Sworn to Protect

by Diana Gardin

  I never bothered to ask Olive, but I assumed Jeremy had left this town a long time ago. He was destined for football greatness. I never thought he’d still be living here.

  But Olive did.

  Sitting up so suddenly I see stars dancing across my vision, I stab Olive’s contact information and place the cell to my ear.

  When she answers, I skip the pleasantries.

  “Did you know?”

  My sister must hear the utter pain staining my voice, because her tone is soft and empathetic when she responds.

  “Oh, honey. You saw Jeremy?”

  Laughing, a joyless sound if I ever heard one, I practically scream into my phone. “Answer the question! Did you know? And you put me in that situation?”

  Olive is quiet for a moment before she answers. I spend the moment watching a seagull as it picks at a discarded paper cup on the sidewalk beside my bench. “That he worked at Night Eagle? Yes, I knew.”

  The fight goes out of me then. I list to the side, my eyes closing in my agony. “Olive…how could you do this to me? Does he know?”

  “Sweetie, he knows nothing. I swear. When I first ran into him, he didn’t even realize at first that I’m the same Olive he knew as his girlfriend’s little sister back in high school. I mean, he wouldn’t though, would he? I’m over a hundred pounds lighter.” She laughs, a nervous titter that lets me know she’s sorry. “But when he realized, he did corner me, ask about you. I refused to answer any of his questions, telling him that I no longer kept in contact with you since you’d left. And God, I’ve tried my damnedest to stay away from him since then. I haven’t talked to him about you or Decker, Rayne. I swear it. But I know that everything happens for a reason. You’re back in Wilmington. You’ve brought Decker home. Jeremy lives here now. You can’t just keep on going the way you have been. Things were bound to change. He’s not the same kid you left all those years ago.”

  I remain stubbornly silent.

  “And he’s kind of a badass now, if you haven’t noticed. He can protect you.”

  Sitting up straight, my eyes fly open. “What makes you think I need protecting?”

  I haven’t told Olive the reason for my quick departure from Phoenix. She’s my sister, so she was there for me when I told her I needed a place to stay. But I didn’t want to put her in danger by giving her any extra information. Had she been at her house in Wilmington when this all happened, I don’t know that I would have put her into the middle of all this.

  Olive sighs. “You have your secrets, Rayne, but I’m your sister. I know you. Your voice, the night you called…you need help. I can’t be there right now, but Jeremy can. Don’t close yourself off to him.”

  “You know what his grandparents did, Olive. What he did.”

  Her weary sigh drifts across the line. “Yeah, I know. But you never really knew for sure how involved he was.”

  “I gotta go, Olive.” I’m suddenly too tired and too angry to be having this conversation. My head is throbbing just behind my eyes, the beginnings of the mother of all migraines.

  “I love you. Always. Call me when you’re ready to talk, Rayne.”

  I end the call, staring out at the waves crashing against the sand in the distance. I promised Decker that today after work when I pick him up from Macy’s house, I would take him to the beach.

  His very first beach visit.

  And now I feel like I might be splitting apart.

  Maybe coming back here was a mistake.

  5

  Jeremy

  The sound of the big metal Night Eagle door slamming shut snaps me out of the makeshift trance I’d been in since I saw Rayne sitting in the place that I love.

  My place.

  The first thing I do after she walks out is slam my palms against the wall beside me. The sharp slap of stinging pain that results feels good. Leaving my hands where they landed, I lean against the wall, my nose nearly touching it. I concentrate on inhaling and exhaling. Remembering how to breathe is a task right now.

  “So,” says Swagger, startling me.

  In the seconds that it took for me to register Rayne Alexander was actually here in my space, I forgot Ronin was a witness to the reunion.

  “Obviously I don’t have to introduce you to the new hot assistant.”

