Cherish and Protect

by Lori Ryan

  And then he saw her. Rodrigo Silva shouted as he pulled Presley into the spotlight of the entranceway.

  “Lawless! I find myself in possession of another of your beautiful women. I must tell you, you do have exquisite taste. Ms. Royale is every bit as lovely as your Catalina was.”

  James stilled, then called out to Silva. “I’ll come in if you let her walk away. Send her out. When I see her walk away, I’ll come in. No fighting.”

  Silva laughed as James knew he would. He was watching, waiting for an opening to take the man out without putting Presley at risk. Or, at least, at too great a risk. It didn’t matter how good of a shot he was, she was going to be in some danger of being hit.

  “Catalina begged me, you know. She begged for mercy. Told me she wasn’t really yours, that you didn’t care about her. I knew she was lying. I saw the way you looked at her, saw what she did to you. You were weak because of her, just as your love for Ms. Royale makes you weak now.”

  James could try to call out, try to convince Silva that he didn’t love Presley. That holding her held no sway over him. It wouldn’t work, though, and truth be told, he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. He loved Presley more than life itself. Hadn’t been willing to admit it to himself until now, but it was there. Deep inside of him, his love for her swelled. With all that he was, all he had left in him that was still human, that still had the capacity to love, it was hers.

  Then, Presley was moving. She turned and wrenched free and shoved once, twice, at Silva. Silva cried out and clutched at his neck and James took the shot.

  Silva fell. Presley seemed frozen in place for long beats of time, then she turned to run.

  James began to move toward her, weapon raised, ready to provide cover, but she didn’t make it two steps before a man dove out and grabbed her, drawing her back into the warehouse.

  James had no shot. There was no way for him to fire without hitting her. There was no way to stop as Colonel Gray grabbed her. And then she was gone, disappearing back into the warehouse.

  39

  James had to move now, and he had to move fast. He didn’t know for sure how many people were in that warehouse.

  Two of Silva’s men had disappeared back into the warehouse when James shot Silva. There could be more of them, but he would bet Silva had sent all of them out the minute the shooting started. On his home territory, Silva would have been in a stronghold, guarded by upwards of a hundred men, but he wouldn’t have traveled with so many.

  “The only way for you to end this, James, is to come in here and turn yourself over to me!” It was Gray.

  James prayed like hell his mind didn’t choose now to flashback to South America and shut him down. He needed to stay in the present if he was going to get Presley out of there.

  “She’s going to die and I’m not going to make it painless for her!”

  James ignored the shouting and rounded the back of the warehouse, creeping back up on it with a low whistle to Hunt to let him know he was coming. There was a single entrance point on this side. Just a regular door, not the wide entrance that would allow a plane to come and go like on the front. Gray didn’t have the door covered. He thought James was still up front.

  James listened to the shouting of the man inside as he threatened to do unspeakable things to Presley if James didn’t come in.

  “I’m coming, Presley.” He whispered the words under his breath and nodded to Hunt, holding up his hand with all five fingers splayed out in signal. James moved back to the front of the warehouse as he heard Hunt fire at the barrel. Two shots and the barrel went up.

  James heard the shouts of the men in the warehouse as they moved from the front to the back, toward the sounds of the bullets bursting in the barrel, firing their own weapons toward the sound. He moved, then, entering through the front and spotting Silva’s men at the back. He took them down, then turned to scan the warehouse, keeping himself behind a stack of metal barrels. They didn’t provide much cover, but they were all he had. He saw Presley, standing ramrod straight in the center. Behind her stood Gray.

  James must be losing his mind. He remembered playing the game CLUE with his sister when they were kids. I think it’s Colonel Mustard in the library with the wrench.

  Only this was Colonel Gray in the warehouse with the gun.

  James laughed. “You know, the funny thing about all of this, Colonel, is that I still don’t fucking remember a damned thing from that night. My head’s so fucked up, those memories will probably never come out.” It wasn’t entirely the truth. He didn’t remember enough, though, to testify against the colonel. If the man hadn’t grabbed Presley, James probably wouldn’t have been able to give the military much to take Gray down.

  Gray rarely entered the field anymore, but he had himself behind Presley and the gun wedged at her side.

  “You’re a loose end I can’t afford, Lawless. Why the hell you didn’t die years ago, I’ll never understand. Silva was like that, though. Always thought he knew better than anyone. Thought he was untouchable.”

  James watched, waiting for the man to let his guard down, to move his weapon or forget to hold so tight to Presley that James might get a shot in.

  He could see Hunt moving into the back of the warehouse through the back door.

  Presley’s face was white as hell as James watched. He knew she had to be terrified. He’d brought this down on her. He’d done this. But he would get her out of there.

  “Doesn’t matter. It was time for me to retire, but I’m not going to look over my shoulder all my life wondering if you might start to remember something.” The colonel sounded tired now, like he was feeling sorry for himself.

  “I’ll offer you the same deal I offered Silva. Let Presley walk out of here and I let you walk away,” James said. “Same as Silva,” he repeated, hoping Presley might pick up on the message. If she could move, get the colonel off his game, maybe James could get a shot in.

