by Sybil Bartel
His face went blank and his voice turned cold. “Now you’re fuckin’ with me.”
He didn’t scare me, not anymore. “Am I? You have a revolving door of women but you’re not happy. You’re searching for something you think you can’t find.” My instincts told me I was right. I knew searching. I’d lived it for three years. “I know the easy way about you is a façade. Underneath you never let your guard down, not even when you’re drinking. You can’t hide the fact you’re a trained soldier or that you’ve seen the worst side of the human condition. You’re jaded, I get it, but sometimes I swear you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. I just can’t figure out why. You seem to have the perfect life.”
Talon stared at me. “Perfect?”
All the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. His tone wasn’t one I’d heard before. I swallowed past the sudden dryness in my throat but I had to ask. “What’s missing?”
Piercing green eyes held mine for two beats of silence. “A smart-mouthed little girl who sees me for what I am,” he said low and quiet.
Air whooshed out of my lungs in a panic even though I knew he’d only intended to shock me. “Talon.” But I didn’t get anything else out.
Talon was on his feet in an instant, sweeping his eyes behind us. “Stand up, we’re goin’ for a walk.” He held his hand out but he didn’t look down at me.
“I’m not in the mood.” His little games were starting to piss me off.
“Now,” he hissed when I didn’t move.
Before I could blink, he was pulling me to my feet, tucking me under his arm and steering us toward the water.
“What the hell?”
“Not now.” The harsh whispered command sent fear crawling up my spine. I tried to glance behind us but he stopped me. “Don’t turn your head. I don’t want them to see your face.”
My heart stopped. They’d found me. Oh FUCK. Ohfuckohfuckohfuck. “How many?” I silently started chanting, no fear, no fear, no fear.
“Two that I can see.” All traces of his accent were gone.
I forced myself to breathe out slow. “Why are we running?” Talon wasn’t the type.
“They’re armed.”
The tremor started in my thighs and spread. The image of Shorty pulling his gun on Buck came crushing back, choking my lungs and seeping every pore with panic. I’d never thought they’d use guns but now I knew. They had six million reasons to kill us in cold blood. “I don’t want to die,” I whimpered.
“Then do exactly what I tell you.” Talon took us to the edge of the water and stopped.
It was a cool, windless evening, the waves lapping lazily at the shore. Talon pulled me into his arms like we were two lovers out for an evening stroll. He ran his hands up and down my shivering back then bent his head to my ear.
“You a good swimmer?” He cupped my face in his hands like he was going to kiss me. He wore a lazy smile but his eyes were hard and tight.
“In the daytime. No sharks.” I couldn’t even form the thoughts in my head into a sentence.
“Play along.”
It was all the warning I got. Talon brushed his lips across mine. For one split second, sun, sand, surf and coconuts consumed me. What Talon smelled like, he tasted like.
“Good girl,” Talon whispered before kissing me again. “Follow my lead. Don’t speak and keep your eyes down.” It was all he had time to get out.
“Laaaay-naaaa,” a Hispanic-accented voice called out quietly.
Panic gripped my chest with stabbing pain. It took everything I had not to look up. As if sensing this, Talon kissed me again, hard. He opened his mouth to mine, but he kept his tongue to himself. I almost forgot to do the same.
“Oh Laaaay-naaaa. I seeeee yoooou.”
No. No no no no no. I’d been safe. This whole time, they hadn’t found me. Now that was gone. Everything was gone.
Tension radiating through his entire body, Talon’s hands tightened on either side of my face. “Private moment here, compadre.” He threw the comment over his shoulder then brushed his lips against mine again.
“No problem, compadre. Let us speak to Layna a minute and we’ll be on our way.”
Talon looked up and laughed. “Love to help you find your woman, but no one here by that name. What happen, she take off on you? Got tired of puttin’ the bambinos to bed?” Talon laughed again. The whole time he talked, he kept my face pressed close to his chest, rubbing his hand up and down my back.
Another voice rattled off something in Spanish. The only words I picked out were “long shot” and “let’s go.”
“Very funny my friend, very funny. How ’bout we ask your lovely lady if she’s seen our Layna?”
