Chapter 3
Chapter Three
“Benedict!” Lily leapt back to her feet. She lunged toward the flames. “Benedict!”
“The fuck no!” Atlas locked one arm around her and yanked her back against him.
Was the woman crazy? No way did she get to run toward the flames.
And they weren’t staring at some small inferno.
The flames were giant. Already eating at the top of the cabin.
Burning at the old shingles. Pouring and raging from the windows along the front of the house.
The fire raged because it was a full-on inferno.
Anyone inside had to be dead.
I would have been dead without her.
His men would have been dead.
As for the cop…
“Benedict!” Lily yelled again as she clawed at Atlas’s grip. She also elbowed him and kicked back against his shins.
Atlas ignored the blows and just held her tighter.
His men fanned toward the engulfed house. Smoke thickened the air. Cop cars came to a screeching halt and, yeah, there was a fire truck with them. Horn blaring. Firefighters leaping off the truck.
But that fire was too strong.
Anyone inside…
Gone.
She kept struggling. Fighting him. He just held her tighter. The firefighters hauled hoses from the truck. Blasted and blasted, but the fire raged ever more powerfully.
Burning and burning.
“He’s not coming out,” Atlas told her.
Her head turned toward him.
A tear leaked down her cheek.
“I guess I did need you to save me.” Atlas spoke deliberately because he’d wanted to break the silence in the small hospital room.
They’d been transported by ambulance, him and Lily.
He’d been the one to get poked and prodded the most by the EMTs, but he’d wanted her checked out, too.
She’d hit the ground pretty hard after the blast had hurtled them through the air.
He’d tried to protect her, an instinct driving him to wrap his body around hers, but she’d slipped from his grip and—
“Benedict is dead.”
Unfortunately, she was not wrong on that point. Not like a body had been recovered, not yet, but Atlas didn’t see any way the man could have survived that inferno.
“He came to save me.” A ragged breath escaped Lily. “To save us. And he died in that blaze.”
Atlas was pretty sure the guy had died in some kind of bomb detonation.
He wasn’t an expert at demolitions, but that explosion had been hard to miss.
Not a fire. A detonation. One that had sent fire racing through the cabin and shooting up into the starry night.
“You told him that we all had to get out.” Real damn glad you told me about that, sweets.
Otherwise, I’d be burned to ashes right now.
She sat in the chair a few feet away. Not on the exam table. He wasn’t on the damn exam table, either. He was up, pacing the room, with a stupid white paper gown covering his body.
Their cuffs had been removed. They were no longer tied together and for some reason…
I don’t like that. I want her tied to me. I want her linked to me. She can’t get away.
“Benedict was a protector. A cop. He was doing his job. He just wanted to make sure no one else was in the house.”
“He could have done that once the rest of his team in blue arrived.” Deliberately, Atlas walked toward her.
She was staring at the gleaming, white floor.
His hand reached out, curled under her chin, and forced her head back.
When she looked up at him, tears swirled in her eyes. He did not like tears in her eyes.
One teardrop rolled down her cheek.
Fuck that. “You told him to get out. You told us all.” If it hadn’t been for Lily, Atlas and all his men could have died.
She swallowed. Wet her lips. “Why was the front door unlocked? I checked it—that door was unlocked. Just like the back window that Benedict used. Why leave them unlocked? Unless you wanted others inside.”
“But we were locked in the basement.” He’d tried the door at the top of those narrow stairs. The prick had locked him and Lily in the basement.
“Yes, we were locked in.” A nod. “Because we were the main target. Or, at least, you were. Anyone who came to help, though, they were going to die, too.”
Only his men hadn’t died. Because of Lily.
I didn’t die. Because of Lily. His hand moved to brush away the teardrop.
“Don’t.” Her hand flew up, and her fingers curled around his wrist. “He deserves tears. Tears mean that someone cares Benedict is gone.” Her grip tightened. “He was a good cop. I met him shortly after coming to Dallas. He…he knew exactly what I was, and he never judged me.”
Another tear leaked down her cheek. This time, Atlas didn’t make the mistake of trying to wipe away that tear.
If she wanted to cry for the detective, then so be it.
But in his experience, tears didn’t always mean a person cared.