  Far away in the distance, the sound of sirens started, and the colonel looked to the opening in the warehouse.

  “Did I forget to mention I called General Cutter? That’ll be him.” That or someone had called the police when they heard the gunshots. Either way, James wanted Gray to realize Cutter knew what he’d done. “Same as Silva. Let her go.”

  Presley moved, wrenching and shoving while Gray was distracted by the sirens. Gray’s gun went off, but Presley was moving and James came out from behind the barrels, one shot, two. Gray was down and Presley was running to the door.

  Hunt was coming up behind Gray, ready.

  James walked toward Gray. The man was down, but he raised his gun.

  James fired at the same time Hunt did.

  40

  The bullet hit James as he watched Gray go down.

  James wanted to go to Presley to see that she was okay, but his knees buckled, and he fell to the ground.

  He heard Presley, then felt her hands on him. Hunt was by his other side.

  “James, there’s an ambulance coming. Hold on James, hold on.” Hunt was talking to him, but had his phone in his hands.

  Presley’s hands were on him and he could see tears streaking her cheeks. James wanted to tell Presley to run, that she needed to be safe. That was all he needed, for Presley to be safe. He could hear the police entering, Presley and Hunt trying to explain to them that they needed to let the EMTs help James. That he wasn’t the bad guy.

  He heard Cutter’s voice, the deep booming command in it that marked him as a General more than his uniform ever could.

  James closed his eyes. Presley was safe. The police were there. She would go home to the ranch and start her flower shop and live a life away from him. Away from all the fucked-up shit that followed him.

  James felt it when they rolled him onto the backboard. He felt them lift him to the ambulance. He didn’t want to feel any of it. He wanted to float away and be done with everything.

  41

  James woke suddenly, the urge to get to Presle
y overwhelming him. Then she was there, pushing at him, trying to get him to lay down. He recognized the smells of the hospital.

  Strong hands added to Presley’s and pushed him down and there were voices around him. Some he recognized, other he didn’t.

  Cade and Laura were there, but all James cared about was Presley.

  “Are you okay, Pres?”

  She moved into his line of sight and smiled at him. “I’m fine, but you need to stay down.” She glanced over to his side where he heard a machine beeping. He didn’t care.

  James closed his eyes. “I’m so sorry. I never thought they’d grab you. I didn’t even think they’d seen you in the car.”

  “They didn’t,” Cade said. “General Cutter said Gray tracked who you flew to Pennsylvania with and saw the rental car his men shot up was in her name. He probably figured there was a chance you were at least close friends, if not more.”

  “We’re more,” James said, his eyes on Presley’s face. “So much more.” Now he was talking only to her.

  “Let’s give them some privacy,” Laura said and he waited while Cade and Laura left the room.

  “I was so scared,” Presley said, holding his hand with both of hers.

  James couldn’t move his left arm but he lifted his right hand from hers and cupped her cheek. “I’m so sorry they scared you. I’d do anything to take that away.”

  “I thought they were going to kill you. After all you’ve been through, when Silva told me who he was, I thought he was going to kill you.”

  “Is Silva dead?” He’d seen him go down, but the man could have survived. For that matter, Gray could still be alive.

  “They’re both dead. They have Hunt in custody and they have a guard on your door, as though they thought you might get up and walk away.”

  The mention of being confined to a room, even a hospital room, set James on edge immediately.

  Presley squeezed his good hand, and he knew she’d understood right where his head had gone. “I’m working on getting permission from the hospital administrators to get Lulu in here for you.”

  “How about we get me out of here instead?” He tried to lighten the tone, but the effort failed. There was no mistaking the panic in his words.

  “The General is working on it and Cade’s brother got you a lawyer who has experience with military courts.”

  “I couldn’t wait for them to get you out of there. I didn’t know if the General would be able to act quickly enough or what Silva might do if I didn’t show up. He’d already killed one woman I loved. I couldn’t let him take you from me, too. It would have killed me.”

  A doctor came in then, interrupting them before he could tell Presley everything he was feeling. And then she was gone, pushed out by one of the nurses who’d entered with the doctor. James didn’t listen as they talked to him about the surgery he’d need on his arm. They were going to try to piece him together, but he didn’t care. He wanted to talk to Presley, to make sure she knew he didn’t want this to be the casual thing he’d tried to convince them both was the only thing he was capable of.

  42

  Presley was shaken as she left the room. Laura and Cade were there, and Laura wrapped her arms around Presley. The contact helped, but her emotions were so all over the map, she didn’t know how she’d ever feel normal again. First, she’d been through the sheer terror of the kidnapping, then she watched as Silva was shot and she’d gone through the infinitesimally small moment of feeling like she was free. When Colonel Gray had grabbed her, she’d almost shut down completely. Then James had been there. He was there, and he’d gotten her through it. But when she saw the bullet hit him, saw him go down, her fear went to all new levels.

