Until May (Until Her/Him #11)(37)

“Yeah, but that was when I wasn’t here.”

“You know you’re being ridiculous, right?” I sigh, putting on my jacket. “I’ll be back in less than ten minutes.”

“You’re not going without me, doll.”

“You can’t stop me,” I mutter under my breath, then search the room, finding both of the pups squished into Cooper’s dog bed. “Dozer, Cooper, let’s go for a walk,” I call, and Cooper instantly hops up, while Dozer just opens his eyes to look at me. “Come on.”

“Babe, you go without me, I’m gonna be pissed.”

“Then be pissed.” I roll my eyes at him, then pat my leg. “Come on, Dozer. Let’s go outside.” Finally, he gets up and comes toward me, and I’m so focused on him and Cooper that I don’t hear Aiden until he’s right next to me.

“I’ll do the dishes when we get back.”

“You scared the crap out of me.” I spin to face him and then narrow my eyes on his. “You don’t trust me to take the dogs outside on my own?”

“I do trust you. I just don’t like the idea of you walking alone in the dark.” He puts on his jacket, and I shake my head at how ridiculous he’s being.

“You’re being crazy.” I head down the hallway, stopping to grab Cooper’s leash from where I put it in my office the last time I took him out. “Nothing is going to happen.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” He takes the leash from me and opens the door, stepping outside. Just as he bends to attach Cooper’s leash, what sounds like thunder cracks through the air right before the mirror hanging in the hall behind me explodes.

I scream as glass scatters across the floor at my feet, then my breath comes out in a whoosh as Aiden’s big body slams into mine. He takes us to the ground, covering the top of my head with his hands and my chest heaves as I try to suck in a breath.

“What was that?” I breathe as my heart pounds out of control.

“Gunshot.” He looks back over his shoulder at the dogs that are now going crazy, then growls, “Fuck,” and jumps to his feet.

“What are you doing?” I try to grab for him, but in the blink of an eye, he’s halfway to the door.

“Stay here,” he orders before disappearing out of sight. With a growl of frustration of my own, I place my hands on the ground and start to push myself up to stand but stop when pain slices through my right hand. Flipping it over, I grit my teeth when I see a chunk of glass sticking out of my palm.

I pull it out, ignoring the nausea churning my stomach from the sight of the wound, and then, being more careful than I was before, I get up. With blood pooling between my fingers, I run to the kitchen and grab a clean dishcloth, then rush down the hall and out the front door. When I hit the bottom step, I scan the street and breathe a sigh of relief when I finally spot Aiden jogging down the sidewalk back toward me.

“Did you call the cops?” he asks when he’s about ten feet away, and I shake my head. I don’t know how I could’ve forgotten to do that after what just happened, but it didn’t even cross my mind. “Come on.” He starts to take my hand but stops when he notices the towel wrapped around my closed fist. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” I start back up the stairs with him right at my back, and as soon as we get into the house with both dogs, he urges me down the hall to the kitchen. Going to the counter, I pick up my phone so I can call the police, but before I can even get my phone unlocked, he presses me up against the counter so that my back is against his chest, then reaches his arms around me and carefully lifts my hand.

“Let me see.” His voice is soft, but his tone honestly scares me, so I hold my breath as he unwraps the towel, hoping it’s just a wound that bleeds a lot but isn’t so bad. “How—”

“It was the glass from the mirror,” I cut him off while shutting my eyes as he turns my hand right and left.

“You’re going to need stitches.”

“Great.” I open my eyes back up as he rewraps my hand. “First, we need to call the police.”

“I’ll call them.” He takes my phone right after I get it unlocked, then I stand there and listen to him talk to dispatch while he goes to my freezer and yanks out the thing that holds the ice for the door dispenser, slamming it on the counter next to me. “Baggies?”

His eyes meet mine, and I go to the pantry and grab him one, and as I hand it over, he hangs up the call. “Someone else called in the sound of a gunshot, so they were already on their way.”

“Okay.”

“The car didn’t have a license plate,” he tells me while filling the baggie with ice.

“What?”

“The car that took off when I ran outside didn’t have a license plate.” His eyes meet mine. “And the windows were blacked out, so I couldn’t see who was driving.”

“So you think someone purposely shot at my house?”

“Or someone purposely shot at you or me,” he says, and a sense of dread fills the pit of my stomach.





Chapter 12


May

I BLINK MY eyes open when the pain in my hand registers, and I notice then that I’m lying half on top of Aiden with my cheek pillowed against his bicep, my thigh on his hip, and my arm curled around his waist. I didn’t lie when I told him I don’t like to cuddle. I never have—or I thought I didn’t anyway—before him. Lifting my head, I scan the room, finding it just as bare as I remember it being before I fell asleep.