Chapter 21 #2
Jagger felt himself growing pale from the possibility that they hadn’t gotten here in time. The bile from before returned with a vengeance, and he could taste its sour presence on his tongue. But he swallowed it back and pushed his fear of losing her aside to do what he’d been trained to do.
Unable to visibly confirm she was breathing, he reached a trembling hand toward the exposed side of her neck. For one of the most terrifying moments of his life, he didn’t feel evidence that her heart was still beating. But then...
There!
“She’s still alive!” he shouted with excitement. “Her pulse is weak and thready, but it’s definitely there!” Jagger leaned forward and put the side of his face to her back. “And she’s breathing!”
Given the circumstances, a heartbeat and working lungs were the best things they could hope for. And for now, Talia had both.
“Help me roll her over,” he ordered anyone willing to help.
While Jagger cradled her head, Ryker bent down next to her upper body while Cade took her hips and legs.
“On three,” he commanded.
He counted down and the men worked together to carefully roll the injured woman over and onto her back. They gently eased Talia onto her back.
“I’ve got her from here.” Jagger nudged Ryker and Cade out of the way so he could bend down and scoop her into his arms.
Relying on the strength of his hamstrings, he stood back up into a standing position. Jagger started running as fast as he could while trying like hell to keep from causing her further pain or distress.
The entire way to meet the others, he and the two men with him were dead silent. Each had become lost in their thoughts about a woman who’d come to mean a very great deal to them all.
Talia wasn’t just the team’s Homeland handler. She was Jagger’s lover. His recent partner. And God willing, his future.
“Keep fighting for us, Talia.” Jagger spoke to her though he wasn’t sure she could hear. “You’ve come too far to give up. And I’ve got plans for us.” He swallowed against a cracking voice. “Big plans, so you can’t quit on me now.”
“She won’t,” Ryker reassured him as he ran by Jagger’s side. “Trust me, it’s not in the woman’s DNA to quit.”
A few long minutes later, headlights from Liam’s rental and the two SUVs shone brightly in the distance. Engines roared as the three vehicles raced toward them, covering the road’s pavement in record time.
The sound of tires squealing to a stop echoed loudly through the early-morning air. Liam jumped out of his car, which he’d left in the middle of the road, and ran around the back bumper so he could open the back passenger door for Jagger.
“Lay her back here,” he suggested.
Jagger did one better. After carefully laying Talia’s limp form on the cushioned back seat, he ran around to the other side. Sliding his lower body beneath her, he held her shoulders and head in his lap.
Ryker rushed to get into the SUV behind them while Cade jumped into the front passenger seat of Liam’s car. The last of the doors slammed shut, and they were finally ready to leave.
“Go!” Jagger shouted at Liam, who was already back behind the wheel.
They sped away from the colonial-era building as fast as they could to get Talia the medical attention she needed. As they sped down the rural highway, leaving Julian Miller and his goon’s dead bodies behind, Jagger’s only thoughts were on the woman in his arms.
“You’re safe now, darlin’,” he whispered before leaning down and pressing his lips to her chilled temple. “You’re safe, and I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere.”
Natalia woke to a dull, aching pain in her shoulder and leg. Everything seemed to hurt, actually. But those spots were the worst of it by far.
A steady beeping reached her ears, and the scent of antiseptic instantly filled her nose. The air was chilled, and before she even opened her eyes, Talia knew she was lying in a bed.
There was a pillow. Blankets. And something warm and heavy pressing gently against the side of her left thigh.
Hospital.
She’d immediately recognized the telltale signs, despite the foggy haze filling her brain. Her lids fluttered as she forced them to finally peel open.
At first, all she saw was a blur. It took several blinks for her surroundings to become clear. When they did, she confirmed her suspicions.
She was in a hospital room. Her left arm was bandaged and secured in a thick, white sling, and she could feel the wrappings of gauze and whatever else they’d used on her injured leg.
I’m alive!
