“Fine. And whatever you need from your office, one of the guys can grab,” Escobar said.

Taylor stiffened slightly against Roman. He looked down to find her biting her bottom lip, her expression unreadable. “I don’t actually need anything from my office. I just… I thought maybe…” She trailed off and swallowed hard.

“You thought you might want to see where it happened?” he asked, purely guessing.

When her eyes filled with tears and she nodded, he let out a curse and pulled her into his arms. She buried her face against his chest, her petite body trembling against him. God, he was surprised she’d held up so well. It was too soon for her to see where Powers had been killed and he knew from experience that seeing the scene where her friend had died wouldn’t do her a bit of good. But it wasn’t his place to tell her. He might be domineering and used to taking charge of most situations, but he wouldn’t right now. Not with this.

“No one’s allowed up there now,” Escobar said quietly. “It’s marked off with police tape.”

Taylor shuddered as she sniffled and stepped back. Roman kept his arm protectively around her as she turned back to face Escobar, wiping at her eyes. “That’s probably for the best.”

Roman kissed the top of her head. “It is. Now let’s get out of here so I can take care of you.” Words he’d never said to any woman.

Nodding, she tucked into his hold as he led her back to the SUV.

One of the other men called out to Escobar, telling him they’d be the lead vehicle and had her address plugged into their GPS. Once Escobar, Taylor and Roman were back in the SUV, some of Roman’s stress lessened. He didn’t like Taylor being so exposed even in the relative safety of the vehicle.

Hell, he didn’t like any of this. And he didn’t know what to do with the strange protectiveness that welled up inside him whenever she was near. Since that had been practically the last thirty-six hours and it hadn’t abated, he wasn’t sure what the hell to do with his emotions. It was like she’d triggered something inside him and now that it had woken up, it sure as hell wasn’t going away. He’d never felt like this, not even with his only serious ex. That relationship had been all about sex, something he could now see clearly. Because hindsight was a fucking bitch.

As Escobar steered toward the exit, he murmured something, clearly talking into an earpiece as they pulled out of the parking garage. When he turned onto the nearly deserted street, Roman automatically scanned their surroundings. Though there were signs for street parking, both sides were nearly empty except for two vehicles to the left of them. A truck and an SUV. No one was on either sidewalk, this part of town basically shut down after business hours.

“It should only take us about ten minutes to get to my place from here,” Taylor said quietly, turning her body into Roman’s so she was tucked up against his side.

Before he could respond a sudden barrage of pinging rained down around them, like rain on a tin roof. The staccato was an unfortunately familiar sound.

Shit. A punch of adrenaline shot through his system. They were under attack.

Taylor jerked and looked up in alarm, started to say something, but he grabbed her by the waist and shoved her to the floorboards in between the front and back seats, throwing his body on top of hers.

Escobar cursed and hit the gas, making the SUV fishtail as they sped away.

Chapter 10

“The SUV’s bullet resistant!” Escobar shouted from the driver’s seat as the vehicle jerked forward, tires screeching as he made a sharp turn.

Adrenaline jagged through Taylor as she lay on the floorboards under Roman. He was turned away from her, looking toward the front seat, his profile grim.

Ping, ping, ping.

She cringed as more bullets slammed into the SUV. At first she’d been so confused when Roman had manhandled her to the ground. It had all happened so fast. Then she’d realized someone was shooting at them, and she was seriously close to having a full-blown panic attack.

When she watched movies that depicted women running around and screaming for no reason she always wanted to throw something at the screen. Or shake the women. She’d always wondered why on earth people screamed when the shouting couldn’t do any good. Now she completely understood. And the only reason she wasn’t screaming was because her throat felt as if it had swelled shut in pure fear. So she wasn’t any better than those characters on television she’d always thought were ditzy. If her throat loosened just a bit, she was going to start having a massive, very loud breakdown of epic proportions. There was only so much she could take and she wasn’t prepared for being shot at—again.

Escobar was saying something up front. Not to Roman though. Into his earpiece, she belatedly realized. He was ordering one of his guys to call the cops and telling them he was getting Roman and Taylor the hell out of there.

That was fine with her because she definitely didn’t relish the idea of sticking around and facing a madman—or multiple crazies—with guns.

“Taylor!” Roman shouted.

She blinked and focused on his concerned face above her. By his expression she figured he’d said her name more than once. The shooting had stopped! Even though her ears were still buzzing, they weren’t under fire. For now at least.

She slightly shook her head, trying to regain focus even though her insides were quaking like she was made of Jell-O. “Who was shooting at us? Are they still after us?” And her voice shook too, the questions coming out all high-pitched and screechy even as she tried to remain calm. Yeah, that wasn’t working for her so well.

“Shooter unknown and no one is tailing us,” Escobar said from the front, his voice clipped, as Roman pushed off her and went to help her up.

“I’m good here,” she muttered, feeling too shaky to move. She didn’t care if she looked crazy, she was safer down here. She wanted to drag Roman back down with her.

Roman’s expression softened as he looked at her. He reached a hand down to her. “No one’s following us, I swear.”

The completely shaken part of her wanted to stay exactly where she was, but she took his strong hand and let him pull her up beside him. He almost, but not quite, pulled her into his lap. Murmuring words that didn’t really sound like words, more or less just noises, he rubbed her back up and down as she turned into him. She’d always thought she’d be a lot stronger in a situation like this. Of course she’d never anticipated a situation where she’d be shot at multiple times in less than two days. Or ever, really.

“Benjamin, can you have one of your guys get Taylor’s stuff from her place? She can give him a list of what she needs. I don’t want to make another stop. If the cops need to talk to us, they can meet us at the condo. We’re not waiting around anywhere.” Roman phrased the first part as a question but it was pretty clear he wasn’t asking.

Taylor pulled back at his words. She didn’t want some random men going through her stuff. But one look at Roman’s face and having the reality of the situation crash over her, she nodded and looked up at Escobar who flicked her a glance in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, I can tell them what to get,” she muttered, realizing she probably sounded ungrateful. But she didn’t have any energy left for niceties. She just wanted to get somewhere safe and crash into the sweet oblivion of sleep.

* * *

Taylor slipped on the plush, royal blue robe the company provided for all executives as she got out of the shower. Sighing, she loosely belted it around herself, careful of her wound, which barely bothered her now. She might just keep the robe when they left. Compensation for all her mental stress.