  Turning on him, an animalistic roar builds in my chest. Ronin holds his ground, staring at me with his head cocked to one side. His eyes search mine, and I can see his mind busy assessing exactly what he’s seeing. Too late, I shutter my expression. It’s hard, though. Seeing Rayne has ripped open a wound that healed a long time ago.

  Or maybe it never really healed. Maybe the stiches just ripped loose.

  I feel like it. Like there’s an jagged, gaping hole right where everyone can see it.

  Ronin sighs, turning away from me and heading back to the hallway where we all have offices. “Find her. Boss Man and the rest of us figured out after one day with her that she’s the best assistant we’ve ever had. You scare her away, and I have a feeling Boss Man might send your ass packing.”

  When he disappears, I’m left staring around an empty front lobby.

  I don’t want to go find her. I don’t want to have this conversation. Nine years ago, my life completely changed. It was a sudden series of events that occurred my senior year of high school that changed everything. Losing her altered the trajectory of my life in ways I still can’t comprehend. But it also made me the man I am now. I don’t want any of that to change. My mind tells me that I need to close myself in my office and try my damnedest to forget that Rayne Alexander just reentered my life. But my heart won’t allow it. I have to find out why…all the reasons why.

  I’ll never sleep again until I do.

  With a sigh so heavy I can feel it in my bones, I push through the heavy Night Eagle door and out into the bright coastal sunshine. I glance right, then left, seeing no sign of her. My eyes narrowed against the glare of the sun, I search the quiet street.

  Night Eagle is located on a block in the upscale Wrightsville Beach area. The building is out of the way of the trendy shops and restaurants, sitting along a side street that ends at the ocean. I close my eyes, listening to the tugging in my chest as it pulls me toward the sea.

  I find her on a bench at the boardwalk, looking out onto the crashing waves. My breath catches in my throat at the sight of her. I had to teach myself how to function without her daily presence in my life, and it took changing everything about the way I lived to do it. She was a fixture at my side in high school, cheering me on during all my football games, snuggled up on the couch with me in my grandparents’ basement most nights. We were attached at the hip, until one day we weren’t.

  Forcing one foot in front of the other, I walk toward her.

  As if she can sense me coming, she glances up. Her face pales, but she doesn’t look away. She watches me until I’m sitting on the bench right beside her.

  Finding every ounce of strength I have, I scan her face. She’s only twenty-six, so there’re no lines around her eyes or her mouth. But the youthful glow she had when we were teenagers is gone, replaced by wisdom I’m not sure she should have been able to earn by this age. Her sapphire eyes glitter with awareness as she returns my gaze; her tongue darts out to lick her plump lips. My gaze stays locked there, watching as it glides along the top lip and then the bottom. In response, my cock twitches in my jeans and my blood heats in my veins.

  “Fuck me,” I mutter, for the second time since seeing Rayne again.

  “Fucked is the perfect word for this situation.”

  Reeling back, I stare at her. “You never used to cuss when we were kids.”

  Rolling her eyes, she shifts so that her body is facing away from me. “Yeah. Things change, Jeremy.”

  We sit in silence for a few moments, both of us keeping our own thoughts to ourselves. I don’t know where to start. Ask her why she left? Why she never told me she wanted to go, or why she didn’t want to be with me anymore? Ask her why she c
hanged the plans we had made for our future without even considering me?

  Instead, I start with something so much simpler. “Where have you been?”

  She doesn’t look at me when she answers. “Phoenix. My grandmother lived there. She helped us—me—when I needed to leave Wilmington. She passed away a little over a year ago, though.”

  I’m silent for a minute, just taking in the fact that she’s been living halfway across the country. And she never said a word. “I’m sorry. About your grandmother.”

  She nods. “Thanks.”

  “So it was just that easy for you? Leaving, I mean? I never heard a word from you. Not even an e-mail. You just disappeared.” The venom I’m trying so hard to keep out of my voice leaks through, soaking my words with animosity.