  Fear and anger at what Silva and Gray had put James though. He’d been through so damned much and he didn’t deserve any of it.

  Waiting for him to wake up in that room was agony. She wanted to whisk him away, to get him back to the safety of his loft in the barn, tucked away on the ranch. She wanted this to be over, to know they were safe and he was going to heal. From the arm injury, but also from everything else that had happened to him.

  She hadn’t missed his words in there. He’d talked about his feelings for her and for Catalina as though they were one and the same, but she wouldn’t get her hopes up that he meant to say he loved her. She’d gotten her hopes up in the past when she read too much into what a man told her.

  “He’s going to be okay, Presley. We’ll bring him home and he’ll be better now.” Laura’s words ended on a sob and Cade pulled his wife into his arms.

  Presley wrapped her arms around herself now, listening as Laura cried, but she didn’t cry herself. She knew if she let the tears come, they wouldn’t stop.

  It was so damned unfair to see this man go through anything else. It was too much. The fear that it would break him was too great. What if he never made it back from this?

  Presley looked up to see two figures coming down the hall and her breath caught.

  General Cutter and Hunt were coming toward her.

  “How is he?” the General asked when they got to her.

  “He’s in with the doctor now. They need to operate on his arm,” Presley said. She had heard the doctor talking about the physical therapy that James would need to go through after the surgery. She knew this meant he wouldn’t be able to do the wood working that had been helping him cope with his PTSD. One more thing that had been taken from him, but she could hope this was only temporary. The doctor had sounded like he’d get back the majority of the function in that arm.

  She looked at Hunt and then at the General. “Did they make any decisions about bringing Hunt and James up on charges?”

  The General gave a small nod. “They were acting under my authority. There won’t be any fallout for them.”

  She wondered if that meant there’d be fallout for him. Or maybe it was just that there’d be fallout for other people in the Pentagon who hadn’t realized Gray was selling arms and ammunition to a South American guerrilla leader all this time.

  As if in answer to her question, the General spoke. “He was working with one of the contractors that makes weapons for the armed forces. For years, they’ve added small amounts of extra weapons and ammunition to orders that Gray had siphoned off and stored, then he’d deliver them to Silva. Silva kept some, but others were sold to drug cartels in the area, and some went overseas to quasi-political entities.

  “So, it’s over?” Laura said, coming up beside them.

  Presley held her breath.

  The General nodded. “It’s over. We’ll get him through surgery, and get him home.”

  Presley’s hands shook as she watched the doctor and nurses leave the room. She watched as the General went in to talk to James.

  When the others had all left, she went in to him. He watched her quietly from the bed.

  “When will they take you to surgery?” She asked.

  “Another hour.”

  She stood a few feet from the bed, not sure what to say to him. She didn’t really know what her place was in his world.

  “Come here, Pres.” He reached for her and she went to him, feeling a little like she was hanging in a void, waiting for her world to right itself.

  And then he righted it for her. “I love you. I was afraid to say it before because I don’t deserve you, Presley. I should have pushed you away a long time ago because I don’t think I’ll ever be normal. I think I’ll be half fucked up in the head for the rest of my life. But if you’ll have me, I’m going to be completely selfish and do what will make me happy instead of what I think is right this time. I can’t help it, because I’m not strong enough to give you up.”

  In that instant, Presley could breathe again. She’d always felt just a little off all her life. She’d known she wasn’t like most kids. Hell, she wasn’t quite like most adults. And she’d never found someone who just loved her for who she was, who wanted her just the way she was without any strings attached.

&n
bsp; Until now. And the knowledge set her whole world straight again. She could do anything with this man by her side. She could be anything she wanted to be, as long as she knew he would be there for her at the end of the day.

  He reached up and stroked a tear from her eye. A tear, she hadn’t realized had fallen, and she saw in his face that he was waiting as though she might say no, or tell him she didn’t feel the same way.

  She opened her mouth then, because she couldn’t stand the thought that he might not know she loved him back. “I love you, too. So much. When I thought I might lose you . . ..” She didn’t finish because the thought of losing him had paralyzed her again.

  He tugged her to him and she let him pull her in, right where she wanted to be. She didn’t want to have to let him go into surgery.

  “You won’t lose me. I’m sticking around. I can’t promise you this will be easy or that I won’t need a ton of therapy for years to come, but I promise I’ll keep working on it. I want you to know, I won’t let my anger hurt you the way my dad hurt me and Laura with his anger. If I get to the point where things get bad and I’m taking it out on you, I’ll take myself away while I work on my shit. But I’ll always come back to you.”

  “I think we should try to do it together. You’re in therapy, and really, you’ve only had one time where your anger took over. I understand you’re afraid you’ll be like your dad and hurt me, but why don’t we agree that if we need to, we’ll go see Sarah together and talk to her about ways to work on the anger.”

  He pulled her closer still and kissed her, threading his hand into her hair before breaking off the kiss to look at her. “I don’t deserve you.”

  She smiled. “Of course you do. You deserve the world.” She stopped when she realized what she’d said and shook her head, a grin breaking out on her face.