Chapter 5

“Seriously, you guys.” Ellie looked at the small group of people gathered in her living room and smiled. “As much as I appreciate all the fuss, I’m fine.”

Her forehead felt like it had been struck by a baseball bat, her insides had become a quivering bowl of Jell-O, and she’d been subtly hiding the fact that her hands were still trembling since waking up in the damn hospital.

But other than that, she was fine.

Don’t forget the part where you were utterly mortified from passing out in Lucky’s arms.

Oh, yes. She couldn’t possibly forget that part. She knew, because she’d tried.

Still, every time she closed her eyes, he was there. Looming over her with that handsome, breath-stealing face. A face that had been filled with more than the typical concern one should feel for a mere acquaintance.

The man had looked utterly terrified.

Which made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

It wasn’t as if she’d been badly injured. And even if she was, they barely knew each other. Lucky was basically a friend of a friend. Nothing more.

Then why did he look so relieved when you opened your eyes and started talking to him?

It was one of about a billion questions that had been rolling through her aching mind for the past few hours. Why had he looked so relieved to learn that she was okay?

Maybe he cares more than he lets on.

No. No way that was it. Sure, the sexy former SEAL always put on a show of flirting shamelessly with her when their paths did happen to cross. And each time he did, Ellie would remain holdfast in her efforts to stave off the man’s disingenuous advances.

It was what their thing. Not that they had a thing. But if they did, that would be—

“You could have been shot today, El.” Worry flooded Cassie’s pale blue eyes as she stood a few feet away, wrapped in Archer’s comforting embrace. The woman’s hold on her fiancé tightened. “Two people were shot. One was standing right next to you.” A curt shake of her head. “You’re damn lucky all you have is a concussion.”

It was true, she was concussed. It was also true that a dogged reporter and an FBI agent had both been struck by the shooter’s bullets. And yes, the federal agent who’d been injured was standing inches to Ellie’s left when he’d been shot.

That bullet had whizzed between them, grazing the agent’s right arm as it flew past. A few centimeters in the other direction…

I would’ve been shot, instead.

But she hadn’t been shot, and the other two victim’s injuries weren’t life-threatening. They’d all been very, very lucky.

“I have a few bruises and a headache.” Ellie forced a calm, cool tone she prayed was convincing. “That’s all.”

“You have…a…concussion.” Cassie slowed her speech at the end, almost as if Ellie was too dense to understand the simplistic words.

But she understood perfectly.

When the first shot rang out, she’d been knocked to the ground as utter chaos had ensued around her. In the process of trying to drop to the ground for cover, she’d stupidly caught her toe on an uneven crack in the sidewalk, causing her to tumble head-first onto the unforgiving cement below.

“Logan’s working with Chase and Van to try to find out as much as they can about where the investigation into Harvey’s whereabouts is standing,” Archer informed her grimly. “Nat’s with them doing whatever she can to help, too.”

“I told Logan to put a call into Knox,” Lucky finally spoke up. “Hopefully the guy can use his connections to speed up the intel-gathering.”

It was the first time he’d spoken to her since she’d woken back up at the hospital. Just one more item for her to add to the day’s list of unsettling events.

Lucky on a good day was almost more than she could handle. But this quiet, stoic Lucky…

I’m not sure what to think about him.

“Detective Travis Knox?” Ellie frowned. “I thought he warned you guys away after the last time.”

At least, that’s what Cassie had shared with her back when the men of Eagle’s Nest took it upon themselves to run their own murder investigation. They’d been trying to clear Cassie’s name, and apparently Detective Knox had done his damnedest to put the team of former SEALs in their place.

“He did.” Archer nodded. “At first. We’ve since come to a mutual…understanding.”

“He scratches our back once in a while,” Lucky explained, “we help the boys in blue whenever we can.”

The man had barely finished speaking when Cassie blurted out an unexpected, “You should stay with us tonight.” Her round, worried eyes slid to her fiancé’s. “We’ll just have to clear off the boxes on the spare bed, but that’s no big d—”

“No.” Ellie started to shake her head but stopped herself with a wince. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m not going anywhere.”

