by Grey, Helen
I said nothing, listening to the sound of Jax’s deep voice as he explained a part of his life that I couldn’t even come close to understanding.
“Needless to say, the guys and I trusted David. He was a good guy, just trying to find his own path in life, and do what he felt was right. In fact, he saved my life once.”
My eyes opened and I stared at Jax. “He did?” I hoped he would tell me the story, but he didn’t. Instead, he continued to drive, his eyes continually sweeping the road in front of us, the mirrors, and side roads that came and went. I couldn’t exactly say he was being paranoid, just extremely cautious. I appreciated that caution. I had no wish to go through a repeat performance of my latest horror-filled experience.
“So what happened?” I finally asked.
Jax offered a slight shrug. “One day, our vehicle was hit by an IED. Long story short, David didn’t make it.”
“That’s terrible,” I commiserated.
“Life in a war zone,” he said.
The Jeep continued to eat up the miles, a little slower in speed now, the road a little more winding, the trees growing denser, the underbrush thicker. I had a feeling that we would soon be nearing our destination.
“Anyway, after David was killed, his family wanted Aleema killed—”
“Why?” I asked, startled, sitting upright in my seat now.
“According to their culture, she had shamed her family and brought shame to David, because they felt that she was behind his loyalty to the Americans all along. In their eyes, she had brought shame not only to their family, but their entire tribe.”
He glanced at me as I stared at him wide-eyed.
“You ever hear of honor killings?”
I nodded. I knew that in the Islamic culture, many families, especially in countries where the concept of women as the foundation of family reputation and honor were prevalent, killed family members in an effort to regain their honor. Unfortunately, I also knew that hundreds, perhaps even thousands of women were killed every year by their families in the name of this “family honor”, most prevalent in the Middle East, but also common in India and even in developed countries where large groups of ex-pats lived.
“That’s what this is all about? You’re protecting Aleema, and they’re going to kill anybody who gets in their way of killing her?”
Jax shook his head. “Not exactly, Angie.”
He said nothing more for a while. I felt exhaustion pulling at me, but resisted the urge to succumb. The danger wasn’t over yet. Finally, he continued…
“Anyway, we… the squad I mean, found out about the plot to kill her, and in saving her, ended up killing two males of David’s household.”
“So they’re here out of revenge?” I asked. “You hurt them, impugned their honor, so they’re going to hurt you… kill you all?”
He shrugged. “Of a sort,” he said. “You see, Jakob managed to smuggle her into the US…” He glanced at her. “Don’t ask.”
I wasn’t about to.
“Anyway, after she arrived, she confided to Jakob that, with David’s knowledge, she had been gathering information that... well, let’s just say she’d managed to gather Intel regarding important aspects of the enemy’s plans. Information about supply lines, munitions transfers, oil and gasoline stores, stuff like that.”
“She’s a spy?” I asked, impressed in spite of myself.
“Well, not officially, but the information she shared with American commanders didn’t bode well for the enemy, we’ll put it that way.”
“So they’re trying to kill her, and because you’re protecting her, they’re trying to kill you too?”
He nodded. “Basically. That, and we embarrassed the family by thwarting the honor killing and then killing two of their own.”
I couldn’t believe it. To be involved in such a thing was so far beyond even my wildest imaginations. A world that I knew nothing about. Jax was obviously very familiar with the culture, but I didn’t understand it. Could families really behave that way to their own relatives? Kill their own children? It was so far outside the norm that I had trouble wrapping my mind around it.
I stayed quiet for a while, and then, as Jax also grew introspective, I decided that I might as well just fess up. If we were going to die, I didn’t want to die with a guilty conscience. Of course, in the scheme of things, my confession probably didn’t amount to a hill of beans to him, but it did weigh heavily on my mind.
“Jax… I have something else to tell you.” I was surprised when he glanced at me and gave me a wry look.
“You’ve been snooping again, haven’t you?”
I nodded. “I was cleaning downstairs in the den…” He said nothing, obviously waiting for me to admit one of my greatest faults. I obviously had trouble discerning boundaries, especially when my curiosity was heightened. “I found your divorce papers.” I cast a quick look at him, but his expression hadn’t changed. He continued to stare out the window, every once in a while glancing in the rearview and side view mirrors.
“And?”
“Jax, I’ll be blunt. Why the hell did you marry Stephanie in the first place? She doesn’t really seem like your type—”
He barked out a laugh. “My type? And exactly what is my type?”
Me, I wanted to say.
“Well, I don’t know, but she seems so… so materialistic.”
He shrugged. “I guess it was her looks that attracted me to her in the first place, and as we got to know each other, she seemed fun and adventurous. And of course, the sex between us was really hot.”
He glanced at me and winked. I didn’t know what to think about that. I gathered, from spying on them in his room the other day that it probably still was. Well, I don’t know what I was expecting, but my curiosity was definitely not assuaged. This might not be the right time to dig any deeper. So I got back on track. “There’s more,” I admitted.
He said nothing and I continued. “Jax, I also saw some military papers… you’ve been placed on disciplinary leave? Charged with consorting with the enemy? What’s that about?” I held my breath, not sure I really wanted to know the truth. Was Jax a patriot or a traitor?
