Marc (Bowen Boys, #4)(51)

Nodding, she went down the stairs with him holding her. She felt stupid and told him so, but he said that she was shot and that they needed to believe that. She sat on the couch and looked at the men in the room. Caitlynne and another man she didn’t know were sitting with her.

And so the questions began. Five hours later, she was hurting and wanted to just take a nap. When the man with Caitlynne stood up, so did all the other men. He looked down at her and smiled before turning to the men.

“I think Mrs. Bowen has had enough, gentlemen. She’s told you all several times why she was there and what she remembered. If anything, we should be thanking her for what her family did for us, not bombarding her with endless questions.” He turned to her again. “On behalf of the President of the United States and me, we want to thank you for what you did for the country. Having a man like Anthony Kidd off the streets is one step closer to having safe towns again.” Each man shook her hand as they left. She turned to Caitlynne when the room was empty of everyone but her, Marc, and herself.

“Who the hell was that?” Caitlynne started laughing, and Marc joined her. She sat back down, feeling very murderous toward them both.

“That was Marshall David, personal assistant of the president.” Caitlynne sat down and stretched out. “You’re all right there, Miss Thomas, so when is the wedding?”





Chapter 17


“I need for you to tell me what happened.” Marc looked at her over their dinner table. “I keep having these odd moments when I think I remember something, but I’m not sure.”

“What do you remember?” She shook her head at him. “Okay. How do you want this? Me pissed when I get to the part where you stepped in front of a bullet aimed for me, or the version where I try to think about how you saved mine and my other brother’s ass?”

“The second one, please. And I remember the part up until I was standing in front of Roy, but I sort of….” She played with her pork chop. “I killed him, didn’t I?”

He’d been waiting for her to ask. Walker and Khan had both told him not to tell her unless she asked him. He’d wanted to tell her how he’d been impressed with her and how much he loved her for saving him, but he’d waited. And now that she was asking, he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her.

“Yes. You killed him and Anita.” She looked up once, then back down. “If you want this, I need for you to look at me. I’ll feel better about telling you if I can see your face.”

She looked up at him and then down. He waited, knowing that her need to know was going to override her fear of knowing. When she looked back at him, she looked like she was ready, but he could still feel her terror.

“You were standing in front of Roy, facing him. I don’t think he could see you, because he kept telling Reed to get the f*ck out of his way, that you were going to pay. He never really said for what, just that he was going to make you pay by taking away the one thing you loved.” She nodded as if she remembered that. “But then he lifted his gun and you leapt at him. I don’t think he ever saw you. But he knew that you were there. You knocked him back on his backside, and he screamed. He’d landed on a broken chair, and it had come up through his arm.”

“I remember the smell of his blood. It was…it was as if it was tainted with something. Like…it was his drugs he had in his system. When I bit him, I could taste them too. I knew that if he got back up, we were all going to be dead. I had his throat in my mouth when there was…. I don’t remember the next part.”

He picked up his dish and hers, taking them to the dishwasher. Their cook and his wife, their new housekeeper, were starting tomorrow morning, and they’d been talking about them until she’d brought up the house and Roy. He loaded the dishes in the washer after scraping them off. He took a deep breath.

“Anita struggled with her dad when he pulled out his gun. Dylan and I had come into the room about then, and he’d been knocked on his ass by the couch coming back at him when Anita stood up and tumbled back. Her dad had fallen as well. When we heard the gun going off, I thought Dylan had been shot, and he thought you had. When he stood up, I was distracted enough that I was shot by a stray bullet from one of Caitlynne’s sharpshooters. That’s how I had been shot in the shoulder.”

“Roy didn’t shoot you?” He shook his head. “But how did Reed get by the shooter without getting hurt too? I mean, he was outside with the rest of them, right?”

He hadn’t figured that out either and told her so. And Reed said that maybe because he’d been outside they had seen him. It didn’t matter. They were all safe and sound.

“And Anita? How did I kill her?” He knew this was the part that she’d been having the nightmares about. He’d heard her screaming for Anita to back down and she would live, but in reality she’d only killed her because she had gone for him.

“You had been trying to get Khan to get us out and then you killed Roy. That was over within seconds. Anthony had been shot in the belly, but with proper medical care, he would have lived long enough to go to prison, but Anita had picked up his gun and put it right on his forehead and pulled the trigger. She killed her father just like that. But I think it was the screaming and gleeful dancing about that her daddy was dead and that she was going to be very wealthy that got you. You snarled at her, and when she turned the gun towards you, I think…. I don’t really know what happened. You must have disappeared for her, because she began screaming again, screaming your name and that you were going to die.”