In His Keeping (Slow Burn #2) (32 page)

“I think there is someone who would very much like to hold you right now. This has been hard on him too, Ari. He found out some very difficult information as well. You should lean on each other.”

Beau watched the myriad of emotions flash across Ari’s face as she looked up at Beau. Then with an inarticulate cry, she ran across the room and threw herself into his outstretched arms, wrapping her own around his waist and hugging him for dear life.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered brokenly. “I’m so sorry, Beau. You didn’t deserve how I treated you. You’re the last person who deserved it. Please forgive me. You are the only one true thing in my life right now. The only person I have complete faith in. The only person I trust. Please, please don’t be angry with me.”

He gathered her to him, crushing her, holding as tightly as he dared without breaking her bones. He buried his face in her sweet-smelling hair and simply held her in silence, his chest heaving with unshed emotion.

He wouldn’t break down. Not here. Not in front of the others. Not when Ari desperately needed him to be strong for her.

When he finally pulled back, he framed her beautiful face and stared intently into her eyes, drowning, losing his very soul in her. He never wanted to be found. He was lost in her and he planned to stay lost for the rest of his life.

He kissed her. Just a gentle brush, the tenderest of kisses. Meant to comfort, soothe and reassure her that he was here. He was real. Solid. And he wasn’t going anywhere.

She leaned her forehead in, resting it against the hollow of his throat so that his chin rested atop her silky hair. He could feel the fatigue emanating from her in waves. Knew she’d reached her absolute breaking point.

He reached down and gathered her hands in his. “Let’s go to bed, honey. Tomorrow we’ll launch a full-scale attack. We’ll draw the fuckers to us and then we’ll extract the information we need no matter what it takes.”

She shivered against him, and he knew that she was imagining the implications of his words. But she didn’t react in horror or disgust. She simply drew her head away and looked up at him as if he was her entire world. And damn it, he wanted to be. When all of this was over, he was going to pour out his entire goddamn heart. He was going to cut it out of his chest and lay it before her. Make himself completely vulnerable to her and bare his very soul.

He could only hope that when he did that she wouldn’t reject the only gifts he had to give her. His heart. His soul. His body.

His love
.

TWENTY-SEVEN

BEAU
sat straight up in bed, Ari literally falling from his arms back onto the mattress below. She murmured a sleepy protest but promptly snuggled into the pillow, never once opening her eyes.

“What the fuck?” Beau demanded, blinking his eyes as the room was suddenly flooded with light.

When he could see, Zack was standing there, rifle over one shoulder, two pistols in a shoulder holster, several flash bangs as well as grenades circling his waist. Another gun was strapped to the inside of his thigh, while the other leg had one strapped on the outside of his thigh so the pistols didn’t bang against each other when he walked. If that weren’t enough, he had at least three knives strapped at convenient, easily accessible areas on his body and yet another, smaller pistol secured around his ankle. He looked like he was fucking going to war.

Beau was instantly alert, out of bed before Zack could even open his mouth.

“Sitrep,” Beau barked, already reaching for his own arsenal. He didn’t reach for a shirt yet, only pausing long enough to pull on fatigues that were specially designed for
his
weapon preferences. He quickly secured a Kevlar vest around his torso and then yanked a black long-sleeved shirt that was invisible at night.

“They’re coming at us on our own turf. They’re mounting a major assault. They’ve already breached the perimeter and are just past outlying security and moving fast. I’ve already alerted the others but you need to get Ari to the safe room. Caleb is bringing Ramie there now.”

“Fuck!”

After securing all his weapons and adding some perfectly illegal C4 to one of the pouches on his fatigues in easy reach, he ran to the bed, not even bothering to wake Ari up or even try to explain the situation. Time was of the essence and his first priority was to ensure her safety.

He hauled her up more roughly than he’d like and Zack preceded him from the room, providing cover, though by all accounts, the intruders were still at least four minutes out. Four very precious minutes in which they had to stash the women and decide the best course of defense.

“Beau?” Ari asked in a sleepy puzzled voice.

“Shhh, honey. I don’t have time to explain. Just trust me.”

