Hannah
“There,” he said, closing the gap with the car, following its path until they were almost bumper-to-bumper.
“Now what?” Hannah asked, sitting back and crossing her arms. “Do you expect me to just jump over there and rescue him?”
He glanced over at her. “Can you?”
Her jaw dropped open at his tone. “You’re serious.”
Josh shrugged, giving her a calm, relaxed wink. “Not entirely.”
Out of the corner of her eye she stared over at Josh, evaluating him, not caring that he could see her. Then she shrugged and reached to undo her seatbelt.
“Whoa, hold on there,” he said, his hand snapping out and closing around hers. “You don’t have to do that.”
Even as he said those words, a violent burst of electricity shot up her hand, leaving it tingling and numb as it passed. It reached her shoulder and spread across her core. Hannah hissed in surprise and snatched her hand back, the hair on the back of her neck standing up.
Hannah stared at him in open-mouthed shock as Josh flexed his fingers in and out of a fist.
He must have felt it too.
Josh looked back at the road after a brief pause, leaving Hannah to her own devices for the moment as he tried to keep them close with the fleeing car.
Hannah closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and holding it before exhaling slowly. The pressure wasn’t as great this time. Her failure to keep her composure the day before must have left it weakened. This time she fought it back, holding herself together, and after several minutes of tense, focused breathing, she was able to believe she would succeed.
“What. Now?” she asked, her voice taut with nerves and effort. She needed to focus on something else. To distract herself from the war being waged inside her.
His eyes narrowed.
Does he suspect what’s going on? He can’t…can he?
Josh was incredibly smart and quick as a whip. There were very few things he missed, but could he have an inkling in the right direction? Hannah doubted it. If he knew, or even suspected, his attitude would be very, very different. Still, she would have to keep herself on guard around him.
“Now,” he said, trying to force a smile onto his face and act as normal as possible. “Now you get to see what happens when my team and I go to work.”
She looked around, suddenly wondering if she had missed someone else in the truck. But it was still just the two of them. “I don’t get it,” she said plainly, completely confused.
“Watch,” he said, creeping closer to the rear bumper of the car.
A sudden rumble sounded from behind them, became a full-fledged roar, and without warning two more trucks shot by on the left as traffic eased up around them. The first truck cut in front of the car and then hit the brakes in a breathtakingly smooth and precise manner. Hannah felt her eyebrows raise at the effortlessness of the maneuver.
The car tried to go left—the row of parked cars on the side of the street to the right didn’t make that an option—but the second truck finished the maneuver, leaving the silver sedan boxed in on three sides. As one, the vehicles slowed to a halt. A large delivery truck happened to be blocking the car on the right, cutting off the field of view from anyone outside the circle of vehicles.
“How the hell did you coordinate that?” she asked, looking around wildly as they stopped.
“I’ll tell you later,” he said, exiting the truck before it had come to a complete halt.
More large, dangerous-looking men exited the other trucks almost simultaneously, but they were met by three men clad completely in black who hopped from the car, fanning out to meet Josh and his team.
“Oh, shit,” she muttered as the equal numbers squared off. Josh’s team was shouting commands at the men who had taken her brother, but they didn’t seem to be listening.
She gasped as things went from standoff to vicious brawl in the blink of an eye. Her attention was naturally dragged to Josh. Her fingers wrapped around the door handle.
What are you going to do, go out there and help?
Maybe.
Her grip tightened as Josh rebounded off the front of the truck, shaking the cab as he took a fist to the stomach. He keeled over, and she saw his foe drive a knee up at his face. Her heart stopped as she imagined the damage that could cause to her protector.
But it was a feint. Josh moved with the leg, applying upward force as he lifted the other man clear of the ground and hurled him into the air. Her eyes went wide as Josh pirouetted out of the way. Then, as the flailing attacker passed him on the way down, the big shifter moved. His arm shot out, grabbing his opponent’s face and viciously dropping to one knee, driving the unknown man’s head into the ground.
Hannah swallowed uncomfortably, glad that the front of the truck hid the grisly results of such a move from her eyes. Death wasn’t unknown to her, but that didn’t mean she wanted to witness it either.
