Chapter Twenty-Four
When Xavier pulled Hannah to him, she felt an instant wave of relief.
She tried her hardest to keep the tears at bay, but they ran down her cheeks in waves.
All she wanted to do was press further into Xavier’s embrace and let everything else fade away.
She knew they were still in danger but she couldn’t seem to make herself move.
“Xavier. I was so scared.” Her lips trembled as she mumbled into his shirt.
Xavier tightened his arms around her briefly, before setting her away from him.
“I know and I’m sorry,” he replied as he wiped the wetness from her face with his thumbs and looked around, noticed movement, and realized that Jed was making his way around to the other side of the van.
He was going for Sampson. He and Hannah had to take cover now.
“We’re not out of the woods yet, though. Come on.”
Hannah looked around and realized Xavier was leading her to the other side of the truck for cover. She tripped, slightly off-center with her hands still bound.
“Quickly. Turn.” He cut off her bindings so she’d be able to use her hands. She’d need them for balance and to help defend herself, if necessary.
As soon as her arms were loose, Hannah rubbed her wrists and shook out her hands to help regain feeling. Then she turned her wide eyes on him, seeking reassurance and direction for what to do next. “Xavier,” she breathed in relief. “What do—”
Before she could finish the sentence, he was pulling her farther behind the truck as Jed and Sampson ducked into the van across from them and started firing off rounds.
“Get down!” Xavier yelled out.
Hannah followed his order almost on autopilot.
She was still trying to process everything that had just happened and that Xavier was actually here.
He’d come for her and pulled her to relative safety.
Seeing that gun pointed at him had sent a shock wave through her that she hadn’t been ready for, pure horror at the thought of losing him.
“Make sure to stay behind this truck,” Xavier instructed her as he pulled his gun out again, his back pressed against the door of the truck. “And stay down.”
Hannah nodded. The way he was carrying himself and giving orders right now, she knew this was the former military version of him that had existed out in the field—back when he had lost his brother.
Lost his brother. When she realized that, how close this must feel to that fateful day, her eyes widened, and she wrapped her arms around her waist, hugging herself like she was trying to hold herself together. She hated that he had to relive a version of that again.
Bullets pinged off the front of the truck, making her jump, and she hugged herself tighter.
She glanced over at Xavier as he peered out around the bumper and fired off a few shots in the direction of Sampson and Jed.
The man she knew seemed to have vanished for a moment, replaced by this soldier, an agent who would do anything it took to bring his enemies down.
And it scared her. More than she thought it would.
She wasn’t afraid of him. What frightened her was knowing he was back there again, in his darkest hours, even if they didn’t have a choice. If they made it out of this alive, how would it affect him this time? Would he be able to recover from this or would it break him for good?
He ducked back behind the truck, catching his breath and reloading his gun with a clip from his pocket.
He moved with a practiced swiftness that spoke of years of training and experience.
If she hadn’t been so scared, she would have been impressed at how well he was carrying himself, at how easy it seemed for him to slip back into this role once more.
But all she could see was the man she loved being stolen from her by a dark part of himself he had done his best to leave behind. She wondered if he even realized it in the moment.
A bullet ricocheted off the hood, and she jumped again and let out a small squeak.
“Stay down!” Xavier ordered her once more, his voice sounding hard and tinged with worry, not like his normal voice at all.
She squeezed her eyes shut, and he reached over to grab her arm.
“You need to stay alert,” he told her. “Eyes open. Stay with me, Max.”
Max? His brother’s name. Her heart sank when she realized she’d lost him to his past. His mind was reliving that tragic day, pulling him out of their reality and thrusting him back to the day of his brother’s death.
Whatever was going on in his head right now, he wasn’t seeing her or living in their current situation.
She wanted to call out to him, to try to pull him back to the present with her, but she wasn’t sure how to do that or if she even had the time right now.
They were in a precarious situation with bullets flying around them and two men who wanted them dead.
Now didn’t seem like the time for a distraction that could possibly get them killed.
All she knew for sure in this moment was that Xavier needed her here with him now. She wasn’t going to let him down. She’d do whatever she could to help them both survive.
“You’re only delaying the inevitable here. Just come out,” Jed’s mocking voice came from behind the van.
His words hardly seemed to register with Xavier as he turned to duck out from behind cover once more, lifting his gun and firing off a few more well-placed rounds.
