Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Savanna lay flat on the ground, a bed of red and gold leaves cushioning her body, and she stared up at a cloudless blue sky. She folded her arms over her chest and smiled when a crisp fall breeze kicked up, fanning across her face and sending leaves swirling in the air.
“How’d you know I was here?” she asked upon hearing the crunch of dried foliage as someone approached.
“Where else would you be? This is where you and Marcus got married. His casket is empty, so I know you don’t go to the cemetery when you want to be near him.” The husky voice belonged to Ella’s brother, A.J., which was a surprise because last she’d heard, he was in D.C.
Savanna turned her head to the side to find A.J. parking himself on the ground next to her.
“I hate that they never found his body,” she whispered. And that I witnessed my husband being beheaded on national TV by terrorists . She grimaced at the painful memory from November of 2015, a memory she’d never be able to scrub from her mind for as long as she lived. “You know,” she began softly, needing to change the direction of the conversation before her already upset stomach worsened, “Marcus and I were going to travel the world together. He promised he’d find time to take me on adventures, but we just never got a chance.”
A.J. reached for her hand and squeezed it between where they lay. “You’ll get a chance to see the world, though.”
With who? With what money? But she kept those thoughts to herself because she didn’t want to burden A.J. with her problems. Clearly, he’d been apprised of all that went down last night. That being a guy ending up dead on the floor of her townhouse. Whether A.J. was aware of all the details, like Jesse breaking out some serious Equalizer moves, Savanna had no idea.
“You think Marcus had some sense of foreboding, and his spirit guided Jesse to me? I don’t know, can people who’ve passed on have premonitions?” she whispered, knowing A.J. would be the last person to think she was crazy. The man was convinced Marcus’s ghost visited him on occasion. A.J. said he preferred to believe that rather than think he was having hallucinations, so . . .
“I’m just glad Jesse was there with you. I can’t begin to imagine the alternative. Refuse to, in fact,” A.J. drawled. “But yeah, I think Marcus had a hand in that. You know he’s always watching over us. Probably literally.”
“Yeah, and it does make it hard to move on,” she confessed, immediately feeling guilty for complaining.
“He would want you to, Savanna. Marcus would hate for you to remain single forever.” A.J. cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, his voice was somber. “Just not with Shep.”
“Shit. You know?” She yanked her hand free from his grasp and brought it up to cover her face, thoroughly embarrassed he’d found out about her and Shep’s drunken mistake.
“Uh yeah, Shep felt all kinds of guilty and told Beckett, and Beckett told Caleb, and well?—”
“Caleb told you,” she interrupted because, of course, Caleb spilled the beans. The Hawkins brothers told each other everything. “I’m surprised your feathers don’t show with how much you boys cluck like hens. So did you punch Shep?” She turned her head back toward him, willing her face not to betray how embarrassed she was. Although if the heat radiating from her cheeks was anything to go by, her skin was probably bright scarlet.
“Haven’t seen him since I’ve been home. But you know, it’s a possibility later.” He lightly laughed as if trying to diffuse any awkward tension.
“So why exactly are you here, A.J.? Did you hear about my ninja-like moves and come to see for yourself? Learn from the master and all that?” It was her turn to lighten the mood, but based on the you’ve got to be kidding me look he was giving her, she might have missed the mark.
A.J. dropped his shades back in place and directed his attention toward the denim-blue sky. “I’m pretty sure I was the second call Jesse made after Beckett, who doesn’t think the home invasion was random, by the way. He believes those men were after you.”
That’s insane. Savanna propped herself up on an elbow and stared at A.J. “Why did Jesse call Beckett anyway? Your brother doesn’t have jurisdiction in the city. And how did that whole mess not make the news? Three thugs broke into my house, and one of them ended up dead. Why didn’t we call the local police department to tell them what happened and provide a statement? Where’s the dead body?” She took a deep breath after rambling off her questions, then squeezed her eyes closed.
Everything that happened last night felt more like a dream, well, a nightmare, than reality. She had no idea when the denial stage would end, but did she even want it to?
“At least I’m free from the candy and cookie contests today,” she joked when A.J. had yet to respond, and after another beat of silence, her mind wandered back to the aftermath of the incident.
