“Wake up, Roxy. It’s okay. You’re safe. I have you. Whatever is chasing you can’t get you if you open your eyes.”
She didn’t respond.
She simply lolled around in his arms like a giant ragdoll. What wouldn’t he do to see her beautiful brown eyes again?
Jagger began worrying.
No, he was downright panicking.
His fight or flight response was kicking in, and he didn’t know how to save her.
“Avalon! If you can hear me, now might be a good time to do what you have to do!” he shouted.
Then, he did what he’d been trained to do.
He trusted his team.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
She sat silently in the back seat of the vehicle beside her fiancé. Avalon was focused, and no one doubted what she was working on in her head.
There was sweat on her brow, her hands were clenched in her lap, and she wouldn’t answer when someone spoke to her.
She was saving Roxanne Faust, and trying to save Jagger in the process.
“Is she okay?” Maura asked.
Nate touched her cheek. She was warm, but that was normal while she was doing her Oracle thing.
“Turn on the air.”
Maura hit the buttons and Luke zipped up his hoodie. When Traveling with Avalon, you had to get accustomed to the cold.
“She’s connected,” Nate said. “She’s trying to break his control over Roxy.”
How did he know?
Her eyes were open now, and she was blindly staring ahead. She was working her magic as she fought some big bad monster in her head.
God!
He wished he could help her.
“He’s very angry,” she muttered. “He won’t forgive me for this.”
It was the only thing that Avalon had said over the last twenty minutes, and somehow, they didn’t think she was talking about the killer.
No, this was about Jagger.
Still, they were on her side with this one. The man needed to have his cage rattled to wake up.
Sometimes, you had to take the calculated risk.
This was one hell of one.
“He’ll get over it,” Maura stated. Well, that was what she was hoping would happen. Old Jagger would, but this beast was entirely a new, cranky, surly game.
Who knew what he’d do?
Still, it had to be done. They all knew what the possible outcome would be, but it had to go down this way.
“Can you save her?” Nate asked.
“He’s intent on killing her,” she muttered as she tried to unravel fate and reset the path. It was insanely hard. Roxanne was meant to die.
Tonight.
With the baby.
She was never supposed to survive this.
The harder Avalon worked, the harder the killer fought to hold onto her. He didn’t want to let her go.
The battle was epic.
As she fought to save mother and child, her nose began dripping blood, and beside her, Nate’s freak out began escalating. She had to ignore it.
She needed to save Roxy.
In Avalon’s head, she could hear the killer’s laughter. He was watching Roxanne Faust suffer.
He was enjoying it.
The sadistic bastard wanted her to hurt, and that was vile, sickening, and horrifying. She could see the nightmare the doctor was battling, and it made her want to retch.
Poor Roxy.
It made her fight that much harder.
Avalon found the path to her and she began trying to sever the bonds between the killer and the doctor.
“Why does he want to kill her?” Maura asked.
They knew when she was playing Oracle, they could ask questions and get answers. The woman was hell on multitasking.
“She’s digging into these deaths. There have been a few.”
Nate was making notes beside her on his phone. “How many is a few?”
“Five last year—maybe more. I can’t tell for sure. All I know is he plans for five more women this year. That’s his goal.”
“Is she one of the five?”
Avalon struggled to hold onto the visions as they played out in her head. Lucian would be really handy right about now. She was watching Roxanne being raped and by her own father.
Something had to give.
In that moment, Avalon was grateful that hadn’t been her fate. Roxy was fighting, and she was losing. She was so afraid of men that she couldn’t bear to be vulnerable to them.
Her heart broke for the woman.
“Jagger,” she muttered.
She heard him call her name. She heard him begging her to help him save Roxanne.
It was a battle.
It was a war.
This was only the beginning.
Then, without any warning, the killer began backing off.
“Jagger, save her,” she whispered, finding a way to get their team member to hear her.
She held on.
She kept Roxanne safe until Jagger could set her free. This was going to be an epic fight for them—especially Jagger.
It was going to be the hardest battle he’d ever waged in his life.
It was for his woman and child.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
He was beginning to panic.
Her breathing was beginning to slow to the point her chest wasn’t moving. At any second, he was going to start CPR to keep her alive.
“Come on, Avalon! Do it!” he muttered, placing his hand over Roxy’s heart. As he stared down at her, his own stuttered in his chest.
That was his t-shirt.
She was wearing his clothing even when they were never meant to see each other again.
That overrode even more of the anger. Truthfully, it killed off some of the pain. A woman didn’t do that unless she was in love. Her note wasn’t a lie. She did have feelings for him. Maybe she’d been suffering just as much as he had been without her.
It gave him hope.
If that were the case, they’d have to deal with it.
“Roxy, God! Please don’t do this to me. I lost you once. You have to fight. Come on, baby. Fight hard for me.”
