Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Cannon
This woman is traumatized, and for some reason, she doesn’t want me to take her to the police. I’m worried about why she reacted so violently to the idea. I don’t get any sort of vibe from her that makes me think she’s some kind of criminal herself.
My teammates, Blade, Ghost, and Tank are finishing up at the house we stormed. Considering the fact that June—the woman Stark was trying to bait—is Blade’s Little girl, I seriously doubt that Pete Stark is still breathing.
When I told the woman in my lap that I work for a private agency, I was telling the truth. She won’t have heard of Black Blade Protection, so elaborating isn’t important right now.
We’re good at what we do, and most of our jobs are totally above board, but occasionally that’s not possible. Today is one of those times. My team will leave that house looking like a crime scene without implicating any of us.
If needed, I will take this woman to the police. We discussed this likelihood before we arrived. We couldn’t just swoop in, rescue the damsel in distress, and then tell her to be quiet about it. That’s not who we are.
I got her out of there fast, so she has no idea what happened next.
If we go to the police, we will tell them we were hired to rescue the captive, and that’s what we did.
The police will go out to the house and find Stark dead, but whatever state my team leaves that house in, they will have wiped all trace of us having ever been there.
It’s as tidy as possible considering an innocent civilian’s life was at stake.
“Are you injured, angel?”
She slowly shakes her head. “Only the circulation to my hands. They’ve stopped tingling. Can I go now?”
I frown. “Go where?”
She pushes against me. “I need to go.” She looks at me. “You won’t call the police?” Her eyes are wide with panic.
I narrow my gaze at her. “I won’t call the police. You have my word, but, angel, you’ve been through hell. Why don’t you stay with me for a bit? You’re exhausted and thirsty, and probably hungry. Let me help you.”
“No offense, but I don’t know you, and I don’t trust easily. I’d rather walk ten miles along the side of the road than ever let anyone help me out again.”
I’m not restraining her, but it’s not hard to keep her on my lap. She doesn’t have the energy to stand. If she stepped outside the SUV, her knees would give out, and she would likely fall on her face.
An idea comes to mind. I lean to one side so I can pull my wallet out of my back pocket. She watches as I remove my ID and hand it to her. “Memorize as many details as you want. In fact, why don’t you keep this? Put it in your own pocket. Collateral.”
Something is terribly off with this woman. She’s scared out of her mind, and it goes back further than today. Maybe if she has something of mine, it will ease her mind.
She glances at the ID and back at me. “You said your name is Cannon. That says Briton Reiner.”
I chuckle. “Good point. Cannon’s a nickname. I was in the Army. Everybody gets a nickname in the military. It often sticks for life. No one calls me Briton, but I’ll make an exception if you’d prefer to use my real name.” I wince.
She almost smiles. “You don’t like your name?”
We’re getting somewhere. I shrug. “It’s kind of pretentious in my opinion. Until I got that nickname, my teammates made fun of me. They called me Silver Spoon. Didn’t matter that it wasn’t true. I wasn’t born rich or anything. I was relieved when they switched to calling me Cannon.”
She stares at me. Assessing me. Probably trying to decide if I’m lying. “Why do they call you Cannon?”
I groan. “Oh goodness. That’s an embarrassing story.”
She doesn’t look away or say a word.
I need her to trust me. She needs to be able to trust me. So, I tell her, “I got too close to a cannon in a combat situation. Error on my part. When it went off, I got thrown several yards.”
Her eyes widen, and her gaze lowers to my neck. “Is that when you got that scar on your neck?”
Wow. Nothing gets by this woman. I’m impressed. “Yes. I wasn’t breathing. They had to do a tracheotomy in the field.”
She gasps as if it really matters to her that I was in danger. It’s endearing considering what she’s been through today.
I hold the ID out to her.
When she shakes her head, I put it back in my wallet and in my pocket.
Now that I’m holding her gaze, I realize she’s stunning. Her eyes are an amazing light shade of brown that could swallow a man whole. Her hair is a mess from being held hostage all morning. But the brown that nearly matches her eyes is lovely, and I bet the curls are fucking sexy normally.
I can’t take my eyes off her face, though. Her features… Fuck, she’s pretty. Perfect round nose, full pink lips, thick eyelashes. She’s not tall and lanky like a runway model, but if she were five-ten she’d be on the cover of magazines for sure.
She narrows her gaze at me. “Don’t.”
I realize she’s caught me staring. I suspect everyone she’s ever met has stared at her, so I don’t try to lie. Instead, I stroke her arm. “Sorry.”
She shoves at me and scrambles off my lap, aiming for the bench next to me. At least she isn’t yanking on the door handle. Suddenly, she shows me another side of her. She pulls her knees up to her chin, sets her heels on the seat, and hugs her shins.
I reach across her to grab my backpack and haul it to my lap. After rummaging inside, I hold out a protein bar, an apple, and another bottle of water. “I don’t have much to eat in the car, but if you’re hungry...”
She glances at me, and I get the feeling no one has ever offered this woman a kindness. She looks suspicious, as if perhaps I want to trade these small items for something.
I drop the backpack on the floor and place all three items on the other side of her. “If you change your mind.”
She turns her head to stare at the meager offering.
“When did you last eat, angel?”
“I’m not an angel by any stretch of the imagination,” she mutters.
I shrug. “You seem pretty angelic to me.”
She shoots me a glare. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you’ve been through hell, not just today. I suspect you’ve been going through hell for a lot of days.”
She snorts.
“Okay, more than a lot of days,” I admit. “Will you let me help you?”