Jesse had convinced Beckett, the infamously growly sheriff of a small town outside of Birmingham, as well as Savanna, not to call the local PD. And for some insane reason, they’d both agreed. As for where the dead body was now, she couldn’t even fathom a guess. Savanna had stayed at Jesse’s house last night, choosing not to tell Ella, at least not yet, what had happened so as not to put her in danger. Beckett had suggested she stay with him, but he had a young daughter, so that was also out of the question.
Because what if Jesse was right and someone was after her? She’d never forgive herself if anyone innocent were to get caught in the crossfires of her problem.
But what problem? Yet another question she didn’t have an answer for, and the more she thought on it, the less sense it made.
“The man Jesse killed had no ID, nor did he have a gun or phone on him,” A.J. finally answered. “We have a photo of his face, though, and my team ran it through our facial recognition software program earlier. We got a match on one of the airport security cameras the day before the attack. International terminal. Still working on an ID and his original location.”
“I take it this is why you hopped on a plane from D.C. Because someone from another country was inside my house?” She sat upright and hugged her knees to her chest to try and comfort herself.
“I’m here to check on you, Savanna, of course. But yeah, anyone attacking you makes my blood boil. But someone coming from overseas to go after you, well, that has me more on edge.”
She let go of a deep, sobering breath. “Is that why they didn’t have guns? They’d flown here commercially from wherever?”
“Most likely.” This was probably business-as-usual for A.J., but it wasn’t for her. Not at all. But not a day went by that she didn’t still worry about Marcus’s former teammates. She couldn’t lose any of them. The idea of something happening to me, though, I never considered that.
“What could those men possibly want from me?” she asked, somewhat incredulously, when the news that three men hopped an international flight to come for her had finally sunk in.
“I don’t know, darlin’. At least not yet, and this is outside of Beckett’s wheelhouse.”
“It’s right in line with yours, though.” She collapsed back onto the bed of leaves she’d made and closed her eyes, trying to stave off full-blown panic mode for a bit longer.
“The problem is that POTUS called at zero nine hundred hours and ordered both Bravo and Echo to spin up tomorrow. There’s some dicey shit going down overseas, and we’re needed. I’m so sorry. I hate leaving you after what happened, but it’s wheels up for me tonight.”
“The President needs you. I would never ask you to stay.”
A.J. was sitting upright now, and he reached for her arm, urging her to sit and face him. “You know I’m not about to abandon you.” He pushed his sunglasses into his hair. “But I do have the next best thing to me. Remember Wyatt’s wife’s brother, Gray? He now co-runs a security company with a former Delta guy.”
Wyatt and A.J. were part of Echo Team, whereas Marcus had been on Bravo. It still amazed her that these guys were putting their lives on the line every day to handle operations the world would never know about.
“I’m going to call in a favor. Hopefully, I can get them here by the end of the day.”
No, that wouldn’t work. “Thank you, A.J., but I can’t afford to pay some guys to protect me.”
“First of all, you’re not paying anyone anything. And secondly, if I’m going to be overseas doing shit that technically I can’t talk about, I need to leave you in good hands. Not that I don’t trust Jesse and my brother, but this isn’t?—”
“In their wheelhouse.” But based on what she’d seen of Jesse last night, maybe it was?
“And also, I’m not just asking them to protect you. I need them to isolate the threat and handle it.”
“Kill more people, then, huh?” The memory of the dead guy would be haunting her dreams for quite some time. She shivered despite the warmer-than-average day.
“Jesse did what any of us would have done. He had to protect you,” he said in a firm voice, backing his childhood best friend’s decision to end a life.
“Where did Jesse learn to do what he did? I don’t think even Marcus was capable of those moves, and Jesse has been retired from the Army for years now.”
A.J. looked off toward the forest in the distance. What was he hiding? “You sure you have no clue, no matter how small, as to why those men were in your place?”
“No, and you know I’ve never even left the U.S.”
He frowned. “Well, you have my word we’ll figure this all out and keep you safe.”
Her eyelids fell closed, and she hugged her knees again. “Marcus gave me his word too. I made him promise I’d die before him.”
A.J. wrapped his arm around her back and brought her to his side. “And that’s one vow no man in love would ever want to keep.”