Page 113 of Hurry Up And Wait

I closed my eyes.

I smelled the smoke.

Flames surrounded his body.

Agonized screams tore through my mind.

I lined up the shot.

And then he was gone.

I released a tormented breath and dropped to my knees. He was gone, and I couldn’t save him. Nothing would ever be the same again.

27

ISLA

“Pack your shit,”IKE demanded, storming through the house as guys from OPS worked on repairing the front windows.

“Excuse me?”

“I said, pack your shit. You’re coming home with me.”

Yeah, that definitely wasn’t a good idea. Not after what happened the last time I was with him. I could still feel his hands on me as he brushed his fingers over my skin.

“I’ll be fine here.”

His jaw clenched in anger. “Someone just tried to kill you.”

“Tried and failed,” I pointed out. It wasn’t that I had a death wish or anything, but going home with IKE just wasn’t a possibility.

“By sheer luck,” he gritted out.

“I’m not running away.”

“It’s not running away. It’s taking precautions to make sure you don’t end up dead.”

I cocked my head at him, a calm washing over me as I stared at his intense features. “Do you think someone was trying to kill me?”

“Did you not see the bullets flying at you?”

“But none of them hit me. In fact, there were three of us on that porch and not a single bullet hit any of us.”

“Your point?”

“I don’t think you need me to make it. I think you already know what I’m thinking. And I think you agree with me.”

It was a scare tactic. I’d been going through it in my head, over and over again. It just didn’t make sense. Either the shooter had the worst aim ever or…

I could tell by the look on his face that he agreed with me. This was Shawn trying to scare me into submission. He didn’t have the balls to go through with actually killing me, not after his last attempt had failed so badly. “I think Shawn wanted me to know that he’s still watching, that if he wants to get to me, he will.”

“Or it wasn’t Shawn at all.”

I stilled, wondering what he was talking about. “Who else would it be?”

He stalked over to the fridge and yanked it open, pulling out a bottle of water. I still hesitated sometimes when I approached the fridge. I knew no one could get inside and plant another bomb. There were too many sensors on this house for someone to easily bypass and get inside.

And as far as I knew, the perimeter was being watched also. Which brought me to my second thought. “Why were you out there?”