She would not let some random act of violence run her out of her own home.

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea.” Archer supported his bride-to-be’s wishes. “If this was Harvey’s doing—”

“It wasn’t him.” She grunted softly as she shifted herself against the sunken cushion.

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re wrong.” Ellie met her frightened friend’s gaze and sighed. “I know Harvey as well as anyone can. I know how the man thinks.”

During her time spent prosecuting the bastard, she’d spent countless hours studying him…questioning him…memorizing crime scene photos, forensic details, and the gruesome, heart-wrenching facts from each of the victim’s case files. It’s how she was so certain that today’s attack had been orchestrated—and implemented—by someone else.

“How can you possibly—”

“George Ray Harvey is a careful, methodical killer,” she interrupted Cassie to better explain. “He stalked his victims for days, sometimes weeks before finally making his move. He’d leave them notes…” Ellie swallowed the knot in her throat. “Pictures he’d taken of them without their knowledge. Just to screw with their heads and cause fear before the real terror ever began.”

The bastard was smart, too. So smart, he got away with it four freaking times before he was finally caught.

“He got close to his victims,” she continued. “Probably posing as a kind stranger in need of directions or asking for help carrying something to his car. Once the opportunity arose, he used propofol to render his victims unconscious. Harvey would then put them into the trunk of his car, drive them to his grandfather’s cabin in the woods, and there he proceeded to torture them for the next forty-eight hours before eventually putting the same knife he’d used on them for two fucking days to their throats…and killing them.”

“Jesus.” Archer shook his head in disgust.

“That’s how I know it wasn’t him,” she pointed out.

“Instincts are important.” Lucky crossed his arms at his chest. “But they can also be wrong. Especially when emotions get involved.”

Forcing herself not to notice the way his bulging biceps stretched the material of his light blue button-down, Ellie shot back with, “This isn’t about emotions!” It wasn’t. “This is about facts and…gut instinct.”

“And your gut says this had nothing to do with Harvey’s escape?”

“I have no idea what today’s shooting was about. I just know that every instinct in my body is screaming that this wasn’t him.”

“Five years is a long time to sit in prison,” Archer pointed out. “Plenty of time to plan.”

“Exactly. And can you honesty stand there and tell me that the best plan someone as intelligent and cunning as Harvey could come up with was to start randomly shooting into a crowd?” Ellie knew he couldn’t because she knew Harvey. “A crowd filled with law enforcement officials whose sole focus is finding the man, himself, no less.”

“She has a point.” Lucky dropped his arms at his sides and rested his hands on his denim-clad hips.

One corner of his lips had curved upward as he spoke, and damn if Ellie didn’t catch herself wondering what it would be like to taste them.

Okay, so maybe now would be a good time to follow the doctor’s orders and go lie down.

“That may be,” Cassie chimed back in. “But until we know for sure who the shooter was, or at the very least, who they were aiming at, I still think it’s best if Ellie isn’t alone tonight. Just in case.”

“I agree.”

Ellie’s brows dropped in the center as her gaze bounced back to Lucky’s. “You just said I had a point.”

“Because you did.” He nodded, then tipped his head toward Cassie and added, “So does she.”

“Sorry, El.” Archer slid his arm from his fiancée’s shoulders and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “They’re both right. Until we can confirm there is no viable threat to your life, you need to be protected.”

She pursed her lips together, expelling a slow breath through her nose. “You don’t get it. This guy, he’s…” She swallowed once before continuing. “He likes toying with his victims. The kills…they’re personal to him. From the stalking to the cutting…even the way he kills them is up close and personal. For a guy like that, using a gun…he wouldn’t get any satisfaction out of simply shooting someone. Nor would he risk missing his intended target.”

Whomever they may be.

“I hear what you’re saying, El.” Cassie’s stare was as serious as she’d ever seen it. “We all do. And I’m not trying to make this about me, I swear I’m not. But after what I went through…to imagine something like that happening to you, too…” Unshed tears formed, magnifying the woman’s baby-blue eyes. “Please. Even if it’s just for tonight. Please come stay with me and Arch.”

