CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
QUINN
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I slip one leg over the back of the tailgate, letting my body move next, then lift the other one.
I drop to the ground and finally let out my breath.
Checking to make sure my phone is on silent, I crouch and take in my surroundings.
Yup, it’s a residential property. Middle class with houses set slightly off the road with a short driveway and a handful of vehicles parked on it and out front.
Two SUVs, a sedan. All newer. The house is non-descript in a soft gray color—or so it appears in the dark—with a black front door.
The windows are covered in drapes with very few lights on.
I lean further and spot a guy to the side of the doorstep, leaning against a post, smoking a cigarette. He blows out a plume of smoke as he hugs his weapon.
Christ.
I need to get somewhere safe because Josh and the team are going to arrive in the next few minutes, and while they’re experts at this stuff, me being in the way will be a problem.
But Noah.
What if they’re holding a gun to his head right now? I can’t jump the fence and wait, knowing he’s inside the house and his life is in danger. There’s no way I could curl up in a bush waiting for the sound of a gunshot as they take the life of the man I love.
I love Noah.
I would have to live without him for the rest of my life, knowing I was a coward. I didn’t come all this way to hide.
I calculate the time and wonder how hard it would be to find Noah. The house isn’t big...but I’m not armed.
Shit, shit, shit.
In this moment, nothing else matters but finding him and getting him out, but I’m not bulletproof and have nothing but my training.
Which tells me to wait for the SEAL.
Feeling his soft pulse and having to hold my breath as they lifted him from the back of the Humvee was hard enough. I wanted to scream.
All the love I’ve fought to ignore came crashing down on me as he was taken from me by the enemy. I felt hopeless. Powerless.
My heart torn apart.
Tears ran down my face as I remembered all the moments we shared together. The nights on the back of the motorbike.
Me kissing him on the highway.
Standing in the rain as he tried to fix my car.
Finding him in my kitchen eating my homemade pasta. Feeling his heat as I curled up on the sofa with him.
His strength as he lifted me and carried me to my bedroom.
...the lust and love pouring from his eyes as he devoured me the night before.
My Noah.
The one I walked away from in Texas because nothing can change who he is to me. My commander, my trainer, the one responsible for most of my promotions and...
If he dies?
Would I care if I were standing next to his grave?
My heart pounds rapidly as I dart into the tree line in the shadows. Now is not the time to be making big life decisions or work out if there’s the possibility of a future with Noah.
I need to find him.
I’d regret it if I didn’t try.
He’s inside this house somewhere, and I calculate I still have about five more minutes before the rescue team arrives.
The guard at the door is playing on his phone, which I’m sure would get him killed if his boss saw him. Creeping along the bushes on the far side of the house, I go right to the end of the house and see two guards along the perimeter of the yard.
I drop down and gather my thoughts.
That’s when I hear it.
Clink, clink, clink.
My eyes drift up to a second-floor window and see a dark shadow up against the glass. I blink. Then blink again, leaning closer.
Is that...is that Noah?
Clink.
The window partially opens. One side of it, as if he’s unlocked a handle.
Oh, my God!
I realize what’s happening with clarity.
Noah is trying to escape! Not trying, he is.
I almost laugh out loud, wanting to leap up and yell at him that I’m down here, but I can’t. Not with the guards around and the BHS team not far away.
Just knowing he’s alive makes my chest feel as if it’s going to burst with happiness.
Lord, I’m going to kiss his face off when I’m back in his arms.
Then what?
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NOAH
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Note to self: always carry a Leatherman with me from this point on. Or a grenade. Clearing the site with one where these cartel assholes were hiding and attacked me would have been a more proactive solution to the one I’m in now.
Yet here I am, escaping and close to achieving it.
One latch is off and so is half my damn fingernail. Toughen up, Jenkins.
Turn, turn, turn, fucking turn, turn, turn.
Ping. Another screw drops to the floor, and I start to become confident my freedom is imminent. Then I hear voices in the hall and freeze.
I count to ten, then continue with my efforts.
I turn faster, kissing the skin on the end of my finger goodbye, and cuss under my breath.
The voices turn to shouting outside, and because they’re speaking Spanish, I don’t understand what they’re yelling about. I recognize the word police and figure my time is up.
They’ll either try to use me as a hostage again—but this time with a gun to my head—or kill me.
I hear a voice outside in the garden through the gap in the window.
Is that... a female voice? The fuck?
Quinn? No, it can’t be.
She was shot.
Spinning back at the loud voices in the hallway, I realize I have a choice to make. Do it! I shove at the window frame, the last of the screws fly off, and I lean out.
“Quinn?” I whisper-yell.
“Noah!” she yells, waving at me from the bushes. “Jump. You need to get out of there. Jump!”
A guard in the distance heads toward her, and I lose all sense of self-preservation. Swinging a leg over the window ledge, I push my hands off and drop down. As I land on my feet in a crouched position, bullets rain down around me.
