ISAAC stood with Jenna in the back of the house where it was dark, and long shadows were cast over the rear entrance. A slight rustle was his only indication that they were no longer alone and then Shadow appeared, barely discernible, much like his name indicated.
“Dex, Zeke and Knight have scouted the perimeter, and it appears they took the bait and are following Sterling and Eliza.”
“What the fuck is Knight doing here?” Isaac demanded.
Shadow sent him a look. “If you think this job is about money to him any more than it is for us, then fuck you.”
“I never said that.”
“Yeah? Then why would you expect any of us to stand down when one of our own is in danger and an innocent woman is being pursued by assholes who’ve already roughed her up once?”
“Gratitude,” Isaac whispered.
“Fuck your gratitude,” Shadow grumbled.
Isaac chuckled. “Anyone ever tell you how graciously you accept a thank you?”
“Even if she wasn’t wearing bruises and her safety wasn’t at stake, she saved you. That’s enough for me—for us. She gets our protection whether you like it or not.”
He almost said thanks again but just shook his head, grinning. “Nice to have the backup,” he said instead. “Never said I’d turn it down.”
Shadow checked his watch. “Time to roll. Sterling arranged for a pickup, but it’s a bit of a hike, and we need to keep to the shadows and be as quiet as possible.”
Isaac turned, twining his fingers with Jenna’s. “You ready, sweetheart?”
She looked dazed and shell-shocked, as though she was still trying to process the day’s events. Then she gave a short nod. But when she took a step forward, Isaac didn’t miss her wince, though she tried hard to cover it up.
“Fuck this,” he muttered.
He swung her slight form into his arms, cradling her close to his chest, and took off after Shadow.
“Isaac, what are you doing?” she asked in bewilderment.
“You’re hurting, and there’s no way in hell I’m making you walk through the woods in the dark.”
“You can’t carry me the entire way,” she said, embarrassment clouding her words.
“Can’t I?” he challenged. “Honey, you’re a tiny slip of a thing. I barely notice the extra weight. Besides, we’ll move faster this way, and the quicker we get to the rendezvous point the safer you’ll be. And when we get there, I’m having you checked out by a doctor. I’m worried you may have broken some ribs and by the way, Jenna? You’re going to tell me exactly how you got those bruises. Every single one.”
His tone was fiercer than he intended, and she stiffened in his arms, whether in fear or embarrassment he didn’t know.
“I will never hurt you, Jenna,” he said softly. “And there is nothing for you to feel shame over. Ever. Do you understand me?”
She buried her face in his chest, avoiding both of his statements, but it didn’t bother him because by burrowing closer into him, she’d displayed another gesture of trust, even if she wasn’t aware of it.
A dark vehicle loomed ahead and Isaac quickened his step, wanting Jenna out of harm’s way as quickly as possible. Then the unmistakable whine of a bullet striking metal sounded just as Shadow grunted beside him.
“Fuck. Fuck!” Isaac roared. He vaulted toward the open door and threw Jenna into the backseat, where Knight broke her fall and immediately pushed her down to the floor, out of the line of fire.
“Shadow, you hit?” Isaac demanded as his teammate threw himself into the front seat of the SUV.
“Doesn’t matter,” Shadow growled. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
The man Sterling had sent to drive them to the safe house wasted no time and floored it, roaring through the wooded area while Zeke, who was in the third row seat with Dex, lifted his head, staring toward the front seat.
“Shadow, man, did you take a hit?”
“I said it doesn’t fucking matter. We have more important shit to worry about right now,” Shadow snapped. “It’s nothing.”
Despite Knight’s attempts to keep Jenna down between him and Isaac, she lifted her head, her face a mask of sorrow as she stared at Shadow. Tears gathered in her eyes and Shadow swore, but he didn’t bite her head off or even raise his voice. Instead he gentled his tone into one Isaac had never heard his teammate use.
“I’m okay, sweetness. I’ve certainly had worse. Now you need to stay down until one of us tells you it’s safe to come up.”
