Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
This is the moment where you need to be two places at once.
“Stay here. Lock the door.” My words are commanding, the kind of tone that doesn’t invite discussion.
Every cell in me demands I stay and protect what’s mine, but a scream in the night doesn’t get an optional response.
It’s an ‘on’ switch.
I grab my weapon first, then my pants, in that order. Priorities, always.
There’s barely time to get my zipper up and boots on before I open the door.
My pulse is still pounding from being with Rosalie.
Her scent, her warmth is still all over me, but my adrenaline spikes hard enough to burn the afterglow right out of me.
“Do not leave this room until I come for you.”
She scrambles off the bed, dragging a sheet around her.
“Be careful,” she begs.
It guts me to leave her, but that’s what I do.
The lights are on in the hallway when I slide out the door, closing it behind me. The lock clicks quietly and I’m still so tuned into her, I can feel her on the other side of the door.
Going from the dim light in the bedroom, to the brightly lit hallway gives another shot of energy.
Truck appears from one of the guest rooms, weapon raised, eyes razor sharp.
We don’t speak because there’s no need. When he motions for me to take the lead, we fall into a familiar rhythm.
Systematically, we clear the upper floor.
There’s an electrical hum to the house, too.
Feels like a breath being held.
For the next scream.
Our boots hit the stairs in sync, two soundless killers. I’m twitchy though. All the nerves in my body are alive, every sense heightened. Tuned into Rosalie, just a few doors away.
Vulnerable.
She’s getting trained in weapons and self defense. It’s the only way I’ll survive being ten feet away from her.
At the bottom of the stairs, we move slowly through the large home.
The alarm system didn’t go off. The perimeter should be secure. But we both know, anything can happen.
Sweat cools on my back, the metallic tang of sex and adrenaline mixing with the faint static of charged air the entire time.
Then we hit the living room and everything stops.
Fucking hell.
Camile’s in the center of the floor, folded in on herself. Not moving.
Not crying. Just still.
As if someone cut a puppet’s strings.
I’d rather see an intruder. I’d know what I was dealing with.
The silence surrounding her cuts me deeper than any scream.
“Go tell Rosalie and Allison it’s clear. Get them down here,” I murmur to Truck without looking away from Beast’s girl.
“Camile heard from Beast,” Marshall calls as he emerges from the first floor hallway, his hair is standing up from his hand being shoved into it.
“We’re mobilizing. Get your gear,” he orders.
“He’s alive, thank fuck,” I say with a rush of emotion that makes my throat expand and contract simultaneously.
Moving to touch Camile’s shoulder to reassure her, I crouch down til we’re eye-to-eye. “Hey,” I rasp, unable to say more.
She’s crying quietly, gripping her cell phone with an iron hold.
“He sent a message in code,” Marshall tells us, tapping rapid-fire into his cell phone. “I’m relaying the message to Mako and Danee right now.”
A patter of small feet hit the stairs, and both Rosalie and Allison practically tumble into the living room.
“What’s happening?” Allison asks, her expression as tense as the rest of us.
“Beast got in touch,” Truck tells her quietly.
Allison gasps. “Oh my god, this is great news.”
It is. It fucking is, but I’m not sure what’s happening inside of me. I can’t move. Can’t breathe. And the more time that passes, the tighter my muscles coil.
The world hazes around me, their voices becoming a murmur, until I hear my name.
“What about me?” I ask Marshall, snapping back into focus. “I’m not leaving Rosalie unprotected.”
Marshall hesitates a beat as if he’s deciding something. “You’re going back to Westerly’s headquarters.”
“I’m going with you.” Rosalie announces, her hands going to her hips, her eyes locked on me.
My head nearly explodes.
No way. This is not happening.
“Like hell you are,” I say too loudly.
“I know we can get that sample back, I’m the best person to go.”
I’m breathing like a dragon. “Rosalie…you are not going anywhere near—”
“She has a point, she knows the lab layouts,” Marshall says. “But I also want you to grab one of his men—one of his higher-ups so we can squeeze them for information.”
I stare at Marshall, my back teeth gritted. Finally I bite out, “I’m not putting her at risk.”
Rosalie’s face is completely calm and her gaze locked and loaded. “You can protect me. You’ve already saved me once. I know you’d do it again if you needed to.”
No. No fucking way. I can’t do this.
“I’ve already let too many people down,” I say, with my chest hollowing. “I’m not taking a chance.”
The room closes in, the instinct to jerk the door off the hinges and run into the yard, claws at me.
I need air. I need…
Fuck.
Fuck.
But I can’t move. And I can’t find my balance. The pain of letting my sister down, then Rosalie, then Beast, is a mountain on my shoulders.
Covering my mouth with my hand, I stand before them all. Breaking.
Camile wobbles to her feet, dropping the phone onto the floor. She’s closest to me so she makes it to me first.
Tears streaking her face, she walks over to me, looking me dead in the face. “You didn’t let Beast down. This isn’t your fault.”
Only I know it is.
When her arms lash around my neck, vicious stinging spreads behind my eyes. And when Rosalie joins us, hugging me fiercely too, she whispers, “You would never let anyone down on purpose. We all know this.”
It’s more than I can take. My knees weaken, but Truck’s there gripping my shoulder. And Marshall too. Then Allison rallies around me as well.
And they hold onto me.
Goddammit. I’m supposed to be strong for them.
“A lot’s happened, brother,” Marshall says, emotion thickening his words too. “But I’ve never been more sure of anyone in my life than I am of you. Besides, if you quit the team, who would crack all the jokes?”
“I don’t have any jokes left in me,” I confess on exhale. “Not sure what’s happening to me, but I’m fucked up right now.”
Truck shakes me, his grip tight on my shoulder.
“Brother,” he leans in. “That’s love. It cuts you up from the inside out.”
I’m silent for a long moment. Just feeling…too much.
Rosalie tucks under my arm, kisses the side of my neck. “You’re amazing.”
“No. I’m not.”
“We’ll just all have to disagree, then,” Rosalie says, “Because you can’t convince me, or them I suspect.”
“Amen to that,” Camile says, stepping back, rubbing her eyes again. “Now, we’ve got a job to do.”
The room is quiet, but the heavy feels different this time. Marshall opens his laptop. Truck joins him. The girls hug Camile, and speak to her in warm, low tones.
It’s like we’re all bearing the weight. Not just me. Not Camile, but all of us. A team.
Rosalie sighs when she comes back to me and I kiss her temple.
“I still don’t want you to go into that building.”
“You can worry. That’s allowed.” Rosalie’s voice is soft, but it carries steel that I now know is part of her core makeup. “The team’s stretched thin, and you don’t want to leave me behind. Not here. Not by myself.”
A rough groan breaks out of me before I can stop it. I pull her into my arms, burying my face in her hair, breathing her in like she’s oxygen. “I can’t do…that. It’d distract me too much.”
“Then we’ll go together.”
Her smile hits like sunlight after a storm, undoing every defense I’ve ever built.
“I love you,” she whispers, then slips out of my arms before I can react—before I can even blink.
That strange pull hits my chest again.
I recognize it now. It comes when she looks at me with that warm little intimate smile.
The look that says, I see you.
I don’t know what to do with it.
Don’t know how to be that man. I’m reaching to grab her again so I can echo those earth-shaking words to her when the men launch into motion.
“Perimeter breach!” Marshall barks, checking his phone. “We’ve got company, un-known vehicle! Get into position.”