The sheer dominance of the action excited me. “I could say the same.”
On the battlefield, we were as tough as armor. In a fight, we never backed down. But when we were in each other’s arms, we could give and take and demand...beg...and it just made the moment sweeter.
Jaclyn moaned, capturing our attention, fragmenting the moment.
I moved to the bed, away from the temptation of Cole. Jaclyn hadn’t yet woken. Her dreams must have been plaguing her.
“She needs fire,” I said.
“That’s what I was doing when you arrived.”
His absence now made sense. “How did you find her?”
“I didn’t. She came to us. She says two guys broke into her home and drugged Justin. When she tried to stop them from leaving with him, she was thrown across the room. She pretended to be unconscious as Justin was carried to a van. She hot-wired a neighbor’s car and followed.”
“And?” I prompted.
“And she passed out before she could explain the rest.”
Dang. “If she knows where Anima took Justin, we can go in and get him.”
“And destroy Anima once and for all.” He moved beside me, pinched a lock of my hair. “I got sidetracked when everyone but you came upstairs.”
“That’s when you decided to go total Animal Planet and track me, right?”
His lips quirked at the corners. “That’s right. The hungry lion and the gimpy gazelle.”
“Please. You’re the one with the injury.”
“Not anymore.”
“You mean it’s gone completely?” Excited, I pushed back the collar of his shirt. A bandage was taped to his chest; it was white, without a single speck of blood. I lifted it to peek at his wound—or rather, his baby scratch. The center was already closed, without the aid of stitches, the edges pink and irritated rather than raw and angry.
“I just... I can’t... The fire works so quickly.”
What if we’d gotten to Lucas, Trina and Cruz in time? Could they have been saved, their lives spared?
Oh, glory. I loved the answer as much as I hated it. Yes. They could have been saved.
Guilt...so much guilt. The dark companion to “what if.” It choked me, made me feel like the one who’d pulled the trigger, the one who’d ended them.
“We can’t look back. We’ll never get anywhere,” Cole said, a catch in his voice. His mind must have traveled the same road as mine. “We can only move forward, learn from our mistakes.”
Jaclyn moaned again, her eyes now rolling rapidly behind her lids. Sleeping Beauty was close to waking up.
I gave Cole a swift, hard kiss. “I want to talk to Jaclyn alone.” Men had attacked her, so Cole might scare her.
He could have refused or fired off a thousand questions. Instead, he said, “All right” and gave me a swift, hard kiss in return. He left, shutting the door behind him—leaving me trembling.
Would he always affect me this strongly?
I sat at the edge of the bed and patted the top of Jaclyn’s hand. Her skin was cold and clammy. “You’re safe now. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Gasping, she jolted upright. Her good eye was wide and wild, and she couldn’t quite catch her breath.
“You’re safe now,” I repeated. “You made it to Mr. Ankh’s.”
“Ankh’s,” she repeated, falling back on the bed. Her expression shuttered with agonizing pain. “Justin.”
“Where is he, Jaclyn? Do you know where the men took him?”
“Justin,” she said again, then rolled to her side and sobbed. “I couldn’t save him. I tried, but I couldn’t fight both intruders, so I waited for them to leave with Justin and tracked them. They’re going to hurt him. Hurt him so bad. I need him safe. Ali, I need him safe.”
“I know.” I brushed the hair from her sweat-dampened forehead. “I know. That’s why you’ve got to calm down and think. Talk to me. Tell me the rest.”
She latched on to my hand. “I stole my neighbor’s car. Ours had been disabled. I found the van easily enough and trailed it to a warehouse about an hour away.” She rattled off the address. “There was no one outside, but there were a lot of men inside, and they had a lot of weapons. I snuck through the building, but couldn’t find Justin. I knew I needed help, so I drove to Cole’s, saw the state of the house and drove to Ankh’s.” Her gaze beseeched me. “Who’s out looking for Justin?”
Never one to lie, I said, “No one.”
“What! Why—”
“You passed out,” I said. “We didn’t know where to start.”
She croaked, “How long have I been here?”
Judging only by the time I’d been gone... “About six hours.”