Friday. Aegis Group safe house, Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Jackie’s head throbbed, and she’d only washed her body and face. She sat on the toilet, pulling on the last bit of clothing, because she didn’t trust her sense of balance.

Damn Felix for being right.

How was this going to affect her ability to keep up? What if this wasn’t something that just went away? She’d be dead weight and a liability to the team.

“Jackie, you okay?” A light tap at the door confirmed what she’d thought. Felix was haunting the hallway.

“Yeah. I’m dressed.” She braced her hands on the toilet, grateful it wasn’t one of the more common squatty potties or else she’d be on the floor.

The door swung open slowly and Felix leaned in.

“Shower okay?” He squeezed around the door into the tight space.

“Yeah.”

“One word answers. You must be getting pretty tired.”

“Just worried is all.”

“About?”

“This head wound. I mean, if I slow you guys down or—”

“Come on.” Felix pinned her with a flat stare.

“What?”

“When’s the last time you slept?”

“I don’t know.” She rubbed a hand over her face. “Time is getting kind of fuzzy.”

“You haven’t slept, you’ve been hurt, you’ve hardly eaten. Your body is telling you enough and you aren’t listening.”

She blinked at him. He’d put clothes on, which was kind of a shame, but his hair was loose around his shoulders. He really was too pretty to be here, in all this mess. There was something barely rugged enough that made her not question it too hard.

“Earth to Jackie.” He waved his hand in front of her face.

“What?” She blinked, but stopped short of shaking her head to clear her thoughts.

“You’re tired.”

“No, duh.”

Felix shook his head and chuckled.

“Okay.” He looked from the sink to the shower. “I think the best thing for us to do is get the stool that’s in my room for you to sit on and have you lean back against the vanity. I can use a cup to wash around your hair line and the wound. Sound good?”

“You had me at sit.”

Felix placed two small, travel-sized bottles on the counter and darted out without another word.

Maybe he was right about more than one thing. Everything he said made sense. Now why hadn’t she thought of it? Probably because she couldn’t. She’d used up all her good sense, her energy, even her reserves, and now she was one wobbly moment from passing out on the floor in total shut down mode. She’d seen people do that. They’d be up, running around, tending to emergencies, then it was as if someone hit an off switch and they were out. She’d managed to never quite get there, but there was a first for everything.

“Okay.” Felix rounded the corner, the so-called stool in hand.

“I think that’s a side table.”

“It’s tall enough and sturdy enough. We can call it whatever.” He set it down a few inches from the vanity and dug in his pocket. “Here.”

“What is this?” She took the thing he offered her.

“Protein bar. You didn’t eat. You need to. They don’t taste great, but its nutrients. Come on, up.” He kept his hand outstretched toward her.

She didn’t want to take it, but she needed him. She grasped his wrist for better support and he hauled her to her feet, his grip firm. He guided her around the stool until they stood facing each other.

“You do this for all the ladies you rescue?” She couldn’t be special. This had to be his thing, right?

“No, but when my aunt broke her arm, I helped her wash her hair enough I think I know what I’m doing.” He flashed her that same, brief smile. “Sit.”

Her knees buckled, and she sat on the table.

“Eat.” He bumped her hand holding the bar.

She busied herself ripping open the package, focusing on the questionable texture of the food instead of the man crowding in beside her. He saved people. He had an aunt he cared enough about to wash her hair. He was honest. Yeah, she thought he was pretty damn hot all things considered. And she’d smelled like a toilet bucket when they met, was likely to bleed profusely if something went wrong, and was as unsteady as...well, she couldn’t think of anything right now to compare herself to.

“Lean.” Felix splayed his hands against her upper back.

Jackie bit off a chunk of the protein bar, closed her eyes and gave up. He eased her into position, a towel cushioning the edge of the vanity, another tucked under her neck.

He really did know what he was doing.

“How’s this?” he asked.

“Hm? What?”

“The water temperature?”

“Fine.”

“I think you almost fell asleep on me there. Keep eating.”

She took a bite and opened her eyes.

Felix’s gaze flicked to hers and then back to the sink. A moment later she felt his fingers gently working against her scalp at the base of her head. Chewing was a chore, but he was right. She needed to eat.

“Talk to me,” he said.

“What am I supposed to talk about?” She watched the way the light glinted off his hair. Some was more gold than the rest, and there were bits of white blond. “Do you get highlights?”

“No.” He chuckled and—was that her imagination, or did his cheeks seem a bit pink?

“Is that just a natural, Viking thing? Perfect highlights?”

“It’s from spending too much time in the sun with my hair braided. Only some of my hair gets bleached.”

“If only that worked for the rest of us. In high school I got obsessed with highlights. Begged my dad to let me get them. He was so against it. So I went to a friend’s house, bought one of those home highlight kits—”

“Oh no...”