  When I was eighteen and hurting from the sting of the loss of her, I couldn’t do much. But when I had the connections I needed to find her, I searched. I really did, but I never found a trace of Rayne Alexander anywhere.

  The anger rolling around inside me is real. She abandoned me. I can’t forget that. And seeing her flawless face and perfect body again isn’t going to change that.

  Her eyes flash a darker blue as she glares at me. “I don’t owe you any explanations, Jeremy. If you really wanted to know why I left, you would have made different choices.”

  Incredible. She’s the one who left me, but I’m the one who’s supposed to feel guilty?

  The hostility between us sizzles, stemming from suffering copious amounts of pain. I’m not sure where her pain comes from, exactly, but it’s there. It’s written in her eyes and it’s in the slight tremble of her voice. What made her up and leave Wilmington so suddenly all those years ago? Was it something I did or said? The thought is crazy. An eighteen-year-old girl doesn’t just up and leave her hometown before she even finishes high school over hurt feelings.

  But on the surface, there’s something else simmering between us. The way my body reacts to hers, like I’m pulled toward her on a tether. No matter how many years have passed, the underlying current of attraction is still there.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  Turning to her, my voice is low and dangerous. “What are you talking about? I looked for you. I wanted an explanation.”

  She blinks.

  “Is there any reason you would have been really damn hard to find, Rayne?” Measured, steady, my words are weapons as my stare burns into hers.

  Her eyes close briefly, and she doesn’t speak.

  I wait.

  “I…I changed my name.” The words fall off her lips in a whisper.

  Pushing up from the bench, I pace away. I shove my hands through my hair, trying to chase away all the inappropriate thoughts suddenly flooding my brain. This isn’t just some girl I’m attracted to. And it’s not how this is gonna go down.

  It’s time to get ahold of all those thoughts and emotions before they fuck me sideways.

  “I have a question.”

  Her voice is so quiet I almost don’t hear her over the crashing of the waves on the shore beyond us.

  Stopping midpace, my arms drop to my side and our gazes lock.

  “What do you want to know?”

  She gestures back toward Night Eagle and then toward me. “What…what happened to you? I never thought you’d be working for a security company. I mean…installing alarm systems is great and all. But it’s not exactly what I pictured when I thought about your life.”

  “You thought about my life?” I blurt the question out before I can stop myself.

  Rayne’s cheeks blush a dusky rose. “Of course I did, Jeremy.”

  I plop back onto the bench beside her. “There’s a lot about Night Eagle you probably don’t know after just one day of working there. We don’t install alarm systems. Every man in that building is ex-Special Forces. Including me.”

  Her jaw goes slack as she returns my stare. “As in, military Special Forces?”

  I hold her gaze. “Yup.”

  I want to laugh when she starts to splutter, but my heart won’t let me. “But…but…I thought you would go to college and play football? I assumed you’d be on some NFL team by now.”

  Confusion has placed an adorable little wrinkle in the center of her forehead. Without thinking, my finger darts out and traces it. Her eyes widen at my touch, and I watch in fascination as her pupils dilate and her breathing hitches. Her chest rises and falls more quickly as the rate of her breathing increases, and my eyes drop to the perfect swells of her breasts peeking out at the vee of her shirt.

  But she doesn’t move to pull away from my touch. Not even a millimeter.

  So I’m not the only one who’s still affected here.

  There’s no wedding ring on her finger. There could be a boyfriend, but as far as I know, I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes by touching her. She could—

  And there! That’s why I can’t do this. Being around her again is making my mind go crazy, thinking things I have no business thinking.

  “Like you said, Rayne,” I whisper, still drowning in those sapphire depths. “Things change.”

  Between us, her phone emits a startling ring. An inkling of fear flickers in her eyes just before she glances away from me and down at her phone. I drop my finger but don’t move back. It’s like I can’t move away from her now that I’m close again.

  Glancing down at her phone, her expression falls. Catching a glimpse of the screen, I see that it’s a blocked number.

  Fear? What does she have to be afraid of?

