“I don’t know. I’ll try to get back in as soon as possible.”
She nodded, wanting to touch him, be comforted by him. She slid her hands up his chest and followed with her body, feeling his arms closing around her.
“Don’t be an idiot tonight, okay?” he said to her softly. “Stay in here. Stay safe.”
She nodded and said, “I’m going to miss you.”
He chose to misinterpret her words. “I’ll only be gone for a couple of hours.”
She curled into his arms. He’d said his goodbye last night. She had to respect that.
He gave her a last squeeze, and then left the room. She slipped into bed and fell into a restless sleep.
Chapter Twenty
She woke suddenly, not sure what was wrong. Inky blackness coated the room except for a flicking of light through the window. A waft of smell tickled her nose. Burning!
Jenna bolted upright and patted the empty space beside her. Josh was still gone. A look at the clock said it was just after midnight. He’d been gone for two hours.
A loud explosion tore through the silent room. Then another.
Gunshots!
She swung her legs off the edge and hopped out of bed. After throwing on some sweats and snatching the gun off the nightstand, she hurried down the hall to Erika’s room.
The cold metal of the handle clicked as it stopped, unable to turn. Locked.
Urgency pressing on her, she banged on the door.
“House is on fire!” Dick yelled from the other end of the hall.
“Erika!” she screamed.
The door opened slowly, revealing a sleepy-eyed and wild-haired Erika. “What’s going on?” she asked.
Honestly, the woman would sleep through World War Three.
“Gunshots and the house is on fire. Get shoes on, we gotta go!” Jenna pushed at her friend.
Fear raced the shadows across Erika’s face as she sprang into action. She threw on some clothes while Jenna waited, then they raced down the hall to Dick. At the top of the stairs, Jenna could see the flickering glow out the front. Flames crawled across the ground and licked the porch.
“Go out the back, girls,” Dick said.
“We’ll help!” Jenna exclaimed.
Dick’s bearing straightened and his tone took on an exacting quality. This was the leader of battled-hardened men. “This fire is not a coincidence, young lady. This house isn’t worth your life. Get outside, stay to the shadows, get somewhere safe, and wait for one of the boys to find you. Don’t show yourselves, don’t play the hero, and don’t try to find the boys. Let them take care of this. I’ll worry about the house.”
“Yes, sir,” Jenna replied automatically. She grabbed Erika’s hand and pulled her to the back door. Once there, she pushed her to the side and peered out the window, keeping as little of her face visible as possible.
“What are you waiting for?” Erika asked in wide-eyed panic.
Shadows and stillness lay in wait, hiding the danger. “Obviously the fire was set in the front to flush us out the back.” Jenna surveyed the tree line above the fence. “I’m waiting to see if anything moves. There are three back entrances to this house. Although this one probably counts as a side entrance. It’s the most obscure. I’m hoping we aren’t expected out this door…”
Erika nodded and waited, wringing her hands. Tears leaked down her face.
“Okay, Erika,” Jenna said, grabbing her shoulders in a way Josh might have. “I am going to keep us safe until the guys find us, okay? If you see anything, you let me know. Get behind me, okay?”
“Is that a gun, Jenna?” Erika pointed, in a daze. “Why do you have a gun?”
“Because I can be a scary bitch when I need to be. That’s why you let me know if you see anything.”
More tears escaped from her fearful eyes. She nodded.
“I am going to open this door and we are going to sprint for the trees, okay?” Jenna rolled out her shoulders, trying to work away the shaking. “God help us if we run straight at the guy.”
“What about the fence?”
“We’re going straight through it. The gate is open, so we’ll run right through. Maybe it’ll cover us for a bit.”
“Okay.” Erika unwrapped her arms from around her body. “Okay.”
“We can do this, Erika. We will make it.” Jenna took a deep breath, tightened her grip on the gun, and then wrapped her fingers around the doorknob. “Here we go.”
She yanked the door open before clutching Erika’s arm and dragging her along. They clattered down the steps, way too loud, before skirting the pool and aiming for the open gate—a gate that hadn’t been opened earlier in the day. It was not a good sign, but too late now. They had to commit.
A crack of thunder rang out, making Jenna flinch and Erika scream. Dirt kicked up a couple yards away, a bullet smacking into the ground.
“Run, Erika!” Jenna screamed.
With a burst of speed, still holding Erika’s arm to keep her moving, they launched through the gate with everything they had. Another earth-shattering boom sounded to the right. Dirt splashed up ten feet away. At least we aren’t running right at him.
They made it to the tree line in a panicked blur. Jenna grabbed Erika roughly and started running to the right. The gunman would assume they would run away from him. It would be wise to be farther away, but if there were two gunman here, Erika and she would be screwed. And knowing her luck, there would be.
Jenna led them through some brush so their footprints hopefully wouldn’t show, and then found a couple of thick bushes with trees all around. She dragged Erika to the bushes, and unceremoniously shoved her in, before crawling in after her. They huddled together, Erika silently crying, Jenna with one arm around her, the other holding the gun, and looking as best she could through the trees.
Josh stuck to the deep shadows, waiting patiently as he watched the tall, gangly man work his way around a large tree toward him. Ten feet behind him, Jax stepped silently, working closer.