“Oh, yeah. My hair was orange. I must have gotten bleach into the cap because I had chunks of orange all over. I looked like some sort of horror anime character. It was awful. Dad freaked out, and I spent two days in a salon.” She snickered, half amused at herself, half at the shade of red her father’s face had achieved.

“You’re the reason he lost most of his hair.”

“Probably, yes.”

“Never would have thought that.”

“Why’d he send you guys after me?” She hadn’t forgotten that unanswered question.

The smile left Felix’s face. He kept massaging at her scalp, working closer to the gash, but he didn’t speak.

“He wants something. I know it. He’d probably leave me here to learn a lesson if there wasn’t something he was after. He doesn’t do anything out of the goodness of his heart.” She stared at the ceiling. The old aches throbbed. She liked to pretend her father’s indifference toward her as a person didn’t affect her, but it did.

“I’m not allowed to tell you,” Felix said quietly. “I don’t agree with it, but I’m not allowed to.”

“What if I tell you I won’t—”

“Please don’t ask me to disobey my team leader.”

What could be so bad they wouldn’t tell her about until later? Or were they even supposed to tell her at all? Were they bringing her home so Dad could—what? Tell her himself? That would be a first. He’d sent assistants and PAs to do that for him for most of her life.

“You know one time he sent his Head of HR to my Father-Daughter Dance because he couldn’t go himself? I didn’t even want to go. He made me—and then he couldn’t be bothered to show up. Whatever he wants to tell me, I don’t care. I don’t want to know.” She closed her eyes and bit off more of the protein bar.

“I can’t pretend to understand that.”

“Dad’s priorities are always company first. If you understand that, everything else falls into place.”

“I don’t get that. I’ve always been family first.” Felix shook his head, his frown so pronounced his cheekbones seemed sharp enough to cut.

“What’s your family like? You said earlier they came to America?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t warm up like she’d hoped to that question.

She chewed while he took his time rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. It didn’t even hurt and his expression relaxed over a few minutes.

“My aunt and uncle moved to Seattle when I was a toddler. Their youngest son had been born with Down Syndrome, and they had concerns about his quality of life. There was some experimental, new procedure looking for candidates on the younger side happening in Seattle. They got the letter accepting them into the program, and a week later we’d packed up their whole lives into a few containers and shipped everything off to Seattle. A few months later my parents decided we were moving, too. For a long time, it was all seven of us in a three bedroom house, living out of cardboard boxes. I don’t remember it very well, but there are pictures. God, the pictures.”

Jackie swallowed, afraid to say anything for fear of breaking the spell of his voice, the way he smiled when he spoke. There was a sad chapter to this story, it was the frog in his throat making his voice sound funny that gave it away.

“Björn was kind of like you. He was the kindest, most caring person you’d ever meet.”

“Did the treatment help him?”

“No. Though I do think he had a better quality of life in America than he’d been able to have if we hadn’t moved.”

“Had...?”

“Yeah. He had a congenital heart defect that, combined with his extra chromosomes, worked against us.”

“I’m—”

“Don’t.” Felix cleared his throat. “Don’t be sorry. Because of Björn his parents moved to Seattle. His Dad got a job that paid twice as much as he’d ever been paid. He’s going to retire in five or so years, fully vested in the company. My aunt was able to go to school and now she works with kids like Björn. Our lives were all changed—for the better—by him. We all knew his life would be short, but he was happy. He even had his own apartment and a girlfriend.”

“He did not.” Jackie chuckled and sniffled all at once. It was the stupid lack of sleep making her all weepy.

“He did. Her name was Katie, and he met her at this social group. She’d come into the pub and they’d share a plate of fries on his break. She still pops in now and then. Erik—Björn’s older brother and my cousin—will sit and eat with her. I always miss seeing her, but it sounds like she’s doing pretty good, too. She works at a bakery, and sometimes Erik and my aunt won’t eat these muffins she brings us and I’ll get one.”

“Same aunt whose hair you washed?”

“Yes, but not Björn’s mom. This is Aunt Liv.” Felix rolled his eyes and turned off the faucet.

“Oh man, I can already tell she’d be my favorite.”

“You two would drive me bonkers.” He wrung the water out of her hair without so much as tugging on her scalp. “It could be kind of fun to see you torture Erik though. Okay, sit up for me?”

He offered her a hand, and she straightened. Her muscles protested in new ways, aches and pains making themselves known.

“Yeah, you’re going to feel a lot worse in the morning after all you’ve been through.” Felix grimaced. “Want something? I know we have some painkillers.”

“That would probably be a good idea. Nothing too serious.”

“I can do that.” He glanced at her head. “Do you want to leave it like that, or—I know what you’re going to say—I can braid it for you so you don’t have to mess with it.”

The idea of getting up in the morning and brushing her hair out for the first time in days sounded every bit as much of a chore as it would be.

“Braid it is. Turn around. Do me a favor and don’t tell the others I did this?”

