Painted Walls
Page 24
The point of Rory Coghlan’s knife dimpled Annelise’s cheek. His other arm locked around the woman’s slim middle.
Where was Ava?
The bastard’s mad gaze angled toward the closet. Ava. Keen couldn’t hear his love’s name on Rory’s lips for the rapid beat of his heart, but he read it just fine.
Keen doubled his grip with his left hand. He eased his right to the window, hooked the tiny metal ledge with his bloody fingernails, and then pulled, desperate to open the window.
Nothing.
His foot began to quake again.
Annelise’s eyes bulged.
Keen followed instinct. He pressed his shoulder into the concrete and reached for the gun in the waist band of his shorts.
Rory arched the knife into the air.
“No.” Ava’s hoarse roar rattled the window pane.
He didn’t have time to do anything but shoot. Twice. The first bullet broke the glass. The second smacked the center of Rory Coghlan’s forehead. His neck jerked back. His arms fell slack at his sides. The heft of his body crashed to the ground.
Annelise’s cries bled through the shattered fringes of the round hole.
31
Sweet relief buckled Ava’s knees. Her grip on the door frame kept her from falling to all fours. The bed blocked Rory’s torso, but the lifeless tilt of his shoes and the splatter of blood that painted her wall told her the true spawn of Satan was dead.
Ava followed the line of the shots.
Keen.
Blood smeared the window. A small hole fractured the window where the bullet entered the apartment.
She launched across the room. Her bare feet burned on the wood floor, but she pushed harder.
Annie hugged herself. Heaves wracked her torso.
Ava didn’t slow. She cleared the coffee table. Tiny shards of glass sliced into the balls of her feet. She braced her hands on the sill.
“Keen.” Her stomach took the four-story drop that Keen could at any second.
He hunched in the window he’d stared out of several times while staying in her place. His back pressed against the small ledge. His right foot anchored him on the opposite side. His other foot wobbled precariously on the bottom ledge. Perspiration dripped from his chin. His bloody hand clasped his pistol, while the other braced the top and kept his weight from tipping toward the ground.
Ava unlatched the lock. Terrified she’d knock him off balance by slamming the window open like she wanted, she eased it open.
“Mind if I come in?” His smile eased the ache in her chest.
When he tumbled on top of her all the fractured pieces of her heart locked into place. She wrapped him in her arms and prepared for the impact of the coffee table. He caught them before the crash.
Keen stood. He hugged her to his chest so completely she thought she might never leave the spot. Their grips shifted time and again, pulling each other closer with desperate grappling.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“You are my world, Ava. I wouldn’t let him take you away...or your friend.” He kissed her forehead and eased back ever so slightly. “Come here, Annelise.”
They opened their hug to Annie. Her head lifted, shifting the blonde hair from her splotchy face. One labored step at a time she crossed the distance and then fell into their arms. Her cries crescendoed before subsiding. “Is he dead?”
“The reaper dragged his ass straight to hell,” Keen said.
“Good.” Annie straightened. Her gaze slid to the man Ava loved enough that somewhere along the way—like Amadi had told her—she’d learned to love herself. She’d finally forgiven herself the hatred and love she harbored for her father. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.” Keen’s gaze dropped to Annie’s arm, then to Ava’s feet, and flitted over the mess he’d made of their clothes with his bloody hands.
Ava grabbed his free hand. She turned the sliced flesh this way and that. “Annie, can you get some dish towels from the kitchen.”
“I’m fine.” Keen confiscated his hand, hooked his arm around her waist, and lifted.
“It’ll give her something to do. Besides, I need to get some pressure on her arm.”
“What about your feet?” He sat her on the sofa.
“They’re still hanging on.” The sharp pain had dulled to a throb. “My heart, on the other hand, feels like it’s run the globe.”
His blue gaze dropped to her chest. “I’ll have to kiss it all better.”
“Can it wait until I stop bleeding to death?” Annie plopped down a stack of towels.
“I guess.” She patted the coffee table in front of her and got to work on her friend’s arm.
“I’m going to call Winslow.” Keen stood and made the call. When he hung up he smiled. “He said Lara’s pissed she didn’t get to end him.”
“She’s awake?” A stupid tear sprang to Ava’s eyes.
Keen’s sweat-darkened hair flicked moisture when he shoved some off his forehead and nodded.
“Seems I missed some stuff,” Annie whispered.
“Nothing you need to worry about.” Ava kissed her friend’s cheek, and then turned to Keen. “Can you get us some ice?”
He disappeared into the kitchen. When he came back the blood on his hands was gone and he held a Ziplock full of ice.
It took towels, ice, and a chunk of time to staunch the bleeding on Annie’s arm.