He said nothing for several moments, and then the car began to slow. He took a turn-off that I didn’t see until we were nearly upon it, heading deeper into the woods. My heart skipped a beat. Had I overstepped my bounds? Obviously, but how badly? If he was a traitor, was I safe? I didn’t get the impression the Jax would hurt me, especially not after risking his life to save me, but then again…
“Those papers? They’re fake.”
He pulled the car deeper into the forest and a cabin appeared before us. A hunting or fishing cabin by the looks of it. “Fake?”
“Yes, fake.” He glanced at me. “You didn’t see the mess they made out of the house, did you?”
I shook my head, instantly regretting the decision when my head started pounding again.
“Michael and I put them there in the hopes that the terrorists would find them, if they ever breached the house, that is. We also launched a few rumors suggesting that the Army didn’t trust me.”
“But the paper was buried under an inch of other papers,” I commented. “What made you think they’d look there, or even if they did, that they’d find that one?”
He shrugged. “They were looking for Intel. They would have known I wouldn’t have made it easy for anyone to find it.”
I stared at him, wide-eyed. “But why?”
“Dealing with terror cells in the US isn’t easy,” he said. He pulled the car in front of the cabin, put the gear shift into park, and then turned off the engine. “In fact, eliminating them is a highly secretive business, most commonly dealt with by the Department of Justice, the CIA, and sometimes—”
“Special ops teams?” I broached.
He nodded. “We all had those papers, the squadron members and I, those charges of consorting with the enemy, placed somewhere in our homes, not sure which one of us they would come
after next. Since the entire squadron was involved in rescuing Aleema, it stood to reason that sooner or later they would come across them. You see, Angie, we had to give them the impression that we were somewhat… rogue, operating outside the law.”
I still didn’t understand.
He sighed, somewhat impatiently. “We couldn’t deal with these terrorists ‘above board’ I guess you could say. We had our orders, and I’m not going to tell you from whom, to deal with them. We’ve been watching them, tracking them, for about six months—”
“Six months!” Should he have told me about it? I wasn’t sure.
“We needed to draw them close, to entice them to make their appearance. Only then would we know exactly who we were dealing with and how many of them—”
“Jax, why didn’t you tell me?”
He frowned. “I told you after the incident with the car that you should leave. Don’t forget, Angie, you’re the one who decided to stay.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t insist without instigating more curiosity on your part. Your boss would have merely sent another nurse in and… well, you were already there, so…”
He was right. I still had a myriad of unanswered questions racing through my thoughts, but all of a sudden, the fatigue, the strain, and the trauma of the day caught up with me. Without warning, I began to weep, my shoulders shaking with emotion. He quickly got out of the car, stepped to my side and opened the door. He reached inside and unclicked my seatbelt and then reached for me.
“No, Jax, no, I’ll get out by myself.”
He ignored me, lifting me from my seat. I was afraid he would hurt his back. “Jax, put me down!”
He continued to ignore me. He pushed the car door shut with his foot and then stepped to the door of the cabin. He kicked at it with his foot, and seconds later it was opened by Michael.
“About time you got here,” Michael growled.
“Shut up,” Jackson swore at him. “Everyone okay?”
He placed me gently onto a cot placed against one wall, and I collapsed in a heap as Michael stared at me. Then he glanced at Jax and made a gesture with his chin. Jax nodded.
Again, the events of the day overwhelmed me. Perhaps it was because I was safe now, but again the fear, the anxiety, and the panic took hold of me. Here I was relatively safe and sound with Jax and Michael, but I couldn’t stop the trembling. I had no control over it. My hands twitched so badly I had to wrap them around my knees. I winced as I did so, forgetting how sore my wrists were. I pressed my back up against the side of the cabin. My teeth began to chatter. I felt like a weakling, but I couldn’t help it and I couldn’t make myself stop.
Jax had seen me wince. He stepped to the side of the cot and then sat down, gently reaching for my left hand. He noticed the abrasions, the bruising, and glanced at Michael. “Get the first aid kit out, will you?”
I started to protest, but Michael had already turned to dig in a duffel bag. He retrieved a small box and handed it to Jax. I saw them exchange of glance, and then Michael turned toward a cupboard placed over the sink against the far wall. I saw him open the cupboard and retrieved a bottle of amber liquid. He grabbed a glass as well, setting them both on the counter, his back to me.
My gaze shifted from Michael to Jax as he opened the first aid kit. “This isn’t really necessary,” I said, my voice still shaky. “The abrasions are merely superficial, but I think I struggled so hard and so long that I gave myself some stress fractures.”
Jax nodded. “I’ll wrap your wrists anyway.” He proceeded to do just that, unrolling a strip of gauze and wrapping both my wrists. Then, ever so carefully, he squeezed some ointment from the kit onto another square of gauze and gently dabbed at my various scratches and cuts. He frowned as he tended to the wound near my temple.
“You might have a mild concussion,” he stated matter of factly.
I nodded. “I know. I’ll watch for the signs.”
Michael approached, holding out a glass filled with a sip or two of amber liquid.
