by J. S. Scott
“You’re not going, Danica,” Marcus insisted. “Christ! You just got out of a bad situation. Now you’re ready to go risk your neck again?”
“Yes,” I said emphatically, my eyes clashing with his in a battle of wills. “Marcus, this is something I have to do. I’ve always known I couldn’t let what happened get the best of me. I can’t let them win.”
“The terrorists who held you captive are dead.”
“Not to me,” I explained. “I have to face that fear before it will go away. That town had nothing to do with what happened to me, but I connect it in my mind with the pain and fear of my capture and torture.”
“Which is exactly why you’re not going.”
“That’s why I should go. You’ll be there with me, and I can help you.”
“I can’t do that,” he answered in a voice cracking with emotion.
I could see the worry in his expression as I replied, “I’ll be safe with you.”
“I’d handcuff us together to keep you from running over the border if you think somebody is in trouble.”
“I’m good with that,” I replied, trying to cajole him into taking me.
“No.”
God, he was stubborn. I knew he was trying to protect me from pain, but I couldn’t be afraid forever. The thought of going with Marcus wasn’t nearly as scary as going alone. “I won’t be afraid. I’ll be with you.”
“I’ll be fucking scared,” he admitted with a growl. “You’ve been through enough, Dani.”
“I have to go sometime, Marcus. And if I can help you, it’s a perfect time. I’m not going to let those bastards win. I’m not spending my life being terrified of a region I spent plenty of my life reporting on. I lived with those people. I was there more than I was here.”
“And it was never safe,” he rumbled. “It’s too damn close to the border. The towns in that region aren’t always secure.”
“Is anywhere safe anymore?” I asked. “Anything can happen anywhere in the world.”
“I suppose,” he conceded. “However, you don’t have to put yourself that close to the line of fire.”
“I’ll go eventually. You can’t protect me forever. I’m safer with you than without you,” I reasoned.
I couldn’t give in this time. I didn’t want to hurt Marcus, but I really needed to go with him and do what I could for the women who hadn’t been rescued from Gregory Becker’s human trafficking ring. Just the thought of kidnapped women being in the clutches of an evil man like the rebel leader made me nauseous. I knew what they’d suffer, and I knew that they would most likely die after they’d been used like they were an old possession rather than a human being.
“Be ready early,” he finally said irritably. “You don’t make a move without telling me you’re doing it.”
My heart clenched as I watched a pained expression cross his face. It was killing him to agree, but I was guessing he decided he would do better with me than without me. He might have contacts in that area, but it wasn’t a town he’d spent a ton of time visiting. His appearances had been quick, probably just long enough to meet with his informants in the region.
I lifted my hand and ran it over his lightly whiskered jaw. “Thank you,” I said sincerely.
His arms tightened around me. “Hell, I never really had any choice. I knew you’d move your ass like it was on fire once you heard that two women were in trouble.”
I smiled. “You’re moving pretty quickly yourself.”
He shrugged. “Your brother can’t go. He’s watching out for Ruby.”
Maybe he didn’t want to make a big deal out of his humanitarian efforts, but Marcus was the type of man who wouldn’t be able to live with the fact that he hadn’t tried to help those women. “You want to help them, too,” I accused gently.
“I want to keep your beautiful ass safe. I shouldn’t have mentioned the captive women. I should have known you’d jump right into the fire to save them,” he countered.
I kissed him tenderly and then pulled back to tell him, “You’re a good man, Marcus.”
He snorted. “Never heard that one before.”
“You should. It’s true.”
“Then you’re probably one of the only people who believe that. Most people think I’m an asshole, even my friends.”
I laughed at his self-deprecating comment. I’d heard Jett call Marcus a jerk on more than one occasion, but I knew he’d been joking. Underneath his bluster, Marcus was an incredible man. Oh, he was cautious, a trait that probably came from the work he did for the government. But anybody who got to know him would eventually see that underneath the asshole exterior, there was a guy with a very good heart.
“You’re taking me with you,” I reminded him.
“Reluctantly,” he answered in an unhappy tone. “And only because I think you’d get yourself into more trouble without me.”
“You know I have more pull in that area,” I argued.
“Maybe you do, but I’m still not happy about this entire situation. But I wasn’t going to lie to you. I guess I assumed you’d be okay with letting me go alone since it isn’t a place you really want to go right now.”
“I need to go,” I said. “I have to set myself free.”
“And I want to lock you up,” he said huskily.
“We could try out those handcuffs in advance,” I suggested.
“You think I won’t?” he asked, one arrogant eyebrow raised in challenge.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m so not scared.”
In fact, the thought of being naked and at Marcus’s mercy was an erotic pleasure I was pretty sure I’d thoroughly enjoy.
He stood, surging to his feet and pulling me up with him. I squealed as he tossed me over his shoulder. “Marcus, let me down. I think you have a fetish about carrying me around like a caveman.”
