“So instead, you chose to let my husband bleed out on the pavement, and Daniel Wright still got away.” Silence descended between them. She hadn’t said her husband’s killer’s name before, never wanted to make it real, but it’d been there in the back of her mind, for the past two years. Waiting for this moment. And she couldn’t hide from it anymore. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Georgia staggered back into the coffee table as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Holden reached out for her, but she wrenched away. “You kept the truth from me all this time.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you.” Pain contorted his features as he lowered his hand to his side. He swept one arm toward the back room where her daughters’ laughter trickled out into the main room. “I didn’t want to hurt them.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. You did this for yourself.” She tried to keep her voice under control to prevent Faith and Hope from overhearing, but the rage—the betrayal—churning inside boiled past her controlled defenses. She’d trusted him, had started moving past the hurt and the grief of losing her husband because of him. She could still taste him in her mouth, feel his touch on her skin, but now… He’d destroyed it all. He’d taken what’d been left of her heart and suffocated the life right out of it. Just as he had with Jack. She stormed past him toward the front door, her heels clicking on the safe house’s hardwood flooring.
“Girls, we’re leaving.” Georgia gathered the girls’ coats as both Faith and Hope ran to find her. The weight of Holden’s attention tunneled through her clothing, straight past skin and muscle until she caught herself holding her breath. She dressed both girls quickly and took the keys to the new SUV Holden’s boss had left behind from the mount beside the door. “Don’t come after us, Holden. Because this time, I’m going to make damn sure you can’t find us.”
He stepped into her peripheral vision. His voice broke. “Georgia, please, don’t do this. It’s the middle of the night, and a gunman is still out there. I can protect you—”
“I think you’ve proven who you’re willing to protect.” Georgia swung the door open and ushered the girls outside as the bite of dropping temperatures seared her exposed skin. “And it isn’t us.”
She slammed the door behind them. Frigid winds trailed over the calmness of the lake spreading into a thick layer of fog ahead of them but did nothing to cool the heat in her cheeks. Tears burned in her eyes. How could she have been so blind? Her desperation to feel even an ounce of what she’d had with her husband had cracked her defenses, and she’d let a man she thought she could trust into her heart. Her body felt heavy as she stood there on the porch. But Holden wasn’t the only one who’d betrayed Jack’s memory tonight. She’d kissed his former partner, imagined a future with him. Fallen in love with him. And for what? To learn that same man had been just as responsible in killing her husband as the one who’d pulled the trigger?
“Mommy, I’m cold.” Faith’s teeth chattered as Georgia knelt to scoop Hope into her arms. Hugging her daughters into her, she forced herself to breathe evenly. Everything she needed was right here, and that would have to be enough. “Can’t we go back inside?”
“Sorry, Faith,” a chilling, familiar voice said from the shadows. Footsteps registered through the fog, and every muscle in Georgia’s midsection tightened in warning. “Your mommy isn’t going anywhere.”
Chapter Five
He’d made the wrong choice. He’d known it then, but the coldness in Georgia’s eyes before she’d slammed the door behind her and the girls nailed the last bit of hope he had for redemption straight into his heart. And destroyed it. He should’ve told her the truth that night he’d stood in her kitchen and held her after delivering the worst news she’d ever receive, should’ve told her he’d made a mistake. She was right. He hadn’t been interested in anything other than protecting himself by keeping the truth hidden from her, and now he was on the verge of losing her, Faith, and Hope forever. She never wanted to see him again, and Holden didn’t blame her for that, but he couldn’t leave her unprotected either.
Once he secured Jack’s killer and handed the bastard over the FBI, Holden would let her go. He’d let her and the girls heal. Even if that mean moving on without him. His chest constricted at the thought, but he couldn’t focus on that right now. They were out there—alone, unprotected—and he’d never forgive himself if anything happened to her. Because, damn it, he loved her. He always had, and he’d do whatever it took to make sure she got out of this alive. He owed her that much.
Holden dropped the magazine out of his Glock, pressed a fresh set of replacement rounds into the shaft, and slammed it back into place. The familiar steel weight pulled at the ache in his lower back. He’d spent his entire career chasing the monsters. This was what he’d been trained for, but the shooter had made this case personal. And the son of a bitch wasn’t going to take anything—anyone—else from him. Threading his arms into his coat, he wrenched the front door open and stepped into the darkness.
And froze.
The SUV Sienna and Lucas had left behind was parked in the driveway. Georgia had taken the keys before she’d left. So why would she leave the vehicle? The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Unholstering his weapon, Holden descended the stairs. Old wood protested under his weight, the only break in silence as he studied the fog hovering along the shoreline of the lake.
A scream pierced through the inky blackness then a crash of water, and everything inside of him focused on that sound. “Georgia!”