“Drink this,” he said, extending the glass to me.
I glanced at Jax, saw him nod, and then reached my hand for the glass. As I brought it to my lips, the glass shook so badly that Jax made a noise low in his throat, clasped his warm, strong hand over mine and the bottom of the glass, and guided the glass to my lips. He exchanged a glance with Michael.
“She needs to rest, and we have plans to make.”
I barely had time to absorb what Michael had said when Jax tilted the glass gently against my lips.
“Get it down in one big gulp,” he said. “It’ll help you relax.”
I did. The liquid burned as it went down, filling my chest and then my stomach with warmth. I coughed a little, but began to feel its effects nearly immediately. Surprisingly, I felt a warm sensation flow through me, and then a nearly overwhelming sense of lethargy.
“Get some rest,” Jax said.
His voice began to fade away, as if he was speaking through a tunnel. For a second, I was frightened and confused. I glanced at him, my eyes wide with renewed panic.
“It’s just going to help you sleep, Angie. Don’t fight it. I won’t leave you. You’ll be safe.”
With those words of assurance, I allowed the edges of darkness to close in around me, enveloping me until everything faded to black.
Chapter 5
I moaned softly. Khalil was watching me with a despicable grin on his face while Ajmal stroked the length of my thigh. Though I began to struggle wildly, I couldn’t move. My heart pounded in terror. Had I dreamed the rescue? Had I dreamed the attack in the clearing? Had I dreamed that Jax had saved me, carried me away from danger in his arms?
My mind was fuzzy. My head throbbed. I couldn’t make sense of anything. Where was I? I felt the pressure of hands on my shoulders and tried to push them away, uttering denial.
“Angie! It’s me, Jax. Wake up, Angie.”
I felt a hand brushing the hair away from my forehead. For a second I cringed, not wanting to believe it. If I open my eyes and it wasn’t Jax, I knew right then and there that I would fall apart.
“Open your eyes, Angie.”
I did. The sob of relief that bubbled from my throat contained a mixture of joy, relief, and affection. Glancing quickly around, I realized that I was in the cabin, lying on the cot. Jax lay next to me, his arms wrapped around me, his face only inches from mine. His features appeared worried, his gaze studying every inch of my face.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, my voice a harsh whisper. “He was trying to—”
“Shhh,” Jax soothed. “He won’t ever touch you again.”
I snuggled closer to Jax. He pulled me close to him, his arms wrapped around my back, offering me a greater sense of protection than I had ever felt in my life. My face nuzzled against his neck where it met his shoulder, and my left hand reached up to settle on his chest. It was then that I noticed the elastic brace on my left hand, like the kind used by people with carpal tunnel syndrome. My right hand, lying down by my side between us, also felt like it had a brace on it. I glanced up at him.
“Jakob brought them.”
He continued to brush the hair from my face, his large, warm hand caressing my cheek, his finger tucking stray strands of hair behind my ear. I guess he saw my frown of confusion and explained.
“Michael and Jakob had to go back to the clearing to clean up the… clean up the mess,” he explained. “Then they took Aleema to the regional FBI office where they can make arrangements to get her into the witness protection program with the US Marshal’s Service. She can provide a lot of information that will help protect our troops, and her husband’s family will no longer be able to find her.”
“Is she okay?” I asked. I was pleased to hear that my voice wasn’t trembling anymore.
The sound in Jax’s throat made me smile.
“You nearly get killed and you’re worried about someone else?”
I lifted my head slightly away from his shoulder, looking up at him. My nose
brushed up against his stubbled jaw. “She’s very brave,” I said. “She risked so much, lost so much…”
He nodded. “She is a good woman, but she will make a good life for herself here.”
I placed my head back on his shoulder, my fingers caressing his chest. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” I said. “I didn’t even know if you would ever find me.”
“I put a GPS tracker into your phone,” he said.
My eyes widened and, once again, I leaned my head back to look up at him. “You did? When? Why?”
“When Stephanie went down to yell at you by the pool. Considering that everything that had happened up until then, I figured it was a good idea. Besides, you’re such a snoop, I had to keep track of you, didn’t I?”
For a second I froze, not sure what to say. Was he serious? Then I saw his grin and I laughed, or tried to. I should have been angry that Jax had invaded my privacy, installed a GPS chip into my phone—wait a minute, I told myself. How could I be angry with Jax for invading my privacy when it seems that’s all I had been doing with him? “I guess I deserved that,” I said.
With that, his expression changed. I watched as his face hardened, and also leaning back, he reached up and placed both his hands on each side of my face.
“I thought I was going to lose you, Angie,” he stated bluntly.
I said nothing, dismayed by his words. I felt a frown form on my forehead. My left hand lay frozen on his chest. Warm tears gathered in my eyes. I tried to speak, but the only sound that escaped my throat was a mewl.
What was he saying?
Was he saying that he had feelings for me?
His face leaned closer to mine and, in the next moment, I felt his warm lips caressing mine, ever so gently at first, and then more firmly. After only the briefest of hesitations, I returned the kiss. The effect of his kiss warmed me almost as much as that drink he had given me—