Hannah clamped her hands over her ears, the loud noise hurting her. She’d never seen Xavier fire a weapon before. He seemed so disconnected…so focused and formidable. Not like the man she knew and loved, but more like who she assumed he used to be.
The change in him was worrisome, and she hoped with all her heart she’d be able to pull him back when it was all over.
Suddenly, Hannah heard voices closing in and saw lights cutting through the trees. Flashlights! Her heart skipped a beat. Others were here! Of course, he wouldn’t have come all this way without backup.
“Hey!” Hannah yelled out. “Hey, we’re here! And we need help!”
She continued to call out to whoever was coming, hardly even caring who it was or if Jed and Sampson heard her. She needed someone else here, someone who could be on their side.
All at once, Aaron, Cade, and Lawson emerged in the clearing, guns drawn.
Hannah wanted to sob in relief. Lawson immediately locked eyes with her, and Hannah could tell from a single look just how relieved he was to see her.
But then, his eyes slid to Xavier, and something in his face shifted.
Obviously, he could see that something was seriously wrong with Xavier…
something dangerous. He instantly became more tense, more focused, as if aware of the potential threat next to her.
The Xavier both of them knew and cared for so deeply had vanished, taken over by the man who’d been consumed by the darkness of his life before.
“Xavier!” Hannah called to him. “Help is here!”
He didn’t seem to notice or care. He slipped out from behind the Ford once more, firing off a couple more shots toward Sampson and Jed where they were still shielded by the van.
She tried to reach for him, but when she touched his shoulder, he shrugged her off like it was nothing. He wasn’t the man she knew right now, and she didn’t know how to reach him. Several rapid-fire shots hit the front of the truck as Sampson and Jed returned fire.
Lawson and the others darted back to the edge of the trees for cover.
“Stay down,” Xavier growled at her. He was still firing off orders like he was in the middle of a war zone. Lost to the past and the last battle where his brother had lost his life.
“Xavier, stand down!” Cade yelled to him.
For the first time, Xavier seemed to notice that there were other people here. He turned to face them, and Hannah saw in his cold, hard eyes that he perceived them as a new threat. He didn’t recognize them. To his broken mind, they must look like enemies.
Hannah realized if she didn’t think fast, he was going to do something awful and hurt someone he cared about. No amount of therapy would be able to bring him back from that.
Her mind raced with possibilities as to how she could help the man she loved right now. Shouting and gunfire were still all around them, and she knew that their friends would handle Sampson and Jed. Her primary concern needed to be Xavier, so she let everything else fade away.
She knew in that moment it wasn’t just about them surviving these men, it was about getting Xavier back here in the present with her and their friends and realizing that they weren’t the enemy.
While she was lost in thought trying to come up with a plan, she noticed that her brother had moved and was making his way toward them from the side.
“Xavier!” Lawson called to him.
Xavier immediately lifted his gun and aimed it at Hannah’s brother.
Lawson stopped dead in his tracks, and Hannah’s heart dropped.
“No! Xavier, he’s not the enemy!” Her voice was filled with panic.
“What the hell are you doing?” Lawson asked Xavier, but Xavier didn’t budge. He kept the gunned trained at Lawson’s chest.
Hannah stood off to his side, but she felt as though she was a hundred miles away.
She had to try something right now or she’d lose one or both of the men she loved more than anything.
She took a deep breath and stepped closer to Xavier’s side.
With tears streaming down her face, she reached out and placed her hand on his chest right over his heart.
She immediately felt his body go taut underneath her palm.
“Xavier,” she spoke quietly in his ear. “Xavier, it’s me, Hannah. I need you to come back to me.”
He didn’t acknowledge her, but she could feel a slight shift in him, his hand trembling on the gun aimed at her brother.
“Hannah, you need to step away. He can’t hear you,” Lawson told her, his voice rough with tension.
“Yes, he can. I know it,” she breathed softly. With her hand over Xavier’s heart, she could feel some of the tension easing in his muscles. She chanced a quick look up at his face and noticed some of the darkness leaving his gaze. He was coming back to her.
She stepped even closer, basically plastered to his side and tried again. “Please, please, come back to me. You’re with me and our friends. You don’t want to hurt anyone. Please.”
“Hannah…” Lawson trailed off when she shook her head. Understanding she wasn’t to be deterred, he heaved a large sigh and stood quietly, waiting.
Gunfire and yelling still surrounding them, she stepped directly in front of Xavier, took a deep breath, closed her eyes and planted her lips against his.