The man’s gaze was focused on the fire he’d set. The roof sprinklers sputtered to life a few moments before the general slunk out of the house with a gun in hand, heading toward the hose. The man brought his gun higher, not ready to fire. Not yet. He was the decoy, creating the danger that would flush the girls out the back.
Josh was not the least bit concerned. The girls had been told to stay put, and the fire was small, the dew hindering its spread. They had plenty of time for a little cat and mouse.
Jax moved like a shadow, closing in. Josh stood his ground in case the mark tried to run. He’d run straight to his death, Josh would make sure of it.
A gunshot rang out at the back of the house.
Everyone froze.
Another gunshot blast shattered the silence.
The gunman tilted his head and slightly loosened his hold on his firearm. It meant his comrade was getting the task they had come to complete.
It meant the girls were in danger!
A shock of fear coursed through Josh. Why the fuck are they outside?
Jax flicked his head faintly—Go.
Josh slipped deeper into the shadows before he took off at a fast run. Another gunshot blasted from the other side of the house. His heart gave a lurch. He hoped he hadn’t just lost the love of his life.
Jenna waited in the trees, barely breathing. Thank God the gunman wasn’t a good shot. Three shots fired, and all of them missed. They hadn’t even seen the third land.
Silence pushed in at them from all angles, giving them false hope that they were safe, that the danger had passed. But Jenna knew better than to leave the safety of the brush. The general had said one of the boys would find them. Unfortunately, Erika hadn’t learned the lesson like she had.
“I need to find Jax,” Erika said out of the blue.
“No, Erika. He’ll find you. Us. They’ll find us. We need to stay here until it’s safe. Then they’ll find us.”
“What if he’s hurt?”
Erika clutched the hem of her shirt and leaned forward, looking out into the darkness.
“Stay put,” Jenna said.
Time ticked by too slowly. Silence deadened their surroundings, not even the sound of crickets filling the void. Danger lurked out there somewhere. The gunman knew they were at large. They probably had no idea what the boys were capable of. It was a question of whether the gunman would find them before the boys found the gunman.
Jenna’s heart rocked through her chest, the only sound she could hear.
Until the gunshot.
Two loud booms reverberated through the air, coming from the direction they’d come. Distant, though—probably from the front of the house.
Jenna could barely swallow. Dick had been there. What if—
“No. I need to find Jax.” Erika struggled to get out of the bush.
“Goddamn it, Erika, stay here!” Jenna grabbed at Erika’s flailing limbs, missing her arm. She crawled out after her. “Erika, stop. You’re going to get us killed!”
“Jax might be hurt.”
Her volume was much too high, blaring in the silence.
“Erika.” Jenna caught up to Erika. She grabbed the back of the smaller woman’s sweatshirt and yanked, making her friend stagger and then fall to her knees. “We have to hide. This is stupid!”
Erika struggled up, panicked and not thinking.
With no other alternative, Jenna swung, knocking her friend across the head with a solid punch. Erika went down like a sack of potatoes, completely stunned.
Jenna hoped their friendship could stand the test of violence.
In a hurry, Jenna bent and dragged Erika back into the bush, curling her into a ball and putting greenery over any parts that the moonlight touched. Breathing raggedly, knowing that their location was completely compromised, she kicked dirt over the drag marks, trying to hide any tracks big enough to be seen with the moonlight.
That done, she turned to flee back into cover when she felt it—eyes digging into her back. Her danger meter flared into life.
She swiveled around, her gun coming up a moment later.
Too late.
A pitch-black hole in a long barrel stared her in the eye from ten feet away. An index finger wrapped around the trigger. A face was half hidden behind a scope.
Lips tweaked upward in a smile as the finger flexed, squeezing the trigger. Her stomach dropped out as death greeted her with a grin.
The shadows behind the man changed, shifted, coalesced into a hand, an arm, a face with black paint. A giant, jagged knife flashed, glinting in the moonlight.
The finger finished its squeeze, the tip turning white with pressure, the sound ripping through her head and shattering cohesive thought. The barrel dropped, butt end first, after being jerked upward, followed by a lifeless slide of the body attached to it.
Her gun finished its climb, pointing now at a nightmare of shadows.
Chapter Twenty-One
“It’s me, Jenna.” A familiar voice out of the horror, soft and calm.
“Josh.” She lowered the gun, feeling the sweet rush of relief. Followed by fear and shaking.
Patches of darkness where moonlight didn’t reach moved toward her, stealthy and deadly. She reached for him, groping in the dark. She felt his chest and wrapped herself around him. Wrapped her life around his body and closed her eyes against the nightmare he represented.
“It’s okay. It’s over now. He was the last one. Shhhhhh, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”
Sobs choked her, shook her whole body. Josh hugged her tight, trying to get her to calm down. Another nightmare emerged out of the darkness with nothing more than a rustle of fabric.
“Where’s Erika?” The calm was shattered by the blind terror in Jax’s voice.
“She freaked out. I had to punch her and stash her in the bushes.” Jenna pointed, not letting go of Josh.
