Guarded Desire

by Christi Snow

  “Okay,” Minerva said. She began whispering things I couldn’t quite understand through the not-so-clear walkie-talkies.

  I couldn’t focus on her anymore though as my captor grunted and hefted me up, acting like I weighed a couple of hundred pounds. Maybe he was an actor. He was definitely theatrical enough in his movements.

  But that might work for me. My head lolled to the side. Was anyone on campus paying any attention to us? Did anyone get my SOS call from my panic button? Didn’t anyone see that this wasn’t right? An old lady should not be hefting a college student across campus.

  JONAH

  Someone was running their fingers through my hair.

  Elle. I smiled internally, not awake enough to move yet.

  It felt so good, but something pulsed in the back of my brain. Something needed my attention, but what? I couldn’t remember.

  But this felt so good. She could keep stroking my hair like this, and I wouldn’t worry about anything else. Then the words she was murmuring sank into my head.

  “She doesn’t deserve you. You need someone like me. We’ll be so good together.”

  That wasn’t Elle.

  Adrenaline poured through me, making me more alert than I probably should be.

  I tried not to reveal I was awake as my brain scrambled to catch up with what happened. Mrs. Latham. The cookies. Sleepy. The cookies had been drugged.

  Oh, fuck. Where was Elle? Dillon? Their backup?

  My cheek lay on something soft, so I squinted open the eye closest to the soft surface. The voice sounded like Minerva’s. All I could see were those damn pigeons and what had to be Minerva’s knees. I had no idea what I’d be swinging up into, but I had to hope to take her by surprise. My head was still too foggy to sort anything. Overwhelming terror hit me. I had to find Elle before I lost her forever.

  I reared my head up and slammed it into what I hoped was Minerva’s face.

  She screamed. A shot fired, blazing fire into my arm. I kept my momentum going and twisted around to grab the arm holding the gun.

  It fired again.

  ELLE

  On the radio, Minerva screamed, followed almost immediately by a gunshot. I knew this would be my only chance.

  It needed to focus to make this work with the drugs floating in my system. I slid the knife around in my palm and plunged it into the former Mrs. Latham’s side. The knife sunk in, but it was just like stabbing a pillow. He wore a padded body suit, so I hadn’t hit anything besides fluff.

  He yelled and backhanded me, and I crashed to the ground. I tried to keep hold of the knife in the struggle, but it spun out of my hand. I kicked upward, aiming for his balls and missed. He dove for me, grabbing both my arms as we struggled on the ground.

  I screamed as loud as I could. “Help me!”

  I could hear voices milling around.

  “It’s just an old woman.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Is she having a nervous breakdown?”

  He had to let go of one of my hands to clamp over my mouth.

  I reached for his wig and yanked. The wig flew off along with what appeared to be half his face. The growing crowd gasped in horror.

  “You bitch,” he snarled. He lowered his macabre face down to hiss in my ear, “This isn’t over. I’ll be back for you.” Then he leapt up and took off at a sprint.

  No! If he got away, this nightmare would never end. “Grab him,” I yelled as I took off after him, but drugs and the fact I’d been knocked around a few times hampered me.

  Luckily, the crowd listened to me, and a couple of the guys grabbed him just as I leapt onto his back. He fell to the ground with me attached to his back like a spider monkey. I grabbed his head and slammed it into the ground one, two, three times. I would not let this man hurt me or anyone I loved ever again.

  Tears flowed down my face as I sobbed. All I could think about were those gunshots I’d heard over his walkie-talkies. Jonah was probably dead.

  I would make this man pay for that. He’d threatened me and terrorized me, and now, he’d hurt the man I loved for trying to protect me. I hated him, and I channeled all of that rage and pain into hurting him.

  Strong arms reach around me and pulled me back. “Hold on there, Rambo. I think you got him.”

  Jonah. Oh, thank god. He was alive.

  I turned and flung my arms around his neck. “Are you okay?”

  “Close enough,” he murmured into my hair. “How about you?”

