Cold Case Kidnapping by Nicole Helm

Author:Nicole Helm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-09-20T16:47:35+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Grant found himself at a loss for words. She looked a little healthier than she had when she’d first come to them, but she was still on the frail side. She was a librarian and tended toward skittish. She’d told him herself she wasn’t athletic. He just...couldn’t picture her throwing a punch.

But anyone could learn—that or how to shoot a gun. Anna had always taken to shooting and fighting, but it had been Mary’s natural inclination to avoid those things, and still she’d learned. Grant considered her marksmanship a personal triumph. He had taught her, after all.

Before you lost the ability.

“I can see what you’re thinking,” Dahlia said, sounding almost peeved. “And you aren’t wrong. I’m weak. I don’t know the first thing about protecting myself, except to walk with my keys between my fingers in a dark parking lot, but that’s just it. I spent my whole life avoiding the dark parking lot. The sketchy situation. I can’t avoid this. And I hate what happened today. Not just because you were hurt but because I just sat there and let it happen. I hate the fact I hid and didn’t know what to do. I was weak.”

“You went for the gun. You didn’t hide. The fact that you’re here, still standing, after all you’ve been through, isn’t weakness.”

But she was having none of it. “I did hide for a while, and I only went to the gun to keep it from them. I don’t know what to do with a gun. And if they’re going to keep coming after me, I should know how to fight or shoot or something.”

“I’m going to be here.” He had to resist the urge to take her by the shoulders. To press all of his assurances into her like he could tattoo them on her. “We’re all going to be here protecting you.”

“Not forever,” she replied, clearly troubled.

He didn’t know why it bothered him that she was already thinking ahead to that. He didn’t know why he wanted to...just protect her. When his sisters had been growing up, he’d been all about giving them the skills to protect themselves.

Nothing about his reaction to Dahlia ever made any sense. But she was speaking logically, even if something deep inside him rebelled at the thought. “We can do that. Teach you some self-defense.”

She let out a breath as if she’d been afraid he’d refuse the request. “Thank you.” Then she took a step forward, hesitated. But seemed to sort of gather herself, or her courage, and reach out. She put a hand on his arm and looked him right in the eye. “I’m so sorry you were hurt.”

It was such a genuine flat-out apology—something that had not existed in his life as a Hudson or in his life as a Marine. He could only stare back at her. What did someone say to that? Who just came out and apologized with no equivocations or attempts to pick a fight?

She cleared her throat and let her hand drop, which felt like a loss.

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