by Alyssa Day
"Haven't seen you around here before, pretty boy," B.D. drawled, stepping between Jake and the table where she and Callie sat.
"No, but I saw you last night, when you mauled my woman," Jake said coolly. "You're lucky to be walking today."
"I'm gonna kill you, and I'm gonna enjoy it," B.D. snarled.
His woman? His woman??
"I've fallen into hell, and it's the 1800s," Savannah muttered. "Wait! Kill him? No!"
Callie shushed her. "This could be bad. B.D. and his daddy have a reputation for shooting first and asking questions later."
"So, we're just going to sit here and watch?" Savannah shoved the chair back and jumped to her feet. She only realized she was shouting when the people nearby, who'd moved back and away from Jake and B.D., stared at her. All of them just watched; nobody tried to intervene in any way.
What was even happening here?
She pointed at B.D.. "This is not the OK Corral. We are not going to watch anybody shoot anybody!"
Callie gasped and grabbed her arm, but Savannah was several steps beyond calming down. She shook Callie off, started out from behind the table, and headed for the two men, who'd stopped getting in each other's faces and were staring at her. B.D. looked like he wanted to kill her, too, but Jake's calm face held a trace of amusement. He stepped to the side so that he was now between B.D. and Savannah.
"Don't you teach your women to stay out of man business?" B.D. spat on the ground, not quite at Jake, but near him.
"Man business? Man business?" Savannah could hear the shrillness of her voice, but didn't seem to be able to stop it. "Are you insane?"
Jake helped her out by the simple method of stepping in front of her, wrapping an arm around her waist, and yanking her toward him.
"Shut up and play along," he whispered into her ear, and then he fisted his hand in her hair, pulled her head back, and kissed her, hard.
"Now shut up and behave yourself, woman," he said harshly, staring down at her with iced-over green eyes. If she hadn't heard play along, she would have been ramming her knee into his nuts—or at least trying to.
She swallowed, hard, and then she played along. "I'm sorry," she gritted out from between clenched jaws.
"That's better," he said, and then he smacked her on the ass.
Savannah's mouth fell open in outrage. Oh, no, he did not just do that. She was going to kill him. She shoved him away from her and backed up a couple of steps, sucking in a deep, furious breath. That bastard. That…
Before she could call him even one of the names she had in mind, though, B.D. and two of his buddies jumped him.
5
It was one of the most vicious fights Jake had ever been in, and it was over in five minutes. He took a couple of hard shots to the kidneys and one skull-ringer of a roundhouse punch, but he gave a lot worse than he took. Between the flurry of punches and a few good spinning kicks to their heads, they'd gotten the message, fast: They'd picked the wrong man to mess with.
He'd almost taken a knockout blow to the face when he got distracted by the sight of Savannah, standing too near the action with her hands clenched into fists. What in the nine hells was she doing here? He couldn't believe she could really be a member of either Humanity Prime or the rogue shifter group trying to destroy it. But he'd been fooled before.
No matter, though. He wasn't going to let her get hurt. He'd get Savannah out of here and then go on with the mission, unless any of the assholes on the ground or their friends wanted a rematch.
He stood there, panting, and suddenly from behind him he heard the sound of a slow clap.
"Very nice," a fussy voice said. "B.D. has a tendency to be a dumbass. Nice to see somebody take him down a notch."
Savannah threw her hands in the air. "What? What are you even talking about, Mr. Greer? This stupid retreat of yours, no matter what your horrible beliefs are, doesn't give anybody the right to break the law. B.D. and his criminal pals attacked Jake. We should call the police."
Horrible beliefs. Jake's entire body relaxed, muscle by muscle, as the words horrible beliefs played through his mind. She wasn't part of this, then. Not Humanity Prime, and not the rogue shifter group, either, or she wouldn't have mentioned anything about police.
Somehow, she was an innocent caught up in this mess.
Thank the gods.
