The Reunion Mission: The Reunion MissionTall Dark Defender

by Beth Cornelison

  Her bus rumbled up to the stop just as she reached the street corner. While she waited for an older man with a walker to board, she fished in her pocket for her bus pass.

  Once more her fingers brushed the crumpled paper Jonah had given her.

  “Do it for your kids if not yourself.”

  Guilt and fear squeezed her chest, tangling with irritation over Jonah’s obvious manipulation of her love for her kids. She stared down at the address. What could it hurt just to go and see what Jonah wanted to teach her? He’d already proven he wanted to help, not harm her. And a gym was a public place. She’d be safe there. Right?

  “You coming or not?” the bus driver called, jarring her from her deliberations.

  “I—” Annie exhaled a deep breath of resignation. She had to at least try to protect herself from Hardin and men like the thief who jumped her last night. She was tired of living with this fear. She’d come too far to lose everything because she let a bully like Hardin intimidate her.

  Annie raised her chin and met the bus driver’s gaze. “Not.”

  With a puff of exhaust, the bus chugged away from the curb, and Annie headed toward Jonah’s gym.

  Chapter 4

  The scents of body odor and rubber floor mats greeted Annie as she entered Jonah’s gym minutes later. Wrinkling her nose as the unpleasant smells assailed her, she cast a wary glance around the cavernous warehouse.

  When Jonah had invited her to his gym, she’d pictured an upscale facility where beautiful bodies jogged on treadmills, followed a perky blond instructor in aerobic dance or toned their muscles on expensive weight machines. This gym was a far cry from her vision.

  Dingy and dark with nary a perky blonde in sight, the large room housed four boxing rings and numerous punching bags suspended from the bare rafters by steel chains. A litany of grunts and curses reverberated from the concrete block walls, while burly men in scruffy shorts and sleeveless shirts pounded the weighted bags—or each other.

  Apprehension slithered through Annie as she crept deeper into the room. Like a brewing storm, the raw power and the brute violence on display filled the room with an ominous and suffocating energy. Struggling to pull air into her lungs, Annie scanned the men’s faces for Jonah.

  With every passing minute, she grew more uncomfortable and self-conscious. One by one, sweat-drenched men paused from their training to eye her with curious, even lewd, glances. Her discomfort spiked as a man in the nearest boxing ring caught a bone-jarring blow to the chin that sent him to the mat with a groan.

  “That’ll teach you to talk back to me!”

  She pressed her throbbing cheek to the cool floor, not daring to get up before Walt stalked from the room. Getting up only gave him the opportunity to knock her down again.

  The images before her blurred as tears pricked her eyes.

  She staggered backward, edging toward the door. She shouldn’t have come. Shouldn’t have risked—

  As she passed a different boxing ring where two men sparred while a third coached from the ropes, recognition slammed through her. She squinted at the face barely visible behind the protective headgear, and her heart tapped double time.

  Jonah.

  Stunned, she stared while Jonah exchanged jabs with the other man, shuffling his feet to dodge blows. Sweat glistened on his arms and glued his tank-style T-shirt to the flat plane of his abdomen. Well-defined muscles in his shoulders and chest spoke for the hours of training and conditioning Jonah had put in.

  Annie gawked at his brawny build, and heat prickled her skin. An unfamiliar flutter stirred in her chest, and realization that his size and strength had piqued her feminine interest startled her. Had she learned nothing in her marriage to Walt? She’d been physically attracted to Walt when they married. He’d been especially handsome in his military dress uniform the day they wed. But all the sexual chemistry in the world didn’t outweigh the suffering he’d put her through in later years.

  Yet she couldn’t help but stare at Jonah’s toned and powerful physique, his smooth style as he moved around the ring. With practiced skill, he ducked a swing and landed a solid hook to his opponent’s pad-protected jaw.

  Shocked out of her gawk-fest by his potent punch, Annie gasped.

  Jonah’s gaze darted to her.

  In that split second of his distraction, his opponent struck back with a blow to Jonah’s ribs.

  Annie felt the blow as surely as if she’d taken the hit herself. The air whooshed from her lungs, and tension screwed her muscles tight. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she fell back another step.

