She hadn’t been able to help it. She’d felt nauseated since she’d gotten the news, afraid in her heart that Javier had become a target because of her. His photo had run in the papers and been on all the news broadcasts, after all. Maybe the same people who wanted to get rid of her had now decided to go after him, too.
“Where were you wounded?”
Javier stepped back and slid out of his jacket to reveal a bloodstained T-shirt, the left side torn a few inches above his waist. He lifted the shirt and pressed his hand against a dressing that was held in place by medical tape. “Nine stitches. No big deal.”
“No big deal?” Fear for him flashed into anger. “You could have been killed!”
Childers stepped forward. “Glad to see you’re in one piece.”
“Thanks, man.” Javier shook Childers’s hand. “Sorry to keep you so late.”
“No problem. It was good to see you again, Ms. Nilsson.” Childers gave Marc and Julian a nod and left.
It was then Laura remembered her manners. “I’m so sorry. Please make yourselves at home. Can I take your coats, get you something to drink?”
Marc and Julian shook their heads.
“Don’t worry about us,” Marc said. “We’ll be heading out in a minute.”
She looked at the three men. “So will one of you please fill me in? The TV news isn’t saying much. A shooting in LoDo. One man dead. Another wounded.”
Javier slipped out of his coat and sat on the sofa, drawing Laura with him, Marc and Julian sitting across from them. She listened as Javier told her what had happened, feeling sick to think that he would be dead right now if the man who’d fired at him had simply been a better shot.
“He was laughing?” Chills shivered down her spine
Javier nodded. “It was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. He had this look on his face like he was having fun. And when I shot him, he looked . . . surprised.”
“Was he psychotic?”
“We hope to have some answers soon.” Julian got to his feet. “Old Man Irving sent homicide to execute a search warrant at his residence this evening. In the meantime, the firearm he used has been sent to the lab.”
Marc stood. “It looked to me like someone had painted the tip to make the weapon look like a toy. It could be the shooter
“If his aim had been better, it would have worked.” Javier touched a hand against his wounded side.
“How did they know where to find you?” Laura didn’t understand that part. The grocery store wasn’t usually part of Javier’s routine.
“My guess is he knew I went for a run every morning and planned to catch me on my way back. When I took a detour to the store, he followed me.”
“That’s as good an explanation as any.” Julian stood. “We’ll let you know what the search warrant turns up.”
Then Marc and Julian left, leaving Laura and Javier alone.
Laura checked to make sure the door was locked and turned to find Javier standing behind her. “The media are going to pick this up. My paper will pick it up first. Someone on the news crew will remember your name, and they’ll connect you to me. Then the national papers will grab it and the TV news stations. I’m so sorry.”
He nodded, a muscle clenching in his jaw. “It’s not your fault.”
“Your commander can’t penalize you for defending yourself, can he?”
“Probably not.”
“You’d be dead if you hadn’t fired back.”
But Javier’s thoughts seemed to be elsewhere.
He reached for her. “I killed a man today,
“I’m so sorry.” She sank into his embrace and held him as tightly as he held her, one thought running through her mind, the same thought that had haunted her all afternoon.
She’d almost lost him. She’d almost lost Javier.
That simple realization had cut through her, opened her eyes to the truth. Despite all that had happened to her, despite the terrible situation with Klara, she had something precious in her life now, something beautiful, something she could not bear to lose.
And that was Javier.
She loved him.
He drew back, a hand against his injured side. “You think you can help me find a way to take a shower without getting this wet?”
She smiled up at him. “I bet I can think of a thousand ways.”
It was only later, when she and Javier lay in bed together on the brink of sleep, that Laura remembered what she’d discovered about Ali.
She would call Zach tomorrow.
CHAPTER
24
LAURA RAN NAKED into her office and booted up her computer, then rushed back to her bedroom and grabbed something out of her closet. It turned out not to be the blue dress she’d aimed for but a blue blouse.
Javier stood in the hallway naked, apart from the dressing on his side, glancing down at the watch in his hand. “You’re not going to make it. It’s zero-nine-hundred and thirty seconds.”
She slipped into the blouse, buttoning it as she ran back toward her office, still totally bare from the waist down.
“Is this your new professional look, because, I gotta say,
Torn between laughter and irritation, she glared at him as she passed. “This is your fault, Javier Corbray.”
“My fault? Hey, you started it.” He followed her. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to be your morning lollipop, but I need to eat, too.”
Her simple good-morning blow job had turned into a round of crazed sixty-nine that had sent pillows flying —and was about to make her late for work. Oh, but it had been worth it. Her body was still purring.
She sat at her desk and clicked on Skype, doing her best to work the tangles out of her hair, the clock on her computer telling her that she was now a full minute late for the I-Team meeting. She grabbed her notepad and was about to log on when she realized Javier had followed her into her office. “Go, or my editor is going to see you naked!”
Chuckling, he disappeared out the door.
A click and a few rings later, she found herself staring at Tom’s face.
“Nice of you to join us, Nilsson.”
“Sorry I’m late.” She felt the urge to laugh, knowing that to him she looked normal—a bit less polished than usual, but normal—when she was only half-dressed.
“Hey, Laura!” That was Sophie.
Tom went on. “Harker, can you indulge Nilsson’s tardiness by repeating yourself?”
“I’ve got an e-mail trail of two city council members who appear to have been taking kickbacks from a labor union. I’m guessing twenty inches with head shots.”
“Alton?” Tom’s gaze shifted.
“Windsor became the tenth Colorado town to ban fracking. I’d like to pull something together on the lawsuits challenging the bans and include the latest EPA studies on air and water pollution at fracking sites. Joaquin got some great shots of the rigs out along the Poudre River. I’d need probably fifteen to twenty inches.”
Tom looked into the camera. “How about you, Nilsson? Make any progress on that VA story?”