Jax found her in no time and then picked her up like a newborn. Once he had her, he jogged back to the house, her head lolling on his shoulder.
“The house?” Jenna asked quietly as Josh led her back.
“There’s been some damage to the front. The fire licked up the walls but didn’t quite catch. My father turned on the roof sprinklers and sprayed the rest with the hose.”
“The garden hose?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he call the fire department?”
“Because he didn’t want questions. There were two men here tonight. One in the front, one in the back.” He paused for a moment. Their feet crunched the dirt. “I thought you would stay in the house like I told you.”
She heard his disappointment, but he wasn’t angry. Not yet. He was giving her the benefit of the doubt.
That was a nice change.
“Your dad told us to get to the trees and wait for you. I think he was worried the fire would trap us in.”
“I see.”
Danger flared, but it was coming from Josh. Someone was going to get in trouble, and thankfully, this time it wasn’t her.
“How did you find us?” Jenna asked.
“Same way the gunman did. I heard you. You and Erika. Arguing.”
“She was trying to find Jax. She thought he was hurt.”
“So you knocked her out?”
“What was I supposed to do? Let her run around and get killed?”
“Why were you in the open instead of in the bush with her?”
“Because I’m not as strong as you. I had to drag her. If anyone passed that way, they would see the big body-drag mark. And I figured someone would definitely pass that way, because we were yelling at each other.”
“Good thinking. Too bad you weren’t quicker.”
“Too bad I didn’t punch her sooner?”
Josh didn’t answer, but she had a sneaking suspicion he was grinning. At least Erika couldn’t be too mad at her, as she had saved her life. Well, kind of. Really, Josh had. But second in line for gratitude was her. If not gratitude, definitely forgiveness.
“Isn’t anyone going to have heard the gunshots?” Jenna asked.
“Don’t know. This house is on a lot of acreage. If anyone did hear it, they’d assume it’s just the general shooting at things in the night. Or maybe poachers. Hopefully the cops haven’t been called, but we’ll see.”
“What are you going to do with the bodies?”
“None of your concern.” Josh opened the door then stepped aside so Jenna could enter first. He took her hand, entwining his fingers with hers, as they made their way upstairs.
Erika was stretched out on her bed, where Jax held an icepack to her head. When he saw Josh and Jenna peer in, he took Erika’s hand and transferred the icepack before getting up. The near-constant sparkle of humor was lost from his eyes.
“You have quite a punch, Jenna Anderson,” he said in a rough voice. It was as close to sounding angry as Jenna had heard him.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Jenna said.
“I know. You did good. I just don’t like seeing her hurt.”
“Just be thankful you don’t have to see her dead,” Josh replied in a voice that stopped further conversation. “Meet me outside at oh-four-thirty.”
Josh led Jenna away. “Jax will look after her now. He needs to make sure she’s taken care of.”
“As you do me?”
Instead of a verbal response, Josh gently pushed Jenna into the bathroom and carefully stripped her out of her sweats, and then nudged her into the shower. He joined her a second later, holding her in place as he moved around to grab soap.
“For a girl that hates being dirty, you sure attract the mud,” he said quietly.
His fingers trailed over her skin—safety and comfort. His lips glided across hers before the kiss deepened, his tongue entering her mouth. She reveled in his taste, his feel. Slowly, he lathered her up and washed all the dirt fr
om her body, his ministrations that of Nurse Josh, nothing sexual about them. He was taking care of her without asking for any reciprocation. As usual.
Tears in her eyes, she took the washcloth. “I want to wash you. This is my last time to—”
“Hush.” He ran his hand down her cheek. “Let’s not talk about that.”
She nodded. What else could she do? She washed his body, letting herself feel his muscle in all its splendor. The rise and fall of his chest and abs, the large width of his shoulders, the hard planes of his thighs. She did linger, more than once, teasing his nipples and running her hands repeatedly over his pecs.
He still had black paint on his face, so she let him wash that off quickly, before she did his unruly black hair. Then she glided her hands over him again, feeling the body she’d grown to know so intimately. She wanted to remember this forever. She wanted to remember him forever. She was thankful she was leaving tomorrow, because any more time would see her trying to change her whole life to keep him in it, and she just wasn’t ready for that kind of life alteration.
It was for the best. Her leaving was definitely for the best. For him. She’d caused him enough drama for one lifetime. The man had just slit some guy’s throat on her behalf. Even if that was his old occupation, he had quit for a reason. And now here he was, running around the woods like a boogeyman, because she had walked into his life.
She leaned her head against his big chest and felt his hands on her back. She wanted to make love to him one last time, but she didn’t want foreplay. She just wanted to be held, him inside her where he belonged, and ride out the night with his weight over her.
He must have sensed it when her hands slid to a stop on his hips and would go no farther. He turned off the water and they stepped out of the shower.
As he wrapped her in a fluffy white towel, she said, “Josh, I know you don’t understand—”
He covered her mouth with his, his wild taste delighting her senses. She opened her lips and he filled her mouth with a rush, his tongue hot and intense. She felt him rise against her stomach, his manhood thick. She backed up to the sink in order to allow him access, but he backed off.
Unexpected Danger (Skyline Trilogy Book 2) Page 18