Holden pumped his legs so hard they ached against the mud sucking his boots deep. His sole focus beyond the pain and fear was the single high heel at the edge of the lake’s shore. Georgia’s. But her heel wasn’t the only evidence left behind. Footprints. Three more sets. Two smaller, and one he didn’t recognize.
The bastard had found her.
Holden didn’t know how, but right then, it didn’t matter. Georgia mattered. Those girls mattered. They were everything to him, the only piece of his past life he couldn’t let go of. And a large chunk of a future life he’d fight like hell for. The killer knew that.
The bullet graze on his arm burned as friction from his coat rubbed at the wound, but he couldn’t stop. Not until he knew she was safe. “I’m coming, baby. Just hold on.”
Muffled shouts reached his ears through the fog a split second before a wall of muscle tackled him into the mud face-first. Dirt and water worked up his nostrils and down his throat as the pressure increased between his shoulder blades. Searing pain spread across his scalp as his attacker fisted a handful of hair then wrapped one arm around the front of his throat and squeezed. Holden fought to breathe, pulling his head up, and caught sight of both girls where they struggled against bindings holding them tight against a nearby tree.
Georgia. Where was Georgia?
A growl escaped up his throat as his muscles burned in exertion. The crash of water he’d heard. Ripples still rolled toward the shore. Small bubbles interrupted the smooth surface of the lake in the moonlight. She was down there, struggling to make it to the surface. “You son of a bitch!”
The force increased on his back, pinning him in place as the man who’d shot and killed his partner lowered his mouth to Holden’s ear. “Everything you love is going to be taken from you, Special Agent Marsten. Just like it was taken from me.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t save your wife.” Holden hadn’t been able to save Lyla Wright after her abductor had taken her, but he still had a chance to save Georgia. The same choice he’d had to make in the mere seconds after Jack had been shot shut out the muffled cries from Faith and Hope, slowed the roll of ripples across the lake, and increased the sound of his heart beat behind his ears. Every second counted, every bubble climbing to the surface of that lake one less chance Georgia had of making it out of this alive. If he dove for her, the bastard would get away. Again. If he took down the killer, he’d lose Georgia forever.
And that wasn’t
an option.
“Sorry won’t bring her back,” the shooter said.
“You’re right.” His shoulders tightened, fingers digging into the mud for purchase. He had one shot to make this right, to save three lives. To save his future. “Nothing I say is going to bring your wife back, but I needed you to hear the words.”
Holden put everything he had left into getting to his feet, the arm around his neck growing tighter with every move. His muscles strained, his lungs on fire. Instantly leveraging one hand against his attacker’s thigh, he locked himself in place and prevented the killer from throwing him off balance. One hit to the bastard’s groin loosened the hold around his neck. Holden went for the arm still wrapped around his throat, threw his elbow into the son of a bitch’s solar plexus, and twisted as fast as he could to put the killer down on his knees. With his arm wrenched behind him, the shooter had nowhere to go.
Thirty seconds had slipped by, maybe a minute. Georgia was running out of time.
He could end this right now. He could ensure whoever was hiding under that mask never hurt another victim again, but Holden wasn’t about the make the same mistake twice. Georgia was counting on him. Pulling back his arm, he launched his fist into the bastard’s face as hard as he could, knocking the killer unconscious. He pointed to Faith and Hope still tied to the tree a few feet away as he raced toward the lake. “I’ll be right back, ladies!”
The bubbles rising to the surface of the lake earlier had disappeared, but that wouldn’t stop him from getting to Georgia.
Nothing would.
*
It was over.
Her wrists itched, the skin raw from where she’d fought to get free of the rope her attacker had secured her with before dumping her in the lake. Georgia huddled into the blanket EMTs had wrapped around her shoulders as she sat at the edge of the rear ambulance bay door, her hair and clothing still sticking to her frame. She’d lost her heels as the killer had forced her and the girls deeper into thick fog along the edge of the lake at gunpoint, but gratitude swelled despite the numbness in her feet and hands. She held Faith and Hope tighter beneath the blanket, one on either side of her as the Northfield Police Department worked the scene.
In the middle of it all stood Holden.
He’d been everything she needed in that moment as the adrenaline of nearly drowning leveled off. Loose curls formed in his damp hair in the spotlights law enforcement had positioned around the clearing, outlining every vein struggling to break through the surface of his skin. He’d saved her life, again, but it’d been in those last few seconds, when darkness had started closing around the edges of her vision and she thought she wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer, that she’d understood why he’d gone after Daniel Wright instead of helping Jack that night.
He’d done it to protect her, to protect Faith and Hope.
The man who’d tried to kill her struggled against the cuffs behind his back as two officers escorted him to a nearby cruiser. Thick mud and foliage clung to his dark clothing, but the mask was gone now. Daniel Wright locked dark eyes on her as police maneuvered him into the back of the vehicle. Her heart jerked in her chest. In the span of a single night, he’d lost the most important person in his life. And after he’d shot her husband, Holden must’ve known there was a possibility Daniel would want to spread the pain of his loss as far and as fast as he could to everyone around him. Including her and the girls.