Talon turned back to me and kissed me, slow and sexy. “She hasn’t seen anyone besides me, have you, Sugar?” he asked, breathless.
This was not good. Not good.
Talon laughed and his arms flexed. “What’s the matter, baby? Cat got your tongue?” He glanced at the men. “We ain’t seen anyone else out here tonight. Good luck findin’ your woman.” Talon turned us away from them and threw his arm around my shoulders.
We took three steps when one of the men called after us.
“Jennifer.”
It was instinctual. I looked up.
Talon dropped his arm and yelled at me in a furious whisper, “Run!”
I didn’t hesitate. I threw my body forward, pitched on my toes in the sand for purchase then ran. Arms pumping, the last thing I heard was a muffled thump and two sharp grunts. I kept my eyes in the distance and didn’t dare look back—until a gun went off.
I spun around midstride in a complete panic. “Talon!” I screamed. Oh my God, oh my God, OH MY GOD. I couldn’t see shit, except the shapes. One down, one standing and one running away. I froze in place.
Then the standing figure took off at a dead run toward me.
I knew that stride.
“RUN!” Talon’s yell pierced the night.
Terror splintered my chest at the sound of his stricken voice. I turned and a bullet whizzed past my ear. I ducked my head, forced air into my panicked, burning lungs and ran. Two more shots whizzed past.
“Take your sweatshirt off!” Talon was suddenly next to me.
Another bullet sailed past.
“Now!” Talon reached for me.
I whipped the sweatshirt over my head, struggling to stay upright as I ran blind for a second. As soon as I got it off and threw it down, Talon scooped me up.
“Hold your breath.” He threw me into the waves.
Ice cold water pierced my skin like a thousand tiny needles and my heart threatened to stop. Instinctually I stood up, sputtering for breath just as a wave crashed over my head, knocking me backward. Then an arm was around my waist, forcibly pulling me out to sea.
I fucking panicked.
Arms thrashing, I spun and tried to swim back to shore. But the death grip on my waist whipped me back around. A hissing wind split past my ear as I gulped for breath and threw my arm up to stroke. A searing pain lanced across my left biceps.
“Arrrgghhhhh!”
“Get down! Get down!”
A large hand hit the back of my head and I went under face first. Muffled plunks rained down around me and the roar of a wave pushed a mountain of water in my face. Stinging cold rushed past with another wave and I clawed at the dragging current, reaching for the surface.
Just when I couldn’t hold my breath a second longer, my body was shoved above the waves. Thrashing in panic, desperate for air, I ignored the pain in my left arm. Large hands grabbed my waist and Talon popped up next to me.
“Kick out, kick out, we’re goin’ ten yards. Keep your face just above the surface. I’ll let you know when to dunk.” Talon issued commands in rapid succession.
A wave came at us.
Talon wrapped one arm tightly around me. “Not yet, not yet...” The wave was feet in front of us. “Now!” He pulled us under.
All at once, everything went quiet. The moon shone through the
water, the wave swirled overhead and Talon swam us under, hard and fast like a dolphin. My lungs burned, my eyes stung, my arm ached and my hair whipped behind us as we sped forward. When we surfaced, Talon barely kept his head above the water.
“Swim out, keep movin’, we got another five yards. Keep your body movin’. It’s not cold enough to kill us, but keep movin’, you hear me?” Talon issued his instructions like a running commentary.
Kicking, stroking only with my right arm, I tried to keep up with Talon so he didn’t let go of me.
“I didn’t hear a yes, Sugar.”
I kicked some more, listening to his accent.
“C’mon, Sugar. I know you got a tongue in that sexy little mouth of yours. Don’t make me come finish what we started and taste it.”
“I h-h-hear y-y-you.” Why where my teeth chattering? I wasn’t cold anymore.
“Good girl, keep kickin’, move that sweet little ass. Keep up with me.”
“Where...w-w-we...g-g-going?”
“Out a little further, just enough so he loses his aim on us, then we’re gonna ride the current back home.”
“Hh-hh-hh-home?” Back the way the men were? “N-n-n-not sm-smart.”
“Trust me, Sugar, he’s expectin’ us to swim away from him, not toward him.”
