“That’s okay. You’re here. You’re safe.”
“I know. Thank you” What would she have done if it weren’t for Alex?
“You’re going to be okay, Jenna. You didn’t even need us tonight.” The joke fell flat.
“Are you kidding?” She rolled her eyes.
“No. You’re pretty capable.”
“Alex, if you hadn’t got there when you did...He’d have killed me.”
“He didn’t. Want anything?”
“I think I’d like to just lie down.”
“Okay. You can do that.”
“Thanks for the permission.”
“That’s not what I meant.” His frown was pretty cute.
He’d said he loved her.
Jenna had shoved that little tidbit deep down. In the midst of so much happening, she couldn’t deal with that confession. She couldn’t handle Alex saying it in the heat of the moment, not when her emotions ran deep and had for so long.
She shoved her left hand up the back of her borrowed scrubs and tried to grasp the catch on her bra. At this point she wouldn’t bother with the rest of her clothes. She could sleep in them, but not the bra. That evil thing had to come off.
“What are you doing?” Alex’s frown deepened.
“Looking for the off switch.” She scrunched up her face as if that would help her with this task. Wouldn’t it be nice if she could simply flip her life off, then back on again to reset everything? To make this night go away?
“Want...me to—help?”
“Fine. Yes.” She let her hand drop back into her lap. “I just want my bra off.”
“I think I can do that.” One side of his mouth lifted. The almost-smile was a much needed breath of fresh air.
He circled her waist with his arms and she lifted her arms while he got a hold of the tricky hook-and-eye. Alex had his face turned sideways, one eye screwed shut. Unlike the other times he’d taken her clothes off, this was so not sexy or hot. It was sad and sweet.
“What are you laughing about?” Alex muttered. “There.” He sat back on his heels, watching her.
The elastic around her ribs relaxed, and she dropped her arms, shaking the tingles out.
“Nothing. I’m just tired.”
“Need anything else?”
“No.” She shimmied the bra off and tossed it on the floor. Her shoes had been ditched back in the ER so she wiggled the socks off and that was it. She was ready for bed. “Do—do you mind if I stay here?”
“I wasn’t going to let you go anywhere else.”
Alex pushed up, giving her some space, and headed for the bathroom.
She waited until he was out of sight to get more comfortable. Her luck he’d want to help with that, too. As grumpy as she was being inside about all his assistance, she couldn’t imagine limping home on her own like this.
What would she do without him?
Her breath caught in her throat. She laid back and stared at the ceiling.
William could have killed Alex.
Yes, Alex was wearing a vest and William was a shitty shot, but at that kind of range it didn’t take good aim to kill someone. She could have lost Alex tonight.
Jenna covered her mouth to muffle the sob.
She hadn’t meant to kill William. Not like that. The only thing she could think about was getting the gun away from him. If she could disarm him, then SWAT would be all over him and it would be over. But he’d had a better grip than she expected and then...then she’d just tried to keep the muzzle facing away from herself.
“Jenna?”
The bed dipped. She blinked through the tears at Alex’s face.
Well, damn. There he was. Alive. Breathing. So beautiful.
She reached for him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down to cradle against her chest. The tears, those she couldn’t stop. She could have lost Alex, and to save him she’d done something horrible. Something that went against what she stood for as a medical professional. William wasn’t the first person she’d been forced to kill, but this wasn’t combat. She’d been close enough to see the spark in his eyes sputter. She’d seen the moment he died.
For a long time they lay like that, Alex’s body over hers, her arms around him. He didn’t try to sooth her tears or stop her, he just let her get it all out.
“Better?” Alex pushed up to his elbows.
She nodded.
“Good.” He used the top sheet to wipe her face. “You’re going to feel a lot of guilt, and that’s okay. It makes you human. But also remember, he was going to kill you. No one is going to say otherwise. We were all there. If you hadn’t pulled that trigger...” Alex’s gaze slid off her face and to the pillow.
“He was going to shoot you first. He wanted to kill both of us.”
“I know.”
“I couldn’t...I just...I couldn’t lose you.”
“It was a bad situation, Jenna. There was no good way that was going to end. We both know that. We’ve seen it before.”
She squeezed his hand and nodded. The difference was, this time she’d pulled the trigger and not William.
Alex rolled to his side, but kept his hand wrapped around hers.
“You should get some sleep,” she said, because it was the right thing to say.
“You think you can sleep?”
“No.”
“Neither can I.”
They lapsed into silence, staring at each other.
She’d almost died tonight. If William had killed her, Alex would have never said he loved her, and Jenna would never get the chance to say it back. What, exactly, was she waiting for?
“When the gun went off...” Alex’s eyes unfocused and she could see him reliving that moment in the minute muscles of his face.
“I love you,” Jenna said.
Alex blinked and closed his mouth slowly.
The words felt right.
“I don’t know if you meant to say you loved me after, but—I love you. I’m pretty sure I’ve been in love with you for a really, really long time. So long it’s a little pathetic if I think about it.”