“Nobody helps other people without wanting something in return.”
Fuck. “I do. All the time.”
She glares at me. “When was the last time you did something for nothing?”
“Multiple times today. For one thing, the woman who’s married to that scumbag has been hiding under the protection of the man who cut the ropes off you. His name is Blade. She came to our offices in Seattle for help, and we’ve done everything in our power to keep her safe. She owes us nothing.”
My angel blinks. My angel?
I shrug. “It’s what we do. Yes, we have clients who can afford our services and pay us well, but we also take cases where the person can’t pay us.”
She swallows. “You drove two hours to save me…for nothing?”
“Not for nothing. We did it for the gratification of knowing we saved an innocent person’s life.”
“How do you know I’m innocent?”
“Well, I can’t be sure you’re innocent of every imaginable infraction on Earth, but I know you didn’t ask that asshole to tie you to a chair and terrorize you, and you didn’t deserve his wrath.”
She looks down again, setting her chin on her knees. “Maybe I did deserve it,” she whispers.
“I don’t believe that.” I really don’t. I think this woman is so emotionally beaten that she’s convinced she’s not worthy of kindness, and suddenly I feel a tug on my heartstrings that insists I prove otherwise. Might be a tough hill.
“Can I go now?” she asks.
“Go where, angel? Do you want to get out of my car and walk away? You said Stark picked you up on the side of the road. How far is it to your car? Plus, you still don’t have any gas.”
“It’s only a few miles to town. I planned to get a job there. He said there’s a diner. Hopefully they’re hiring.”
I lean back, trying to remain calm. I hate the bind she’s in, and I don’t want to make it worse by scaring her. There’s no way in hell I’m going to let her get out of my SUV and start walking, though. And I still don’t think she would be physically capable.
I’ll earn her trust better by not insisting she stay. “Angel, I’m never going to make you do anything you don’t want to do, but I get the sense you could really use a break, and I’m offering it to you.”
“How? What are you going to do? If you really want to help me, I need five dollars’ worth of gas and a ride to my car. That way I could at least drive to the next town and put some distance between me and…today’s mistakes.”
She adds that last part as though she makes mistakes every day, and being taken hostage by a deranged lunatic is just par for the course. My chest tightens.
“I can do that for you. However, I’m hoping you’ll let me do more than that. I’m too much of a gentleman to leave a woman on the side of the road with nothing but enough gasoline to get to the next town. I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Where would you sleep tonight?”
She rolls her eyes. “In my car, where I sleep every night.”
I cringe. “How long have you been sleeping in your car, angel?”
“Why do you care?” Her voice is filled with mistrust and sarcasm.
“Because that’s how I’m wired. Good men don’t just leave women alone with no money, no food, and no place to sleep.”
She glances at me. “And what do you propose? Want to drop me off at the nearest motel? Would you feel better if you bought me a burger and a night in a real bed?”
This time, I get the impression she’s actually salivating over the suggestion.
“I’d feel better if you came home with me and slept in my guest room so I can help you get back on your feet,” I say without thinking, but I realize I mean every word.
She rolls her eyes so hard I can’t even see her pupils. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that line. Does it work on all the women?”
“I have no idea. I’ve never offered to bring a woman home before. Do I need to worry you’ll steal the silver and take off in the night?”
Her breath hitches. “I’m no thief.”
“And I’m not lying to you just to get you into my apartment,” I challenge. “Plus, I don’t have any silver, in case you’re wondering.”
Suddenly, she snorts and damn near giggles.
I want to hear that sound. I’m determined.
I turn in the seat to fully face her. “The agency I work for is called Black Blade Protection. The owner is Blade, the man who untied you. The other two guys who took down that fucking piece of trash are Tank and Ghost. Our team consists of many more men. Blade owns a sixteen-story building in Seattle. Our business is on the fifteenth floor. He lives on the sixteenth floor with June. I live on the fourteenth floor. So do three other men who work for the agency. We’re a reputable business, highly sought after for all kinds of jobs that range from protecting people to rescuing them.
Some of the wealthiest people in Seattle have used our services at one point or another. Some of the poorest people have, too.”
I pull my phone out of my pocket and open it to our website before holding it out for her to see.
“I could provide you with fifty character references in a heartbeat if it would make you feel safer, but I’m telling you I’ve never in my life so much as raised my voice at a woman for any reason.
You will be safe in my care and under my protection for as long as you need. ”
I’m not entirely sure why I’m making such a blanket proposal to this woman. I don’t know enough about her to do so. But something about her calls to me. I feel drawn to her, and I want to help. I’ve said all I can say. It’s up to her now.
She releases her knees and lowers her feet to the floor before looking toward the food next to her. She picks up the apple. “Can I really have this?”
“You may have every morsel of food I have in this car. There are other snacks in my backpack if you want to go through it. I’ll admit most of them are protein-based and meant to provide energy above taste. But I’ll be happy to pick you up something else to eat as soon as we leave here.”
She picks up the apple and holds it in her hand, staring at it for long seconds before whispering, “No strings? I can just…eat it?”
“No strings, angel.” I fist my hands on my thighs. I hate what’s happened to her even before I know her story. I want to punch several people in the face. I’m kind of hoping she’ll give me a list so I can rid the planet of their ilk.
She turns to look at me, seeming to study my face. Her hand is shaking as she lifts the apple. She brings it to her lips and then stops. “I’m not going to sleep with you.”
“I’m not asking you to, angel,” I say as calmly as possible. I’ve never met a more damaged human.