Her breathing stopped.
Jagger had heard that last gasp of breath before. It was the death rattle. He’d listened to fallen soldiers in their last moments, and it sounded the same.
Jagger wanted to be sick.
He wanted to weep.
“NO! You are not leaving me again without explaining this to me!”
He placed her on the bed and knelt beside her. Placing his hand beneath her neck, he tipped her chin up and sealed his mouth over hers.
Then he began breathing for her. He kept it up, forcing life back into her body. In his mind, he could hear Avalon. She’d finally reconnected with him. She was telling him to keep going, and when she woke, not to let her sleep again.
He fought so hard there was perspiration on his brow. Beneath his hand, he could feel her heart.
Nothing.
There was nothing inside Roxy. She was a shell.
Then there was the thump.
And another.
He freed her mouth as she released her next breath, and then she took one. Jagger knew Avalon had done it.
She’d weaved her magic and saved the women beneath him. Still, she wasn’t waking up.
“Roxy. Roxy. Come on, honey, open your eyes. He can’t get you if you’re awake.”
Her lashes fluttered.
He waited.
When she opened her eyes, there was fear there. Jagger hoped it wasn’t because of him. As pissed as he was, he’d never hurt her. He’d never do that to her.
Even though he was really angry. That said a great deal about how he felt about her.
“Jagger?” she asked, confusion in her voice.
“Yeah, it’s me, honey. Are you okay?”
She didn’t move.
Then she shoved him off her body as she raced for the bathroom. He knew where she was he
ading. He could hear her purging everything that had been in her gut.
It must have been bad.
‘It was,’ whispered Avalon into his head.
“OUT!” he hissed back.
At the door, he hesitated. She was on her knees, vomiting, and he wanted to help her. Only, she’d left.
Did she want him to touch her?
Would she freak out?
He went with is gut and knelt beside her, holding her hair. “It’s okay, honey. I have you. Get it out, and you’ll feel a million times better.”
She couldn’t believe he was there.
How?
What the hell had happened? She’d gone to bed, saw her mother and father, and woke up to Jagger.
What was going on?
She was too shocked that he was right there. The man she loved, and feared, was beside her. She wanted to cry.
Jagger grabbed a cup and filled it with water. He also grabbed a towel and dampened it for her brow. When she was done, he handed her both of them.
“I don’t understand,” she said, rinsing out her mouth and wiping her forehead. The cool felt so welcoming that it made her want to weep.
Jagger let her finish before scooping her up in his arms. He carried her back to the bed and gently placed her on it.
Roxy stared at him.
This couldn’t be happening. Here was her sexy Marine, and he was on her bed with her. In fact, he was inches away, and he looked like shit.
She got that.
Roxy felt the same way.
“How did you find me?” she asked. “Why are you here? I don’t understand what happened.”
Yeah, he knew this was going to be one of those conversations. There were only two choices. She’d believe him, or she’d think he was bat shit insane and run for her life. When it came to Oracle, it was a crapshoot. It was a hard pill to swallow.
“You have a killer chasing you.”
She stared at him.
When she didn’t laugh, he continued. “I work for Oracle. We handle odd cases for the FBI. You’re now part of one of those cases.”
She didn’t move.
“When we showed up in Ravenswood, it was because someone was killing people, and Lucian and Avalon had a connection to them.”
“Avalon?” she finally asked.
Yeah, she’d never met the woman. By the time Avalon got out of surgery, Roxy had bailed.
“She’s Oracle.”
He pulled out his phone and dialed. When the voice came over the line, it was her.
“Avi, she’s awake.”
“I know, Jagger. Good job on saving her.” Avalon focused on the woman. “We’ve yet to meet, Doctor Faust, but we will in the morning, and then I’ll explain everything to you. We’re on our way there.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m a psychic, and there’s another psychic hunting you. He’s killed before, and you’re marked.”
She laughed. “You’re insane.”
“How was that nightmare about Ronald?”
It shut Roxy up and fast.
That was her father’s name. There was no way the woman on the phone could know that was what she’d just lived through.
It was impossible.
“Yes, I saw it, and no, it isn’t impossible. I was in your mind trying to keep him from hurting you any more than he already was. Like I said, we’ll talk later. We’re almost to Texas. I have to rest tonight. I’m going to be awake for a very long time, making sure he leaves you alone.”
Roxanne didn’t know what the hell to think.
She didn’t know what was going on.
This was weird, scary shit.
All she knew was she’d had cereal, read over some files, got tired, and went to bed. The nightmare that followed with her father was horrible.
It scared her.
“Jagger, don’t let her sleep.”
Oh, he wouldn’t.
“When you arrive, Avalon, we have to have a talk. It’s not going to be a good talk, so be prepared.”
He hoped she got it.
He was pissed.