Tears could be faked. And you could grieve as if your very heart was being ripped from your chest even as your eyes remained stone dry.
He knew that bitter truth because he’d grieved that way before. When he stood at his mother’s grave.
When he stood at his father’s grave, though, he’d been laughing his ass off.
Because I am a twisted SOB.
His gaze slid down. Over her. Like him, she now wore a white hospital gown. Their clothes had been taken away by cops. Evidence. Bagged and tagged.
He and Lily had been thoroughly examined. Because the doctors had been worried about potential brain injuries, Atlas and Lily had been subjected to CT scans to rule out brain bleeding and fractures.
After the tests were complete, the doctors had wanted to keep Atlas and Lily separated. He’d refused that request. He’d given his own order. She stays with me.
Atlas was used to giving orders and used to having them obeyed unconditionally. Considering that he’d donated a wing to the hospital not too long ago, the doctors had acquiesced to his demands. Lily stays. She doesn’t leave my sight again.
His attention shifted to the small, delicate hand that curled around his wrist. Darkening bruises could be seen on her skin where the handcuff had bitten into her. One line looked particularly vicious, as if the handcuff had nearly sliced right into her.
“No worries about that,” Lily murmured. “I bruise easily.”
He was worried. But he filed away the comment about how easily she bruised. “I’ll have to be very careful with you in the future.”
“I doubt we’ll be handcuffed together again.” She let go of him.
“One never knows.” He reached for her wrist. Careful now, because he understood that Lily needed care, he lifted her hand up.
“What are you doing?” Husky. Uncertain.
He brought her wrist to his mouth. With gentle care, he kissed the darkening bruise.
“That is not going to make it better,” she murmured. Her voice had turned huskier.
His gaze collided with hers. Tension. Heat. Need. Desire pulsed between them. He could feel it. Atlas wondered if she did, too. He wondered even more if she would admit that truth.
“That is not gonna make it better,” Lily repeated with a little sigh. “And it could make things exponentially worse.”
Perhaps. They should be clear, though. “You were stalking me, Lily Gallo.”
She winced. “Stalking is such a negative word.” Tear tracks were still on her cheeks. “I was simply trying to get you to have a meeting with me. There are things I wanted to discuss with you. I needed your attention.”
“Trust me, you have it.” You wanted to meet with me because you suspected I was a killer. Should he be that brutally honest? Now? Or later?
She tugged on her wrist.
He did not let go. “You didn’t have to step in.
” He’d heard her tale to the cops on scene as she gave her statement.
“No need for you to throw yourself on my attacker’s back.
” She could have been seriously hurt when she’d done that.
Or killed right then and there. “You could have just called for help. Followed my abductor. You didn’t have to jump into action. ”
“Oh, see, that’s where you’re wrong. I did have to jump in. Clearly, you don’t know me very well.”
He knew many things about her, but there was still much to unravel when it came to his new obsession.
Obsession. The word slithered through him.
“Lily Gallo.” He liked saying her name. Lily.
A beautiful flower. A beautiful woman. He had plenty of background intel on her.
Facts in stark black and white. But, when it came down to understanding the complicated mind of Lily Gallo, there were plenty of secrets left to be discovered.
“The daughter of a serial killer,” he said, because there was no point in ignoring the elephant in the room.
Yes, he’d just gone for the brutal honesty track. Why not? Especially since it was her.
Lily didn’t flinch. Didn’t suddenly stop staring him straight in the eye. If anything, her shoulders straightened. Her chin lifted. “Atlas Bennett.” The briefest of pauses. “The son of a serial killer.”
Not just any serial killer. One of the most brutal and sadistic killers of all time. His father hadn’t just murdered his prey. He’d tortured them. Enjoyed their pain and their screams.
I can still hear the screams when I close my eyes at night.
He brushed another very careful kiss over her injured wrist. “I told you to stay away from me.”
“I am pretty sure you had me kicked out of your office building. Twice.”
He had. “I don’t enjoy having my past dug up and thrown at me.”
“I can understand that. But I am working on research that is very, very important. And, considering that I did save you—you admitted that—perhaps you can spare me a few hours? As a thank you?”
Oh, he would spare her more than that. “You aren’t getting away.”
Her long, dark lashes flickered. “Excuse me?”
He thought she’d heard him perfectly.