Keep (Command #2) (29 page)

Shawn knew what she meant. Not to his apartment in Munich, or her flat in Maastricht, but home to the States. As soon as the doctors were confident the drugs were purged from her system and her concussion wouldn’t require anything more than rest, he’d begun the process of making that a reality and, after she’d fallen back asleep, he finalized those plans.

“How long have you been awake?” he asked L when she sat up.

“Since you were making out with my sister.” Her eyes were more vibrant than Kara’s, not as guarded even when she was shooting daggers at him. But he much preferred Kara’s icy blue ones.

“You have no one to blame but yourself for that. You introduced us.”

“I also introduced you to Markus. Do you make out with him?” She glanced at Jason, who slept like he was dead. He hadn’t slept until it was clear Kara would be all right and now appeared to be making up for lost time. L’s gaze returned to Shawn, more serious. It looked like she was trying to put together the question in her head.

“Out with it already,” he said, a half-smile.

“Do you love her?”

He inhaled, his eyes going to the woman asleep, her face peaceful in sharp contrast to the bruise fading on her cheek. This terrible ordeal had proven his feelings beyond doubt. “Yes.”

“Then be careful with her,” she said. “If you hurt her, I’m going to have to hurt you.”

He bit back the desire to tell her she looked adorable when she threatened him. “All right, noted.”

The final phone call squared away, Shawn tried to get comfortable on the chair and sleep for a few hours, but as soon as he nodded off, Kara thrashed on the bed. She slid over to one side and looked at him expectantly.

“Get over here,” she whispered. This was a command he was more than willing to follow. He lay down, pulling the blanket up over both of them. He was on his side, off of the wound on his back, his feet hanging over the edge of the bed. Her head turned to him, waiting impatiently for his hold.

He wasn’t afraid of emotions like the rest of his family was, but the feeling of her in his arms was so powerful it left him breathless.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yes. I missed you.”

She took a deep breath. “Me, too.”

Getting her discharged from the hospital took forever in the morning. The day nurse was physically unable to move above a glacial pace.

“Can I shower and get dressed?” Kara asked, while waiting for the final paperwork.

“Yeah,” L replied, “here.”

She produced a pile of clothes from a bag that made Kara blink. “These are mine.”

“Your apartment’s less than two hours from here,” Shawn said. He wouldn’t elaborate that he’d hired a team to clean it up and pack nearly every piece of clothing she owned in two suitcases, which were sitting in the trunk of a limo in the circle drive downstairs.

Kara seemed too relieved to see something familiar to ask questions. She came to her unsteady feet with Shawn’s help and then attempted to walk on her own toward L.

“I’ve got her,” L said to him, a slight edge in her words, when he felt like she was the one encroaching on his territory.

“All right,” he said, reluctant. He pulled the privacy curtain near the door closed. “Let me know if you need my help, I’ll be here.”

He listened to L go into the bathroom and start the shower, and a few minutes later she pulled back the curtain. Her gaze locked on his, L’s face hard and her voice full of fire. “Juric’s really fucking lucky he’s dead.”

He’d never spoken truer words. “I agree.”

Teeth brushed, showered, and dressed in her own clothes, Kara felt somewhat normal, albeit weak, so she didn’t refuse the wheelchair when they brought it to her. Her lightheadedness should be gone in another day, according to the doctor who was fluent in English.

“Where am I going?” Kara asked when she was seated.

“I’m taking you to the airport,” Shawn answered.

Good. She was anxious to get going. The orderly pushed her out into the hall, and paused for Shawn and Laurel to follow. When they were on the move, Shawn texted Jason that they were leaving and whatever was sent back frustrated him.

“What is going on?” she asked.

As soon as the elevators closed them all in, he crouched down to face her at eye-level, frowning. “When we get to the lobby, it’s going to be unpleasant.”

“Unpleasant how?”

“There were a lot of people videoing what happened in the square, and some of those people put their videos online.”

The concussion must have made her stupid, because she didn’t get it. “What?”

“There’s been a lot of media coverage of the bombing and the woman that was abducted, so it didn’t take them long to identify me, or you as that same woman in the video.”

Before it could sink in, the doors opened to reveal the large amount of media camped out to the side of the hospital, just beyond the glass doors of the lobby. Long lenses were up and facing them, a gigantic flurry of activity when Shawn straightened to stand beside her.

She wanted to pull the brakes on the wheelchair, but had no idea how and the orderly pressed forward. Jason was waiting, his back turned to the cameras and facing them. He said something to Shawn, maybe in German, but it was too difficult to tell. There were so many cameras and reporters distracting her.

“Kara,” Jason said, drawing attention away from all of that. He had his hands on his hips and his face unclear. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to repay what you did for us.” He wasn’t like Shawn. Words of gratitude and expressing feelings didn’t come easy. But his statement carried enormous conviction. “Thank you.”