Ignoring his soft command and shaking off both Knight’s and Isaac’s hands as they tried to pull her back, she leaned over the front seat and gently peeled Shadow’s T-shirt up his side to reveal blood flowing downward from either a graze or a direct hit.
“I’m so sorry,” she said in a devastated voice, tears welling in her beautiful eyes.
Before anyone could set her straight on the fact that she had nothing to be sorry for, she reached out and placed her hand over the bleeding wound, splaying her fingers wide. She closed her eyes and strain became evident on her face. The others watched her in fascination, but Isaac had already witnessed the miracle she was and he didn’t like that she was going through it all over again. Even if it was necessary.
Shadow’s grim expression eased, and then he relaxed and stared at Jenna in astonished disbelief. Then he closed his eyes, and Isaac could swear that the deep lines and grooves that were permanent fixtures on his face eased as peace overtook him. He looked caught up in the most beautiful experience. To Isaac’s further amazement, when Shadow finally opened his eyes, there was a light sheen of tears, gone nearly before they’d registered.
Jenna’s hand fell away and she slumped over the back of the seat she’d leaned over to get to Shadow, her strength seemingly sapped. Tentatively, Shadow feathered a hand over her hair, caressing the strands as if to offer her even a fraction of the comfort she’d just given him.
“That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt—experienced—in my life, Jenna,” he said, every word laced with sincerity. “I don’t know how to thank you. Not only for this, but for what you did for Isaac. I haven’t felt peace since I was a child and you gave me that. I felt warmed from the very bottom of my soul, from the inside out. In places that have been cold longer than you’ve been alive. I don’t pretend to understand your gift, but what you need to understand is that you are a gift. A very special gift. More special than you’ll ever know, and if I had to guess more special than anyone has ever made the effort to make you feel. I don’t lie, Jenna. I don’t say smooth shit to make people feel better. I’m not one to spare feelings. I’m blunt and I say it like it is. Always. And I’m telling you that you are a beautiful person inside and out, and furthermore you have the most beautiful soul I’ve ever encountered in my entire life. That’s twice you’ve saved someone you don’t even know at great risk to yourself. I know you’re scared and I know it’s likely you don’t trust anyone and that you can’t afford to trust anyone. But I’m making you a promise right here and now. On my life, Jenna. On my life. Isaac will protect you. I will protect you. We will protect you. Isaac is a good man, one of the best, and you’ll always have my gratitude for saving him instead of saving yourself. You can trust him. He’ll never let you down. And the rest of us will have his back the whole way. You aren’t alone in this. You can trust all of us because we’re going to make sure those assholes never get their hands on you again. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Jenna was trembling, both with extreme fatigue and with emotion. Her eyes were glossy with unshed tears as she stared back and forth between Shadow and Isaac.
“I want to believe you,” she whispered brokenly.
Isaac couldn’t stand being a passive participant any longer. He curled his hands around her shoulders, turning her until she faced him, and then he pulled her against his chest, listening to her weary sigh as he guided her damp face into his neck.
“Then believe, honey,” Isaac whispered against her ear. “Everyone has to believe in something. I want your something to believe in to be me.”
“Everyone always leaves,” she choked out. “They never stay. They never keep their promises. They lie. They never mean what they say. They hurt . . .”
She went utterly still, refusing to say anything more. Isaac bristled with rage. He knew damn well what she’d been about to say. They hurt her. God, she’d been hurt her entire life. Treated as a subhuman. Used for others’ conveniences, no doubt. It enraged him and broke his heart at the same time.
“We’re going to talk about the people who hurt you,” he said firmly. “But for right now you’re exhausted from healing Shadow and we still have an hour to drive, so I want you to try to relax and get some rest. Try not to think or worry about anything. We’re going to protect you, baby. If you believe in nothing else, if you trust in nothing else, hold this one truth to your heart. We will protect you and I will take care of you, and I don’t make promises lightly. Others may not mean what they say, but I do. We all do. Our word isn’t given lightly, but it is given to you.”
Not even caring that the others would see or that he didn’t know anything about this woman in his arms other than she was in trouble and that she was an angel, he pressed his lips to her soft hair to seal his vow.
