Chapter 25 Kolton
Kolton
My gun was in my bag. It took far too many seconds, with Sloane’s screams reverberating through my skull, to remember how to bend over.
Reach inside. Pull it out. I felt like I was running in slow motion.
Like there was some force keeping me from moving forward.
The terror of watching Sloane take a hit was nothing compared to what I felt not knowing what was going on.
I turned left in the hallway. Made it halfway to her door when a shadow fell across the floor in front of the doorway. I was already raising my gun when someone who was very much not Sloane Rivera came tearing out of her bedroom.
The person stopped the moment they saw me, eyes going wide a split second before they raised their hands.
The terrified look on their face only grew as another scream shot down the hall.
The person—a girl, I suddenly realized—covered her head with her arms, letting out a horrified yell that I didn’t understand until she dropped to the floor.
“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me, oh my god, please don’t kill me!”
Minutes—seconds?—later, before I could drop my gun or take a step or even blink my fucking eyes, Sloane appeared behind her, hovering over her with a long stick in her hands, raised over her head and arching down.
“Sloane, stop!” My voice was a rough bark, enough to break her frantic spell. My diva looked up at me with that same wild look in her eyes she’d had after the attack in New York.
And I was heartbroken.
Because I’d allowed this to happen too.
Sloane dropped the stick—the grabber tool she kept in her bedroom to reach the top shelves of her walk-in and linen closets—to her shoulder, but she didn’t let go. Her gaze fell to the girl cowering between us and I forced mine to follow.
“Stand back,” I told Sloane, that bark still in my voice because I was fucking over this day, and it clearly wasn’t done fucking with us. Thankfully, she listened, taking a couple steps away.
I moved closer, my gun still drawn, still trained on the girl who was shivering and shaking as she curled into a ball. I nudged her with my foot. “Lay down on the floor, on your stomach.”
“Don’t shoot me!” she cried, not moving an inch.
I nudged her again. “On your stomach or I will!”
On the other side of the doorway, Sloane gasped. I looked up at her and shook my head. Then said, “Get me something to tie her up.”
She did as I requested, disappearing out of view—but raising her grabber first. The girl on the floor whimpered and whined but eventually laid herself flat on the floor. When Sloane came back a second later, she had a tennis shoe in her hand.
“Good. Take the laces out and give them to me.”
Tucking her grabber under her arm, Sloane tore at the laces until they came free. She thrust them at me, and I gave her a tight smile.
“Take this,” I told her, turning my gun in my hand and offering her the handle. “Keep it pointed at her, and if she moves, just make sure you’re pointing it at her when you shoot.”
“Kolton!” Sloane hissed, taking the gun gingerly from my hand while the girl at my feet not-so-silently cried, both of them oblivious to the fact that the safety was on.
When the gun was trained on the intruder, I bent over her and grabbed her hands, tying them tight behind her back, the laces digging into her wrists just enough to remind her not to fuck with me.
When I was done, I lifted the girl by the arms and pulled her off the floor, half-carrying, half-dragging her into the dining room.
I would like to say I tossed her into the chair in the corner so hard it almost fell over, but that would be a lie.
I was raised better than that, and no matter how much anger and fear were coursing through my veins, I couldn’t bring myself to hurt an unarmed girl.
I set her on the chair, then took the gun back from Sloane before something else caught my attention. Quietly—so quiet I hadn’t heard it until now—I heard a deep voice yelling my name.
Sloane grabbed my phone out of my back pocket and held it out to me. I put it to my ear only to pull it away as Lee yelled once more. “Kolton Johns! What the fuck is going on?”
“Hey boss,” I said. “I’m here.” I looked at Sloane, then tugged the grabber out from under her arm. “Hit her if she moves. I’m going to check out the rest of the apartment.”
She took hold of the grabber and held it like a baseball bat, ready to swing if the crying girl took a step. Once I felt confident that they’d both be okay, I put my phone on speaker, shoved it in my breast pocket, and gripped my gun before setting off into the apartment.