  Reality closed in. Blood flowed down Jonah’s arm, soaking me where he held me. That had been close...too close.

  Everything crashed over me. Spots encroached on my vision and my legs shook. “Um, okay, but...” I said, my voice wobbling, “I think I might pass out now.”

  Jonah gently lowered me to the ground.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jonah

  I brushed my fingers across Elle’s face. She was so pale and had a large bruise forming high on her cheek. My blood boiled. “He hit you.”

  Frowning, she glanced over at her attacker, worry etching every line of her face. Her eyes appeared a bit glazed as she shook, like the slightest wind might blow her over if she weren’t already on the ground.

  “Hey, look at me, not him.” I gently turned her so she faced me. I brushed my thumb over her cheek.

  Nate, the cop we’d hired to stay with the car and be nearby if we needed him, had cuffed the guy and stood guard over him.

  Her attacker was lucky a cop stood right beside him, or I might kill him myself. “He can’t hurt or threaten you anymore. It’s over.”

  “But you’re bleeding.”

  I shook my head. It stung like a bitch, but I was pretty sure the bullet had just grazed me. “It looks bad because of the blood, but I’m okay. Promise.” I ran my hands down her arms. “Are you hurt?”

  She frowned and trembled, which was worrisome. I could hear sirens in the distance. Hopefully one of them was an ambulance. Elle needed to be thoroughly checked out. She was acting a little spacey, like she was in shock, which worried me.

  “Come here.” I pulled her in the cradle of my lap. As I inhaled her scent, a calm washed over me. Overall, we were both okay. Maybe scratched and bruised, but okay.

  She rested her head on my chest and a little sob escaped her throat. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  I rocked her. “I’m fine. It’s going to be okay now.”

  “I didn’t know what to do. Min—” Her breath caught, and her voice shook. “Minerva had a gun to your head. I had to go with him. Mrs. Latham...” Her voice hitched and sounded more watery. “They lied.”

  Yeah, I understood her pain and confusion. While I’d never liked or trusted Minerva, I never would have guessed that Mrs. Latham wasn’t real. To have someone—two someones—she considered to be her friends lie to her and betray her like that...that was a huge blow.

  “Baby, you handled everything perfect.” I had no idea what happened after I was drugged, but the fact that she’d been beating the shit out of the asshole when I had run up proved that she was one of the strongest people I knew.

  But it suddenly hit me...she needed to know that, too. She needed to see him down and out. “Look over there at him,” I instructed.

  She frowned in confusion, but slowly complied.

  The guy who’d been terrorizing her sat and stared at the ground. Mrs. Latham’s wig was gone, leaving his bald head shining in the light. He’d worn some sort of prosthetics on his face, and they were half on, half off, and caked with blood from where Elle had slammed his face into the ground.

  The cop, Nate, stood over him, both threatening and barring him from escape until the cops arrived.

  Overall, the guy she’d feared for so long now projected the image of a pathetic, sad mess of a man. She’d done that to him, and she needed to see that.

  “You see that blood on his face, those cuffs around his wrists?”

  She nodded.

  “That only happened because o
f you. You were strong enough to take him on. Strength doesn’t come from not being afraid. Strength comes when you fight back even though you’re terrified. You did that, and you won. You took control of your life. He won’t ever be able to terrorize you again.”

  A little sob erupted from her throat, and I hugged her tighter.

  “That’s because you took control, you seized it away from him when he had all the odds. Despite deceiving you, having more strength, the element of surprise, and the ability to manipulate you through threatening me, you still came out on top. You took control. That’s a hell of a lot of strength and courage. I’m so proud of you.” I kissed her. “And I love you so damn much.”

  She refocused on me, and her gaze was filled with so much emotion, it choked me up. To think she might feel even a fraction of what I felt for her was a bit overwhelming.

  “Thank you,” she said. “For saving me. For loving me. For showing me how to be strong. I’m so glad you’re okay, because...” She took a deep breath. “I love you so much, too. I would have been devastated if you’d been seriously hurt.” She glanced at where the blood continued to drip off my elbow. Her eyes filled with tears.

