Twist My Heart by Brooke Taylor (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

you more than one example of what a real bullet graze looks like. The kid was embarrassed you pistol-whipped him. Hell, wasn’t even a real pistol whipping, more like a love tap.”

“Love tap?” Thea glared at him through the rearview like he was insane. “With a gun?”

Nik lifted his brows and nodded. “Yeah, like to get his attention. You know, knock knock, anybody in there?”

Thea shook her head like she couldn’t believe anyone would ever do such a thing. Heck, listening to the dipshit talk had made Nik want to smack him upside the head a couple times to get his brain firing right.

“There’s going to be more, Nik. I know it.”

You know it? God, she reminded him of Leo and all his omen bullshit. “What do you know?”

“I know people don’t use guns to get their dog out of the shelter. They pay the fine, right? They get their dog back. So there’s more.”

Oh. Well that did make sense. “Maybe you didn’t have any money to pay the fine. I don’t know.”

And I don’t care.

All he cared about was getting safely back to his house, where he could figure it all out without worrying about some overzealous cop dragging her into custody thanks to a media-hyped dognapping. Fucking media. Always trying to make something out of nothing and nothing out of something.

“If I needed money, I could’ve pawned the gun.”

“Maybe the gun isn’t yours.”

“Exactly.”

“Maybe it is. Maybe this has nothing to do with money. It was after hours. Maybe you’re not the patient type, Tigger. Wait.” Nick snapped his fingers. “The anchor-lady said Titan was brought in on a bite charge. They probably wouldn’t have given him to even if you paid a fine. You just did what you had to do to save him, to keep him from being euthanized.”

“I imagine, but there has to be more.”

“My point is that’s a whole mess of maybes.” God, now he sounded like the old lady back at the gas station in Goodland.

“And my point is I don’t want you involved!”

I don’t care.

“I don’t know what I did or why, but you’re not a part of it. I don’t want you getting in trouble for helping me.”

“Look, Dylan fixed things at the hotel. I doubt Wanda will be saying anything. No one has to know I’m involved. Let’s get somewhere safe where we can figure it all out.” Sensing she wasn’t convinced, he kept talking. “I’m telling you, Thea, if you don’t have the answers, they will make some up for you. The media have already villainized you. Is that what you want? To be the villain?”

“Maybe it’s what I deserve. There will be more and it will be worse.”

“I don’t care.” He’d said it in his head so many times he finally said it aloud. He pulled in a deep breath. “I really don’t, Thea. We have a saying in the Teams, ‘The only easy day is yesterday.’ It means every day has the potential to be harder than all the ones before it, so suck it up and deal. I deal with worse all the damn time. Fuck worse. I’m not scared of worse. I’ve seen evil. Horrible things. Wicked people. I know you’re not one of those people, Thea. Whatever you did, you must’ve had a good reason.”

“I’m glad one of us believes that,” she muttered. Despite her lack of conviction, her voice had changed pitch to a more submissive tone.

Nik knew enough about interrogations to accept her resignation without pressing for more. “Try to get some sleep, okay? We have a long drive ahead.”

“Are you going to wake me up in an hour?”

He’d forgotten he’d given her the old rules for concussions to gain a little bit of control on the situation. “You haven’t thrown up or had any seizures, your balance is fine, and your eyes aren’t dilated anymore. How’s your headache?”

“It’s a dull throb, mostly the spot on the back of my head. My ankle hurts more.”

“Get some sleep. The rest will be good for you.”

“What about you? You need sleep too.”

“I slept yesterday.” Which was more than he usually got in a week.

“You’re sure?”

Nik nodded at her in the rearview. He was sure he didn’t need sleep, but that was about all he was certain of.

Thea reluctantly curled up on the backseat next to Titan and quickly drifted off. Watching her from the rearview mirror, Nik envied her ability to fall asleep with so much weight on her shoulders. Her closed lids shielded him from her eyes, but not from the intoxication he felt from being near her.

In the past twelve hours, he’d wanted to kiss her, kill her, and every sordid thing in between. Instead he’d tried to reason with her, to intimidate her, and even to scare her away. And he’d failed miserably at every tactic.

Maybe he was running away with her. He didn’t care. He’d saved her and he damn sure would protect her. Failure was not an option, even if it meant keeping her closer than he was ready to let her get.

Nik braked, slowing the Jeep down to a crawl as traffic backed up. The site of the tornado’s damage path came into view. It was for the best Thea wasn’t awake. In the light of day, the scene looked a thousand times worse than under the cover of night. All manner of responders and volunteers were still working the wreckage, but Nik’s eyes cut straight through the battered field to Thea’s crumpled white truck. Next to it a woman wearing a black pencil skirt whose dark hair looked to be pulled back in a bun surveyed the vehicle. Appearing alongside of her was a man in a navy windbreaker with large yellow lettering on the back. FBI? Something wasn’t adding up.

A black Chevy Tahoe was parked on part of the road not littered with debris. The same SUV that had been racing after Thea in Goodland? Damn. Why would the Feds be involved with an illegal snatch-and-grab on