Until Cobi (Until Her/Him #7)(62)

“Brie’s here.” I push the chair away without a thought and scramble out from under the desk. I can hear Cobi shout at me to stay put from my cell, but I ignore him and my phone when it falls from my hand as I run to where I see Brie disappearing into the kitchen.

“Hey.” She smiles at me, and I see she has her cell phone to her ear.

“Come on.” I grab her hand and catch her frown before I turn and start pulling her toward my office.

“Ken, I’m going to call you back. Something is going on with Hadley. Yeah, love you too.” She must hang up, because she forces me to stop. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t have time to explain. Right now, I just need you to come get under my desk with me.”

“Hadley.” Her voice is filled with worry.

“Now, Brie.” I look up at her then spin when I hear the main office door open.

“You called Scott,” Marian states as the door shuts behind her.

“Marian.” I place myself in front of Brie and start pushing her back. “The police are on their way.”

“What?” Brie gasps from behind me.

“They aren’t on their way. They’re outside,” Marian turns the lock on the door. I look past her to the glass door, but I can’t see anything outside.

“If you know that, then what are you doing?” I question, watching her dig in her bag.

“I’m not sure yet. I do know I’m not going to jail though.” When her hand comes out, she’s holding a leather case shaped like a gun. I see it is a gun when she unhooks a clasp, releasing the pink revolver from its holder.

“So you’re going to shoot us?” My voice is filled with disbelief and fear.

Brie comes to my side and closes her hand around mine, saying quietly. “Marian, you need to put that away before you do something you’ll regret.”

“She should have just kept her nose where it belonged,” she snaps at Brie, and then glares at me.

“Marian, please.”

“Shut up, just shut up! I need to think.” She waves the gun at us, and Brie and I tighten our hold on each other.

“It cannot be that bad. Whatever you did can’t be worth hurting anyone,” Brie says calmly.

“Do you have any idea how much time I’ll get for stealing over five hundred thousand dollars?” she hisses, and my eyes widen.

“Holy fuck,” Brie breathes.

I hear my cell ring and look toward my office, where I dropped it in my haste to get to Brie. Tears burn the back of my throat. I know Cobi’s calling me, and I know he’s probably furious I didn’t listen to him and scared out of his mind right now.

“Why couldn’t you just mind your own business?” I know she’s talking to me, even though she’s looking at the floor as she paces. “I was so close. So close to getting away, to disappearing.” She stops, and her rage-filled eyes land on me. When she lifts the gun in her hand, stars start to fill my vision and my lungs get tight. “This is all your fault.”

Frozen, all I can do is stare at her. “Don’t do this.” My lips move to say more, but no sound comes out.

I use Brie’s hand still in mine to shove her to the ground as I hear the click of the trigger being pulled back and a loud popping sound. Chaos erupts as we hit the floor. The sound of glass shattering, another shot, and people shouting.

“Hadley!”

Cobi? I blink at his face above mine.

“Fuck, baby. Jesus.” He pulls me against his chest and wraps his arms around me so tight it’s hard to breathe.

“Brie?” I look around for her in a panic.

“She’s okay.”

“I’m okay!” My eyes land on her and close when I see that she doesn’t even have a hair out of place.

“Baby.” Cobi wraps his hand around my jaw, and my eyes open to meet his filled with turmoil.

“I’m okay.” I pull in a breath then repeat, “I’m okay,” before I burst into tears and hold onto him, shoving my face into his neck.





Chapter 18


Hadley

I WATCH COBI TALKING on the phone a few feet away, wearing a dark gray thermal, jeans, and boots, with his badge clipped to his belt. He hasn’t shaved in a couple of days, and the growth on his cheeks and chin makes him look even more handsome than his normal handsome. When I see him smile at something his mom says, warmth and happiness radiate through me.

It’s been six months since he ignored orders and broke through the glass door at my office to get to me when he saw Marina’s gun trained on me. Marina was shot not by Cobi but by Frank. The wound to her shoulder was bad enough that she needed surgery, but after a week in the hospital, she was transferred to jail, where she will be for a very long time.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t me who had nightmares after everything that happened. For weeks afterward, Cobi would wake up in a cold sweat or shout out to me in his sleep. It killed me to see him suffering like that, but thankfully with time and talking things out the nightmares have gone away. Still, I feel his eyes on me all the time, like he thinks I might disappear—something that has only gotten worse the last three months since I found out I was pregnant.

No, we did not plan on having a baby, and I personally would have preferred to be married to him before we did get pregnant, but apparently birth control really is only ninety-nine percent effective. Not that I’m complaining. In all reality, I’m excited to start a family with him, but now that big wedding Cobi mentioned is in the works, because he’s refused to let me put off marrying him until after our daughter is born. He doesn’t want me showing without having his last name, and I’m okay with that.