I let out a humorless laugh. “You’ve got to be joking. You want me to take him home? To my house?”
“You know he’s not going to be able to do jack shit. He’s going to be in a lot of pain and someone needs to keep an eye on him and tell him how to take care of himself. I have to leave at five in the morning. There’s no way he’ll be with it enough for me to explain everything to him.”
“When do you get back from your job?”
“Three days. A week max.”
I glared at him, but I didn’t really see another option at this point. “Fine, but only a week and then he has to go stay with someone else.”
“Thank you. I’ll get a cleaning crew over here to clean up your clinic. They’ll get it done by the morning. Do you have a spare set of keys?”
I grabbed my purse from up front and handed the keys off to Hunter. I looked around and hoped to God that Hunter would follow through and get this place cleaned up before the morning or my staff would be asking a lot of questions. Hunter hauled Knight up over his shoulder and carried him out to his truck. I looked around in the darkness, waiting for someone to jump out and call the police on us.
I quickly locked the door behind me and jumped into my car as Hunter got in the driver’s side of his truck. Driving home, I kept thinking that the police would pull me over, or pull Hunter over, and we would be hauled off to jail. What would I be arrested for? Aiding and abetting a criminal? Could I somehow be wrapped up in one of his murders?
I was sweating through my clothes by the time I got home. I didn’t want Knight in my home and I certainly didn’t want to be an accomplice to whatever the hell was going on. But Reed Security had been good for my business. By helping them, I was able to buy new equipment for my clinic that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford. On top of that, a small part of me actually liked the idea of Knight in my home, which was completely perverse. He was a killer and deadly to boot, but I couldn’t help the way his smoldering gaze set my body on fire.
I lived in a neighborhood where it would look odd if someone was carried in over someone’s shoulder. I couldn’t risk any of my neighbors finding out that I had a house guest, so I opened the garage and pulled off to the side so Hunter could pull in. I ran in and closed the door behind him and opened the house as he pulled a still unconscious Knight out of the truck and upstairs to the spare room that was across from mine. I wasn’t sure that I was okay with him being that close to me at night, but he was pretty out of it, so I shrugged it off and decided that I would lock my door tonight. Attraction or not, the man was still a killer and I couldn’t trust him.
“What am I supposed to say to him tomorrow?” I asked Hunter as I watched Knight out of the corner of my eye. I was still nervous that this was going to blow up in my face. He had broken into my house before, so what were the chances that I could keep him in this room?
“You’re a doctor,” he said, looking at me funny. “I’m pretty sure you know what you need to tell him.
“I mean, what am I supposed to say about everything that’s going on. Am I supposed to keep my mouth shut? I don’t want to end up on his kill list,” I shot back.
Hunter chuckled, which really pissed me off. How dare he laugh at me. I was scared and he didn’t even seem to care.
“He’s just a guy. He’s not going to kill you because you know he was shot. He came to you for help, remember?”
“That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Relax. I know Knight and despite his profession, he’s a good guy and he would never hurt you.”
“Sure, until I overhear something I’m not supposed to. Then I’ll end up at the bottom of the river.”
“That’s more the mafia’s style. Knight would put one in your head and call it a night.”
I blanched at his flippant attitude about the whole situation. Would he really put one in my head? Hunter must have noticed my discomfort because he sighed and pulled me out of the room.
“Look, I know that what he does scares you, but he came to you for help and he wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t trust you at least a little bit. He’s not going to hurt you and I wouldn’t leave him alone with you if I thought there was a possibility he would.”
I nodded and followed him down the stairs, not ready for him to leave yet.
“I gotta take off. I have to get my shit ready for tomorrow. I you need anything, call Sebastian. He’ll help you with whatever you need.”
“Are you really sure this is a good idea?” I asked, twisting my fingers in nervousness. “I mean, I’m sure that someone at Reed Security could watch him better than I could.”
“You’re probably right, but he came to you. If I took him somewhere else and he woke up to someone else, he’d probably pull out his gun and shoot them.”
“So, take away his gun,” I said incredulously.
He shook his head and laughed. “You’re cute.” He headed for the garage door and I quickly followed behind.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that if Knight wanted to kill someone, he wouldn’t necessarily need a gun to accomplish it. You don’t become one of the best assassins by only killing with only a gun. Hell, he learned how to kill a person a hundred different ways in the military.”
“Gee, that’s so comforting as you leave me here alone for the night with him.”
“Look, I promise that he’s not going to hurt you. There aren’t many people that Knight trusts, but obviously you’re one of the few.” He turned and opened the door, but then turned back to me. “Just..don’t say anything to piss him off.”
With that, he turned and walked out the door, leaving me staring after him and wondering what the hell I had gotten into. After the garage door closed, I shut the door and made sure to lock it up tight. I looked at the stairs and decided that there was no point in cowering away from the man. Hunter was right. Knight had come to me, so I had nothing to worry about. Besides that, I knew he had been watching me and following me and he hadn’t tried to kill me yet, so what were the chances that he would try something now?