  She glances up at me again, shuttering her expression for my benefit. But it was there. There’s something out there that she’s scared of.

  Is she running from something?

  “Rayne? Who was on the phone?”

  “No one.” Her answer is quick and automatic, a response she’s programmed herself into saying.

  She frowns, assessing me. She doesn’t know that I’ve spent the last eight years of my life training and working so that I can keep the people around me safe.

  I know absolutely nothing about Rayne Alexander’s life now that she’s all grown up. And I’m still furious with her. But if there’s someone out there she’s afraid of, I’ll make damn sure that fear is eliminated.

  6

  Rayne

  He never played college or professional football?

  The question bounces around in my mind, creating more questions. Why didn’t he follow through with his dream? Wasn’t that the whole reason he and I didn’t work out all those years ago?

  And why would he have tried to look for me? Was it that his football glory days were done and he finally realized what a mistake he’d made? Well, if he’d had his way, it would have been too late. And that thought just sends a heated fire running through me. It almost seemed like Jeremy thought he had a reason to be angry with me.

  None of what happened back then was my fault. It was all his and his horrible grandparents.

  “We have a few new clients. I’d like you to add all of their information to the spreadsheet I showed you earlier. And I need flights and travel itinerary for the two men I’m sending to South America next week on a mission. Can you handle that?”

  When Jacob Owen talks, I listen. I’ve noticed that’s the case with anyone he’s speaking to. Today’s my second day of work, and I’ve already learned that he’s the ultimate alpha of Night Eagle, and that he’s a little gruff and scary when he talks. Giving him a pleasant smile, I nod my head.

  “Yes, Mr. Owen. That’s no problem at all.” The word mission sparks my attention, though I try not to let Mr. Owen know it.

  I know that the men working at Night Eagle are ex-military, but from some of the snippets of conversation I’ve heard and some of the documents I’ve handled that I’m not “cleared” to read, I can attest to the fact that their black ops careers are definitely not behind them.

  And Jeremy, the man who used to be the boy I loved, fits right into all of it. I can’t help but follow him with my eyes when he walk
s by. There’s a predatory confidence to the way he moves that draws my attention. Hell, it’d draw any woman’s attention. It’s hot. In a raw, primal, animalistic way that makes me want to undo one more button on my top. Which pisses me off. I refuse to feel anything for that man.

  As soon as I returned to my desk after my talk with Jeremy, I slid Decker’s framed photo off my desk and hid it in my drawer. I’m going to have to deal with it eventually, but now isn’t the time for Jeremy to find out that I have a son.

  Above all else, I’ve always protected Decker from anyone who might hurt him, who might not love him.

  The blocked call on my phone earlier hasn’t left my mind. I’ve pushed it far away into the depths, but now that the day is winding down and my work is about done, it’s creeping back into my thoughts.

  I have another brand-new cell phone number. There’s no way Wagner Horton could have my new number.

  The little voice inside my head laughs, mocking me. If Wagner Horton wants your number, he’ll find a way to get your number.

  And if he does have my number that means he thinks he can find me. Suddenly, I’m so very happy I kept the area code a Phoenix one, and that I withdrew cash to pay for Decker and my plane tickets to Wilmington. I can’t hide from Wagner forever, but maybe if I can figure out exactly what he did, I can tip off the proper authorities to his crime.

  My phone is in my hands, and I’m turning it over and over again as I ponder. I don’t even notice Jeremy standing beside my desk, and when he clears his throat, I jump like I’ve been poked with a stick.

  His eyebrows lift as he glances from my phone to me and back again. “Everything okay?”

  Nodding, I place my phone in my purse and shut down the computer. “Fine. I’m just getting ready to head home.”

  Jeremy leans against my desk, and when he folds his arms the muscles on his biceps flex. I can’t help it when my eyes stray there, tracing the inky lines of the tattoos swirling around his muscles.

  “When did you get those?” I ask.