“Sure y-y-you kn-kn-know what y-y-you’re ta-ta-talking about?” Swimming and shivering and talking was hard fucking work.
“Hear any more bullets? I got us out past the break line, he can’t see us now. Just keep your head low. We’ll swim under periodically just to make sure.”
I glanced toward shore and wished I hadn’t. There was no shore. All I saw were waves. Every direction, waves. Panic hit me like a freight train. “Talon!” I screamed.
“I got you, I got you.” His arm tightened around me.
“No sh-sh-shore!”
“It’s there, Sugar, trust me, it’s there.”
“I d-d-d-don’t wanna d-d-drown.”
“I’m not gonna let that happen. Now, c’mon, kick those pretty little legs.”
“Not...p-p-p-pretty.”
Talon looked at me by the light of the moon. “You’re right, they’re sexy, gorgeous, just like you. Now, c’mon, save your breath and swim.”
We swam with the current for what felt like hours. The moon never moved overhead but every second was longer than the last. I was too tired. More tired than I’d ever been. Achy, numb, tired. Why was I in the water this late? I was too tired to swim. It was too cold. Realizing my hand was on Talon’s shoulder, I watched the bunch and pull of his muscles as he cut through the blackness. But even that lost my interest. Unable to lift my heavy arms, I rolled to my back.
“You’re not gettin’ tired on me, are you, Sugar?”
“No.” I didn’t stutter anymore.
Talon snaked his arm across my chest and pulled me against him. Ice cold lips brushed my temple. “C’mon, sweetheart, almost there. I don’t see ’em anymore and were not taking fire. We’re gonna swim back in. Can you do that for me?”
“Yeah.” But I made no move to separate myself. I just wanted to float.
“I don’t want the waves crashin’ over that pretty face of yours. Can you swim for a bit?”
“Sure.” I heard my voice reply but his words had seemed so far away. I felt the undulating rhythm of the ocean and closed my eyes.
Talon turned me in his arms or maybe he turned himself, I wasn’t sure, but he began to swim faster. I tried to make my arms move, my legs kick, but nothing happened. Just the swell of the water moved, lifting, lifting, lifting then pushing me down. Lift, lift, lift, push down. Lift, lift, lift, push down.
“Okay Sugar, here we go, almost there. Wave comin’ on our six. You’re gonna hold your breath in three, two, ONE!”
I wasn’t ready.
An ocean of salt water crashed over my head in a furious roar then everything went dead quiet. My lungs filled with water and it was as if the sun had suddenly risen. My body went slack. Swirls of beautiful light and brilliant blue ocean twirled around me in a silent symphony. I no longer hurt. I didn’t feel. I floated, I soared, I saw. It was peaceful, peaceful and free and my mind made the connection.
Promise. Freedom.
This was it. This had been my promise. I was getting my freedom. Beautiful swirling freedom. Smiling, joyous, I turned my head to thank Buck...
Forty thousand pounds of jagged, crushing suffocation wrenched my body apart. Iron strength gripped my waist and I was ripped from my beautiful world. The sun died, the ocean went black and everything became pain, excruciating, airless pain.
An impossible weight crushed my chest. My lungs gulped for air and swallowed burning salt. The pain in my arm became too much to bear. I had a vague sense of being lifted out of my salvation and tossed onto the hard gritty ground. A desperate voice spoke angrily, but the burning in my lungs, my throat, my arm—it hurt too bad for me to care.
Pressure crushed my lips, air pushed into my mouth. I tried to cough and my whole body twisted to the side.
Then I vomited. And vomited and vomited. I couldn’t breathe. I was choking on vomit. I’m choking on vomit. Panicked, desperate, clawing, airless heaving. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t breathe! Useless, rubber arms, I tried to sit. Gulping for air, I wheezed burning salt water.
Big hands gripped my head and turned it sideways. “You’re okay, Sugar, you’re okay. Don’t fight it. Get the water out and you’ll breathe just fine.” A hand brushed hair out of my face.
I tried to kick my legs out but coughed. Another cup of ocean came up. It started the vomiting again. Except all I vomited was ocean. Tears streamed down my ice cold cheeks. The burn in my throat, the pain in my chest, fire on my arm, it was unbearable torture.
