Chapter 19
JASON
I was mid-sentence when my focus landed on Bill and it made me stop talking. Even after the shit with Nelson, he’d never given me a look like that. My gaze drifted left to the woman beside him.
Holy fucking shit.
Everything had stopped for me when Laurel had been dragged from the room, and the instant my gaze connected with her haunting eyes, it started again. The wall I’d put up to separate us came crashing down.
Her hands were pressed to her face, the plastic edges of zip-tie handcuffs sticking out. The navy marshal jacket thrown over her shoulders was so large it looked like a blanket. How was she alive, and here, and seemingly unhurt?
The reasons didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but the fact that she was shuffling toward me. The only thing standing in my way was an FBI agent and my boss.
“Marshal?” the agent asked, but I couldn’t hear him. I was halfway past the man when Bill muttered an icy command, slicing through my turmoil.
“You stay there.”
It came from him accusatory, angry.
What was going on? What had happened? It was clear his order should not be disobeyed under any circumstance. All I could do was stand there and stare.
Laurel looked like she was in shock. Her hands dropped from her mouth to her chest as if trying to slow its heaving. Bill gently guided her forward, although she didn’t seem to want to go anywhere but to me.
We kept our gazes on each other as long as we could, me finally tearing it away when she left my sight. The agent was waiting for an answer, but I couldn’t even fathom his question.
I decided to give Bill ten minutes, but after five I got too impatient, and although my bruised ribs ached with an enormous amount of pain, I convinced the agent to lead me to my boss.
I was shoved through the motel manager’s office doorway, just as Bill ended a call, staring down at the paper spread out on the desk.
“Can we take these off now?” I asked. “What’s with the map?”
“I was looking for an LZ.”
He wanted to find a landing zone so he could move her by helicopter. That made sense. But the way he was looking at me did not.
“When are we leaving?” I said.
“You’re not going.”
I blinked. “Come on, he was slowing me down. I got shot, and it hurt like fucking hell, and I know it’s not an excuse—”
“You go down the hall, finish your statement, and then go home.”
No. I’d just gotten her back. “You’re pulling me? Why?”
“Nelson, I could understand. I would’ve handled it differently, but I was willing to let it slide because I thought it was a one-time lapse in judgment. But, shit, you getting involved with a witness? I can’t let that slide.”
I blew out a breath. He’d read too much into our interaction at dinner. “Nothing happened between us.”
“Oh, is that right?”
“Yeah, it is.” My pulse sped. Why did he sound so convinced otherwise?
“Tell me about your little trip over to the restaurant.”
My mind went completely blank.
“Let me show you something,” my boss continued. “No one else has seen it yet because I’d like you to explain it to me.”
Bill pulled open his laptop and went to a folder labeled Security Footage. It was standard practice to collect everything from the surrounding cameras during an investigation, so he must have seen us cross the parking lot toward the restaurant. Was he upset we’d taken her next door?
“I sent Mike over to collect the exterior footage, and you might be surprised to hear they have interior footage too.”
Oh, no. Oh, fuck.
Bill double-clicked a file and the video came to life.
I recognized the banquet room instantly, even in black-and-white. I was the lone man in a chair while Laurel danced provocatively on the floor. I watched as I surged forward and slammed my mouth over hers, the high angle of the camera getting a clear look at us.
I was torn in two.
Half was terrified for my job, and the other was angry this private moment between us had been shared. She had been dancing only for me.
“Fuck,” I said.
“My thoughts exactly. You took advantage of that girl and her situation, and I don’t think it’s worth it to try to save your job this time.”
There was nothing to say. My legs buckled, sending me crashing into the seat by the desk.
My career was over.
Not at this exact moment, because there’d be documentation and a review before I was officially terminated, but this video, coupled with my history, sealed my doom. And I had no one to blame but myself.
“I kissed her, but that’s all it was. I screwed up.”
“You’re goddamn right, you did.”
I didn’t bother to tell him that it wouldn’t happen again, because I didn’t want to lie to this man I respected more than I had already. I had no choice but to shove it to the side and focus. I’d do anything and everything I could for her up until the moment they took my badge.
“Is Frey still alive?” I asked.
“Seems likely. There was only one body in the van, and it wasn’t him.”
I dropped my gaze to the floor. My career was ending, but all I could do was worry about her. “Where is she?”
“Are you fucking kidding?”
I gave him a sobering look to show him I wasn’t. My reputation had been obliterated, and there was nothing I could say or do to change that. “I need five minutes to say goodbye,” I said. “What difference does it make now?”
I pushed out of the chair, making the metal handcuffs around my wrists clink together. Shit. I was going to need a key for those, too.
It was the soft spot Bill held for me that got me to one of the motel rooms farthest from the activity. I didn’t knock. I pushed the door open and peered inside.
Laurel sat at the end of the bed, still wearing her torn pajamas and the oversized marshals jacket. Her handcuffs had been removed, and she massaged the red lines where the plastic had created tender skin.
I stepped in and closed the door behind me with a quiet thud. It drew her attention, and when she realized it was me, she whirled to her feet.
Neither of us moved, focused on each other. It was as if we needed this moment to verify that what we were seeing was real. That this powerful thing between us was real. It had started as desire, but grown into more, and suddenly I couldn’t wait another second to show her that.
I charged forward with no regard for the pain in my back. I came at her so quickly, she retreated on instinct, although it was obvious she wanted to stand her ground.
I crushed my lips to hers.
This time I didn’t hold anything back. The kiss was raw and powerful. Addicting. It put everything else to shame.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she lifted onto her toes to meet me. It was stunning how quickly my breathing turned ragged, and I broke the kiss. But it was only so my lips could travel down to the bruise on her neck that Frey had left, the one that was almost gone.
The memory of the first moment I saw her flashed through my mind.
She was a sliver of a girl in a torn dress, who’d flinched when I touched her.
She acted desperate for my touch now, like she couldn’t get enough of it, and warmth spread along my body.
The magnitude of what she’d been through pressed down and probably drove her to me, and like a selfish asshole, I welcomed it.
My hands slid inside her jacket, caressing the warm curves of her and urging her deeper into my embrace. Her body fit so perfectly against mine, like it was made for me. Her mouth tasted like it was made for me too.
Our kiss was hungry and needy, and she shuddered as if the intensity of it were overwhelming.
I’d promised to keep her safe, and I’d done everything in my power to do so—and it hadn’t been enough. Frey had taken her. I’d gotten her back, but everything was falling apart.
I lifted my head and cupped her face. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears, and when she blinked, a single one escaped.
Was it because of what she’d been through .
. . or was this rogue tear for us? Last time I’d seen her cry, I’d been uncomfortable, but now it caused a deep ache in the bottom of my stomach.
I used the pad of my thumb to brush her tear away and kissed her again. This time, I did it slowly, thoroughly. It was full of longing, of all the things I wanted and couldn’t have, and at the end I let it taste like goodbye.
She must have sensed it. Her head came to rest in the crook of my neck, her skin warm against mine. I didn’t want to let her go, and it’d take everything I had to do it.
“Laurel.”
Her body went stiff in my arms. I’d pushed her away enough times that she knew it was coming.
“I can’t stay,” I said.