While she held pressure Keen plucked five glass shards from her feet.
No one looked toward the body. No one even mentioned it.
The squeak of the front door swiveled their heads. Keen brought his gun around too and shifted in front of Ava. His back brushed her calf.
“What is it with you two and dead bodies?” Mason Beaumont stood in the threshold. He studied what was left of Rory Coghlan’s face.
“What is it with you showing up around the dead bodies? It’s taking ambulance chaser a little far, don’t you think?” Keen held a bead on him.
“I just heard about it at the hospital and wanted to come see for myself that the piece of shit was dead.”
“How’d you get here so fast?” Ava demanded.
“I ran all the lights.” He said it as though it were a given, like it was something he did all the time.
She expected a twinge of unease at Mason’s awkward timing, but something in his eyes kept the panic at bay.
“Why are you really here? You’re a lawyer hired on to a case that no longer exists.” Keen stood.
Mason’s eyes closed for more than a second, and then he centered his gaze on Keen. “So that’s two strikes against me? The lawyer being one and the case no longer existing the other?”
“No.” Keen stepped forward. “You have three strikes and you’re about to be out because you keep lying.”
“I’m not lying about anything.” Mason wrung the back of his neck.
He kept the gun trained. “Fine. You’re hiding something.”
“That’s not lying.” He shrugged.
“Lawyers,” Ava scoffed.
Mason waved Keen off and retreated a step. “Look, you have enough drama to deal with for one night. We’ll talk later.”
“Spill it or I’ll pry it out of you. You know they teach us,” he shifted a finger between her and himself, “these really fun techniques.”
“Electrocution,” Ava chimed.
“Water boarding,” Keen added.
“Too popular these days.” Her head shook. “Even moms are trying it on their kids. What about sight deprivation?”
“That’s a good one. There is always sodium thiopental.” Keen used the gun to tick it off his fingers.
“Ooh, truth serum,” Ava squealed. “I know a guy.”
“Will you two stop?” Mason begged.
“When you tell us what we want to know.” Keen’s arms spread wide.
“Fine, but you’re not going to like it.” The lawyer’s arms spread, mirroring Keen’s.
Ava had a glimmer of intuiti
on about what the man would say. She covered her mouth.
“We’re all ears.” Keen puffed out his chest.
Mason’s arms dropped to his sides. He pressed his lips together, and then released them. “Your father is my father.”
Keen’s mouth opened, but no sound escaped.
“The asshole you call your sperm donor is the asshole I call my sperm donor.” The lawyer pinched his chin, scrubbing his ten o’clock shadow.
“So,” Keen dragged the word out. “We’re brothers?”
He shifted onto his heels and stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. “Half.”
Everyone was quiet for a long minute. In the distance sirens wailed.
“No shit?” Her lover’s chin lowered.
“None,” Mason whispered.
Keen rubbed the top of his head, and then let it settle there. His gaze found Ava’s.
She let him see her smile. She let him see the love she had for him. She let him see the hope she had for their future. All of their futures.
Her fingers twined gently around his. “He’s got to be better than my half brother.”
* * *
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Books by Megan Mitcham
BASE BRANCH SERIES
ENEMY MINE
JUSTICE MINE
STRANGER MINE
WARRIOR MINE
DANGER MINE
PRISONER MINE
SURVIVOR MINE - 2017
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BASE BRANCH SUBSERIES
VERSIONS - updated 2016
VIRTUES - 2016
VARIATIONS - 2016
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BUREAU SERIES
FOR ALL TO SEE
PAINTED WALLS
FORD’S BOOK - 2016
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ANTHOLOGIES
ANTICIPATION
COWBOY HEAT
HIGH OCTANE HEROES
CONQUESTS
ROGUE HEARTS - 2016
SEX OBJECTS - 2016
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WILD AT HEART VOLUME II
benefiting Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge
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BOX SET
HEARTS IN DANGER
Limited Edition
benefiting the American Heart Association
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Megan Mitcham was born and raised among the live oaks and shrimp boats of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where her enormous family still calls home. She attended college at the University of Southern Mississippi where she received a bachelor's degree in curriculum, instruction, and special education. For several years Megan worked as a teacher in Mississippi. She married and moved to South Carolina and began working for an international non-profit organization as an instructor and co-director.
In 2009 Megan fell in love with books. Until then, books had been a source for research or the topic of tests. But one day she read Mercy by Julie Garwood. And oh, Mercy, she was hooked!
The USA Today Bestselling Author lives in Southern Arkansas where she pens heart pounding romantic thriller novels and window-steaming erotic romance. For information on releases and giveaways subscribe at meganmitcham.com!
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