  Before I could reassure her again, cops and paramedics rushed through the circle of people surrounding us. I stood, taking Elle with me.

  A cop and paramedic herded me one direction while another cop pulled Elle the other way. “Wait,” I yelled, trying to get back to Elle.

  “Sir, I need you to explain what happened here,” the cop said.

  “No. I need to get to her.” I waved to where Elle had been swallowed up by the crowd. “Elle!”

  The cop grabbed my uninjured arm and tugged me back. “You’re not going anywhere until you answer some questions.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to still my nerves. The guy who’d done this was in cuffs. He couldn’t hurt her now. It wouldn’t do any good for any of us if I lost my cool and got arrested. “My name is Jonah Sutton. I’m Illumination Wilcox’s bodyguard. That’s who your cop friend just dragged away. She’s ViviAnna’s daughter. I’m sure you’ve heard what happened to her. The man that Officer Bromley—Nate—has in custody is the man who originally kidnapped her. He tried again today. His accomplice, who I think is his niece, Minerva...”

  I shook my head, trying to fight through the drugs that still made me feel foggy. “I can’t remember her last name. She’s in custody in a courtyard back behind the SUB. My partner, Dillon Matthews, has her restrained. She’s the one who shot me after her uncle drugged me.”

  The cop nodded. “Okay. You’ve been drugged and injured.”

  “Please, can you let me go to—”

  A gasp rose from the crowd, but I couldn’t tell what they’d reacted to. I panicked and took off at a run to get to Elle. The cop who’d been interviewing me yelled, “Hey, you need to get that arm looked at.”

  I shoved past students. “Let me through.”

  Two cops stood over Elle, who was lying on the ground, not moving. Her stillness terrified me.

  I shoved to the ground beside her. “Elle, Elle, honey. Wake up.” Fear and panic spiked in my already heightened adrenaline.

  Her beautiful brown eyes fluttered open. “Jonah?”

  “Right here. What happened?” I glanced at the paramedic, who’d crouched beside her on the other side.

  “She fainted,” the cop who’d been walking with her said.

  Elle palmed her forehead. “Mrs. Latham...the man... He’d injected me with something.” She frowned. “I’m so tired.”

  “Okay.” The paramedic seemed to decide he’d had enough of all of this. He examined Elle’s pupils and took her pulse rate. He said into the radio strapped to his shoulder, “This is EMS Four. I have two injured.” He glanced up at my wounded arm. “Walking wounded, so we should be able to load them up into the same bus. We’re headed your direction. ETA three minutes.”

  A stretcher came out of nowhere. The paramedic and his partner loaded Elle onto it and then turned to me. “You okay to walk?”

  I nodded. I could still feel the effects of the drugs, but I wanted Elle in the ER where they could check her out thoroughly. I had no idea what any of us had been drugged with.

  The ambulance ride was a haze. Maybe I still had more drugs in my system than I thought. But when they let me finally lay down on a bed in the ER in the curtained area next to Elle, it was pretty much lights out. I was done, and nothing would keep my eyes open another second.

  THE NEXT TIME I OPENED my eyes, I found Elle hovering over me with a worried look on her face. My mouth felt like it was coated in cotton, and the entire left side of my arm hurt.

  “Hey, you,” Elle said softly. “Are you with me this time?”

  This time? That made it sound like there had been a time before. But I didn’t remember a thing once we’d entered the ER. “What...” I slow blinked, trying to make my brain make sense and form words.

  Elle gave me a soft, weak smile. “The doctor said you’d been running on pure adrenaline. When you sat down, it gave the chance for the drugs you’d eaten to take hold.” She looked up at an IV pole attached to my right hand. “They’re running saline to help flush the drug out of your system. The good news is that you managed to sleep through the twenty-two stitches they put into your shoulder.”

  Twenty-two? Wow, that seemed like a lot, but explained why my arm burned like hellfire had been inserted under the skin.