“Why? Will they never let you live this down?”

“Nope. Finish eating that.” He nodded at the protein bar. “This won’t take long. I think I worked the worst knots out already.”

He pulled a comb out of his pocket and began combing through her hair, separating her bangs from the rest of it. She’d often thought it was silly to let it get so long. Keeping it clean, combed and put up was a chore, for sure, but it was her chore.

“All done.”

“What?” She opened her eyes, blinking at her reflection and the man standing behind her.

“You were starting to nod off there, so I went quick versus fancy. I did a fish tail braid because I think it’ll hold longer and you won’t lose as many strands.”

“What is a fish tail braid and how is that not fancy?” She was not imagining the blush. Felix ducked his head and chuckled, the color crawling up his neck. “That’s it. You’re just not human.”

She lifted her hand, feeling the braid that started even with the gash and went down to the very ends of her hair. Hell, she couldn’t even do as good of a job as he did. She turned, the weariness of the last two weeks catching up with her.

“Anything else I can do?” He leaned against the doorframe.

Jackie could think of a few things, but she wasn’t up to them. If she had a little more energy and wasn’t banged up, he might have to fend her off at this rate. As is, the best thing for her was to crawl into bed.

“I suppose you couldn’t roll me into bed, too?” The ten or so yards down to the bedroom seemed daunting.

“I can.”

“I’m kidding. I’m not that helpless.”

“Helpless is never a word I’d use to describe you.” He offered her his hand.

“I need to get rid of those clothes.”

“A hazmat team should deal with those.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t smell me earlier.”

“That was earlier. I can smell those now. Come on. Let’s get you to bed.”

She took his hand, both because she wanted to and she was quickly losing confidence in her motor skills. He pulled her to her feet and placed his other hand on her shoulder. The room spun, and she was almost certain the floor tilted. Her vision did that fade to black, then pop back to full color routine.

“Easy. I’ve got you,” Felix said.

“Stood too fast.” She blinked a few times as the tilt-a-whirl ride slowed to a stop.

A wall of warmth pressed against her front. She stared at her closed fist, holding tight to the material of Felix’s shirt. He had his arms wrapped around her, hands at her hip and shoulders. She swallowed and forced herself to let go of his shirt.

“I’m good,” she said.

“Your body’s trying to tell you it needs rest.”

“I know. I’m listening.” Though right now she had another voice screaming its needs at her awfully loud.

“How about I walk you to your room, okay?”

“That’s awfully nice of you.”

“I figure it’s in my best interest to not have to scrape you up off the floor.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I don’t doubt you’d make it most of the way.”

“Not helping.”

“Sure I can.” He backed up, taking her with him.

In the hall, he pivoted, but kept the arm around her waist. It was a little awkward, but his nearness was comforting.

They padded down the tile hall, his hand sliding up and down with each step they took in synch, bodies swaying.

“This is me.” She gestured at the door.

“Yeah, it’s either this or the window. I don’t suggest the window.”

“You think you’re so funny.”

“No, that’s usually Isaac.” Felix stared down at her. “Get some sleep. If there’s any development, I’ll come get you. We’re going to get everyone out of here, even if we don’t do it directly. Kyle knows some people.”

“Yeah, he said that. I’m pretty lucky Dad picked you guys.” She could get lost in eyes that blue. They were like a clear day, full of good tidings and promise.

“I’m glad we took the job.”

Because they were up to it? Or because of this?

There was something magnetic about him. The way she swayed toward him, looked at him, even in those first moments when he’d hauled her out of that truck it was as though her whole world were knocked off its axis. Who was she to fight it?

Jackie leaned against him, curled her hand over his shoulder and pressed her mouth to his. The instant their lips touched she felt it. Something unique. He slid his arm around her waist, capturing her against his body. He tilted his head and turned her until the wall was at her back.

“Felix? Hey—Val-holla, where are you?” The foreign voice of one of his team echoed up the stairs coming closer.

She rocked back on her heels and he glanced over his shoulder.

Okay.

That was proof enough for her.

It wasn’t all in her head, it was all over her, too.

“Good night,” she whispered and ducked into the bedroom, clinging to the doorknob to keep on her feet.

She shut the door and leaned against it.

Felix muttered something and then stomped down the hall, safely away from her.

Jackie rested her head against the door and sucked down a breath. Her lips, her skin, hell—her whole body—tingled. If things were different, if they weren’t here, she knew where that was going. Felix was right about her, she was impulsive, and that wasn’t only about causes she believed in. She’d jumped into bed and love with more than a few men because it felt right at the time.

Val couldn’t know. She’d only make things worse.

Jackie edged toward the bed, finding it by feel.

At some point Val had shifted and now lay on the far side, her back to Jackie. She stretched out next to her friend, physically exhausted but her head spinning.

One kiss and she was jumping to conclusions.

Sounded about right for her.