a man behind the buffet table—the head of catering of all people. Motioning, Kit held up a thumb toward her friend.
Trudy returned the thumbs-up and shot her a wan smile. Then Kit heard a loud thud, followed by a deep groan. She closed her eyes, praying that Shane wasn’t dead. She willed him not to die, not tonight while he was trying to save her. She couldn’t bear that kind of guilt, especially after she’d tried so hard to ignore him and discourage him. But Shane was a good man. She could see that now. He had such a nice smile and he had this air of self-assurance that she’d never witnessed in another man. Not even Jacob.
“Jacob,” she whispered, her heart breaking with longing, her head down and her hand over her mouth. “Jacob, I need you here. Why did you go away?” She didn’t voice her prayer, but heard it clearly in her head. Dear Lord, I need You to help all of us. Don’t let anyone die tonight.
She saw a masculine hand set against a crisp white cuff reaching toward her. The cuff link winked bright and bold and looked like some sort of ancient coat-of-arms. Katherine blinked, thinking this must all be a dream. But the hand reached down toward her with an impatient shake so she had no choice but to take hold of it. She reached up and felt the man’s fingers wrapping around hers, a stirring warmth penetrating the numbness that had frozen her entire system. She gazed up and into Shane’s crystal blue eyes.
“Come with me,” he said, his tone curt and no-nonsense.
Katherine got up but stumbled, her knees refusing to hold her. Then she was swept clear of the floor and into his arms. Wrapping her hands around his neck, she turned away from the few people still hiding in the room and trained her eyes on him. Only him. She heard Shane barking orders, heard her father speaking loudly to the hotel security.
Shane’s voice carried through the ballroom. “One shooter, secured. He went down on the right side of the stage, still alive. I’ll give a full statement later. I’m getting her out of here.”
The room sounded with cries and feet rustling and people running across the marble floor. They were all asking rapid-fire questions, men angry and women crying. The music would not start back up now, of course. It had been put silent by a killer’s intent.
Katherine heard all of it through the muffled protection of Shane’s rock-solid shoulder bearing the weight of her head, but she couldn’t face the people and the questions and…she didn’t dare ask what had happened to the other man.
“He’s still unconscious. But I reckon he won’t talk when he does wake up.”
Shane looked from Gerald Barton to the two other men sitting in the darkly paneled study. They were back at the CHAIM fortress called Eagle Rock, in the secluded hill country just on the outskirts of Austin.
“He will soon enough,” Alfred Anderson said. “The Austin police will see to that.”
John Simpson grunted then took a long swig of coffee. “But he might rather be charged, tried and put away for a long time. Because if he speaks, he knows he could die inside prison or out. Smells like a deliberate hit to me.”
Gerald got up to stomp around the massive conference room. “At least she’s safe here.” Then he glanced at Shane. “She is safe here, isn’t she, Warwick?”
Shane used to be sure about such things, but tonight, he wasn’t so sure. He’d given a detailed statement to the locals and he’d gone over everything with his CHAIM supervisors. But something didn’t seem right. His ulcer was shouting a warning with quick spasms of heat. Pulling out a roll of antacid tablets, he chewed one then said, “I have some concerns, sir.”
Gerald looked affronted. “C’mon, Knight, you helped rebuild the security system in this place. Kissie and you both said no one can get in here.”
“What if someone is already in here?” Shane said. “It’s happened before.”
Gerald nodded. “He’s right. Devon Malone almost lost Lydia Cantrell because one of the servants wasn’t just here to fold napkins and plan meals. Tried to smother the poor girl with a pillow.”
“We’ve tightened things since then,” Alfred said. “My wife made sure of that. She was not happy that we’d let an assassin serve us dinner, let me tell you.”
In spite of the image of tiny, spry Lulu Anderson being peeved about a renegade butler, Shane still had his doubts. Something about this whole night didn’t make sense.
They’d made sure the hotel ballroom was secure, which meant someone on the inside had set this up. That was the only clear explanation. Or maybe he wasn’t thinking very clearly since he couldn’t stop thinking about Katherine Atkins. Think about the assignment, not the client, he reminded himself. He should have learned from past experiences to stay focused.
And yet, he couldn’t get the image out of his mind of Katherine’s hand reaching up to take his. Or the feel of her soft skin brushing against his.
“I just want to be sure we’re doing the right thing, sir. Another location might be more advisable at this point since we could have been followed. We need to get her away from Austin.”
Eagle Rock was Fort Knox—impenetrable and tightly secure, with everything from fingerprint and facial scanners to keypads with state-of-the-art biometric security. Which is why Shane had brought Katherine straight here, rather than take her to her home in Austin. This sprawling ranch-style mansion held eight bedrooms and as many adjoining baths, an industrial size kitchen and a long dining room, a huge den and several smaller offices, not to mention several outbuildings and a private airstrip. Each of those areas could be sealed off from the rest with a flip of a switch. Not exactly a great way to live, but necessary in their line of work.
And usually, CHAIM agents only came here for conferences and training sessions, or to be interrogated when an operation had gone wrong. Which it almost had tonight.