I was laughing as he smacked me on the ass, not listening to a word I said as he made for the bedroom.
“Not a fetish,” he denied. “I’m just eager to see you in handcuffs.”
I was still smiling as he took me into the bedroom and then set me back on my feet.
“You’re impossible,” I accused, unable to stop the silly grin from remaining on my face.
“You like that about me,” he said arrogantly.
I couldn’t argue. He was right. I did, in fact, love his stubbornness when he wasn’t driving me crazy.
“I don’t love it,” I denied falsely, putting my hands on my hips as I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, you do,” he corrected in a husky tone. “You love the way I keep trying until I get you naked, and then insist that you come.”
Oh, hell. I did love that.
“Are you going to keep talking, or are you going to show me?” My body was already on fire for him, and he hadn’t even touched me.
He went silent as he got to work on showing me just how much I loved his persistence.
Marcus
“What the fuck do you mean that they aren’t here?” I exploded at Jett, who was on the other end of my cell phone conversation.
We’d only been in Turkey for a day, but it was so fucking hot that I was practically melting in my custom suit and tie.
I was standing at the side of a small street in town, and I’d stopped to call Jett while Dani was just up the road and around the corner talking to one of the locals.
“I mean we found them,” Jett answered, seemingly unaffected by my temper. “They were released with the help of a couple of doctors in the same town you’re in right now. They made it back to Europe shaken up, but they were okay.”
“And you couldn’t have found that out before I left US soil with your sister?” I complained, knowing full well it wasn’t really Jett’s fault.
“Hell, I didn’t know you’d take Dani with you.”
“Could I stop her?” I drawled.
Danica was capable of bowling people over like a hurricane.
“You probably could have, but you obviously didn�
�t want to,” Jett observed.
“Nobody stops Dani when she’s determined to do something,” I answered in a grim voice.
“She’s stubborn,” Jett agreed. “You should be able to relate to that.”
“She makes me crazy,” I confided. “It’s like she’s determined to get herself into bad situations.”
“She’s with you,” Jett said. “She’ll be okay. And in my sister’s defense, she doesn’t intentionally try to get in tricky situations. It happens because she cares too damn much. How is she doing mentally?”
“I think she was apprehensive when we first got here. But an hour later, she was running around, talking to the locals and the medical staff here. She seems comfortable here now.”
“You care about her,” Jett said without question.
“More than I should,” I answered reluctantly. “She’ll put me through hell.”
“She’s a handful, but I think you can deal with that because she’s also one of the kindest people I know. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my sister. Her heart is always in everything she does,” Jett threw back at me.
“I know,” I admitted. “But sometimes she takes on too many burdens that aren’t her own.”
“Dani considers anything that she can possibly resolve as her own personal battle. She’s always been that way, Marcus. There’s nothing any of us can do to change her nature, and I’m not sure I’d want to if I could.”
“I know,” I told him. “I don’t want to change her, but I fucking worry about her.”
“Break her heart and I’ll kill you,” Jett mentioned casually.
“She’s more likely to break mine,” I mumbled.
“Better yours than hers,” Jett said solemnly. “Dani has been through enough. I don’t know how you feel about her, but if it isn’t something permanent, don’t screw with her head.”
“Fuck! I want it to be permanent. I’m not sure that she wants something that means a commitment.” The last thing I wanted to do was scare her away by confessing that I wanted her to stay with me for the rest of our lives. Now that we’d been together, I couldn’t imagine spending my life without her. Every second I spent with her was like a gift, and I didn’t want it to end.
“If she’s with you, she wants something permanent,” Jett informed me. “She’s not the type to go into anything without wanting everything.”
“She’s had other men in her life,” I argued.
“Not very many,” Jett said. “And they were never anything serious.”
“What makes you think she wants more than a fling?” I asked curiously.
“Because she’s Dani,” he said simply. “I’ve never seen her look at any guy the way she looks at you.”
A kernel of hope started to open in my heart. “I hope you’re right,” I shot back at him. “Otherwise, I’m fucked.”
I heard Jett’s amused laugh coming from the phone. “Dude, I never thought I’d say this to you, but you’re pathetic.”
“I know,” I agreed readily. “I fucking hate it.”
“She’s worth it,” he argued.
I knew Jett was right. Dani was worth whatever insecurity and fear I had to live through to keep her. Uncomfortable discussing Dani with her brother, I finally asked, “Is everything okay there?”
“Yeah. We’re good. Ruby’s been through hell, but she’s a fighter.”
“And you’re absolutely certain that those two women are safe?” I asked, wanting to make sure before I told Dani.
“I’m positive,” Jett said emphatically. “I just talked to both of them myself. I wish I would have gotten that information before you flew all the way there.”
“It’s okay,” I told him, feeling a little guilty about the way I’d taken his head off verbally. “As you said, you had no idea they were safe a day or two ago. I’m just glad all is well. I can get your sister and get the hell out of here.”
“How safe is it there, really?” Jett asked, his voice demanding the truth.