Then a tiny thread of pure, waterless air rippled through my lungs like a slicing knife. Desperate, I opened my mouth and sucked. A hideous wet sound like metal screeching across pavement filled the night.
“Hurts,” I cried out.
“Shh, shh, don’t talk, just breathe.” The hand brushed my forehead and I started to shiver.
Shaking, crushing pain in my chest, burning throat, my arms and legs too heavy to move, I wanted to cry. I wanted my beautiful ocean back, I wanted that peace. I wanted...
No. Oh God. No.
I’d drowned.
I had drowned and I was dying. That was death. That wasn’t my promise. That was nothingness. No coming back, no life, no Buck, no nothing. Death, just death. A heaving sob raked through my lungs. Tears began to fall, the shivering magnified and I got scared, so fucking scared.
“H-h-h-help me!”
Chapter Nineteen
Talon pulled my limp sandy body into his arms. “I got you, Sugar, I got you. Shh, don’t cry.” Wrapping me against his chest, he stood.
Die. I’d wanted to die. I couldn’t breathe. “I d-d-drowned.”
“No you didn’t, darlin’, no you didn’t. I wouldn’t let that happen.” Talon’s voice was off.
I tried to make the unresponsive muscles in my hands hold on to Talon but nothing worked. The bunch and pull of his muscles, the breath going in and out of his lungs, I needed to focus on it. Life. Talon. I needed it. I needed him.
Talon carried me.
“N-n-n-no m-m-m-men.” No guns, no shots. Were they waiting to ambush us?
“Shh, we’ll talk later. Let’s get you warmed up.” Talon took us to the side of his house and still holding me in his arms, he walked up to an outside shower and turned it on.
At first the spray felt like nothing but wet. But as the water warmed up, it became sharp stabs of painful heat all over my skin.
“Hurts.” I was too tired and my voice too raw to do anything but whisper.
Talon kissed my forehead. “I know. Drink.” He leaned me into the spray.
I took a painful sip and Talon turned his back to the water. Cradling me like a child, he held his head under the spray then shook his hair out. Turning back around
, he put me under the water and slowly lowered me to my feet, but my shaking legs didn’t hold. I gripped Talon’s neck for dear life and he reached for my tank top.
“Hey.” There was no force behind my protest.
“Nothin’ doin’, Sugar, nothin’ doin’. Just gettin’ you outta these wet clothes.” He lifted the hem of the tank and pulled the sagging material up and over my head. The second the fabric hit my left arm, I screamed out in pain.
“Whoa, whoa, Sugar, I’m just... Jesus fucking Christ. You got shot?” Large hands gripped my left biceps and held it up. “God fucking damn it, why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
I looked at my arm. It looked like I’d taken a curling iron and branded myself. “I got shot.”
“No fucking shit.” Talon inspected my arm.
A trickle of blood oozed from the top of the slightly angled wound. “No bullet?”
“You just got grazed. Let’s rinse it off.” He squatted, peeled off my leggings then stood and gently held my arm under the spray.
I didn’t even care that I wasn’t wearing underwear. It felt too good to be out of the cold and under the shower. “Hurts, have to sit,” I muttered, closing my eyes.
“Let’s get the rest of you rinsed off.” Talon was suddenly at my back, holding me up with his arms around my bare waist.
The water cascading down me began to ease the burn in my arm and my breath started to come evenly. Talon stood rigid behind me. His bare chest against my back, his board shorts scratchy against my backside. I leaned my head back on his shoulder and he buried his face in my neck.
“I’m sorry, Layna,” he whispered.
I slowly opened my eyes but I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure what he was sorry for.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “That was my fault. I should’ve seen what was happening and I should’ve brought you in. It won’t happen again,” he said without a trace of an accent.
Before I could respond, Talon turned the shower off and reached for a towel. He wrapped me up tight then grabbed another and started drying my hair.
I turned around to face him. “You saved me,” I whispered, my voice raw.
Talon didn’t look at me. “I’m no hero,” he said gruffly, drying the ends of my hair.