“I didn’t do my job tonight,” he said, whirling to stare at the three men who, although retired, were still listed as his immediate superiors in a crisis such as this. “I should have been more vigilant.”
“Warwick, we’ve gone over this,” Gerald said. “I was there in the room, too, son, and I never saw this coming.” His shrug said it all. “We checked everyone who entered that place, especially the hired help. I can’t figure how that man got past security with that gun.”
“That’s just it,” Shane said, logic coloring his words. “He didn’t. Someone had to give him the gun or put it where he could find it. Someone from the inside.”
“Well, thankfully we got the man alive. And you saved my daughter’s life,” Gerald replied.
“But I was assigned to watch her,” Shane said, looking down at his discarded, black bow tie, his mind whirling with images of people running and screaming and a lone gunman standing near an exit door, his sleek gun held with one hand just underneath the shield of his other raised arm. And aimed right toward Katherine Atkins.
“If that camera flash hadn’t gone off, she would have died right there beside me.”
“But that’s the fact, Warwick,” John said. “You were right there beside her and your quick actions saved her. And a lot more people, too.”
Gerald nodded, his fingers thumping on the table. “And that fancy stun gun you carry around put the shooter out cold. Fancy little gadget, that thing. Left a bullet hole in that man’s shoulder but kept him alive for questioning.”
Well, a Glock .357 with a suppressor wasn’t exactly a stun gun, but this was Texas after all. These men were better suited to rifles and shotguns, or maybe six-shooters.
Shane went back over the details. “It was chaos at first, but a lot of the guests did manage to get out of the room. The few who were left stayed behind tables and doors. Thank goodness we only had two wounded and no one dead.”
Yet he couldn’t get the memories of shattering glass and frightened screams out of his mind. Nor the image of Kit reaching up a hand to take his after he’d felled the crouching shooter, her eyes locking with his when he’d lifted her into his arms and carried her out of the room. He could still smell the scent of lilies on his clothes.
And he still had to wonder if the shooter, who’d also had a silencer on his gun, had been there alone. Or if this had been carefully planned by someone close to Katherine.
“The papers will be all over this tomorrow morning,” John warned. “But it can’t be helped. The official word will be that someone allegedly came into the room with a gun, but was apprehended and arrested on the scene. It’ll be listed as an attempted robbery due to the elite crowd, most of them wearing expensive baubles and carrying big wallets. We don’t want any more information than necessary leaking out, especially anything regarding Katherine being the target.”
“As far as I know, none of the people there are aware of that,” Shane said, not ready to voice what his instincts seemed to be shouting. “And frankly, gentlemen, I didn’t stick around to do damage control. My only intent once the shooter was secured was to get Katherine to a safe location.”
John Simpson glanced over at Gerald. “And we’ve put out the word that Katherine and you have been dating, so you’ve taken her to a secluded location to get over the shock of what happened. That way, the press can leave her alone. We hope. The official statement should be in the papers and on the news tomorrow.”
“That’s our best cover,” Shane agreed. And that’s exactly what he’d planned to insinuate to the public—that they were an item. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men…
“You did the right thing, bringing her here,” Gerald said. “You have my gratitude.”
“I’d like to check on her,” Shane said, wondering if he’d be dismissed or watched himself. These three men were some of the original five-man team that had started CHAIM all those years ago, halfway around the globe while they’d all served their country in Vietnam and later, other areas of the world. They were still a force to be reckoned with. “If I may have your permission, Gerald.”
Gerald gave him a mean-hard stare, but nodded. “Her mama’s in there with her right now. And trust me, son, you don’t want Sally Mae getting her dander up again tonight. She was in a real tear about her daughter almost getting shot, let me tell you. I should have sicced her on that gunman. She’d get some answers.”
“I do believe she would have, sir.”
Gerald ran a hand over his silver hair. “Better give them some time together before you go knocking on any doors.”
“Duly noted,” Shane said, his smile tired. Sally Mae had nearly taken down the house earlier, demanding to see her daughter, and she didn’t care if it hair-lipped the governor. Frightful woman she was when she was in a tizzy. “I’ll be out on the back patio then.”
He took his leave, knowing they’d want to discuss this latest development in private. He’d get his orders soon enough. But right now, he needed some time to digest all that had taken place. And he needed to find a way to make sure an incident such as this never happened again. Because that shooter had been a hired expert. Hired from someone high up and able to afford an assassin. Shane couldn’t get the notion out of his head that maybe that same someone had been in the crowd tonight.
He had to get Kit to safety. And that meant away from Austin and away from Eagle Rock. He knew how to hide a person. And besides, he knew exactly which room they’d whisked Kit off to earlier and he wasn’t above breaking into that room to make sure she was safe.
She might not ever feel safe again. In spite of having a warm bath and putting on a soft cotton tunic, matching pants and a cashmere robe someone had handed her a few minutes ago, Kit felt cold and clammy. But she held herself tightly together because she refused to shiver in fear.
“Honey, why don’t you lie down?”
Kit turned from the drape-covered, bulletproof window to find her mother hovering near the brocade sofa of the cozy sitting room just off the bedroom. “I’m not sleepy, Mother.”