Her gaze shifted slightly, and her pulse skyrocketed when she realized Jagger was there.
He’d scooted a chair as close to her bed as possible. The railing on that side had been lowered to give him more room, and he’d fallen asleep with his head on the mattress, beside her leg.
Natalia’s heart soared, instinctively knowing that, by some miracle, he and his team had found her in time. No one had told her that, of course. She’d only just regained consciousness for the first time since blacking out in that field.
I thought I was going to die.
But she hadn’t died. She was here. And Julian was dead.
Pinpricks of tears burned the corners of her watering eyes. She still couldn’t believe all that had happened.
Julian wasn’t dead, like she’d thought. He’d been alive all this time, and he’d used his connection with Sanchez to plot against her and Keith.
Sanchez had killed Julian a fraction of a second before Julian could shoot and kill her.
And for reasons she may never understand, Sanchez had chosen to let her live.
In the back of her mind, Natalia knew the horrors of what she had faced would eventually sink in. But for now, all she could think was—
I’m gonna need a shit ton of therapy after this.
Her eyes fell shut with a sigh, and she felt a single tear slowly run down her temple. It was the only one she allowed. She wasn’t quite ready to face what her friend had become or the part she’d played in making it happen.
It wasn’t her fault. She knew that. Julian’s fate wasn’t on her, nor was it on Keith. The CIA, hell yes. But even then, not entirely.
The choices her former friend had made were his, and his alone.
What she’d told Julian about the hours spent doing all she could to find him was true. But it wasn’t until she’d faced down the barrel of his gun that she finally accepted the truth.
The responsibility for Julian’s so-called death three years ago was never hers to bear. Neither was his actual death, which she’d witnessed—without a doubt, this time—through her very own eyes.
Natalia was well aware that grief would still come, eventually. But as she lay in the quiet room with the steady beeping and Jagger’s warm presence, all she felt now was blessed.
So blessed.
She opened her eyes to find the man she loved staring back at her.
“Talia.”
Her heart stuttered inside her tender chest from the way he’d breathed her name as he lifted his head.
“H-hi.” She cleared her throat, only then noticing how dry and raw it felt.
Jagger’s relief was impossible to miss. It seemed to envelope every part of him. It was there, in his falling shoulders. In the way his beautiful dark eyes had widened.
More than that, Natalia could feel the incredible man’s love as he stood and oh-so-carefully brought his lips to hers.
“Damn, darlin’.” He rested his forehead gently against the unbruised portion of hers. “You scared the ever-lovin’ hell out of me.”
“Sorry.” She tried like crazy not to cry. “And in case I forget to say it later…thank you.”
He pulled away with a frown. “For what?”
“Finding me.”
Jagger reached down intertwined his fingers loosely with those on her free hand. “How did you know it was us?”
“Who else would it be?” She smiled softly. “I knew you’d come for me. I just wasn’t sure if would be soon enough.”
“It almost wasn’t.” His deep voice thickened before he hurriedly cleared it. “Doc said if we’d been a few minutes later—”
“Hey.” She squeezed his hand. “Don’t do that.” Her hair swished against the stark white pillowcase beneath her head. “This wasn’t your fault. If anything, it’s mine.”
Jagger’s dark brows fell into an even deeper V. “The hell it is.”
“I should have listened to Ryker,” she admitted. “He told me to wake you up so you could go with me to question Lopez. But you looked so peaceful.”
Like a sleeping god who’d been made just for her.
“You damn well should have woken me up.” He nodded even as his expression softened. “But nothing about what happened is your fault. This was Miller. Plain and fucking simple.”
“So you know, then.” Natalia searched his eyes. “You know Julian was—”
“Still alive?” Jagger nodded again. “We questioned Lopez, and I showed him a pic we found in Sinclair’s apartment.”
“Julian told me Keith was dead.”
“He is. I’m sorry.”
“Tell me about the picture.”
Jagger gave her a shortened version of the events that led them to finding her in that field. When he was finished, she was even more shocked than before at how lucky she’d been.