“Ah, Cass.” Ellie was tempted to go to her friend. “I know you’re worried about me, and I love you for it. But after what happened to you, do you honestly think, if there’s even the slightest chance one of those bullets was meant for me, that I’d risk your life…or Archer’s, for that matter…by leading the son of a bitch straight to your front door?”

“El—”

“I’m sorry, Cassie.” She gave a quick shake of her head. “But I’ve already given up too much to that murdering asshole. I refuse to let him…or rather the fear of him…run me out of my own home, too.”

Again.

“I agree with Ellie.”

All heads swung toward Lucky, Archer’s and Cassie’s shocked expressions no doubt matching her own.

“You do?”

“Sure.” His broad shoulders lifted and fell with a casual shrug. “I can understand not wanting to hand over that kind of power to anyone, let alone a guy like that.”

Ellie studied his gaze closely, her mind racing to figure out his angel. Only, as those gorgeous eyes of his stared back into hers, she got the feeling he truly meant those words.

“Thank you.” She offered him a small, genuine smile.

Lips she’d fantasized about kissing curved into a pulse-spiking grin as Lucky dipped his chin ever so slightly. “Anytime, sweetheart.”

Her heart gave a tiny extra kick at the sound of his low rumble.

But right as she was about to reconsider her opinion of the amorous man, Lucky flashed a playful wink her way, turned his attention to Archer, and unceremoniously announced, “I’ll just stay here for the night.”

Wait…what?

“Uh…no” Ellie’s spine stiffened, her heart slamming against her ribs for a whole other reason. “You won’t.”

“No, really.” He completely ignored her stark denial of his offer. “It’s no big thing.”

No big thing?

Having any man sleep over was a big thing. Having this man stay the night…

Feeling uncharacteristically flustered, she began stumbling over her own attempt to dissuade his ridiculous plan.

“That’s not what I…” Ellie started. “When I said I didn’t want to leave my apartment, I didn’t mean…” Her throat grew tight, and—

Spit it out, already!

Clearing away the sudden stricture forming in her throat, Ellie drew in a deep breath and got herself back under some semblance of control. “That was not an invitation for you to stay the night.”

It was hard enough to breathe with him standing under the same roof. Never mind spending the entire night with him under it.

“You can’t be left alone.” Archer’s expression was unmoving.

Beside him, Cassie was nodding her head before the man had even finished speaking. But Ellie wasn’t paying attention to her close friend’s movements. She was too busy staring back at Archer with utter disbelief.

He was kidding. He had to be kidding. But when Ellie searched the man’s dark brown gaze…

Oh, shit. He’s not kidding.

“Okay, wait. Let me stop you right there.” Ellie lifted a palm. “While I truly do appreciate everyone’s concern…really, I do…this whole bodyguard protection detail conversation is completely unnecessary.” She looked back to Lucky before adding, “Not to mention, a total waste of your time.”

“Keeping you safe is never a waste of my time.”

His deep, almost gravelly response was so immediate, his expression and tone so completely sincere, Ellie could almost let herself believe he meant those precious words. Still, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—allow her underserviced hormones to be the driving force behind her decisions.

She’d made that mistake once before. With Neil. Now the guy was like a bad penny, always popping up when she least expected.

Focus, El. This isn’t about Neil or the man’s unwillingness to move the hell on.

Her inner voice was right. Her current situation had absolutely nothing to do with her ex-friend-with-benefits and everything to do with a random, unknown assailant. One who’d come damn close to shooting her today.

Even so… “I’m sure you have much more important things to do than babysit me,” she reiterated her previous point.

“Someone tried to shoot you today,” Cassie jumped back in. “That’s pretty damn important, don’t you think?”

Yes, that was important. If the shooter had been aiming at her. But as far as she or anyone else knew…

“Someone shot into a crowd that I just happened to be a part of,” she reminded her worried friend. “We still don’t know who the shooter was aiming at, or if they even had a specific target to begin with.”

It wasn’t Harvey. It wasn’t. Ellie felt that truth to her bones.

But if not Harvey, then who?