  “Devereaux, what the hell are you doing?” the silver-haired man by the ropes shouted. “You gotta keep your eyes in the ring!”

  Grinning through a grimace, Jonah raised his boxing gloves. “Time. I’ve got company.”

  She sidled toward Jonah as he climbed through the ropes and jumped down to meet her.

  “You came.” Equal measures of pleasure and surprise colored his tone.

  She nodded tightly and gave the activity in the room a meaningful glance. “If I’d known what kind of gym you meant, I don’t know that I would have.”

  His dark eyebrows drew together. “Why?”

  Eyeing the muscle-bound giant battering a small punching bag beside her, she inched closer to Jonah. “I’m...rather out of place, wouldn’t you say?”

  A warm grin lifted a corner of his mouth. “Hey, I know these guys look pretty rough, but I assure you, you’re perfectly safe here.”

  He rubbed his ribs and winced.

  “Are you all right?” She knew more than she cared to about the sting of fist-imposed injuries.

  He glanced down at his chest. “It’s nothing. Just a reminder that when you’re in the ring, you gotta stay focused on your opponent, not be distracted by what’s happening outside the ring.”

  The older man who’d been coaching winked at her. “Even if the distraction is mighty pretty.”

  Jonah tossed a towel at the other man. “Down, boy.”

  Annie frowned. “I’m sorry if I—”

  “No, no.” He waved off her apology. “My fault. I’m just glad you came.” To the silver-haired coach, he said, “Frank, I think I’m done for the day. Same time tomorrow?”

  Frank nodded. “Sure.” To the kid in the ring he called, “Okay, Billy. Hit the showers.”

  Jonah bit the lace on one glove and pulled it with his teeth, then moved on to the second.

  Annie fidgeted with her purse strap. “I can’t stay long. My kids—”

  “Pull?” He lifted his hands toward her.

  Annie blinked her surprise.

  “Please,” he added with a lopsided grin.

  Unaccustomed to refusing any man’s request, she awkwardly grasped one bulky glove and tugged. It didn’t budge.

  “Harder. You gotta really muscle ’em off.”

  Annie hesitated, jitters dancing in her gut. She slid her purse from her shoulder and set it on the concrete floor. Grabbing Jonah’s boxing glove with both hands, she pulled. Hard. As he freed each hand, Jonah shook his arms and flexed his fingers.

  “Thanks.” He took the gloves from her and tossed them next to a duffel bag on the floor at the edge of the ring. Hitching his head toward the locker room, he said, “Give me five minutes to grab a shower, and we’ll get started.”

  Annie sent another uncomfortable glance around the gym and bit her lip. “I should probably just get home. Maybe this was a mistake.”

  Furrowing his brow, he took her hand in his. His touch sent another flash of tingling heat over her skin.

  He ducked his head to meet her gaze and squeezed her fingers gently. “Don’t go. Just five minutes. I need to talk to you, but right now I smell like a goat.”

  His farm-animal comparison earned a half grin from her. And her concession. She nodded. “Five minutes.”

  With another handsome smile, he snatched up the gym bag and headed toward the locker room.

  “Jonah?”

  H
e turned.

  “Do you have a cell phone I can borrow? I need to call my babysitter and tell her I’ll be late.”

  “Sure.” He fished in his duffel and extracted a small flip phone. “Catch.” He tossed the phone toward her, and, caught off guard, she barely snagged the cell before it hit the concrete.

  While she waited for Jonah, Annie found a corner where she was out of the way and called her apartment. She filled Rani in on her delay, then talked to Haley, who bubbled with excitement over a new lost tooth.

  “I saved it to show you, Mommy. And Rani says if I put it under my pillow, the tooth fairy will give me money!”

  Annie smiled, loving the joy in her daughter’s voice and trying to recall if she had any change in her wallet to hide under Haley’s pillow.

  “Hey, Mommy, maybe you could put your teeth under your pillow and get some money from the tooth fairy, too!”

  Annie sputtered a laugh. “My teeth?”

  “Yeah, then maybe you wouldn’t have to go to work at the diner all the time and could stay home and play with me and Ben.”

