Hard to Handle (Caine Cousins #2)(35)

Nothing.

It could be worse, the little voice in her head chided.

And yes, Reagan knew that was true. At least no one had been killed. Amy would be fine; Wolfe was fine. Thankfully, no one else had been in the bar at the time.

“He obviously planned this, huh?” she asked Lynx, forcing her eyes open.

“Rhys thinks so,” Lynx noted, gently squeezing her fingers.

“To kill Amy?”

“That’s my guess.”

“At first, when I couldn’t get the door open, I thought the guy at the bar had done it,” she explained.

“What guy?” Lynx’s tone was hard.

“The one who was flirtin’ with me. Never saw him before. When I shut him down, he just walked away. I remember thinkin’ it was odd. Thought maybe it was a joke that he locked us in the bar.”

Then, when the world had exploded, she hadn’t given that guy a second thought.

Clearly, she’d been the only one who had thought it was anyone other than Amy’s ex.

Reagan had heard her brother talking, knew he suspected the guy was watching Amy. Obviously, the police chief knew Amy worked at Reagan’s. Reagan had even briefly wondered if he was still there, watching the destruction. Lynx had sounded completely sure of himself when he told Rhys that the bastard was long gone. Her brother had agreed.

“Do you think he’ll be back?” she asked him now.

“I do.”

She peered over at him. “Amy said she’s gonna take this opportunity to talk to a reporter since they’ll be doing news coverage on it.”

“I heard.”

“Do you think that’ll make it worse?” Not that she thought it could really get any worse than this.

“Don’t know.”

Reagan closed her eyes once again, sighing heavily. She felt defeated.

And the only thing she wanted to do was sleep. For a decade.





14


__________


Standing at the door to the master bedroom, Lynx watched Reagan sleep. He had no idea how long he’d been standing there, observing the rise and fall of her chest beneath the blankets. He simply couldn’t look away. Seeing her in his bed, healthy, strong … alive. His damn heart jolted every fucking time he thought about what had happened tonight. How easily she could’ve been ripped from his life.

And every damn time he thought about it, he wanted to put his fist through the wall.

A lot of people accused him of being angry, always looking for a fight. Honestly, that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, he considered himself pretty happy-go-lucky most of the time.

Oh, sure, when his mother died, Lynx had been pissed at the world. Who could blame him, though? The most important woman in his life had been taken from him and his father long before she should have been. His heart had been fractured that day. Over the years, as the minutes and the hours passed, the pain lessened, but his heart still had the fissures in it. Always would.

No one knew that Reagan Trevino was the main reason he had held on. Without knowing, Lynx had fallen in love with that girl. Even back then.

Only she’d never been his to have, and spending the past decade watching as she grew up, her life entwined with that son of a bitch had been too much to bear. Ultimately, he’d tried to repair himself with various women. It had never worked.

And now Reagan was right there in his bed.

Only she wasn’t his for the taking now, either.

“Lynx?”

“What, darlin’?” he asked, not moving from his spot at the door.

“You okay?”

“Perfect,” he answered.

She rolled over, clutching the pillow. “Would you … maybe … hold me for a little while?”

“Sure.” He wasn’t sure that was the best idea in the world, but it wasn’t like he would tell her no, so trying to pretend otherwise was just a waste of time.

He walked around to the far side of the bed and climbed on top of the quilt. He was still fully dressed, except for his boots, and he was grateful for that. Even with the blanket between them, Lynx wasn’t sure it would be enough.

Reagan rolled toward him and Lynx froze. She quickly pushed the comforter down to her waist and snuggled up to his side, her hand resting on his chest, her head pressed against his shoulder. He took a deep breath and closed his arm around her. She smelled like his shampoo from when she’d taken a shower earlier. He remembered standing in the kitchen, as far from the bathroom as he could possibly get and still be inside the house, not wanting to hear the shower run, not wanting to think about Reagan naked in his bathroom, the water sliding down her smooth, perfect…

Yeah. Still not helping to think about it.

“About yesterday mornin’,” she whispered softly, pulling him back from the brink.

“Don’t,” he warned, keeping his tone as gentle as he could.

“I’m sorry.”

“Reagan.”

“I never meant to hurt you,” she continued as though he hadn’t said a word.

Rather than lie and tell her she hadn’t hurt him, Lynx kept his mouth shut and stared up at the ceiling. “Go to sleep.”

She sighed, moving closer to him. “It’s true, Lynx. I never meant—”

“Not tonight,” he said roughly. “We’ll talk about it … later.”