“I could give you something,” Sally Mae Barton said, reaching into her purse. “I have a sedative.”
“I’m not taking a pill either,” Kit said. “I just want to go to my own home. When can I leave Eagle Rock?”
“Oh, now, honey, I don’t know about that. Your daddy is in a real pickle about what happened. I can’t say when you’ll be able to leave.”
“You can’t be serious,” Kit said, pacing in front of the fireplace. It was late summer and humid even at this hour, but she thought about building a fire. Only, someone would rush to stop her. Too many people were hovering around her tonight, stifling her with well-meaning concern. She just wanted to get away from it all.
She thought of Shane and wondered where he was. Had they sent him away? No, her father wouldn’t do that. He liked Shane and trusted him or he wouldn’t have brought him here. Shane had done everything in his power to help her, and she owed him her life. He’d saved a lot of people’s lives tonight.
“I want to see Shane,” she announced to her mother.
Sally Mae lifted a slender hand through her dark hair. “I don’t think that’s wise, darlin’. It’s late and he’s in with the others right now. You just need to rest.”
Kit wasn’t about to rest. “Mother, I can’t sleep. I’m too keyed up. And I’d like to talk to the man who put his life on the line in order to save mine tonight.”
Sally Mae stood to her five-feet-two-inch height. “You can’t do that, Katherine.”
Katherine wasn’t having any of that. Her mother might have been a CHAIM operative in her heyday, but she wasn’t going to bully Kit with that superior attitude. “Mother, I want to see Shane and if I have to scream at the top of my lungs and sound every alarm in this stucco and brick fortress, I’ll do it. I’ve had about enough for one night.”
“I’ll go see if I can find him,” Sally Mae said, her tone even-keeled. “But only if you promise to rest after you see him.”
Kit nodded, waving a hand. “That’s a deal.”
Sally Mae looked doubtful. “Do you want me to get Lulu or Rita in here to sit with you? They’re both in their rooms but I have them on standby.”
“No, I’m fine,” Katherine replied, thinking her mother’s friends would put her in a chair and give her a facial to soothe her frayed nerves. She didn’t want a facial. She wanted to see Shane. “Honestly, Mother, I’ll be fine.”
She watched as her mother hurried out of the room still wearing her teal blue ball gown and matching kitten-heeled pumps. Kit loved her mother, but Sally Mae was just as protective as her father. They only cared about her welfare, she knew. And she appreciated and respected both of them.
“But right now, I just need—”
“You rang?” a voice called from the bathroom.
“Shane?” She rushed across the soft carpet and into the wide, open bath, her heart doing a strange little dance. “How’d you—”
“Trade secret,” he said, pointing to the wide, square window over the garden tub. “I broke in.”
“But the alarms didn’t go off.”
“Of course not,” he said, adjusting his jacket. “I helped develop the security system in this place last time they updated it. Even Kissie herself said I did a good job.” He checked the window. “I simply went to the main frame and reset the timers back long enough to allow me to enter the building in an unconventional way.” He looked at his gold watch. “They’ll reset in about…three seconds.”
Kit heard a soft beep, beep coming from the monitor on the wall. “And what if my father notices?”
“He won’t. I only did it for this wing of the house. And I knew the exact time when the live feed to the security room switches cameras. Plus, your mother won’t allow any visual monitors in your bath. That would be an invasion of privacy.”
He stopped talking and looked at her, his tone going soft as his crystal-shot gaze swept over her. “I had to see you.” He lifted a finger toward her face to push a strand of hair off her cheek. “I like your hair down.”
Kit lowered her head, suddenly feeling the need to burst into tears. But she held herself in check, figuring all of these strange, electric emotions were due to the scare of almost being shot. She wouldn’t fall apart, not tonight. And not in front of him. “I’m okay. I just sent Mother to find you.”
“I heard you from my spot in the shrubbery. And I’m here.”
Before she could say anything, he took her hands in his. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, the warmth and strength of his fingers bringing the life back to her limbs. She allowed her gaze to wander away from his eyes for just a minute. He’d lost the bowtie and now his shirt was opened at the throat. Even rumpled and fatigued, he was still a striking man. Katherine decided she’d better focus on his face. But that didn’t help matters. His expression held an edge of anticipation capped off with weariness. And guilt.
“I’m okay, really, I am,” she said. “Is my friend Trudy Pearson okay? They wouldn’t let me check on her.”
“I saw her, yes. She was a bit shaken but she’s fine. She went home, but only after I promised her you were safe. I’m pretty sure her new friend—the hotel employee she befriended while under fire—was going to escort her to be sure.”
Katherine smiled at that. Leave it to Trudy to find a date even in the face of attempted murder. “Good. I’m glad.”
“Katherine, why did you want to see me? Did you remember something or see something tonight that I need to know?”
She stared up at him, seeing the solid concern in his eyes. “Oh, no. I mean, I can’t remember anything that would help. I…I just wanted to thank you, for saving my life.”
He leaned close, his eyes flaring as his gaze held hers, the sincerity in his words endearing him to her. “It was my duty and my honor.”
