“Let’s do them all,” one of the men said.
Shaw’s eyes slid to me, then down my body. “I’d hoped for a little more time with you, but I don’t want this to get messy.” His gaze lingered on my breasts. I resisted the urge to cover them with my hands. Then he nodded to the one who’d spoken. “Do it.”
An efficient one, he was, because he lifted his gun and aimed it straight at Philip’s chest. The money shot.
The bang sounded just as Shelly flew in front of him. Even before they’d collapsed in a heap, Colin had knocked down the guy nearest us. He pushed me down. My cheek hit the concrete with an alarming crack. Dazed, I heard more gunshots, but all I could think of was Shelly. What the hell had she been thinking to do that, any of it? God, let her be okay.
I looked up to see the first shooter fall back. The sirens whined closer. Shaw took off at a sprint in the opposite direction. Once he’d lost his goons, he was toothless. Colin took off after him.
Philip was crouched over Shelly. He would hurt her. Hit her, choke her; there were a million ways a man’s body could hurt a woman’s. He could do it because he wanted to, because he paid her, and most definitely because she’d betrayed him.
Ignoring the throbbing in my head, I crawled over to them. And then stopped in horror.
Shelly lay flat on the ground, a circle of blood spreading across her stomach. Her eyes blinked wide in her face, her skin pale under a layer of soot.
“Don’t move.” Philip pulled off his jacket and pushed it into the wound. “We’ll get you to the hospital. You’ll be fine.”
She tried to sit up.
“No,” he said, pushing her gently down. “Stay still.” He wasn’t hurting her; he was helping her.
A shudder ran through her, and then she lay still. He looked up at me, eyes bewildered. “I don’t know what to do,” he said.
I shook my head. I didn’t either, and terror gripped me. This was Shelly.
She smiled faintly up at me, ever on display. “Ouch.”
My laugh came out watery. “I don’t understand. Did they threaten you? Why did you do it?”
She blinked in slow motion. “Worse than that. I broke the rules. I fell for…”
I looked at Philip and then back at her. It didn’t make sense. If she’d fallen for Philip, why would she betray him?
“Not him,” she said, her breaths coming faster.
I looked at Philip. He looked as confused as I was. Then who?
Shelly squeezed her eyes shut as another shudder racked her body.
“Shh,” he soothed, tucking a hair back from her face. “Just rest. It’s okay.”
A car pulled to a screeching halt, dousing us in red-and-blue lights. A door slammed, but neither Philip nor I moved from Shelly’s side. I hadn’t expected this kind of self-sacrifice from Philip, to give himself up just to see that Shelly was okay. He seemed to be in shock.
I hadn’t realized he’d actually cared, but he’d definitely been shocked and hurt when he’d realized she’d betrayed him. He looked devastated now that she was injured. He cared about her, but she’d fallen for someone else.
The cop didn’t tell us to put our hands up or read us our rights. He didn’t even acknowledge us except to shove us out of his way to Shelly.
He bent over her and ran his hands along her arms, frantically checking for more injuries. Shelly’s eyes were still closed, but I felt her tacit acknowledgment of him.
“The ambulance is on its way,” he told her in a gruff voice that I recognized. His name I remembered well—Detective Lucas Cameron. It had been on the card he’d given me.
“Doesn’t even hurt,” she murmured.
“That’s not good,” he said, clasping her hand between his. “Stay with me.”
“I’m here.”
They spoke quietly, intimately. Lover’s voices. I felt like a voyeur watching them. I looked again at Philip, whose ass was planted on the concrete. He looked like he’d just been steamrolled. I could almost feel bad for him. Almost.
Oh, she’d gotten him good. Moving in with him, pretending to like him, getting him to care for her. Meanwhile she’d just been pumping him for information to feed to this guy. Except she did like Philip. I hadn’t misread that. She’d taken a bullet for him.
More cops arrived. They went through the formalities, questioning both of us, and arresting me in relation to the explosion. Philip, who’d only arrived later, was allowed to go. Yeah, that stung like a motherfucker. I knew what my sins were, but I hadn’t done anything wrong here. Definitely nothing illegal, but somehow I ended up in the backseat of a car with flashing lights. Philip, with his money and his arrogance, got to walk away.