True Bliss (Bliss #2)(54)
Author: B.J. Harvey

I fall to my knees next to Kate, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and pulling her into my lap.

“Roberts, don’t move her. You don’t know what kind of injuries she has,” Sam yells from behind me, but I barely hear her. My sole focus is Kate lying unconscious in my arms.

“I didn’t mean to hurt her,” the robber says, repeating himself over and over as he starts wigging out.

“Sam, get him out of here before I shut him up myself.”

I grab a towel from the trolley behind us and hold it against her head, turning to catch my partner as she walks the guy out the salon door. “We need an ambulance, possible head injury. She’s bleeding from a huge gash on the side of her head,” I say, squeezing Kate’s hand to try and get reaction or a sign, or anything to let me know she’s okay.

“C’mon, baby girl, I’m here now. You can’t get away from me this easily. Come back to me, baby,” I murmur into her ear as I scoop her into my arms, standing up and carrying her over to the couch in the waiting area.

I see another man standing near the back room with his hands in the air as he just stares at Kate. His whole body is shaking, and he looks as if he’s been crying.

“Who are you?” I ask, my voice low and amazingly steady.

“I’m Nathan. I work here.”

“Nathan, I’m Zander. You can put your arms down, my partner has the perp handcuffed outside. I need your help, though. Is there a blanket, or a jacket, or something warm around here? She’s getting cold.”

Nathan comes running toward us from out the back, putting a woolen blanket over Kate’s body. He’s still shaking as he rubs her arm, muttering prayers under his breath.

“She was so brave. She was out here by herself. That dirty bastard threatened her, but she just took it. I heard the whole thing. When she came back to get her keys, she made me stay out of sight and call 911.” He’s speaking a million times an hour; not what I need right now.

“Nathan, I need you to take a breath and calm down. We’ll take your statement once we get Kate looked after, but I need to know how long she’s been out for. Do you know?”

“I heard a thud, and then I couldn’t hear Kate’s voice anymore. The 911 operator told me to stay where I was, and then you guys arrived five minutes later.” He starts sobbing uncontrollably and takes a seat beside us as he tries to compose himself.

The dirty bastard threatened her. I ball my fists, trying to quell the anger building inside of me. What’s the use of being a cop if I can’t even stop the woman I love from being attacked and hurt by some lunatic? If that f**ker touched her, I’ll f**king kill him.

Career be damned.

Sam walks back in. “Ambulance is two minutes away according to dispatch.” She looks at my face and her brows furrow. “Roberts, you’ve gotta push it back. We’ve got him, and he’ll be going inside for a long time after this. Kate needs you right now. Not the cop, but the man.”

“Right,” I reply, my voice hoarse.

I feel Kate stir in my lap. Looking down, I let out a huge sigh of relief when I see two beautiful, barely open, blue eyes staring back up at me.

“Zander,” she says with a smile. Quickly followed by an, “Owww, f**k that hurts!” as she reaches a hand up to the towel I’m holding firmly against her head wound. “You’re here. You came.”

“Will always be here for you, babe. The ambulance is almost here. We’re taking you to get checked out. You’ve got a nasty cut to your head, and you were knocked out.”

“I l….l…love you…” Her voice fades away as she closes her eyes again, but f**k if it doesn’t feel f**king good to hear those words from her again.

KATE

I have the biggest headache in the history of headaches. This beats the worst hangover. Even that one from when I was fifteen, and Mac and I stole some moonshine from Mr. Johnson’s shed, then went to the park and drank half a bottle each.

I wake up in a horrible hospital gown. I can just imagine the view the doctors and nurses got in the ER when I was brought in. I was so out of it, I barely remember the ambulance ride to the hospital. I remember being wheeled in for a CAT scan to eliminate the possibility of a brain bleed, or hematoma, or something.

I also remember being asked if I wanted my parents called, and shaking my head profusely which just made the stabbing pain intensify, making me pass out yet again.

When I woke up the last time, Zander was holding my hand, his beautiful face marred with a huge frown. I remember him pulling at his hair as he ran his fingers through it, his eyes surrounded by dark circles as he continually refused to leave my bedside. I remember closing my eyes when the nurse came in asking him to leave, saying it was family only.

I open my eyes and slowly turn my head to look at him. “You said you were my fiancé.”

His eyes shine as a slow smile creeps up his face. “Babe, they said I couldn’t be here. I would’ve called the JP to marry us now if I had to.”

“Oh,” I whisper, my throat parched.

Zander stands and holds a styrofoam cup to my mouth, putting the straw against my lips as I slowly drink the cool fluid.

“Thank you.”

“Anything for you, babe.”

“How about I just have you. Can I have you?”

“You never lost me.”

“I thought I was going to. When that man had me against the wall…when he pointed his gun at me…I thought I’d never see you again.” My eyes well up with tears as the enormity of what happened hits me.

Zander leans over me and wraps his arms around my shoulders, careful not to jostle my head around. I bury my face into his chest and cling to him as I let the tears flow.

“Nobody will ever hurt you again, me included,” he murmurs in my ear. “I love you too damn much to risk losing you again.”

I pull back and look up at him, struck by the sincerity in his eyes. In that moment, I don’t care what’s happened in the past; I just care about the here and now. Too much can happen in an instant. You can overreact without waiting for an explanation, you can get knocked out by a messed up junkie, desperate for his next fix.

I don’t want to miss another moment of being with this man.

“I want go home.”

“I want to make a home with you.”

“Can we do both?” I say with a wry smile.

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Chapter 28: “Your Touch”

ZANDER

With my girl back in my arms, all is right again in my world. She was only admitted overnight for observation, so I brought her back home yesterday, setting her up on the couch with a pillow and comforter and watching a romantic comedy marathon with her.