  “How long?”

  She glanced down at her cell phone. “It’s only been a few hours since everything happened on campus.”

  “You okay?”

  She shook her head at me, exasperated. “I’m fine. I’ve been fine. They ran an IV to help flush the drugs out of my system, too, but I’m good. You and Dillon got the bulk of it.”

  “Dillon? Is he okay?”

  “Yeah. He’s out in the waiting room, waiting to see you. We all need to go to the police station to make our statement.” She winced. “Oh, and VA will be meeting us there. She wanted to come here, but she figured the police station might be better able to handle that circus.”

  “Good call.” I sat up and then stilled as my head spun a little bit. I opened my eyes wider, trying to get my brain function back online. “Do they know what he gave us?”

  She shook her head. “No, but they did toxicology tests on all of us, so everything will be well documented for the charges against him and Minerva.”

  “Do you know who he is yet?”

  A frown furrowed on her face as she avoided the question. “I need to go let someone know you’re awake again and see if we can leave.”

  I wasn’t firing on all cylinders yet, but Elle seemed stoic and factual about all this when before she’d been much more emotional. Not that I wanted her to break down into sobs in the middle of the hospital, but something seemed off.

  I grabbed her arm. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Fine.” She gave me a weak smile. “I’m just ready to get this all over with.” Then she walked out of the room.

  Fuck. Something was definitely wrong. I swung my legs off the side of the bed, surprised to find myself in a hospital gown. I’d really been out of it, hadn’t I? But I had to find out what had happened to Elle during that time.

  ELLE

  I leaned against the wall outside Jonah’s room and tried to slow my panicked breathing. It was over and that meant Jonah would go home. Oh, god. I’d been praying for this nightmare to end, but hadn’t thought that through. He’d leave now.

  Oh, hell. I couldn’t have a panic attack. Not yet. I just needed to get through a couple more hours and then I could fall apart. Again.

  I rushed to the waiting room, forcing myself to hold it together just a little bit longer. When I hurried in, Dillon glanced up in alarm. “He’s okay,” I immediately said. “I just need to go find his doctor. Can you sit with him while I do that?”

  He nodded. “Of course.” He grabbed my arm. “Are you okay? You’re really pale.”

  �
�Yeah, fine. It’s just been—” My throat tried to close up so I cleared it. “Been a long day.” Then I rushed down the hall, darting into the women’s bathroom door when I spotted it. Empty. Thank god. I locked the door and sank to the floor.

  When Jonah had passed out, I’d panicked. So much for being strong and in control. I’d completely lost my shit...full-on panic attack. I’d been sure that he was dying.

  The paramedic had talked me through the panic attack, keeping me from being committed or drugged or worse. I laughed hysterically, wrapping my arms around my knees, wanting to get as small as possible.

  I was a basket case, but I couldn’t let Jonah or anyone else see that. My attacker had been caught. Jonah’s job was over, and he thought he had feelings for me, but that was just because he couldn’t see what a head case I was on the inside.

  He’d said it...he admired me for my strength. What a joke. I was the furthest thing from strong. In fact, I’d never felt more pathetic and weak. I just had to get through the next few hours. First, get him out of the hospital, and we could all make our statements to the police. Then he’d return to his life, and I’d figure out how to get on with my life. Without him.

  I coughed up another sob.

  My hands shook, and I tried to stem the nausea churning low in my stomach. Keep it together.

  I rose from the floor and went to the sink, running the cold water and splashing it on my face. I glanced at the clock on my cell phone. I’d only been gone ten minutes. Maybe Jonah was distracted enough to not have noticed my absence.

  I squared my shoulders and went to that place in my head that I used to access to get through my mom’s press junkets. I pasted a pleasant expression on my face and gripped my hands so that the nails cut into my palms. That tiny bit of pain was usually enough to remind me of where I was and what I needed to do to get through it all. I could do this.

  I’d deal with right now and then I’d be free to fall apart later.

  Chapter Nineteen