She stiffened for a moment and then finally relaxed in his hold. Within seconds she was completely under. Warm, limp and unconscious, her weight so very precious against his body.
For a long moment, no one said anything, though plenty of looks were cast her way and Shadow’s. After half an hour, Shadow turned in his seat and looked first to see that Jenna was still sleeping before glancing up at Isaac, raw emotion simmering in his usually unreadable eyes.
“Jesus Christ, Isaac. You didn’t tell me how . . .” He shook his head. “Hell, I don’t even have the words to explain it, so how can I expect you to have had them?”
“I was too mind-fucked at the time and convinced I had died and that she was welcoming me to heaven,” Isaac said grimly.
“That was the most . . .” Again he shook his head. “Jesus, I still don’t have words. It was the most beautiful, peaceful thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. It felt like liquid sunshine had invaded my body and warmed me from the inside out, erasing any pain, worry or guilt. Removing a lifetime of pain and regret and replacing it with something more precious than I’ve ever possessed. She’s a fucking miracle, man.”
“I know,” Isaac said quietly.
My miracle.
He couldn’t help the possessive claim that bubbled from the depths of his heart. It was crazy, it was ten kinds of fucked up, it was something right out of a science fiction movie, but one simple truth prevailed. She was his, and she’d been his the moment she’d laid her hands on him and he’d felt her touch all the way to his soul. She’d saved him, and there was no way in hell he’d ever allow anyone to hurt her again.
Shadow’s eyes were worried as they stared intently back at Isaac. “Do you even know what her life will be like? Will always be like? She’ll always have assholes trying to take her and use her and even if she had a chance at a normal life, if it got out what she can do, she’d never have a moment’s peace. People would never let her be. There’d always be someone wanting her to save a loved one, someone hurt, someone dying. And it takes a piece of her every time she does it. I could feel it. I could feel what it did to her even as what she gave me was the most fucking beautiful thing I’ve ever been given. It chips away at her, Isaac. And if it happens enough, there won’t be anything left of her and she’ll be left broken.”
Isaac’s chest tightened and his throat knotted as Shadow’s words sank in. She was already so damaged. He was right. She had little left to give and yet she hadn’t hesitated to give it to him and to Shadow, two men she didn’t know and to whom she didn’t owe a single thing.
“You said you’d protect her,” Zeke said from behind him. “That we’d protect her. But can we, Isaac? Can we really? This is way bigger than what Ari, Ramie, Gracie and Tori can do. This is bigger than all of us. How the hell can we guarantee her any kind of safety? How can we make her promises we don’t know for sure we can keep?”
“I will protect her,” Isaac growled. “I will never leave her to the kind of life you described. I will never allow her to live the hell she’s lived her entire life until now.”
“Can you make that promise?” Dex challenged, speaking up for the first time. “Even knowing nothing about her, who she is, who’s after her or knowing what she wants? Are you sure you even want to? Do you fully understand what you’re signing up for?”
“You get one pass and only one, but if you ever ask me that shit again you and I are going to have serious problems. No one is making you participate. This isn’t even an official assignment, so if you want out, say the word. Go back to HQ and have Dane put you on a different case.”
“Look, man, I’m just looking out for you. She comes with a lot of baggage and already two of you nearly became collateral damage. I just need to know that you have your head on straight and have fully thought this through,” Dex said calmly.
“I carry her baggage and her burdens from now on,” Isaac said, fire in his eyes and words. “Never said it would be easy. But there is no fucking way in hell I’m turning my back on this girl and throwing her to the wolves.”
“Then I guess we better come up with a plan once we get to Sterling’s hidey-hole,” Dex said. “With the speed in which they found us at the last one, I’m worried as fuck as to just what we’re up against. It’s obvious they don’t mess around, and equally obvious they don’t give a fuck who gets in their way or about taking out anyone between them and the end goal.”
“I’ll know more when I talk to Jenna,” Isaac said as he cradled her even closer to his body. “Once I hear all she has to say, we’ll have a better idea of what we’re dealing with and can act accordingly.”