“I’m already aware, Jagger. That’s exactly why I asked if you trusted me. You don’t see the future. I do. Be angry, but get over it. There’s so much more on the line than what you see.”
This wasn’t done.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” he stated.
“Don’t let her go to sleep!” she warned.
He did something he’d never thought he’d do in his entire life.
He hung up on Avalon.
Jagger needed time and space to calm down.
“You look like shit, Marine,” she said, sitting up in the bed. She needed to put some space between them. She wanted to throw herself on him, but she couldn’t.
Roxy was afraid of what happened and what was going to happen.
“You should talk, Doctor. You’re a mess too.”
She stared down at her body, and she was sweaty and wearing nothing but his shirt.
Damn it.
This was not what she wanted. When she ran away, she never thought he’d turn up. She’d gone to some Podunk town to escape what she felt for him, and here he was.
Well, shit!
“How did you find me?”
“Avalon.”
“Is she really a psychic?”
“Would you believe me if I said yes?” he asked, studying her face.
God!
He’d missed seeing it.
He hated that she had this power over him, but she did. He loved her with all his heart. Seeing her nearly dying had practically killed him too.
“Would you, Roxy?” he asked again.
What choice did she have?
Here she was, face to face with a man she’d run from, and she was embarrassed.
“Yes, I would. I don’t think you’d lie to me. You’re not the kind of guy who hides the truth from anyone—let alone a woman.”
“She is. I told you. We do this kind of thing all the time. The FBI has a unit, and that’s us. We try and keep it quiet.”
“And Lucian is a psychic?” she asked. “I really thought he was just an asshole.”
He laughed.
It was the first time in a long time.
Roxy was magic. She seemed to hold the key to unlocking him from the misery, and here was the proof. Before, when they’d been together making love, he’d had hope that he could have a life. When she left, he’d been cold and dead.
Now he could at least breathe.
“He’s a psychic too. He’s not as powerful as Avalon, but together, they’re nearly unstoppable.”
Roxy stared at him.
God!
He was so damn sexy. His eyes were filled with so much emotion, and she wanted to say so much to him.
But where did she start and stop?
This man made her a stupid mess. Instead, she focused on a safe topic.
“I feel sorry for poor Bishop. She’s got her hands full with that one. He’s an egotistical asshole who broke her heart. He lied to her, and made her think that he didn’t love her.”
He laughed. “Well, it’s not like you’re not an expert at that, now are you?”
She stared at him.
Jagger didn’t budge.
Oh, this was a long time coming. There was no way he was going to let her off the hook. Avalon had said to stay awake, and he was going to make sure neither one of them slept.
Since sex wasn’t an option…only because his body had another woman’s claw marks and bites all over it, he’d have to do battle with her.
Temper was always a good option.
This conversation, like the one with Avalon, was due.
“Why did you do it, Roxy?” he asked. “You could have stayed in Ravenswood but just told me you never wanted to see me again. I don’t force women to be with me. I would have respected you a hell of a lot more had you been honest and not pulled this stunt.”
She couldn’t do that because
it was a lie.
She wanted to see him every day for the rest of her life. Jagger was special, and she wanted to be with him in the worst way. That was why she ran.
That was the issue.
“I had to leave.”
“No, you chose to leave. It was so damn hard for me to show up that day. When I did, your fucking neighbor handed me that note. Do you know what that feels like?”
She was chilly.
Her body was shaking, and she wasn’t sure if it was from the nightmare or that he was there.
It was judgment day, and she knew it. He had every right to be angry at her.
Hell!
She was angry with herself.
“Jagger.”
“Just try the truth, Roxy. Have some respect for me and yourself. Be honest with me. Why did you do it?”
“I couldn’t stay.”
“Yeah, you know, you keep saying that, but it doesn’t make sense. You won’t tell me why you had to leave or what was chasing you, but you made me believe it was to get away from me.”
“It was.”
His heart kicked.
“I see.”
“No, you really don’t.” And it was true. There was so much more to this than just what he thought was going on between them. She simply didn’t know if she could tell him.
The words were frozen in her chest.
He stared at her. Well, this is what it had come to between them. Jagger wasn’t going to fight.
He couldn’t.
The last two months had drained him of everything he had in him. The reserve was empty, and until someone, mainly her, refilled it, he was destined to be an asshole.
Cranky.
Bitter.
Hateful.
Jagger wanted off this ride. While he’d saved her, she didn’t see that only she could save him. Roxy could make or break him with what she did next.
“Jagger,” she said, staring down at her hands. She wanted to cry.
“Well, you made it clear. You didn’t want to be near me. Know what, Doctor Faust? I wish I never met you. The day I did, you turned my world upside down, you made me fall in love, and then you broke my heart. So fuck you.”
Jagger stood.
She stared at him.
Oracle Saving (The Phoenix Files Book 3) Page 7