With one of the men down, the fighting didn’t take long to subside. Josh quickly moved to one of the other engaged pairs. As the attacker pulled a fist back to strike, Josh dropped his arm through and bent it, locking the elbows together. His teammate didn’t hesitate, unleashing a furious combo of hits that left the luckless attacker stunned. Josh pulled hard with his arm, spinning the man around.
Hannah screwed her eyes shut as she saw the other shifter wrap his hands around the man’s neck and twist violently.
She opened them after a few heartbeats, and it was over. The only men visible were Josh, his team, and coming out of the car, her brother.
“Chad!” she cried, practically jumping out of the truck and rushing forward as he stood up tall, rolling his shoulders.
“Hannah,” he said with relief, sagging into her arms as they briefly hugged each other.
Stepping back, she gave him a questioning glance, hoping he would understand what she was able to ask. It couldn’t be voiced out loud, not with the others around, but she had to know. Her heart thudded as Chad looked back at her, but then he shook his head slightly, and Hannah relaxed.
“Time to go,” one of the big shifters said, his voice carrying authority.
Josh moved close, and before she could stop him his arm wrapped around her shoulder. Hannah stiffened, inhaling sharply at the closeness of his presence. Her entire body tingled, and she had to fight against warring emotions within her. Should she lean back into him? Or did she shrug his arm off and risk conveying that she wasn’t interested?
Why did he have to be so damn cute? This would be so much easier if he was a hideous brute!
“Come on,” he said, “Chad is going to go with Jared, my team leader,” he said, indicating the big man who had spoken first. “He’ll be safe.”
Hannah hesitated.
“Hey,” he said gently, tugging her back to the truck. “I told you we’d rescue him, and I was telling the truth, wasn’t I?”
She nodded reluctantly.
“I’m telling the truth here too, but we need to go.”
This time Hannah let herself be pulled along by Josh. As they started walking his arm slipped away, and she allowed herself to relax ever so slightly. They climbed into the car and roared away from the scene. In the back of her head, she had questions about the dead men, and how they were going to handle that, but her concerns were outweighed by the fact that they had managed to get Chad back safely.
She shuddered in her seat at the thought of what might have happened if he had been taken back to their base.
“Everything okay over there?” Josh asked, concern tinging his voice as he glanced over at her.
“I’m fine,” she said immediately, then tried to switch the subject. “How did you manage to organize that? I didn’t see you talking to anyone.” She was referring to the boxing-in maneuver with the rest of his team.
“I had them on standby at the start of the day, just in case,” he admitted. “Each of our trucks has trackers in it, so it was more a case of them figuring out what was going on. We work together a lot, so they knew what I needed.”
Hannah nodded, looking out her window as they came alongside one of the trucks. She sat upright and pressed her face against it.
“There’s a woman driving that truck!” she exclaimed, recognizing the deep blue paint job as the same one that had cut off the car earlier.
Josh chuckled. “Yeah, that’s Shay. She’s mated to Justin, and in a prior life, she was a race car driver. I’m decent behind the wheel, but my God can that girl drive!” he exclaimed.
She was stunned. “You have women that work with you?”
The big shifter raised an eyebrow at her. “My immediate boss, the head of our group here, is a woman,” he told her. “She’s the biggest badass I know.”
Hannah’s jaw dropped open at that revelation.
“Besides myself of course,” he added slyly.
She coughed, trying to cover up her laugh, but it was useless. She giggled happily, allowing herself just that one moment. That was it. Then she would clamp back down on her emotions.
Hannah glanced over at Josh, meeting his eyes without realizing what she was doing. They were still at the stoplight, so he wasn’t focused on the road. Instead his silver-blue eyes were latched on to her, boring deep past her momentarily lowered barriers, a penetrating look that she felt in her soul.
The urge to reach out and touch him was overwhelming. She could see his hand twitch, and knew he was feeling the same. The longer they spent together, the stronger her attraction to him was becoming. He wasn’t just some hulking gargoyle of a bodyguard. He was smart, quick-witted, and impossibly gorgeous. It wasn’t fair. Why did he have to be a shifter?
Relief flooded through her as the light turned green and Josh was forced to look away—eventually—and focus on the road.
She had no idea where they were going, but wherever it was, it was too far away. Hannah needed to put some space between them immediately, or she was going to find herself giving in to her desires.
And that would be disastrous.