Page 51 of Possessing Paisley
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KIERAN
“Paisley? Paisley! Paisley!” I shout.
Bash, Grady, and Chloe all leap to their feet. Chloe runs to me, her face twisted with fear.
“What’s wrong? Kieran, what happened?”
I shake my head and listen as a man screams at Paisley before a crashing sound carries over the line. My blood runs cold.
“Call Patrick,” I order. “We need to go. We need to get to her office.”
Without question, Bash and Grady follow me toward the front door while Bash yells to Chloe to stay inside the house.
The three of us run to my SUV while Grady calls Patrick and Bash calls Declan. My tires squeal as I accelerate through the property. Whoever is hurting my girl is dead. If her feisty ass doesn’t kill him first. And she just might.
My phone connects to Bluetooth, but all we hear is shuffling and yelling, then the man howling in pain. Good. Whatever’s happening to him is nothing compared to what I’m going to do.
“Get inside the building!” Grady shouts into his phone. “What? She’s out? Is she okay?”
He quickly puts the phone on speaker so I can hear Patrick and Paisley yelling.
“She’s bleeding,” Patrick says.
“I’m fine! I’m fine. It’s just a scratch,” Paisley cries, her voice shaken and strained.
A scratch. I don’t give a fuck if it’s a sliver, my girl is hurt. Turmoil and rage explode inside me, and I punch the steering wheel several times as I race through the city streets at a dangerously high speed.
“We’re five minutes out. Don’t fucking leave her until we get there. Who did this to her?” I demand.
Patrick repeats my question to her, but all she does is let out a sob. It kills me. Why the fuck wasn’t I escorting her to work myself? I should have been posted right outside her office door at all times.
Bash reaches over and pats my shoulder. “This isn’t on you, so quit thinking that. It’s not on Patrick either.”
Gripping the wheel, I glare at my best friend. Deep down, I know he’s right, but goddammit, she’s mine. It’s my job to keep her safe. I failed, and we’re barely out of the gate in our relationship. What kind of man does that make me for her? Not a fucking good one if you ask me.
“We’ll talk about it when you’re not feeling so murderous,” Bash says, holding his hands up.
“She said it was her boss. A guy named Chuck. She thinks she might have killed him with a stapler,” Patrick says.
I squint, his words not making sense until suddenly they do, and the three of us chuckle at the same time.
“A stapler?” I ask, the amusement I’m feeling over that little detail tamping down some of my rage.
“That’s what she said,” Patrick answers.
Grady grins at me in the rearview mirror. “That’s our girl.”
“Motherfucker, that’s my girl. Call her our girl again, and I’ll put a bullet in your head,” I snap, my heart beating erratically.
I turn the corner and come to a screeching halt. Patrick stands next to his SUV with the back door open. He has his gun in one hand as he scans the building.
As soon as I park, we jump from the truck, and I run for Paisley while Bash, Grady, and Patrick take off toward the entrance of the building.
“Paisley,” I say roughly as I approach. “Baby.”
She sobs and leaps into my arms. “He attacked me! My boss,” she cries.