He'd been disappointed so many times before, but--although it didn't make any sense at all--he had the weird feeling that it might break something in him to be disappointed by Savannah.
She rushed over to him, stepping over one of the moaning men on the ground and giving B.D. a wide berth. "Are you okay? We need to get you to a doctor. To the emergency room. Your face – you're going to have quite a shiner."
She reached out as if to touch his face, but then shook her head. "No. You definitely need the doctor. Do you have a car here? I can drive you."
"I'm fine. Quit fluttering, woman," he snapped, and then he watched some of the light go out of her eyes. But they had to keep up the charade; it would help keep her safe.
She took a step back and shoved her hands in the pockets of her red jacket. "Fine. Do what you want. I'm out of here."
She turned on her heel and walked back to the table where the older woman was still sitting, watching everything with wide-eyed awe. Savannah bent down and grabbed a backpack, and then she turned toward the courtyard doors that led back to the hallway and then the exit from this horrible place.
Greer raised a hand, and five men blocked Savannah's way. Luckily for them, none of them touched her, or they would've been on the ground with the rest of these three.
"You're not going anywhere," Greer said, his voice hard. "I decided we need you to stay and work for the entire retreat."
Savannah whirled around and stared at Greer. "You're out of your mind. I agreed to three hours."
"The initial agreement was for the entire week, so you can just shut up and do what I say. Besides," he said slyly, shooting a glance at Jake. "Your boyfriend is still here, so why would you want to leave?"
Jake clenched his teeth. Her boyfriend. Yeah, right. She was probably going to kneecap him the minute she got a chance. First, they needed to talk, and they sure as hell couldn't do it here. "Savannah," he called out. "Let's go to our room."
She transferred her death glare to him from Greer, but said nothing.
Jake pointed at her and then at the table. "And don't forget my tote bag."
Savannah followed Jake to their room, because she seemed to be out of options. It was an actual room, not an upgraded prison cell like a lot of the other people were dropping their stuff in.
She'd climbed the stairs to the third floor and said nothing. There was nothing to say. She was clearly trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Somehow, she'd fallen down the rabbit hole, but there was no Mad Hatter. There were only gun-toting, fight-starting inmates in this building that may as well be an insane asylum. And she was madly mixing metaphors and meekly following along behind a man who might be the most deadly of them all.
Images from the fight kept flashing into her mind. Jake was grace in motion. Deadly, silent grace. He had never said a single word or even made a sound while he demolished all three of those men. Even when he took the blow to the head. Even when he took the punches and the kicks. He'd knocked one of the men to the ground, and the guy had just curled up in a ball and moaned. Then Jake had knocked B.D. completely out.
Her heart started racing just a little bit faster. She'd learned a lot about people in her travels, and she knew enough to spot problems--and. B.D. was going to be a problem. A big problem. A man like that wouldn't let a beating go; he'd be burning for retaliation.
Jake stopped so suddenly she nearly ran into him. When he glanced over his shoulder at her, she narrowed her eyes. He shook his head and pushed the door open. "Home, sweet home," he said, waving her in front of him.
She marched into the room and threw the freaking tote bag on the bed and then whirled around to fa
ce Jake. "You are out of your damn mind if you think for one minute—"
He held a finger to his lips and pointed at the walls and then at the ceiling. Then he walked slowly around the room, stopping every couple of feet to close his eyes and tilt his head as if listening for something, and then continuing on. Twice, he stopped and waved a hand over a spot on the wall. Once, he did the same thing with a spot on the ceiling. Each time, she could've sworn she saw drops of water form at that location, but they disappeared so fast she couldn't be sure. Finally, when she was about to explode with impatience, he stopped, took her hand, and pulled her into the bathroom. She was too surprised to resist. He shut the door behind them, did that strange closed-eye listening thing again, and then nodded.
"It's okay now." He reached in and turned on the water in the shower and then pulled the shower curtain closed. "Just in case."