Without him, Faith and Hope would’ve lost both parents before their next birthdays if he hadn’t chosen to dive after her instead of securing Daniel, and she’d never be able to repay him for that. He’d taken a risk. For her. And she loved him all the more for it. Her breath caught. Not just loved him. Was in love with him.
Familiar brown eyes settled on her as Holden turned toward her, and every nerve ending she owned buzzed with awareness. Three steps. Four. Mountainous shoulders blocked her view of the rest of the scene, and in that moment, there was only him. Her protector. Her friend. Her everything. It didn’t matter that he’d walked out of their lives or that he’d kept the truth from her about what’d happened the night Jack had been shot. Neither she nor her daughters would be sitting here if it weren’t for him. Holden rubbed one hand around his fist close to his chest, stance wide as though preparing for the next unknown threat. “I owe you an apology.”
“No, you don’t.” Georgia stood, making sure the blanket still covered both of her girls before closing the small space between her and Holden. Skimming her palms down her thighs, she couldn’t fight back the shiver skating across her shoulders with him this close. Couldn’t ignore the rush of warmth in her veins. “I’m the one who needs to apologize to you, and to thank you for everything you’ve done for us. For me.” She rolled her lips between her teeth and bit down. “I know why you went after Daniel Wright that night instead of staying with Jack.”
He dropped his hands to his sides. “Georgia, I can explain—”
“You did it to protect us.” Tears burned in her eyes as some invisible sensation behind her ribcage confirmed the truth of every word. “You knew Daniel would come after me and the girls, and you wanted to stop him before he even had the chance. That’s why when he escaped, you asked the Bureau to move us to a different city, and you resigned from the FBI and disappeared, isn’t it? If you’d still been in contact with me, he’d use that to find us.” The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place. Georgia slipped her hand along one side of his face, his beard bristling against the sensitive skin of her palm. “You did it all for us, and, looking back, I know if you’d stayed by Jack’s side instead, he would’ve told you to follow the shooter.”
“I would’ve done the same thing if I’d been the one to take that bullet. You, Jack, and the girls were the only family I had. I’d already lost my partner that night,” he said. “I couldn’t lose you, too.”
“You don’t have to worry about that anymore.” She raised onto her toes, leveling her mouth with his as much as she could without her heels to help close the distance, and kissed him with everything she had to give. Pain. Loss. Control. Resentment. Fear. For the first time, she didn’t have to shoulder the weight of losing Jack alone. Neither of them did.
His hands slipped around her waist, drawing her into his chest. Right where she belonged. Too soon, Holden broke the kiss but kept her locked in the circle of his arms. Setting his forehead against hers, he closed his eyes as though he were blocking everything out but the feel of her pressed against him. “I love you, Georgia. I always have, and I will do anything it takes to prove to you and these girls you’re all I’ve ever wanted. Even if it takes the rest of my life.”
“I love you, too.” She’d lost her husband the night Daniel Wright had pulled the trigger, lost the hope she’d find love again, but Holden had always been there. Watching over them. Protecting them. Waiting for them. The girls jumped off the back of the ambulance and ran to hug her and Holden around their legs. A laugh escaped up Georgia’s throat as she speared her fingers through Hope’s soft, blonde curls. Staring up at Holden, she kissed him again with a sense of rightness exploding throughout her body. “Welcome home, Special Agent Marsten. We’ve been waiting for you.”
*****
About the Author
Nichole Severn writes explosive romantic suspense with strong heroines, heroes who dare challenge them, and a hell of a lot of guns. She graduated from Utah Valley University with a degree in Psychology and from Nevada State College with a degree in English Literature. She's also a member of Romance Writers of America.
She resides with her very supportive and patient husband, as well as her demon spawn, in Utah. When she’s not writing, she’s constantly injuring herself running, rock climbing, practicing yoga, and snowboarding.
Thank you for reading Search and Defend! Keep falling in love while the bullets are flying with the next book in the Blackhawk Security: Search and Rescue series, Search and Pursue (Lucas’s story) releasing April 7,
2020)!
And don’t forget to grab your free Blackhawk Security book while you’re at it. Get access here: http://nicholesevern.com/newsletter
Also by Nichole Severn
BLACKHAWK SECURITY: SEARCH AND RESCUE
Search and Rescue
Search and Protect
Search and Defend
Search and Pursue (2020)
Search and Destroy (2020)
Search and Acquire (2020)
BLACKHAWK SECURITY SERIES
Rules in Blackmail
Rules in Rescue
Rules in Revenge
Rules in Deceit
Rules in Defiance
Caught in the Crossfire (2020)
Rules in Survival (2020)
STAND ALONE TITLES
Let Me Out
In the Enemy’s Arms
Search and Defend Page 4