To her credit she went utterly still, though he could see the instant fright in her eyes. She closed her mouth, though he knew it had to be hard for her to just blindly accept his dictate without having at least a hint of what was happening.

He hit the hallway at a full run, covering the distance to the safe room in record time, even bearing Ari’s slight weight. Zack got there first, punched in the security code so the door swooshed open just as Beau arrived and rushed through the door.

Ramie was already there, huddled in one of the chairs, looking utterly terrified, eyes wide, all color leached from her face. But when she saw Ari, she seemed relieved not to be alone any longer.

Beau deposited Ari into the chair next to Ramie and then swiftly went to the gun cabinet housed inside the safe room. He grabbed four handguns and two extra clips for each, in addition to the clips already loaded in the pistols.

He thrust two in Ramie’s direction, ensuring she had a firm grip before he relinquished his. Then he did the same with Ari. A bewildered look crossed her face as she stared at the gun as though it were a completely alien object.

He cursed under his breath. She’d obviously never so much as touched a gun, which surprised him given her father’s overzealousness when it came to personal protection. He’d assumed when she’d so calmly taken the gun from Brent that very first day and climbed out of the wrecked vehicle and then later tossed it to him that she had knowledge of weapons. Now he realized she’d just acted on instinct, her driving force to protect others.

“Listen to me, Ari,” Beau said in a tone that brooked no interruption. “This is a Glock. It doesn’t have a safety so be damn careful about where you point it and keep your finger off the trigger unless you intend to shoot. If anyone and I mean anyone but one of us manages to gain access to this room, you just point and shoot and you keep shooting until you take the fucker out. Understand?”

He turned to Ramie to ensure she’d heard his curt instruction. She nodded her acknowledgment.

“Let’s go,” Beau barked at Zack. “Give me the rundown on where the others are and what positions they’ve taken and if we have any backup that will arrive in time to do us any good.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

“WHAT’S
happening, Ramie?” Ari asked.

Terror had its unyielding grip around her neck, nearly choking her. She could barely draw breath and had to concentrate on every single inhale and exhale so she didn’t do something really stupid like faint.

“I don’t know,” Ramie said faintly, her eyes reflecting the same terror Ari felt. “We’re under attack. Caleb didn’t say more. There wasn’t time. He dumped me here and ran.”

“How safe are we here?” Ari asked fearfully.

“I don’t know all of the logistics,” Ramie admitted. “I do know it would take a bigger than normal dose of explosives to penetrate the door. The walls are triple-layered, reinforced steel, the middle being bulletproof and blastproof. But it’s never been tested. I always thought it overly paranoid for them to have a room like this, but right now I’m pretty damn grateful for it.”

Ari nodded her fervent agreement. And then voiced her other paralyzing fear.

“What about . . . them . . . though?” she asked in a shaky voice. “How do we know what’s happening? What if something happens to them? Why would they lock me in here when I could be of great use to them?”

Ramie looked down at the guns, her hands trembling, and she repositioned her finger so it was nowhere near the trigger. “Beau would never put you in the line of fire. It doesn’t matter what you can or can’t do. They’re trained for this. You aren’t. You would be a distraction, because Beau—all of them—would be more worried about you than protecting themselves and taking out any potential threat.”

“God, I hate just sitting here. Completely helpless,” Ari said fiercely.

“I know,” Ramie agreed in a low, trembling voice. “I’m scared too, Ari. I’m petrified. I don’t want to lose Caleb.”

Pain slashed wickedly through Ari’s chest and she was momentarily incapable of breathing. “They can’t die,” she said fiercely, when she regained the ability to speak. “They can’t. They won’t. They have to come back to us. They
will
come back to us. We can’t allow ourselves to entertain any other possibility.”

Silence fell between the two women as they both sat in contemplation, each tortured by their thoughts as they imagined everything that could go wrong.

Ari watched the digital clock on the wall, each minute changing seemingly in hours, not sixty seconds. The time dragged into eternity until Ari was on the verge of going mad with worry, fear and uncertainty. What was going on out there? Was Beau lying out there injured? Unable to protect himself?