Fuck. Quinn.
I can’t believe she’s alive.
I need to cover her.
Before I can lift my head, I’m grabbed by the shirt and pulled into the bushes. My body lands on top of Quinn.
“Oof!” she gasps.
“Woman!” I tuck her under me and scramble further away as more shots are fired. “I need you to run. As far away as you can get.”
“Are you kidding me? I just saved you,” she cries.
“You didn’t save me. I jumped.”
“They were shooting.”
“Quinn. Go.”
“No.” She glares, and, fuck, it’s so good to see her beautiful face and hear her voice.
My mouth slams down on hers, and she groans.
Baby, not now.
I rip my lips from hers, and she whacks me in the side of the arm. “People are trying to kill us.”
“Good point. I should kiss you again.”
Tat, tat, tat.
Actually, she has a point. I duck my head, peering behind me as one of the shooters reaches us. I kick my leg out and he stumbles, yelling in Spanish.
I push off Quinn, disarm him and whack the butt of the rifle on his forehead.
He goes out like a light.
“Feels good, doesn’t it, asshole?” I go back into the bushes and nudge Quinn behind me while I assess our surroundings.
More soldiers are racing out, trying to figure out the commotion and, for all I know, yelling that I’ve escaped.
“The team is on the way,” Quinn tells me, her hand on my back possessively. I like it. A lot. “We need to move, Noah.”
I take her hand, and we run along the fence line until we find a place to climb over. “Here.”
She steps on my leg, and I hoist her over. Then I toss the gun and follow her into the far corner of the neighbor’s yard. When I think we are safe, I tug Quinn down and hold the rifle in front of me and keep her behind me.
“Noah.” Her hand touches my shoulder in a way that has me turning my head away from the enemy.
Never a good thing.
“Are you shot?”
“No. I...”
I can see it. In her eyes.
Fear.
Love.
But I don’t want her to say it here. Not at this moment, only to take it back.
I shift my weapon and take her face. “Wait. When you say it, I want you to mean it.”
Tears glisten in her eyes. “I do mean it.”
“Forever. I need you to mean it forever.” I rest my forehead against hers. “Do you have your phone?”
She nods as I lift my face.
“Call Josh while I stay on guard.”
I hear the ringtone a moment later.
“Quinn!” Josh yells.
“I have him,” Quinn says, the emotion rich in her voice still. “We’re in the yard next door. He’s alive.”
“We’re ten seconds away. Stay where you are.” Josh ends the call, and as expected, it doesn’t take long before we hear the roar of the engine.
All hell breaks loose, and I tuck us further back into the bush, sticks digging into us, but all I care about is that she is alive and in my arms as I tug her to my chest.
“I thought they’d shot you.” I search in her eyes.
“I thought they were going to kill you.” Quinn plants a hand on my cheek.
“How did you get here?” I frown.
“I leaped onto the tailgate.”
“Jesus, woman.” I shake my head. “Do not do that again.”
“Well, don’t get yourself captured by a gang again.” She frowns, and my grin is so wide it’s painful.
She loves me.
As I’m smiling, tears fill her eyes. “Noah, I need to tell you.”
“Not now, Quinn.” I shake my head. “Just kiss me.”
With live fire going off around us, sirens filling the air and the smell of gunfire in the air, I take her mouth and kiss her like it could be our last chance.
Her arms wrap around my neck, and finally, finally, I feel every last ounce of resistance melt away. Except I know this woman. She will get back into her head and start thinking.
My tongue devours her mouth, taking all that she will give me as my thighs burn from the position I’m holding us in.
It’s then I realize I need to hear her say it. I need her words. Because if I let her go and she starts freaking out, I could lose her.
I straighten and cup her face. “Tell me.”
Catching her breath, her eyes roam my face in question, and I see flickers of familiar doubt.
“Say it, Quinn.”
“I thought you were going to die.”
“You said that. Tell me. Tell me how you feel.”
She swallows.
As I start to look away, my heart sinking, she reaches for me.
“I love you. I love you, Noah.” A tear falls down her cheek. “I’ve loved you for so long, it’s killing me.”
My heart swells to an inhuman size inside my chest, and the desire to pull her out of the bush and carry her down the street and away into the sunset is almost overwhelming.
I need her safe.
I need her in my arms and in my home to keep forever.
“Quinn.” I lift her hand and kiss her knuckles. “I fucking love you. Did you need to wait until we are being shot at to work it out, though?”
Her eyes glisten, but the smile that hits her lips is small.
“Don’t think, please.” I shake my head. “Stay with me.”
I’ve loved you for so long it’s killing me.
“Noah.”
“Give me one night. One night to prove to you this can happen.”
She nods, and as I take her mouth again and she melts into me, the sounds of boots on the ground snap us out of it.
“Quinn...Noah,” a voice calls.