“If you hadn’t shown Lopez that picture, I’d be dea—”
“Don’t.” A deep, almost angry growl escaped before Jagger’s mouth found hers once more.
“I can’t begin to tell you the hell I lived through not knowing if we’d find you in time.
” His lips feathered against hers as he spoke.
“And then, when we found you lying there, shot all to hell…” Jagger pulled back so they could see each other’s eyes.
“I don’t ever want to feel like that again, darlin’. I don’t think I’d survive it.”
The pain in his gaze tore at her heart in a way nothing else ever had.
“I love you,” Natalia whispered the words she feared would never come. “I’m so sorry I didn’t say it sooner. It was all I could think of when I thought I was going to die. I was so afraid that you’d never know how much you mean to me, and I—”
“Natalia,” he breathed her full name. “Ah, baby. I love you, too.”
Another kiss stole her breath and momentarily erased her pain. When it ended, he brought his dark stare back to hers.
“I have to know. How did you manage to kill Julian with cuffs on?”
Over the next few minutes, she shared the bullet points of the incredible story.
How she overpowered Julian’s muscle man only to be shot, tased, and drugged by Julian. The struggle between them when she’d headbutted him in an attempt to get away. The shot to the leg.
And then she told him about Sanchez.
“Never thought I’d say it, but I owe that man one helluva lot.”
“Arlo Sanchez is a criminal who all but promised to kill me the next time he saw me before he left me to die.”
“Fair.” Jagger shrugged. “But he could have easily killed you, and he didn’t. For that, I will forever be grateful.”
A stretch of silence filled the overly white room before she spoke again.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.” Natalia sighed. “I can’t go back to Homeland. That’s the one thing I’m certain of.”
No way would she return to yet another government agency. Not after Jagger had shared the part about Agent Vaughn helping Julian set her up to be kidnapped.
“I know what I’m gonna do,” Jagger rumbled with a cryptic tone.
The thought of him going back to Chicago without her threatened to steal all the joy she felt at being here, with him…alive.
“Yeah?” She schooled her expression. “What’s that?”
With a gleam in his eye, he smiled and said as a matter of fact, “I’m gonna marry you.”
Natalia blinked, absolutely positive she’d heard him wrong.
“You’re…what?”
“You heard me.” He adjusted the chair and sat back down, his hand still holding hers loosely across her lap. “You and me. Maybe a dog. A kid or two…eventually.”
“A kid?” She chuckled, then winced when the move pulled at the fresh stitches in her shoulder.
“Easy, there, darlin’,” he soothed. “And why not? I was thinking we could start with a girl. One with long, dark hair and big, beautiful, golden eyes just like her tough-as-nails momma.”
“Y-you really…want all that? With me?” His image blurred behind a well of unshed tears.
“More than anything in the world.”
“You seem pretty confident about that.”
“Because I am.” He grinned. “You tellin’ me you don’t want to marry me?”
“I don’t know.” She pretended to give it much thought. “I mean, to be fair, you haven’t actually asked the question, so…”
The same ornery look that used to drive her mad with frustration slowly spread across his rugged and tired face. Jagger stood, and without a word, he rounded the foot of her bed to come around to the other side.
With him at her right, he was able to drop to one knee while keeping her hand held sweetly in his.
“Jagger…”
“I love you more than anything else in this crazy world. You’re strong, brave, beautiful, and can kick some serious ass. And there’s no one else I’d rather have as a partner in life.”
In love.
“You know…” She did her best not to smile from ear-to-ear. “That’s sweet and all, but I still didn’t hear a question.”
Jagger smirked. “Natalia Sofia Foster, will you please say you’ll make me the luckiest bastard on earth and marry me?”
She couldn’t have contained the smile that time if she’d tried. And Natalia didn’t try. She didn’t fight it in the least.
Instead, she finally put him out of his misery with a watery, heartfelt, “Yes.”