Alex shook his head, his smile growing into a toothy grin. He leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her lips.
“We’re the blind leading the blind.” His hand cupped her waist. “I love you, Jenna Martin.”
“I love you, too.”
This time, the tears were happy.
Epilogue.
TWO MONTHS LATER...
Alex propped his chin on his folded arm, watching Jenna’s peaceful, sleeping face.
They were one sleep short of two weeks without nightmares. For the both of them. It would be a new record, and a reason to celebrate.
Piece by piece, they were not only reclaiming bits of themselves they’d each given up, Jenna to her stalker and him to the demons of his past, but they were also building a future.
Genghis whined at the door, but didn’t cross the threshold. The old dog had learned the perils of waking Jenna before her alarm went off...which should be just about any—
BEEP!
Jenna groaned and her face creased in sleepy complaint. She rolled away from him, slapping blindly at her bedside clock.
“You’re already awake, aren’t you?” she mumbled into her pillow.
“I woke up maybe ten minutes ago.”
She rolled back toward him, her hair strewn over the bed and the blankets tucked up under her arms.
“Excited about today?” she asked.
“Trying to not think about it.” But now that she’d mentioned it, the anxious nerves burrowed into every limb.
He threw the covers back and stood, stretching his arms up to the ceiling.
There was one more, very important thing to do before he could be bothered to think about the rest of the day.
“You shower first,” Jenna said.
Genghis trotted to Jenna’s side of the bed and stuck his nose under her hand.
“I showered last night.”
“Damn. That means I need to get up now.”
“Probably.”
He opened the closet and stared at the uniform hanging inside. They were just pants and a shirt, but they were also the opportunity for more. For things he’d stopped hoping for.
The bed shifted behind him and the wooden floor creaked as Jenna rose. He listened to the sound of her footsteps coming nearer until she was close enough he could feel her breath on his back. She slid her arms around his waist and squeezed.
“It’s going to go great,” she said.
He hoped so.
The hiring process with Ft Worth had taken a hell of a lot longer than he’d expected. Being sidelined for that long from SWAT was bad enough, but having to send Jenna off the last two weeks with the other guys was worse. It ate him up inside knowing he wasn’t going to be the one watching her back, but at least she was in good hands.
“I want to see it on you.” Jenna reached past him and pulled the shirt off the hanger.
He put on an undershirt from the dresser then slid his arms into the dress uniform sleeves. She circled to stand in front of him in nothing but one of his old t-shirts, her eyes still heavy with a good night’s rest.
“You going to swing by and see Sterling today?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She slid the first button through the hole, one side of her mouth kicked up.
“She liking your old place?”
“I think the independence is a good move for her.”
After Jenna’s abduction, she’d pretty much moved the few belongings that hadn’t been destroyed to Alex’s house, leaving her rental nearly empty. Sterling moving in was more of an accident. The former MP had needed a bolt hole, which turned into a regular residence. Sterling was fast becoming a regular fixture in their lives. Both Jenna and Sterling seemed to benefit from each other’s support, and as one improved so did the other.
“This is it.” Jenna looked up at him, her green eyes sad. She finished buttoning his shirt and smoothed the wrinkles out over his chest. “We’re never going to do another operation together. I’m going to miss having you there, but I wouldn’t want you to come back. Not if we couldn’t be together. Besides, Ft Worth SWAT Captain is way cool.”
“I’m going to miss having you there to patch me up.” He wrapped his arms around her waist.
“You’ll just have to come home for that.” She jabbed him in the chest, a slow grin spreading across her face.
She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Even fresh out of bed and unshowered, she was exquisite.
“Hey, remember to keep me in the loop on your SWAT schedule. I don’t want them to send me out if you’re already active.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “They don’t do that for people who are dating.”
She was right. That was a courtesy reserved for married couples.
Which meant there was only one, logical solution.
Alex reached into the shoe cubby behind the closet door. Tucked inside one of his seldom worn dress shoes was a soft, velvet box. He wrapped his hand around it and pulled it to his chest. Jenna watched him, still too groggy to be curious.
She was going to hate him for this, but he hadn’t come up with a better time or place, and now it was too late to do it anywhere but in the closet with neither of them wearing pants.
“We can fix that.” He opened the jewelers box, watching her face.
It took Jenna a full two seconds to react.
She blinked several times, then glanced at his face—then back to the box. He saw the moment realization hit her. Her jaw dropped and her eyes went wide.
He should have gone down on one knee that was what men were supposed to do. Then again, he should have planned some sort of romantic evening. There were a hundred things he could do better with Jenna, a thousand ways he could show her how much he loved her better than he already was. And yet, she hadn’t kicked him to the curb yet.
“Say something.” He swallowed.
“I—don’t know what I’m supposed to say.” She lifted her gaze to his face. “Do you want to ask me something?”
“Oh—right.” He plucked the ring out of the box and let it drop to the ground. Sweat slicked his palms all of a sudden, making the silver, antique band slippery. “I should have planned something, but—”
“Alex.”