  Remorse stabbed Annie, cutting her to the quick. “I don’t know, sugar. I think the tooth fairy only wants kids’ teeth.”

  “Oh.”

  The disappointment in her daughter’s tone wrenched Annie’s heart. “I’m supposed to have this Saturday off, though, and I promise we’ll do something fun. Just you, me and Ben. Maybe go to the park? Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  But Haley sounded skeptical. Too skeptical for a five-year-old. Knowing how many times she’d had to cancel plans with Haley when she had to work extra hours at the diner flooded Annie with fresh guilt.

  Jonah emerged from the locker room, wearing a clean T-shirt and jeans, his wet hair combed back from his face. His gaze swept the room looking for her, and when he spotted her, a smile softened the hard planes of his face.

  Annie’s pulse missed a beat.

  Jonah wasn’t handsome in the classical sense. So why was he suddenly stirring this schoolgirl reaction in her?

  She chastized herself. She was too busy making ends meet, fighting for her survival and reeling from her last devastating relationship to be in the market for a man. She had no business looking at Jonah as anything other than a regular customer at the diner. A mysterious man who’d rescued her from her attacker. The person who’d offered to show her techniques to protect herself and her family from further abuse.

  “Haley, sugar, I have to go now. Be sweet for Rani and eat all of your dinner. Okay?” Annie watched Jonah cross the gym floor, his loose-limbed stride confident and relaxed. Her breath hung in her lungs.

  Haley grumbled an unintelligible response as Jonah reached her.

  “I’ll be home soon, sugar. B’bye.” She closed the phone and held it out to Jonah. “Thanks.”

  Taking the cell from her, he jerked his chin toward a nearby door. “Let’s use the manager’s office. It’s quieter. More private.”

  More isolated. Her stomach flip-flopped as she fell in step behind Jonah.

  “Hey, Frank,” he called to the coach who was working with a boxer on a small punching bag. “Mind if we use your office for a while?”

  The man eyed Annie, then sent Jonah a conspiratorial grin. “Be my guest.”

  After leading her into the windowless office with a sign that read Owner, Jonah closed the door behind him, muting the cacophony from the gym floor and spiking Annie’s level of discomfort.

  She was suddenly hyperaware that she was alone with a man she barely knew. The idea of being alone with Jonah both tantalized and frightened her. Drawing her purse against her chest, she glanced about the dim office. The decor was surprisingly upscale, with oil paintings and a leather couch. The large desk was covered with old photographs of a younger Frank posing with a pretty woman and a blond little girl.

  “Why do I make you so nervous?” Jonah’s question drew her gaze back to him. He angled his head and studied her with a lazy sweep of his eyes.

  She forced a smile. “You don’t.”

  Sitting on the edge of the wooden desk, Jonah waved a finger toward her purse. “Your body language says otherwise.”

  Annie glanced down at her white-knuckle grip on her purse and the defensive position of her arms crossed over her chest. Knowing he could read her so easily didn’t help ease her tension.

  She sighed. “I’m just...out of my element here. I don’t know you well, and this whole business with Hardin and the money I lost has—”

  “Stop.” He said the word softly, but with enough cool command to freeze the words on her tongue.

  Her gaze snapped up to his.

  Jonah folded his arms over his chest and drilled her with his dark green eyes. “Let’s get one thing straight. You didn’t lose that money. You don’t owe Hardin a thing. You were mugged, and the money was stolen. Period.”

  Annie opened her mouth to reply, but no sound came.

  “As for your other points...” Jonah shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe you don’t know me real well, but if you’d let me take you to a quiet dinner somewhere, we could talk and remedy that.”

  Her heart pounding in her ears, Annie gaped at him. “Like...a date?”

  He nodded. “And if I’m right about you, you’re not as out of place at this gym as you’d have me believe.”

  Already reeling from his invitation to dinner, Annie needed a moment before his last comment registered. “What do you mean I’m not out of place? Do I look like someone who enjoys punching a bag for thrills?”

  His face sobered, and he pitched his voice low. “No. But I think you’ve been used as a punching bag by some bastard you once trusted.”

