“I’m standing in the middle of a murder scene where a lady with a three-thousand-dollar handbag and a bad nose job just took a photo of the blood on my shoe,” I hissed, evil-eying the woman in question before focusing my death glare on Keltan. “Let me go before I strangle her with her tacky pearls.”
Keltan glanced down at my light pink shoes, which were, in fact, stained. I picked the wrong day to deviate from my go-to black. But I wanted them to go with my new Celine. Oh, how vanity did me in. And my shoes.
I hoped this murdering asshole really did get caught and rotted in jail. These shoes were nearly impossible to find. And replace.
Like the life he had taken.
That box rattled slightly too, in a way that told me once I was home, and in safe surroundings the gravity of that would hit me so I didn’t give a shit about the shoes. But focusing on damage to precious accessories was what was keeping it sealed for the time being. And my eagerness to get this story locked down.
Keltan did let me go, and I didn’t hesitate to make the most of that by storming underneath the tape an officer held up for me and going straight for the stairs.
No way was I going for the elevator, considering Keltan was following and an enclosed space with him was just about as hellish as being trapped in a closet five feet away from a murderer.
“Jesus, Lucy. You wanna slow down so you don’t break your fuckin’ neck falling down the stairs?” Keltan hissed from beside me.
I gave him a sideways glance, not slowing my stride in the slightest. If anything, I sped up. “I have managed to navigate stairs for almost three decades. I think I’ll continue long enough to get out of here. Unless the universe is really deciding to fuck with me even further.”
Luckily, my pace meant there was only one flight to go, and freedom was within reach. In the form of a basement garage in which my car was currently residing.
As if the universe was giving me one final taunt, I tripped going onto the landing, missing a step from being too busy glowering at Keltan. I would’ve gone flying, given the chance.
Keltan’s reflexes didn’t give me even a glimmer of one, his arms around me, saving me from a header.
The familiar feeling of those arms had me wondering if a header with the carpet would have been a safer choice.
Keltan’s gripped my arms, his thumbs rubbing against my bare skin. “You’ve had a shock, Snow. It’s okay to lose your cool.”
His voice was so soft it gave me pause. As did the arms around me and that familiar feeling of drowning in his presence. Then I found it.
The surface.
I wrenched myself from his hold, ignoring my body’s protest at the removal of the contact. “The only thing I’m losing is my patience,” I informed him icily. I crossed my arms. “Why exactly did you even come here?” I spat, deciding the landing of an apartment building where I’d just witnessed a murder was as good a place as any to ask this particular question.
Something ticked in his jaw as his eyes explored the distance I had made between us, almost hugging the wall of the landing. I knew he was considering crossing it, trying to use his body and my response to it as a weapon. But he stayed still.
Smart man.
“I handled the security for Lucinda.”
I rolled my tongue over my teeth. “Well you did a bang-up job,” I said dryly.
His jaw hardened. “I said handled. She fired my company yesterday. Inexplicably. Before that, her security detail had been… extensive.”
My ears perked up, the need for the story overtaking the need to get away from Keltan.
“And why did she need such extensive security?” I asked. “She’s a jewelry designer, not a Russian diplomat.”
From what I’d heard, Keltan’s crew was new but making a name for itself as the “it” security company. Yes, this was L.A.; there were “it” bags, “it” girls, and “it” security companies. It didn’t help that most of the men in the employ of Greenstone Security could also serve as rugged male models or be the lead alongside any of the movie stars they protected.
I’d already heard he was handling security for Lexie’s band, which I was happy to hear. Mia’s daughter had become somewhat of an overnight sensation, and she was still young. This world might eat her alive yet. Not that Bull would let that happen. Or Keltan.
Or Killian, despite the rather messy breakup of what everyone had thought was a forever kind of thing. I’d known the kid since he was in diapers. I knew the way he looked at her. It was a forever type of thing. For him at least. Which was exactly why he ended it with the pretty young girl headed for the stars. Life had given him a lot of hits, and he didn’t think he was destined for those same stars. For the thousandth time, I cursed his mother for making that man think he belonged in the gutter, sacrificing his own happiness because of it.