He’d made a study of the way she said his name. How she moaned it when they made love. When she used it as a curse. The way she said it now meant hurry the fuck up.
“Right.” He swiped at his brow. Maybe he needed to rethink that shower. “Jenna—will you marry me?”
“Oh my God.” Her brows rose and her mouth formed a little ‘o’.
“It’s not a fancy ring. It was my mother’s...I just...I mean, I had it and if you don’t like it—”
“It’s beautiful.” She glanced from the ring to him. “Are you serious?”
“Jenna, we already agree we’ve lost too much time not being together to not be together. I’m serious. And not just because they’ll make exceptions for our schedules, but because I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He’d never told her about the flashes of their future he’d imagined when he thought she might have died, but he wanted a chance to make those a reality.
“Are you sure you’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my—” She covered her mouth, staring at the ring. “Yes. Oh my God, yes.”
“Really?” He reached for her left hand.
“Yes.”
He slid the heirloom ring onto her finger. It was a little loose, but then she had more petite hands than his mother or grandmother had.
“I should have asked you in a better way.” What would they tell their kids about this?
Jenna laughed and hugged him tight.
“What’s better than this? Life is better lived in the moment than on a schedule.”
She was right. About so many things. And they would have a lifetime of moments to make memorable. To drive the nightmares out of their lives and fill with happiness.
You can stay up to date on all the Ransom, Texas team this fall in Stolen Redemption.
Sign up for the New Release Newsletter at www.SidneyBristol.com to get inside scoops, short stories about your favorite characters and free books.
Explore the whole Aegis world in these series...
It all began with the Aegis Group.
Dangerous Attraction
Dangerous in Training
Dangerous Games
Dangerous Assignment
Dangerous Protector
Dangerous Heat (coming 2018)
In Dangerous Games it continued with the Gone Geek girls.
Beauty and the Geek
Mr. Purr-fect and the Geek
The Jock and the Geek
The Gamer and the Geek
The Adorkable Girl and the Geek
The Fake Boyfriend and the Geek
When the Seattle office of Aegis Group opened the Twisted Royals took the stage.
The Origin Story
Alpha Prince
Her Prince
Bad Boy Prince
Noble Prince
Within Aegis Group, special teams take on special jobs, beginning with the Alpha Team.
Dangerous in Love
Dangerous in Action
Dangerous in Transit
Dangerous in Motion
Dangerous in Charge (coming 2018)
Other specialized teams exist under the Aegis Group umbrella, including Lepta Team.
Dangerously Taken
Dangerously Involved (2018)
Dangerously Deceived (2018)
Dangerously Broken (2019)
Dangerously Entwined (2019)
Stay tuned for the appearance of the Troy Team and Omega Team.
For short reads, tune in this December for the Body of Danger novella series kick-off.
Heart for Danger
Mind for Danger (2018)
Soul for Danger (
2019)
Coming in 2018, Texas SWAT: A Small Town Suspense Series.
Fighting Redemption (2018)
Stolen Redemption (2018)
Find out about the BAU’s other cases, starting with:
Blind: Killer Instincts
He recognizes the darkness in her. It’s in him, too.
Detective Jacob Payton knows the clock is ticking down. Someone is about to die, and his best suspect is also his only source of information. He’s known Emma Ration’s story for years—after all, a brutal serial killer left his mark on both their lives when they were still young. Meeting her is another experience altogether. She challenges his control and entices him in ways no other woman has.
But is she the killer? As the bodies pile up and their passion ignites, Jacob runs the risk of losing his control. Falling for Emma was never in his plan, but now that she’s part of his life he’s not about to give her up. Not even to the FBI on the trail of the very same killer.
Jacob must figure out if it’s Emma in danger, or himself. If he can’t uncover the identity of the copycat killer, it could be the end for both him and the woman who has fast become the center of his life.
Dangerous Attraction
Ex-Navy SEAL Travis Ration is an expert hunter. Whether his prey is criminal or victim, he always gets his mark. He's no hero, just a man doing his job. It’s all he has after a felony conviction after a bad judgment call. When the FBI call in a favor and ask him to look into a serial killer over the holiday break, he jumps at the opportunity to fill the long, cold days with something besides regret and bad movies. In Las Vegas, he's on the hunt for a prolific serial killer no one wants to admit exists. The leads are dry and the evidence gone, until she walks into his life. Bliss Giles—curvy, sassy and everything he can't have.
What’s worse, Travis knows Bliss’ sister is the killer's latest victim. She fits the profile. Time is running out and the fastest way to retrace the killer's path is with Bliss at Travis' side. In the seat of danger. He vows to keep Bliss safe and his hands to himself, after all, a nice girl like her doesn't need a guy like him in her life. Too bad no one told Bliss Travis was off-limits. She tests his boundaries and pushes his control every minute they're together until he can't remember why wanting her is a bad idea.
Fighting Redemption: A Small Town Romantic Suspense (Texas SWAT Book 1) Page 28