“As safe as it can be for a town near the border, I guess,” I told him. “And not nearly as secure as I’d like it. Your sister likes to point out that anything can happen anywhere, but I sure as hell don’t like her here. I don’t know how I ever left her when I saw her in dangerous areas before.”
“Maybe you were in denial,” Jett suggested. “I think all of us were. Dani never seemed to be concerned, so all of her siblings, including me, just lived with it. We worried about her, but the longer time went by without anything happening to her, the less anxious we were for her. That was a mistake that will never happen again.”
“I fucking worried,” I admitted. “But we barely knew each other, and all we did was antagonize each other. I think that’s how I dealt with the fear that something would happen to her. If all she did was piss me off, I told myself I was happy to leave her to her own business.”
“But it wasn’t that simple?” Jett queried.
“Nothing with your sister is ever that simple,” I grumbled. “She still pisses me off.”
“But you still love her,” Jett stated.
More than you’ll ever fucking know! Aloud, I answered, “Yeah. Go figure that one out.”
“I think anybody you care about, and is worth fighting for, is going to irritate the hell out of you sometimes,” Jett replied in a humorous tone.
“I think her stubbornness is one of the things I actually like about her, too, so it’s rather paradoxical. Love doesn’t make sense,” I told Jett in an annoyed voice.
Jett chuckled. “It doesn’t have to make sense. It wouldn’t be so amazing if it did.”
I wondered how my friend could still find being in love so attractive since he’d been dumped by an evil bitch who didn’t like the way he looked after his accident. I had to give the guy some credit. He’d eventually discovered that what he’d had with Lisette had been one-sided and conditional.
Love wasn’t completely comfortable for me. It left me way too vulnerable, and I hated that feeling. But I’d rather be exposed than let go of Danica.
“I guess,” I finally answered. “Right now I’m going to find your sister and get the hell out of here so I know she’s safe.”
“Okay. Let me know when you make it back stateside,” Jett requested.
I agreed, and then we both hung up.
I put my phone back in to my jacket pocket. After it was secure, I shrugged out of my suit coat. It was so damn hot that I was sweating bullets.
I undid my tie and pulled that off, too, shoving it into my coat pocket as well.
Although this country had some more temperate areas, this particular town wasn’t one of those places, and it was fucking July. It wasn’t like Saudi Arabia during the day, but it also lacked any buildings with air conditioning, so the heat was getting incredibly uncomfortable.
I wondered how Dani was faring with her redheaded complexion.
Determined to find her and give her the news that the two women we were searching for were actually safe, I turned and started making my way down the rough street.
We’d ventured into a part of the village that didn’t have many people milling around. Her contact had been farther away from the center of town, which was one reason why I’d let her go ahead of me while I checked in with her brother. The area was fairly quiet, so I’d thought it was safe enough to let her out of my direct line of sight. But only just barely. In reality, I’d be able to see her if it wasn’t for the buildings.
I was almost to the corner when the blast occurred. Later, I’d never remember seeing the young, inexperienced suicide bomber who came into town behind me.
All I’d remember was the way the bomb had exploded like everything in the area was going up in smoke.
Shattering glass.
The force of the explosion knocking me down into the dirt, my head connecting with the street.
For a few moments, I knew nothing.
After that, all I experienced was fear in the debris-filled air as I saw t
he shop around the corner that Dani had gone to visit, and my determination to get Dani out of the collapsing building even if I had to claw my way in.
Dani
The explosion had taken me completely by surprise, so I’d never quite understood what hit me.
Stunned, I was on the dirt floor, still trying to process what had happened when my mind latched on to one thing: Marcus was outside.
Marcus. Oh, God. Was he safe?
“A bomb. It had to be a bomb,” I muttered to myself. “And it was close.”
I wasn’t unfamiliar with the sound of a bomb exploding, but it had taken a minute to shake off the shock and realize exactly what had happened so close to my location. I’d never experienced the noise quite so loud or so devastating.
The entire building had come down on top of my head. I had a small space to move, but there was no way I could get myself out of the debris. Part of the ceiling was right above me, and between the rafters on the ground, I could see a ton of broken glass.
If I’m in a desperate situation like this…how is Marcus?
He’d been out in the open, exposed to the full force of the explosives.
My eyes were starting to adjust to the dim atmosphere around me, the air still loaded with small particles and smoke.
“Baris!” I tried to call out to my friend who had been across the room from me when the bomb had gone off.
He didn’t answer, and I was hoping he had gotten clear of the falling building. Baris had been close to the exit, so it was entirely possible he was safe.
I kept shouting out my friend’s name, but there was no response.
There were voices outside screaming, so help had arrived, but my heart was pounding as I laid my aching head down on the dirt.
“Please let Marcus be okay,” I murmured in a painful whisper. “Don’t let anything happen to him.”
A tear trickled down my cheek, my heart desperately wanting to deny that he could be injured…or worse.