She closed her eyes, biting hard into her lip, the next logical step in her stairway to doom hovering on the fringes of her mind.

Was he even alive?

Oh God, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t simply sit still. The silence, the walls that seemed to close in around her, making the room smaller and smaller until she felt as though she’d suffocate. She was going to go crazy.

She carefully laid the guns aside and then dug her palms into her eyes, pressing inward, rocking back and forth as a vile ache began in her head.

“Ari, are you okay?” Ramie asked anxiously, breaking the silence for the first time in what seemed like hours.

Ari glanced at the clock to see, that in actuality, fifty-three minutes had elapsed. A lifetime. That had to be bad, right? If they’d gone out, kicked ass and eliminated the bad guys, they should be back by now, shouldn’t they?

Bullets were fast and efficient.

The room shook curiously and for a moment, Ari thought it was just her reaction to the claustrophobic sensation that was becoming more prevalent by the minute. Ramie must have felt it too, because her gaze immediately flew to the door and Ari’s breath caught.

Were they back? Were they coming in? Or was someone who shouldn’t be trying to gain access to the door? Maybe the room vibrated when an incorrect code has been entered. If an explosive had been attempted, they would have certainly felt more than the subtle vibration they felt.

“What was that?” Ari whispered.

“I don’t know,” Ramie whispered back. “Do you still hear it? I don’t.”

Ari strained her ears, wondering if they’d both imagined it, but surely they wouldn’t have both had the same delusion.

And suddenly a deafening explosion sounded, a light flashing that was so blinding that Ari was rendered just that. Blind. The force of the explosion hurled her across the room and she hit the wall with a resounding thud before sliding slowly down to a sagging, sitting position on the floor, only remaining upright because the wall was propping her up.

She couldn’t see or hear a damn thing. Her mind was in utter chaos and it had nothing to do with her powers, not that she could focus enough to use them, nor would she know how to direct them at an unseen attacker when she was utterly blinded. What the hell had just happened and how?

The door hadn’t opened. She and Ramie had both been staring at it when the explosion occurred.

Rough hands hauled her up, and she knew instantly that this was not Beau. Nor was it someone who was in any way protecting her. Fear and adrenaline jolted through her body, giving her a much-needed boost to ward off the effects of the stunning explosive.

Ramie cried out, a shrill sound of fear.

“Ramie!” Ari shouted. “Are you all right?”

A hand clamped over her mouth and a rough voice whispered next to her ear. “Shut up and keep quiet and listen up or your friend will suffer a very unpleasant death.”

Ari went completely still, terror forming ice in her veins. If the intruders had somehow gained access to the safe room, it meant they’d gone through the DSS operatives. No way, if Beau was alive, would he fail to protect her. Tears burned her eyelids and trailed down her cheeks, colliding with the hand still clamped over her mouth.

“Now, here’s how it’s going to play out,” he said against her ear that was still ringing from the deafening explosion. She realized with sudden clarity that he was, in fact, shouting the words.

“We only want you. We have no need for the others, nor do we want to kill unnecessarily, unless you force our hand.”

Her heart pounded furiously. Did that mean Beau and the others weren’t dead?

“You have two choices. You leave quietly with us, or we kill everyone, beginning with the female you’re currently sharing quarters with. Right now, my men are merely delaying the others, waiting for your extrication. So it’s up to you. You refuse and I issue the order to kill everyone and we still take you, so your fate is inevitable. It’s just a matter of whether you want to spare some lives in the process.”

“I’ll go,” she croaked. “Don’t kill them. I’ll go. I’ll cooperate. I swear. Just please don’t hurt her and don’t kill the others.”

Her vision had started to clear just enough to bring her fuzzy surroundings into focus. It was then she saw how the safe room had been breached. Through the roof, into the attic and then a wide hole, large enough for two people to fit through easily, had been cut out.

She instinctively jumped, startled when a drop-down ladder fell through the hole and into the room. She glanced Ramie’s way, wondering if the woman had heard the bargain Ari had just made for her life. For all their lives.