I crept up the stairs, almost afraid that I would wake him, even though I knew he was out and would be for hours after the pain medication I’d given him. I looked in the doorway to his room and saw that he was still passed out on the bed. Hunter hadn’t bothered to cover him with a blanket and I didn’t like to sleep without one, so I walked hesitantly over to him and pulled a blanket from the foot of the bed and draped it over him.
Here in the darkness, he didn’t look quite so threatening. Of course, he was passed out and I knew that he was injured, so maybe it was my brain trying to convince me that I didn’t have a killer in my house. Not knowing why, I reached forward and ran a finger over one of the lines of his face. He looked so tired tonight. It must be exhausting to live a life always watching your back and never being able to really settle down.
What the hell was I doing? I shook my head at how ridiculous I was being. This man had been stalking me and here I was, letting him into my house and staring at him in the dark as he slept. I left his room and shut the door behind me. I didn’t have a lock for his door, but I wished I did. I could lock him in there overnight and not worry about him roaming my house while I slept.
It turned out that I didn’t need to worry about him roaming my house, just breaking into my room. I had locked the door to my bedroom before I came to bed, but when I woke up a few hours later, I knew he was there before I even opened my eyes. I could feel him, just like every time before. I sat up and looked at the chair across the room. Knight lounged in it, as if he hadn’t been shot just hours before. But what really made me sit up and take notice was the gun resting on his knee. My eyes were glued to it in the dark. Dawn was just breaking on the horizon and it gave off just enough light to see clearly that he was not only awake, but was staring at me. I had a feeling he’d been there for a while. What I didn’t know was why he had his gun out.
“A
re you going to kill me?” I asked quietly.
He didn’t answer, just continued to stare at me. I swallowed around the lump in my throat and felt my heart start pounding out of control. What was I supposed to do now? Hunter’s parting words echoed in my head.
Just..don’t say anything to piss him off.
Perhaps I should have had Hunter write me a list before he left, since I had no clue what might piss off an assassin. I was sure we should stay away from topics like: How many people have you killed? Or, What’s your weapon of choice? Probably even, are you really as good as they say you are? He would probably offer a demonstration.
“Do you remember showing up at my clinic?” I asked, trying to mask the fear in my voice. He gave a slight nod, so I continued. “The bullet hit some bone, but luckily, it didn’t leave anything behind. Hunter helped me patch you up and brought you here. You’ll have to wear a sling until your arm heals. I’d say you’ll be out for six to eight weeks. Unless you can kill people with only one arm,” my eyes widened and I quickly tried to cover my mistake. “Not that I would say anything. I’m not going to the police or anything. Hunter’s sending over a crew to clean up my clinic, so there won’t be any evidence,” I babbled. The whole time, he just sat there and stared at me, his dark eyes boring into my very soul.
I stood up pulled my shirt down further so it didn’t show off my ass. “I’m just going to use the bathroom.” I scurried off to my bathroom and breathed a sigh of relief when I was locked behind the door. While I was in there, I decided I would go ahead and take my shower. I didn’t really want to go out and see him again anyway.
I finished washing up and shut off the water, pulling the curtain aside. I screamed and pulled the shower curtain back over me when I saw Knight leaning against the bathroom door.
“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled at him. “Have you ever heard of privacy or boundaries?”
He looked at me like he could see through the shower curtain. I felt so vulnerable standing here naked, yet a part of me wondered what he would do if I pushed the curtain away.
“Just making sure you were alright in here.”
“Why would I not be alright? I’m taking a shower, not chopping someone into pieces.”
The corner of his lip twitched, but he didn’t say anything else.
“Would you mind?”
“Not at all. Please continue.” His eyes burned hot and dark as he continued to stare at me. I grunted in frustration and pointed to the towel bar.
“Would you please hand me a towel?”
He picked up the hand towel and tossed it to me. I narrowed my eyes at him, but decided that two could play at this. I was a doctor after all. I had seen more parts of the human body in my lifetime than any regular person. So, what did it matter if he saw me? I flung open the shower curtain and stepped onto the bath mat, ignoring how his eyes roamed over my body in appreciation. Pulling the towel from the bar, I made a point of bending over to dry my hair, so he got a nice view of my ass and maybe a little bit more. I swear, he growled behind me and I looked back at him in question.
“Something wrong?”
His jaw flexed hard and he turned around, whipping the door open and storming out of the room. I chuckled softly to myself and then reprimanded myself for being such an idiot. I was playing with fire. I had no idea how a man like him would respond to me poking him.
Wrapping the towel around my body, I was relieved to see that he had left the room. I quickly dressed and headed downstairs to see where Knight had run off to. I found him in the living room, staring out the front window. When he turned toward me, I could see pain etched across his face and realized that I hadn’t given him the sling for his arm yet. I grabbed it off the kitchen counter where I had left it the night before and walked over to him.