"What the hell –"
"Quieter, please," he said softly. "I don't know what kind of equipment they have."
"Fine," she whispered. "What the hell is going on? Who are you, why are you here, and what, I repeat, is going on?"
He shoved a hand through his mass of sun-streaked hair. This close to him, she could see the dark bruising already starting to turn purple all along the side of his face. She wanted to yell at him. She wanted to cry on his shoulder. She wanted to get ice for his face.
She was a big ball of conflicting desires, and more than a few of them involved doing physical harm to somebody.
"I'll tell you everything, but I'm not sure how much of it you're going to believe." He sat down on the edge of the tub and sighed. "Beating up this man was not the best idea. That idiot just made me so angry, and I was afraid if I didn't get on top of the situation, one of them might come after you next."
Savannah snatched a towel off the shelf, put it on top of the closed toilet, and sat down. "I don't need you to protect me. I can take care of myself," she said hotly, but he just raised his head and looked at her.
"No, Savannah, you can't. Not with these people. They are not what they seem, and they even scare me. I'm also not what I seem, but you have nothing to fear from me. In fact, I'm getting you out of here. Tonight."
His flat voice and bleak expression combined to scare Savannah, when nothing else really had so far. She had never been the victim of any kind of physical violence, so it hadn't really even seemed real, watching him fight those men. More like a movie or something staged. A sense of unreality had washed over her even when she saw blood drip down B.D.'s face from a busted lip.
Things like that didn't happen in her world. Even traveling, she was careful to stay in places that were safe, especially as a single woman traveling alone. She wasn't a fool, and she wasn't a daredevil.
And yet, somehow, she had found herself in the middle of this.
Whatever this was.
"Who are you, Jake? And don't tell me you're one of these Humanity Prime idiots. I worked there for long enough to know better."
A strange expression crossed his face so fast she almost didn't see it. Almost. But disgust was hard to miss. "Why would you work for them? You said 'horrible beliefs' down in the courtyard. But now you're telling me you work for them? For Humanity Prime? I can't – I don't know how to respond to that."
She hated the idea that he would believe she was a member of this terrible organization. "I'm a temp. I work for an agency that sends me out on short assignments all over the world. Wherever I'm traveling, they usually have connections, so I can get a job and make a little money to keep traveling. It took me a couple of weeks, but when I realized how bad H Prime really was, I quit. That was yesterday. That's why I was pounding margaritas down in the bar last night."
He looked puzzled. "If you quit, why are you here? I don't understand."
She jumped up and turned on the cold water tap in the sink to give herself something to do. She soaked a washcloth in icy cold water, wrung it out, and then handed it to him to hold against his face.
"No. I'm explaining it wrong. I wasn't drunk because I quit, I was drunk because Greer blackmailed me into staying one more day to do registration duty at this retreat. Only three hours," she said, mocking herself. "What are your principles worth when it's only three hours of work, and your job and your trip to Madagascar is at stake?"
She shook her head and leaned against the wall as far away from him as she could get in the tiny bathroom. "You think you're disgusted with me? Get in line."
He tossed the washcloth in the sink and stood in one swift, graceful motion. Suddenly, he was standing way too close to her in the small space, and her heart started pounding. She wasn't sure, if she was being honest, whether her heart was pounding from trepidation or desire.
Probably a bit of both.
He leaned forward and put his hands against the wall on either side of her shoulders, caging her in with his arms. "I'm not disgusted with you. I understand being caught between a rock and a hard place. Trust me. Someday, when we're out of this mess, ask me about the mermaid."
"Mermaid?" She tilted her head.
He groaned but suddenly his breath sped up and she caught him staring at her neck with a fixed gaze like he was some kind of hungry vampire.
It kind of turned her on; how sick was that?
"You're not a vampire, are you? I mean, you were out in the sunshine, and you didn't melt or burn up, so I'm guessing no. You're definitely not one of these H Prime bigots, so what?" She gasped, suddenly getting it. "You're a cop."
