Marcus
“What the fuck do you mean that they aren’t here?” I exploded at Jett, who was on the other end of my cell phone conversation.
We’d only been in Turkey for a day, but it was so fucking hot that I was practically melting in my custom suit and tie.
I was standing at the side of a small street in town, and I’d stopped to call Jett while Dani was just up the road and around the corner talking to one of the locals.
“I mean we found them,” Jett answered, seemingly unaffected by my temper. “They were released with the help of a couple of doctors in the same town you’re in right now. They made it back to Europe shaken up, but they were okay.”
“And you couldn’t have found that out before I left US soil with your sister?” I complained, knowing full well it wasn’t really Jett’s fault.
“Hell, I didn’t know you’d take Dani with you.”
“Could I stop her?” I drawled.
Danica was capable of bowling people over like a hurricane.
“You probably could have, but you obviously didn’t want to,” Jett observed.
“Nobody stops Dani when she’s determined to do something,” I answered in a grim voice.
“She’s stubborn,” Jett agreed. “You should be able to relate to that.”
“She makes me crazy,” I confided. “It’s like she’s determined to get herself into bad situations.”
“She’s with you,” Jett said. “She’ll be okay. And in my sister’s defense, she doesn’t intentionally try to get in tricky situations. It happens because she cares too damn much. How is she doing mentally?”
“I think she was apprehensive when we first got here. But an hour later, she was running around, talking to the locals and the medical staff here. She seems comfortable here now.”
“You care about her,” Jett said without question.
“More than I should,” I answered reluctantly. “She’ll put me through hell.”
“She’s a handful, but I think you can deal with that because she’s also one of the kindest people I know. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my sister. Her heart is always in everything she does,” Jett threw back at me.
“I know,” I admitted. “But sometimes she takes on too many burdens that aren’t her own.”
“Dani considers anything that she can possibly resolve as her own personal battle. She’s always been that way, Marcus. There’s nothing any of us can do to change her nature, and I’m not sure I’d want to if I could.”
“I know,” I told him. “I don’t want to change her, but I fucking worry about her.”
“Break her heart and I’ll kill you,” Jett mentioned casually.
“She’s more likely to break mine,” I mumbled.
“Better yours than hers,” Jett said solemnly. “Dani has been through enough. I don’t know how you feel about her, but if it isn’t something permanent, don’t screw with her head.”
“Fuck! I want it to be permanent. I’m not sure that she wants something that means a commitment.” The last thing I wanted to do was scare her away by confessing that I wanted her to stay with me for the rest of our lives. Now that we’d been together, I couldn’t imagine spending my life without her. Every second I spent with her was like a gift, and I didn’t want it to end.
“If she’s with you, she wants something permanent,” Jett informed me. “She’s not the type to go into anything without wanting everything.”
“She’s had other men in her life,” I argued.
“Not very many,” Jett said. “And they were never anything serious.”
“What makes you think she wants more than a fling?” I asked curiously.
“Because she’s Dani,” he said simply. “I’ve never seen her look at any guy the way she looks at you.”
A kernel of hope started to open in my heart. “I hope you’re right,” I shot back at him. “Otherwise, I’m fucked.”
I heard Jett’s amused laugh coming from the phone. “Dude, I never thought I’d say this to you, but you’re pathetic.”
“I know,” I agreed readily. “I fucking hate it.”
“She’s worth it,” he argued.
I knew Jett was right. Dani was worth whatever insecurity and fear I had to live through to keep her. Uncomfortable discussing Dani with her brother, I finally asked, “Is everything okay there?”
“Yeah. We’re good. Ruby’s been through hell, but she’s a fighter.”
“And you’re absolutely certain that those two women are safe?” I asked, wanting to make sure before I told Dani.
“I’m positive,” Jett said emphatically. “I just talked to both of them myself. I wish I would have gotten that information before you flew all the way there.”
“It’s okay,” I told him, feeling a little guilty about the way I’d taken his head off verbally. “As you said, you had no idea they were safe a day or two ago. I’m just glad all is well. I can get your sister and get the hell out of here.”
“How safe is it there, really?” Jett asked, his voice demanding the truth.
“As safe as it can be for a town near the border, I guess,” I told him. “And not nearly as secure as I’d like it. Your sister likes to point out that anything can happen anywhere, but I sure as hell don’t like her here. I don’t know how I ever left her when I saw her in dangerous areas before.”
“Maybe you were in denial,” Jett suggested. “I think all of us were. Dani never seemed to be concerned, so all of her siblings, including me, just lived with it. We worried about her, but the longer time went by without anything happening to her, the less anxious we were for her. That was a mistake that will never happen again.”
“I fucking worried,” I admitted. “But we barely knew each other, and all we did was antagonize each other. I think that’s how I dealt with the fear that something would happen to her. If all she did was piss me off, I told myself I was happy to leave her to her own business.”
“But it wasn’t that simple?” Jett queried.
“Nothing with your sister is ever that simple,” I grumbled. “She still pisses me off.”
“But you still love her,” Jett stated.
More than you’ll ever fucking know! Aloud, I answered, “Yeah. Go figure that one out.”
“I think anybody you care about, and is worth fighting for, is going to irritate the hell out of you sometimes,” Jett replied in a humorous tone.
“I think her stubbornness is one of the things I actually like about her, too, so it’s rather paradoxical. Love doesn’t make sense,” I told Jett in an annoyed voice.
Jett chuckled. “It doesn’t have to make sense. It wouldn’t be so amazing if it did.”
I wondered how my friend could still find being in love so attractive since he’d been dumped by an evil bitch who didn’t like the way he looked after his accident. I had to give the guy some credit. He’d eventually discovered that what he’d had with Lisette had been one-sided and conditional.
Love wasn’t completely comfortable for me. It left me way too vulnerable, and I hated that feeling. But I’d rather be exposed than let go of Danica.
“I guess,” I finally answered. “Right now I’m going to find your sister and get the hell out of here so I know she’s safe.”
“Okay. Let me know when you make it back stateside,” Jett requested.
I agreed, and then we both hung up.
I put my phone back in to my jacket pocket. After it was secure, I shrugged out of my suit coat. It was so damn hot that I was sweating bullets.
I undid my tie and pulled that off, too, shoving it into my coat pocket as well.
Although this country had some more temperate areas, this particular town wasn’t one of those places, and it was fucking July. It wasn’t like Saudi Arabia during the day, but it also lacked any buildings with air conditioning, so the heat was getting incredibly uncomfortable.
I wondered how Dani was faring with her redheaded complexion.
Determined to find her and give her the news that the two women we were searching for were actually safe, I turned and started making my way down the rough street.
We’d ventured into a part of the village that didn’t have many people milling around. Her contact had been farther away from the center of town, which was one reason why I’d let her go ahead of me while I checked in with her brother. The area was fairly quiet, so I’d thought it was safe enough to let her out of my direct line of sight. But only just barely. In reality, I’d be able to see her if it wasn’t for the buildings.
I was almost to the corner when the blast occurred. Later, I’d never remember seeing the young, inexperienced suicide bomber who came into town behind me.
All I’d remember was the way the bomb had exploded like everything in the area was going up in smoke.
Shattering glass.
The force of the explosion knocking me down into the dirt, my head connecting with the street.
For a few moments, I knew nothing.
After that, all I experienced was fear in the debris-filled air as I saw the shop around the corner that Dani had gone to visit, and my determination to get Dani out of the collapsing building even if I had to claw my way in.