I looked up into his stormy eyes as I slowly lifted the strap around his head. He was tall and even though I was 5’7”, I still had to stand on my tiptoes to get it over his head. I sucked in a breath as my breasts grazed against his chest. Pulling back quickly, I stepped back and secured the wrap around his wrist.
“This will help your shoulder drop into alignment so it will heal properly and help with the pain,” I said, looking down as I adjusted it to the proper spot. I took another step back, but I could still feel his eyes burning into me. “I have to work today, but you can stay as long as you need to. I mean, Hunter will be back in a few days, so I agreed to let you stay here while he was gone. It’s going to be hard for you to do things and you’ll probably be in pain. I have medicine for you on the counter and I’ll make some food for you before I leave for work. If you need me-”
I stopped as he placed his fingers under my chin and lifted my head to meet his gaze. My heart beat wildly out of control and it took all I had not to look away.
“Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Why did you come to me?” I asked.
His eyebrows furrowed and he didn’t answer right away. “Who else would I go to?”
“You could have gone to Hunter. He’s a medic. He could have taken care of you.”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything else. I figured that was the only response I would get out of him and turned to leave the room. I had to finish getting ready for work. Hopefully, Hunter had come through and I wouldn’t be walking into a mess.
✯✯✯✯✯
Hunter had come through in a big way for me. Not only was the front door and the room that I had put Knight in clean, but the entire place sparkled. He must have wanted to make sure that there was absolutely no trace of Knight left behind. Kathy was the first to show up for the day, after me, and I kept waiting for her to find something that let on to what occurred here last night, but instead, she only commented on how clean the place looked. I simply told her that I had found a new cleaning service, and based on how good the place looked, I was definitely going to have to get the number from Hunter.
I was about halfway through my day when I felt his eyes on me. Sighing, I went to the office window and looked out across the street. I could see him from here, sitting in the coffee house, staring out the window at me. I gave a little wave, but he didn’t do anything but stare back. It was infuriating. I could barely get him to speak this morning. Honestly, I didn’t have a clue what he was doing here. He should be resting. It’s not like I needed someone looking after me. It was more likely that he was the one that needed looking after considering he had just been shot.
I did my best to ignore him the rest of the day and went about, taking care of my patients. This was Kathy’s night to get off early for school, so I finished up with my nurse, Kay, and then sent her on her way as I finished up paperwork. I was sitting in the reception area when I felt him in the room. I looked up and gasped when I saw him standing in front of the desk. He looked pale and I could see that he was in pain. Stepping out from behind the desk, I quickly went around to the other side and linked my arm with his, dragging him to a chair.
“You shouldn’t have been out all day. You were supposed to be at my house resting.”
“Someone had to look after you,” he grunted.
I pursed my lips at his comment. “I find it funny that I need looking after, but you’re the one with a bullet hole in your body.”
“I was distracted.”
“By what?”
“You,” he said bluntly. I got up, deciding that I really didn’t want to know anything else that he had to say. It was weird enough with him following me around, but then to hear him say something like that? “You know, I wouldn’t worry so much if you would learn how to take care of yourself. You don’t even have a bell on your door. You didn’t hear me come in.”
“Look, for some reason you’ve decided to stalk me-”
“I’m not stalking you.”
“Then what would you call following me around?”
“Protecting you.”
I shook my head, unsure what to make of that. “I don’t need protection. I need to not feel cree
ped out every time I leave the house, or when I’m at home for that matter.”
“If I hadn’t been following you, you would have been killed by a druggie.”
“I would have gotten away.”
He stood up from his chair and stalked over to me. I was sure he could see my heart beating wildly through my shirt. He just seemed to know these things. When he got into my space, my breath caught and I waited for what he would do next. “You’re mine to protect,” he said quietly.
“I’m nobody’s. And I don’t need protection,” I said, pushing against his chest and scooting out from where he cornered me by the desk. He caught my wrist and pulled me back to him. The scowl on his face reminded me that I wasn’t dealing with just any man and I would be wise to watch what I said to him. I swallowed hard and pried his fingers from around my wrist. “I’m going to get you something for the pain.”
I stepped away quickly and hurried back to the room where I locked up the medicine I kept on hand. Locking the door behind me, I leaned against the door and took a deep breath. “Don’t piss off the assassin, Kate,” I muttered to myself. He pounded on the door behind me and I jumped in surprise. “Dammit, you scared me.”
“Hurry up. We’re leaving in two minutes.”
I flung the door open in shock. “I still have work to do. I can’t leave yet.”
“Too bad. Let your receptionist deal with it in the morning.”
“Knight, maybe you don’t get it, but I have a job to do and I can’t just leave because you want me to.”
“If I have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here, I will. I said we’re leaving,” he growled at me.
“You’re such an asshole. I don’t have to go anywhere with you,” I said, feeling more brazen than I should. “You’re just someone that stumbled in here with a gunshot wound. I don’t owe you anything.”
His jaw clenched in anger and for a second, I thought he might actually pull out his gun and shoot me for talking back to him, but he just turned and walked out the door, leaving me relieved and turned on at the same time.
Knight: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 4) Page 4