Kara looked at her sister, who stepped into Jason’s arms.

“I think,” Kara said, “Laurel would have done the same for me, and you did shoot the asshole.” He had a look like that wasn’t enough, so she continued, “You can, like, get me a gift card or something if you feel inclined.”

He nodded, cracking a smile. Juric had made a mess of Jason’s life, but that was over now, and he hadn’t come out of it empty-handed. Then her eyes returned to the reporters shouting both her name and Shawn’s beyond the glass, ratcheting up her heart rate.

Jason’s expression went to his brother. “I did the best I could.”

“Believe me, I know,” Shawn said. They could have been talking about anything.

Laurel leaned over and hugged her tightly. “Have a safe trip, and you call me when you get there, okay?”

Kara didn’t want to leave her sister, but the cameras… “Okay,” she said over her disappointment. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Laurel’s gaze rose up to Shawn and she gave him the evil eye. It made him smile, and then she pulled him into a hug.

“Auf Wiedersehen,”
she said to him, and he echoed it back.

“Don’t stop moving when you get outside,” Jason said. “Good luck.”

This was happening too fast for her to refuse. “Wait —” But Jason and Laurel darted into a vacant elevator as Shawn said something to the orderly, and she was rolling forward. “Wait, wait! Shawn, I can’t do this!”

He gave her a pained look. “They’re not going to go away. We have to get it over with.”

The first set of glass doors peeled open, forcing her to shirk back into the wheelchair. The crowd of men with cameras jostled over each other to get into position, many already snapping pictures. It was mid-morning, but their flashes went off regardless, a sickening strobe effect.

Shawn took her hand in his when the second door opened, unleashing hell on them. The shouting was a roar, a mix of German and English questions almost impossible to discern. There were a few security personnel that kept a path clear, sort of a bubble of space around them that collapsed almost immediately.

She wanted to die.

Laurel had selected a long-sleeved shirt for her even though it was warm outside, but there was no hiding her face or the faint ring of bruising around her neck. When a camera shoved in front of her, Shawn batted it away and pressed them further forward into the crowd. Where was he going?

And then she saw the limo waiting with the door open, impossible to see through the throng of people until they were almost on top of it.

“Kara! Kara Hayward,” the man beside her yelled. “Look over here!”

She didn’t dare. Her eyes were fixed on Shawn, who pushed a cameraman out of the way and used the hand he was holding to pull her to her feet. She didn’t need him to say anything. She flung herself into the backseat and made way for him to follow her. Which he did, struggling to close the door to the limo and breaking a camera in the process.

The vehicle dulled the noise from the circus somewhat.

“
Scheiße,
” he swore. “You all right? They can’t see us in here.” He straightened his suit while telling the driver to go.

She nodded at him. The anxiety left her sick to her stomach but it faded as the car hurried away. They sat together on the bench in the back and his arm hesitantly stretched over her shoulders.

“You Europeans have no concept of personal space,” she joked.

He straightened abruptly and it made her feel awful.

“No, Shawn. I was teasing.” She grabbed his arm and threw it on her shoulders, positioning herself against him. Of course he was concerned about what she was comfortable with after Juric. Her hand slid inside Shawn’s suit coat and wrapped around his waist so she could cling to him. “I’m okay with this. I want this.”

His chest rose and fell as he relaxed on a breath. His lips brushed a kiss over her forehead and he spoke hushed. “Whatever you want.”

The drive to the Frankfurt airport took two hours and she spent them enveloped in his embrace. His phone chimed endlessly until he turned it to vibrate, and even then, she could hear the dull quiver it made steadily from his pocket.

“How bad was the damage to your brewery?”

His hand stroked gently over hers. “The east side will need to be torn down and rebuilt, but I’m told structurally it can be saved. The facade for the main entrance is still intact.”

The most recognizable, significant part of his family’s building was still standing. She squeezed him harder, overwhelmed with relief for him.

“But it makes your gift more special,” he said.

She sat up and stared into the warm brown eyes, giving him a soft smile. “Figuring out what to get a billionaire for his birthday wasn’t easy. I’m glad you like it.”

“I do, thank you.” He tucked her back beside him.

“How long is the flight back to Munich?”

“What makes you think we’re going there?”

His company had been bombed and she couldn’t imagine how important it was that he oversee the rebuild. “Because your company is there?”

“You want to go to America.” He said it with casual ease. “I’m going wherever you are.”

She frowned. “You should be in Munich.”

But in response he gave her a single look, one filled with determination and that other emotion she’d seen from her hospital bed, and her heart lurched. “The only way I’m not going with you, is if you tell me that’s what you want.” He lifted her hand in his and set it on his chest, right over his heart. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“Yes,” she admitted, “but that’s selfish of me —”