Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
B ean spotted Gavin across the room, and her heart stopped. Completely. Her breath locked painfully in her chest, and her vision blurred with unshed tears.
Hearing he’d been shot had nearly given her a heart attack. With the comms open, she’d heard everything, so she knew he was fine. He’d just been grazed and the bullet hadn’t hit anything of significance. It was a flesh wound that had required a handful of stitches. But she’d needed to see him for herself, see with her own eyes that he was okay. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough work in the world to distract her from watching the seconds and minutes tick by ever so slowly. To top it off, her team was so damn efficient that they’d not only started the frame-by-frame video analysis, but also handled the work of getting the dead shooter’s picture into their various facial-rec programs.
Bean had been fine all afternoon. A little anxious and worried? Yes. As the evening had worn on, she’d grown more impatient for sure, but she’d still been fine.
Until she’d laid eyes on him.
So. Much. Blood .
She’d thought she’d be relieved to see him. And she was. But she’d belatedly realized she wasn’t prepared. Not at all.
The enormous amounts of dried blood on his shirt had been like a sucker punch to the gut. He stood before her, and she couldn’t look away. The white bandage covering his injury stood out in sharp contrast to the darkened bloodstains on his torn sleeve.
Her heart was threatening to claw its way out of her chest, and she slammed her eyes shut, but the bloody image remained.
He’d been shot. Shot!
Gavin wrapped his arms around her, and she nearly burst into tears.
“I’m okay, honey. I promise.”
“You’re not supposed to get hurt,” she whispered into his chest.
While they’d been speeding through Seattle with some stranger shooting at them, Bean hadn’t been worried. Not one bit. One, they’d been in an armored vehicle. Two, she trusted Carmichael’s driving ability and her own skills to get them through the congested city. And three, Gavin had been with them.
In her mind, he was invincible. But now, seeing the dried blood, his torn shirt, and his bandaged shoulder... It was a chilling reminder that the man wasn’t, in fact, invincible. He was just as susceptible to a bullet as the next person.
And that terrified her beyond words.
Hugging him tighter, Bean breathed him in, catching his familiar cedar and pine scent under the antiseptic smell. He ran his right hand up and down her spine while he clutched her close with his left.
“I’m okay,” he kept murmuring, but neither her heart nor her head were convinced. He’d been shot. Seeing him with her own eyes, seeing how close his wound was to his chest. A handful of inches to the left, and it would have been an entirely different story...
Her lungs seized and a shiver tore violently through her. Holy shit, it was too much.
“Please don’t cry, B.”
She gasped and glanced up, not realizing she’d lost the battle with her tears. Sniffing loudly, she embraced the fear that was surging through her and jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “Don’t you ever get shot again!”
He had the nerve to chuckle. Chuckle .
“I’m serious, Gavin Frazier.” She jabbed him again. “You don’t get to get shot. Ever. Freaking. Again.”
He grabbed her finger and brought it to his lips. “I’ll do my best.”
She shook her head. “You have to promise me.” Her voice cracked on the last two words, and more tears spilled down her cheek.
“Baby,” he murmured, cupping her jaw. “I can’t promise that. But I swear I’ll do everything I can to avoid jumping in front of a bullet again.”
Her stomach dropped. “You jumped in front of a bullet? What the hell is wrong with you? You’re not personal security!”
A muttered curse had her glancing to her right. She’d been so wrapped up in Gavin that she’d forgotten where they were. Everyone—her cyber team, Xander, and Wilson—was staring at them with rapt attention.
“Ignore them,” he whispered. “Back to work, everyone,” he added in a louder tone.
Xander chuckled. “Not on your life, Frazier.”
“I know, right?” Abbot chimed in. “I feel like I need popcorn or something.”
Rolling her eyes, Bean turned to her team. “Popcorn? Seriously? ”
Gavin dropped a kiss to the top of her head before pulling her to his chest again and wrapping his arms tightly around her. His small gesture melted her insides. The comfort of his embrace went a long way in reassuring her that he was okay. And it wasn’t lost on her that he’d done it in front of their colleagues.
“All right, guys, that’s enough. Witherspoon, you’re on night watch?” Gavin asked, pointing to the monitors that showed the safe house.
“Yup. I mean, it’s not as entertaining as all this”—he waved a hand at them and smirked—“but yeah. I’m on until three, then Tiny will be taking over.”
“If there are any issues with the safe house, let me know ASAP,” Bean said, still snuggled in Gavin’s arms.
“Of course,” Witherspoon replied, shooting her a wink.
“Let’s call it a night, everyone,” Gavin said, finally loosening his hold on her, though he kept one arm around her waist. “Meet back up at zero eight hundred. If you show up a couple hours earlier, I’ll make sure there’s food.”
She glanced at him with narrowed eyes. “Bribing my team, boss man?”
“Maybe.” That one word was teasing and playful, and she saw multiple sets of eyebrows lifting in her peripheral vision. Teasing and playful were two things she rarely saw from Gavin, and she knew it was something her team never saw.
Straightening, she smiled, happy that there was still some levity to be found after the intensity of the day. Her gaze landed on the dark-red, dried blood, and her stomach soured.
“Come on,” she said, blowing out a breath. She waved at her team, took Gavin’s hand, and pulled him toward their offices. “You need to get out of that shirt and get cleaned up.”