“The fuck is going on, Kolton?” Lee’s tinny voice asked through my phone.
“We just got back to Sloane’s condo. We—”
“In Chicago?” Whatever grogginess had been in his voice earlier seemed like it was gone. “Why so soon? Thought you were staying until tomorrow at least.”
“Yeah, we, uh. Had a little problem and Sloane wanted to come home. Which is why I called, incidentally.”
I peeked inside the door to Sloane’s room, then swept through the space. The bathroom was fine, but the closet was a mess. Coats and dresses had been torn from the hangers and were piled into the corner along with a few spare pillows Sloane kept stored on the top shelves.
“That screaming you heard was Sloane. Someone broke into the apartment and by the looks of it, they were sleeping in the closet.”
“Sleeping in the—what the fuck?”
Before he’d finished cussing, I was back out in the hallway, checking out the other rooms. Items in the first guest room had been moved, put back in such a way that most wouldn’t have known.
But I’d lived with Kendra in my life long enough to be sensitive to those types of things, and every misplaced item was a massive red flag.
“Not sure why,” I continued, peeking into the guest bath and hall closet before entering my room. “But I’m going to need the police. Everything else is clear, but I’ve got the girl tied up in the other room with Sloane.”
“You left the client with the intruder?”
“She’s fucking tied up, Lee. She’s not getting free, and I had to stop Sloane from bashing her in the head earlier, so I’m pretty sure she can handle herself for a minute while I ensure the rest of the apartment is secure.
And oh, look, there they are, right where I left them,” I finished, coming to a stop behind Sloane.
“You don’t have to be a smartass, Johns,” Lee grumbled.
“Well, ask stupid questions, get stupid answers. Forgive me if this hasn’t exactly been the best day.” I shoved my hand through my hair, then slammed my eyes shut and spun in a circle. “Fuck. I am so sorry. I did not mean—”
But I couldn’t finish if I’d wanted to. Lee’s loud laughter cut me off.
“There’s the man I know. Don’t worry, Kolton. Can tell this isn’t you at your best. Everyone has those days. Welcome to your first of many.”
I huffed out a breath and was tempted to tell him this was nothing compared to what I’d lived through before. Kendra could put an attacker, an intruder, and a raving crowd of fans to shame with just her pinky finger.
“Cops are on the way,” Lee said after I didn’t respond, breaking an awkward silence. “I’ll be there in a few.”
I was getting really fucking tired of police and interrogations and being awake.
Lee showed up at the same time the police did, shaking hands with the whole lot of them like they were good old friends.
Sloane was already curled up on the couch and half-asleep when the knock sounded at the door, and the sudden noise in the quiet of the room had her jumping out of her seat.
While they untied then cuffed the girl and hauled her away, I brewed a pot of coffee and brought Lee up to speed. Finally, with the girl gone and a whiff of peace hanging in the air, we gathered in the living room.
“The door to my closet was shut when I got home,” Sloane said as I stood beside where she sat on the couch, the remaining police officers sitting or standing around the room.
“I don’t like to shut it because it gets stuck.
I told the building manager when I moved in because my sister got locked inside, but they haven’t been out to fix it yet. ”
An officer looked up from his notepad. “The girl said she couldn’t get out.”
Sloane nodded, glancing up at me. “She was curled up in a pile of my clothes at the back of the closet when I opened it up. I screamed and turned to find something to protect myself with, but she’d already rushed out.
Kolton stopped her in the hallway and, what do you call it, secured her? Until you showed up.”
Another cop, a big man named Eugene Linden, scratched at day-old stubble on his face. “That’s what the girl said. She came in, looked at your stuff, then couldn’t get out. She’d been there most of the day and obviously didn’t expect to get caught.”
“She say how she got in?” I asked, my hand clutched around the empty cup of coffee that hadn’t done me a damn bit of good.