"I'm not a cop. But I'm working with them. Or, at least, I'm working with your FBI. I wasn't lying to you last night. I really am from Atlantis."
He dropped his arms and stepped back, and a funny sense of loss twinged in her chest. "You told me that you're from Atlantis? Last night?"
He blinked and then started laughing. "Don't tell me, let me guess. You don't remember anything after you jumped up in my arms and then fainted."
Savannah felt the dull heat of a flush burn up her chest to her face. "I have never fainted in my life," she said hotly. "I was resting my eyes."
He grinned at her. "Okay, but next time you rest your eyes, try not to collapse into a dead weight when we're still a mile away from your cottage."
She groaned and covered her face with her hands. "Did I really? How did you find out where I live?"
"You talked to me some, but not a lot of it made much sense. You kept telling me about the lemurs. How you were going to go see the lemurs. I thought you were talking about the zoo, until we got inside your place and I saw the brochures about Madagascar all over your table." His eyes darkened. "I put you to bed, alone, in spite of… Well, let's just say repeated requests that I stick around."
She groaned again, in spite of the laughter in his voice. "I never – I mean, you have no reason to believe me, but I never get drunk like that. It has been maybe five years since I drank enough to make me forget things. I'm sorry you had to be there to see it."
She turned and grabbed the doorknob, with some idea of making a quick escape, but he put his hand on her arm and stopped her.
"I was glad to be there. I only wished you been in a state where I would've felt like I could stay with you without taking advantage of you. Instead, I put you in your bed, tossed a blanket over you, and locked your door on the way out."
She winced. "Hoping to never see me again, I bet."
"Hoping very much to see you again." He put a finger under her chin and nudged her chin up so he could look in her eyes. "Very much. Just not like this. Not here, not now, not with these people. For reasons I probably shouldn't explain, it's incredibly dangerous here. As soon as it gets dark, I'm getting you out of here. I'll explain the rest of it then."
Someone pounded on the door to the bedroom and Savannah jumped, her face turning pale beneath her tan. "It's them. They're here to kill us."
6
Jake gently touched her face; something he'd been wanting to do. Not like this, not here—not now. But he didn't care. "I won't let anybody hurt
you, Savannah. I swear it."
She swallowed, drawing his gaze to the delicate line of her throat. He wanted to taste her skin, just there where he could see her pulse beneath her skin.
"Don’t promise things you have no control over," she whispered.
"Savannah—"
The hallway door to the room slammed open, and Jake opened the bathroom door, but he glanced back at her before he walked out. "I'll deal with this, and then I'll get you out of here," he said quietly. "That is a promise. Count on it."
He walked out of the bathroom, knowing that this time he was in trouble. Real trouble. He knew his mission, and yet every instinct he had was screaming at him to protect Savannah, no matter what it cost him, or the innocents trapped in this damn jail with them, or even the rest of the world.
He gritted his teeth and then reached out on the shared Atlantean mental pathway for anybody close enough to hear him.
I've got a problem here. Had to beat down three of the H Prime thugs, and now they're after retribution, I'm guessing. Also, there are innocents here. Kids.
Griffin's cool voice sounded in his mind.
Bad. But you're holding something back. What else?
Damn mages.
There's a woman—I met her last night, and she's caught up in this. I need to get her out.
"Hey. Asshole," the short, ugly guy at the door called out. "You done staring into space like a moron? I got people who want to see you. Now."
"Oh, goody," Jake said mildly. He made a sudden movement, just to see the thug flinch. It shouldn't have been so entertaining, but it was. What could he say? He was a man of simple pleasures.
Savannah walked up next to him and took his hand, and an incredible—and incredibly badly timed—sense of well-being swept through him.
"Why do you want us?" She sounded calm, but she had a vise-like grip on his hand.
"Not you, girlie. Only him," the thug said, leering at Savannah.
He would have to die.