Chapter 8
Marshall
“How did it go?” Emma asked anxiously after the kidnapper had reattached me to the support beam and left our prison the next morning.
I’d spent the last two hours in the kidnappers’ camp going through the motions of negotiating Nick’s release.
I’d thrown out some ridiculous and outrageous terms deliberately because I knew they weren’t going to immediately agree.
They were going to come back with what their bosses would agree to in the morning.
That worked for me.
We would be long gone, and those assholes would be in custody.
“It was fine. I threw out a whole lot of bullshit.”
I was used to that. I did it nearly every day as a contractor and intel gatherer for the US government.
“They didn’t hurt you?” she asked nervously as she ran her hands over my face to make sure I was okay.
Fuck! I was developing a love/hate relationship with her being this close to me.
I hadn’t slept worth a damn.
Emma had drifted off to sleep.
Me?
I’d held her while my dick reminded me that it was still fully functional, even if I was a lot older than I had been when Emma and I had first met.
I shouldn’t, but I still wanted Emma just as much as I had back then.
She still smelled the same.
She still felt like the only woman who could make me completely lose my head.
Personally, I happened to like her curvier body, and so did my cock.
She’d gotten a little restless in her sleep, and I’d instinctively put a hand on her ass to calm her just like I’d done in Virginia Beach.
Okay, I’d eventually moved my hand away, but my dick had gotten even harder than it had been before I’d made that mistake.
My attraction to Emma wasn’t simply muscle memory.
Hell, I still wanted her even though I knew it was wrong.
The more I got to know her personally, the stronger that attraction was growing.
Everyone in my life treated me with a healthy amount of respect most of the time.
Emma had never feared me.
She wasn’t wary of me.
She wasn’t afraid to give me hell when she thought I deserved it.
That had intrigued me back then, and it fascinated me now.
I was a big, stoic, gruff, and humorless kind of guy who never talked about anything emotional.
None of those traits had ever seemed to bother her.
She hadn’t blinked an eye when I’d told her that I had a genius IQ and a photographic memory in Virginia Beach.
She’d simply…accepted me exactly the way I was.
She had never seen any of those things as odd or off-putting.
That’s probably why I’d become so crazy about her in Virginia Beach.
She’d gotten closer to me than any woman ever had in my entire life.
I took her hand from my face and held it against my chest. “I’m fine. I fed them a bunch of bullshit, and it stalled things until tomorrow. By then, we’ll be gone.”
“Thank God,” she said in a relieved voice.
“You were worried about me?” I asked.
That slayed me because Emma was the actual kidnapping victim.
I was trained to deal with kidnappers.
She smacked me on the shoulder with her free hand. “Of course I was worried about you. We have no idea what these guys are capable of doing.”
The last thing I wanted was to worry her because she’d already been through enough in the last several days. “Everything’s fine, Emma. I’m fine. You sound stressed.”
I pulled her down to sit with me on the blanket.
Without thinking, I wrapped my arm around her, and she put her head on my shoulder.
“Maybe I’m a little nervous about tonight,” she confided.
“Don’t be,” I insisted. “Brock and Nate have never failed at a rescue mission, and you know Nick. He’s reliable. He’s helped me out before. The guy is eager to get you out of here, too. It’s perfectly normal to be nervous, but don’t let those fears get into your head.”
“It’s hard not to,” she murmured against my shoulder. “What if I make noise and the kidnappers wake up? What if something goes wrong? What if I can’t keep up with you guys?”
“Do you honestly think we’re going to leave you behind?
” I asked wryly. “You’re the reason we’re doing this.
We’re going to guide you every step of the way.
We’ll make sure you don’t make a mistake, and we’ll move at your pace.
If something goes wrong, we always have plan B and plan C.
Things do go wrong sometimes, but we know how to adapt.
We’ll take care of you, Emma. I’ll make damn sure you get home safely to Cherry Cove. ”
“I trust all of you, but maybe I don’t trust myself. I’m out of my depth here. It’s my first kidnapping.”
“It’s also going to be your last,” I grunted. “I’m getting too old to be out in the field. After years of doing this, I much prefer my comfortable bed and running operations from headquarters.”
“Then why didn’t you send one of those younger guys?” she asked.
“Because the kidnapping victim was you,” I admitted freely. “I couldn’t sit on the sidelines for this one. I told you that you weren’t just a fling to me, Emma. Maybe we were only together for a short time, but those five days made a real impression on me.”
“Me, too,” she answered. “I regretted the deal we made after you were gone. I wish we would have stayed in touch. I was going to talk to you about it the morning you left. Maybe neither of us was in a position for something more, but I’d like to think we became friends.”
“It was better the way it worked out,” I replied.
“I was never around for long, Emma, and I would have been a shitty friend. My whole life revolved around the Navy. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, but for what it’s worth, I had second thoughts about the deal, too.
I swung by the beach house later that morning, but you were already gone. ”
“You came back looking for me?” she asked in a surprised voice.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I was only back at base for a few hours before it hit me that I wanted to stay in touch, too. I didn’t know where you lived but at least I could hear your voice on the phone once in a while.”
I wasn’t quite sure about the whole friendship thing. I doubted that I could watch Emma date other guys and make a life for herself with someone else, but I hadn’t really thought that far into the future at the time.
It had just suddenly hit me that I was an idiot for walking away from the most incredible woman I’d ever met.
“I wish we would have met up before I left,” she said regretfully. “I missed you after I left Virginia Beach.”
“I missed you, too.”
I was right the morning I’d left that beach house.
Thoughts of Emma had haunted me for a very long time.
I’d had my share of regrets about the way things had ended between us.
I’d often wondered exactly what would have happened if we had stayed in touch.
Probably nothing.
I’d changed after my injury, and I’d spent a long time recovering.
I’d pushed everyone away so I could wallow in my misery alone.
No doubt I would have pushed Emma away, too.
Over the years, I’d decided that the way things had ended between Emma and me had been for the best.
“We’re going to keep in touch this time,” Emma said in a stubborn voice.
“We will,” I assured her. “I plan on being your assigned advisor after this is over. Last Hope never just cuts our victims loose after a kidnapping. Your confinement was short, but issues could pop up well after this is over. Even the bravest of captives suffer some PTSD. We have people who can help with that if you need it. I’m going to be there for you, Emma. ”
“I’m going to be there for you, too,” she insisted. “I don’t just want to keep in touch with some kind of advisor. I want to be your friend, Colin.”
This time, I did smile.
A little.
As much as a guy like me was capable of smiling.
Emma was probably the most obstinate woman I’d ever known. When she got something into her head, she didn’t let go.
Would it really hurt to go along with her plan?
Nope.
Truth was, I wanted to keep her in my life, too.
Screw my attraction to her.
I’d have to live with it because there was no way that Emma was going to feel that kind of attraction toward me.
I’d have to get the fuck over it if I wanted to keep her in my life.
“Agreed,” I said.
“Can you stay with me for a little while once we get back to Cherry Cove?” she asked hesitantly.
The vulnerability in her voice got to me.
My immediate reaction would usually be to get back to San Diego and my headquarters as soon as possible.
That was my life.
I could do my contracting job anywhere as long as I had my computer.
Last Hope was another story.
I needed to be in our high-tech operations center.
It’s not like Wyatt can’t handle everything there if I’m gone for a while.
If Emma needed me, I could stay in Michigan.
I had committed to being her advisor.
“As long as you need me there,” I promised, surprising myself because I really meant those words.
Emma came first at the moment.
For the first time in my life Last Hope and my contract work weren’t my only priority.
Nothing would tear me away from Emma until I knew she was going to be okay on her own in Cherry Cove.