“Whoa, take it easy, El.” Lucky caught her shoulders as Ellie put a trembling hand to her head. “Like Arch was saying, you hit your head and knocked yourself out.” He gently guided her back down to the concrete sidewalk below. “Here.” He stripped off his long-sleeve Henley and balled it up for a makeshift pillow beneath her head. “That better?”
She started to nod but stopped herself short with a wince. “Was it…Harvey?” Her voice was already beginning to sound stronger.”
“We don’t know,” Archer answered with pure honesty.
“But we’re damn sure going to find out.”
His teammate and friend met his gaze, the two men sharing a look that said hell yes, they’d find the son of a bitch. And when they did—
“What are you…doing here?” Ellie asked even as she kept her eyes closed.
“Cass was worried about you,” Lucky answered before Archer had the chance. “Arch and I volunteered to be here, just in case.”
The woman’s words slurred ever so slightly as her foggy stare met his once more. “Didn’t know you…cared.”
Lucky grinned. Before he even realized what he was doing, he’d reached down and brushed back a few silken locks blowing in the rolling spring breeze.
Oh, I care, sweetheart. Far more than I should.
That’s what he was thinking. What he said was, “Just relax, El. Help is on the way.”
But Ellie didn’t respond that time. She couldn’t. She’d already passed out cold.
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 shewas, 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. Whyhadhe 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 peoplewereshot. 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 injuredwasstanding 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…