Page 92 of Faith

Sirens sounded in the distance, and all of a sudden there were hands on her pulling her off of him. With what strength she had left, she tried to fight off whoever it was, but then she heard Jensen’s voice and realized it was him.

“Hey, love, come on. Carino will take care of him.”

She let him pull her into his arms. “He’s a bastard.”

“He is.” Then hugged her close, causing a shaft of pain to radiate from where she had been shot. She whimpered and he pulled away. “What’s wrong?”

The room was starting to spin. “My shoulder.”

Jensen apparently hadn’t noticed her wound. “What happened? You were shot?”

“Jensen, I’m really dizzy.” The room sped up around her as she felt herself falling into a dark abyss. Then she remembered nothing at all.

chaptereighteen

Nicola woke to the sound of Jensen’s voice and a beeping. She breathed in the scent of antiseptic and frowned. What happened?

“It doesn’t matter why I need it, Mother. Do you have it with you?”

She forced her eyes open and for a second, she didn’t know where she was. Jensen was on his cell, but there was little light in the room. As her eyes adjusted, she recognized the room. She had been brought there after recovery the night before. She noticed the sun was trying to peek out from behind the curtains. Yes, it had to be the next day.

She settled her gaze on Jensen again. He had turned away from her and was muttering into the phone, then he hung up. He lowered his head and sighed. He looked worn out, as if he had been through the worst experience of his life. She wanted to give him comfort, cross the room and slip her arms around his waist, but she knew she couldn’t. Standing was out of the question.

“Jensen,” she said, her voice coming out rough. Damn, her throat was dry.

He turned around and rushed to the bed. Relief softened his features, but it did not hide the fact that he was tired. Dark circles marred the skin beneath his eyes, and he looked as if he had been through hell.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He gave her a smile as he took her hand, then sat on her bed. “I should be the one asking that. I’m fine, although I’m not made for sleeping in chairs.” He brought her hand to his mouth and brushed it over her knuckles.

“What happened? It’s all very blurry.”

“You were shot.”

“By Alfie?”

He nodded. It was then that the flood of memories came rushing back. The fight, the gun going off, her punching him…

“Is Alfie here?”

He shook his head. “They brought him here, patched him up, then Detective Carino booked him. He’s going to be in jail a long time.”

“Oh.”

“Do you remember anything about yesterday?”

“Yes, bits and pieces. He’s so jealous of you. He kept ranting about how you stole stuff from him.” She closed her eyes as the memories left her a little dizzy. Opening her eyes, she found Jensen staring. “What?”

“You lost a lot of blood. They were very worried about it.”

“Everything turned out fine. I’m made of good stock,” she said trying to smile. Her cheek hurt from the effort.

“How bad does my face look?” she asked.

Jensen smiled. “Not bad at all now that you’re awake. It’s been a long eighteen hours.”

“Eighteen hours? God, did you talk to the press? Did you?—”