Kinley whimpered, made a gagging noise, and he grabbed the garbage can, holding it up as she vomited again. She was a mess, her face pale, vomit down her front, her hair messy, sweat coating her forehead. All he wanted was to take her away somewhere safe and make certain nothing bad happened to her ever again.
“Yeah?” a gruff voice said into his ear.
For a moment, he was so shocked that Sloan answered he couldn’t say anything. Luckily, he recovered quickly.
“Sloan? You okay?”
“No, I’m not fucking okay. My brakes failed. Luckily, I wasn’t going fast and managed to pull off to the side of the road. It could have been so much worse.”
“But you’re all right,” James said urge
ntly.
“Yeah, just bruised and angry.”
“Where are you?”
“Waiting for a tow, why?”
“Kinley’s boss is the one who sent the flowers. He cornered her, but Gary knocked him out. However, she’s in the middle of a bad migraine. I think they’ll take her to the hospital.” He looked up as a paramedic strode inside.
“What? Fuck.”
“I’ll call you as soon as I know where we’re going. Got to go.”
“James, wait—”
“Yeah?”
“Just keep her safe for me.”
“Of course.”
“I can’t believe it was her boss,” Sloan said, stretching his legs out as he laid his head against the back of the sofa. They’d finally managed to make it back home. The paramedics had taken Kinley into the hospital. Sloan had met them there. But after a few hours of being hooked up to an IV she’d been discharged with orders to rest. “All this time, it was him. We thought it was Alan. Jesus, I sent the cops around to scare him. And her boss used him. He could have gotten to her at any time. Could have hurt her. If Gary hadn’t been there today…”
“I can’t believe he cut your brake line.” James shuddered as he imagined how badly today could have ended. “You could have died.” And Kinley might have been raped. Fuck, just the thought of the two of them being harmed made him feel ill.
“After my truck is checked we’ll know for sure if that’s what happened, but, yeah, I’m betting that’s what he meant when he said he took care of me.”
Kinley had managed to tell them along with a couple of detectives everything that had happened. Christ, he didn’t sleep he’d be able to sleep at all tonight. Each time he closed his eyes, he was sure to see her looking so pale and ill.
Sloan sat up and looked over at him.
“Thank God for Gary, huh?” James joked. “Never thought I’d say that.”
Sloan didn’t even crack a smile. In fact, the look on his face was intense. “And for you.”
“Me? I arrived too late to do anything.” By the time he’d gotten there, Mike Foley could have already raped her.
“No, you arrived in time to help Kinley. You took care of her. I knew she’d be okay because you were with her. Because you care about her.”
James’s pulse jumped. “She’s a friend.”
“Oh, I think you feel much more towards her than just friendship.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. “Sloan, I—” he sat forward.
“And I’m fucking grateful that you do.”