“She wouldn’t say,” Linden responded. “But we’ll keep on her. She’s got to be hiding something, especially in light of the other attempted break in with, uh…” He flipped through his notepad, then underlined something in the middle of the page. “Giles. Beckett Giles. Still no word on how he got in?”
“Security here has been worthless,” Lee answered, his voice taking on an edge I hadn’t heard many times before. “And since we can’t seem to trust them to keep people out, I think it would be safer if we move you for the time being.”
“Where too?” Sloane asked, lifting her tired eyes from the floor to my boss.
Lee rubbed a hand over his jaw as his gaze raked across the officers.
“Got a safehouse on the other side of town. Not much to look at from the outside, but it’s kept plenty of clients safe in the past, including my girlfriend, Kelly.
Be best if we get you out of here and settled in there before this story makes the morning news. ”
“So we need to pack again?” she asked in a dejected tone. I reached for her, rubbed my hand in circles over her back.
“Don’t worry. I’ve seen the place. There’s a laundry room and a full kitchen. We can just take our bags and go, do any laundry we need to while we’re there.”
Sloane threw her head back, then reclined herself until she was leaning against my leg. “I just wanna go to sleep.”
My gaze snapped to Lee, who was looking at Sloane. There was no indication that he found her behavior odd, which was a relief. “I know. But it’s not far. Let’s get our things and we’ll get you to sleep in no time.”
“We’ll get out of your hair,” Officer Linden said before turning to Lee. “I’ll check in with you in the morning, once we have more out of the girl.”
“Appreciate you coming out as fast as you did,” Lee said, offering him his hand.
Linden ducked his chin, then trained his attention on Sloane and me. “Miss Rivera. Mr. Johns. Have a good night.”
After I gathered our bags again, Lee took us across town to the safehouse I’d been to a couple times before.
It was in a rough neighborhood that Lee, with the help of his business partners, had been working quietly to revamp and revive.
While the safehouse seemed to fit in with the dilapidated houses surrounding it, the interior was a step up from my own home.
“Two bedrooms upstairs,” Lee said as he walked us in through the back door, his fancy Jeep hidden inside the detached garage.
“There’s breakfast sausage and potatoes in the freezer, but not much else.
Best not have any deliveries to the house, if possible, since the two of you are easily recognizable.
Call Joss in the morning and she can get you set up with groceries or anything else you might need. ”
“I just want sleep,” Sloane groaned, heading toward the staircase.
I took her bags from Lee, then shook his hand. “Thanks for everything.”
“Don’t mention it. Take care.”
With my boss gone, I pulled our bags over my shoulders and followed after Sloane. I found her in the first room at the top of the stairs. When I stepped inside, Sloane peeled her shirt over her head, standing before me in nothing but her underwear.
“I changed my mind,” she said, coming close enough to put her hands on my chest. “I want something other than sleep.”
My lips tilted up for what felt like the first time all day. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
She undid the buckle on my pants, tugging them down before palming my dick. “I want you.”
She didn’t need to ask twice. I crushed my mouth to hers, swallowing her cries as I lifted her from the floor and carried her to the bed.
I would have liked to have the energy to spend the next few hours worshiping between her legs, but exhaustion had a strong grip on me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to shake it.
Instead, I kissed Sloane to make up for every time I’d wanted to kiss her today and couldn’t. I kissed her to apologize for not stopping her from getting hurt, for not keeping her safe. I kissed her to remind her that I loved her more than anything in the world.
I swallowed her gasp as I pushed my way inside her tight core, and I made love to her until we both cried out together, my cum shooting from me in hot spurts as she accepted every last piece of me, all my strengths and all my faults.
“Love you, baby,” Sloane whispered into the dark after I’d rolled off her and gathered her up in my arms.
My heart swelled until it felt like it would break right out of my chest. “Love you too, Diva.”