Taste Me by Tamara Hogan

Author:Tamara Hogan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2010-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

“Let go.” Scarlett pushed weakly at Lukas as he tried to scoop her from the passenger seat of his car. “I can do it myself.”

“Fine.” Lukas stepped back, but not so far that he couldn’t catch her at the first hint of a wobble. Despite her feisty words, her voice was thready. Combined with the aftershocks of what had happened at Crackhouse was a seething feminine anger. He didn’t understand the reason for it, but her body didn’t have the energy reserves to sustain it for long. She was going to crash, and when she did, Lukas preferred that it be inside rather than out in Sebastiani Security’s parking lot.

The four-story brick building housing his business and living space sat on the corner of Washington and First Avenue, one of those Minneapolis intersections where the city turned from spit-shined to seedy on a dime. During the short drive from Underbelly and Crackhouse, he hadn’t let himself forget the cuts on her face, or the glowing white bandage he’d placed on her right ear himself.

The bullet that shattered Crackhouse’s window had taken a nice divot out of her ear before burying itself in the coffee shop’s far wall.

He’d nearly lost her.

The adrenaline that had coursed through him at the coffee shop in the aftermath of the shooting had long since burned off. They were both running on fumes.

He’d nearly lost her.

By the time he’d covered Scarlett and Sasha with his body, the damage had already been done. Sasha had had her back to the window and only had a few grazes on her neck, but Scarlett’s face had taken a direct hit. Disregarding every procedure he knew he should follow, he’d picked Scarlett up off the coffee shop floor. Quickly telling Jack to check out the parking ramp across the street, he’d carried her upstairs to her apartment to render first aid. Despite knowing that even minor head wounds bled like a bitch, his stomach had positively roiled as he’d held a gauze pad to the nip the bullet had taken from the tip of her ear, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. She’d winced as he cleaned and applied antibacterial ointment to each tiny cut on her face. By the time he’d finished that task, Gideon, thoroughly annoyed that Scarlett and Lukas had left his crime scene, had made his way upstairs.

The taste of ashes had been mild, yet unmistakable.

Claudette was right. Scarlett wasn’t safe. And Scarlett had barely changed out of her glass-glittered clothing before he’d grasped her by the elbow, hustled her out the apartment door, down the elevator to his car, and buckled her into the passenger seat.

The fading afternoon sunlight lit the puffy cuts on her face. She closed her eyes momentarily, as if mustering up the effort to get out of the car was simply beyond her means at the moment. And it probably was. How stupid was it to just stand here, an open fucking target? Get your head in the game.

“Come on, we need to get inside.

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