  Annie’s head swam, and an odd buzzing rang in her ears. She staggered drunkenly to the nearest chair and dropped onto the seat.

  Slowly, he moved toward her and crouched beside her. “Maybe a father. Maybe a husband or boyfriend. Am I right?”

  Practiced denials sprang to her tongue but shattered under the weight of his piercing gaze. She struggled to draw a breath. “How... Why would you think—”

  “Because I’ve been there.”

  Annie’s breath backed up in her lungs. She shook her head, not sure she’d heard him right. Did he mean he’d been an abuser—or been abused?

  Jonah nodded, his expression open and guileless. “I’ve seen what you’ve seen. I know the emotions you’ve known. I recognize the signs.”

  He reached for her left cheek and gently grazed her scar with his knuckle.

  Mortified, she jerked away and scoffed. “That’s from a car accident. I shattered my cheekbone and couldn’t afford a fancy plastic surgeon after the emergency surgery.”

  The lie tumbled easily from her lips, while a hurricane of confused emotions twisted inside her. Guilt, relief, embarrassment, anger, frustration...

  How did she begin to sort it all out?

  “Part of that is probably true.”

  Clenching her teeth, she shot him a tight scowl. “Are you calling me a liar?”

  He wrapped his hand around hers, and she flinched. Undaunted, he squeezed her hand. “I got good at lying about my injuries, too. To teachers, neighbors...even myself. It wasn’t easy to tell anyone my dad had a nasty temper, and he’d beat us and our mom with little provocation.”

  Icy fingers clamped around her heart. Torn between empathy and wariness, she stared into his jade eyes, searching for some hint of insincerity. But his unflinching gaze shone with compassion and honesty.

  Unsure what to do with his revelation, Annie gripped the edge of the chair and listened to the thundering of her pulse in her ears. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “I wanted you to know I understood what you’d been through, and I know how—”

  Annie stiffened, fury coursing through her blood. She shoved to her feet, balling her hands and glaring at Jonah. “Stop it! You can’t begin to know what I’ve been through! And I don’t know what your life was like growing up with a father who hurt you. Don�
�t you dare try to tell me—”

  “All right.” He put a hand on each of her shoulders, and she tensed, realizing the mistake she’d made.

  Her stomach knotted. Her mouth dried. Dear God, if she’d ever lost her temper and challenged Walt that way, she’d have paid dearly.

  Inhaling sharply, she held her breath, bracing for Jonah’s answering wrath.

  Instead, he murmured softly, “I’m sorry. You’re right. I only meant—”

  When a tremble raced through her, he paused, his brow lowering in a concerned frown. Cupping her chin, he lifted her face toward his, his thumb stroking her jaw.

  His tender gesture, so opposite the raw power she’d seen him display moments ago, caught her off guard. The warmth of his fingers, the crisp scent of soap that clung to him, the lulling calm in his voice had her senses reeling. Her head swam, and the heat of a blush prickled her skin.

  “Relax, beautiful. You’re safe with me. I swear it. I will never hurt you.” A husky growl of conviction emphasized his vow, a stark contrast to the tenderness of his touch.

  Annie couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. Confused emotions tangled inside her. Part of her wanted to trust Jonah and believe the warm promise in his eyes. Another part of her remembered too clearly the brute violence he’d employed defending her in the alley last night and the power behind his punches in the boxing ring only moments ago. Despite his kindness and gentle touches, she’d witnessed Jonah’s fierce strength and skill. Her body’s reaction to him was only the natural response to being near so much virile magnetism. Wasn’t it?

  When she didn’t respond, Jonah lowered his hand and stepped back. He sighed and glanced away, his expression pensive. “Annie, I asked you here because I have a bad feeling about what happened last night.”

  Sinking back onto the chair, she rubbed her throbbing temple and shoved aside distracting thoughts of Jonah’s allure. “That makes two of us. Hardin isn’t likely to forget the money I lost any time soon. He’s going to make my life miserable until I repay him.”

  Jonah popped his knuckles restlessly and frowned. “I wasn’t referring to Hardin.”

  She glanced up. “What do you mean?”