RunningScaredBN (9 page)

The ruckus Sabrina was causing registered in their hearing at the same time. The man ground the pistol against Aidan’s head again and said, “Who else is with you?”

“My girlfriend. We’re just looking for a place to get it on. You know…have sex. I got horny…and well, you know how it is, amico.” Aidan wiggled his eyebrows for effect.
 

Guy wasn’t buying it. “Let’s go.”

They moved forward again. One of the men in the kitchen bellowed, startling Aidan’s captor. Aidan took his opportunity. Bending and turning, he slammed his left forearm into the hand holding the gun, as his right fist smashed into the man’s face. As if he didn’t know, or didn’t care, that his nose was a bloody mess, the guy let out a low roar and jabbed his fist into Aidan’s gut. Aidan saw it coming and deflected the hit to his face. The bracing pain only pissed him off.

Shoving the man up against the wall, Aidan grabbed him by the neck and squeezed with just the right amount of pressure. The guy went limp, and Aidan helped him to the floor.

Turning, he saw that his partner had subdued the other two men into unconsciousness. Their eyes met. They grinned their triumph at each other and then headed upstairs.

***

Riley and Justin sat in tense silence, listening as the rescue went down. She couldn’t tell how many men Sabrina and Aidan had confronted so far. What amazed her was the stealth and quietness. Other than a few grunts and one bellow that had been cut off almost before it sounded, they’d managed to secure the ground floor.
 

Now the only sounds were the operatives’ quiet breaths as they moved to the second floor. Having worked with them on numerous ops, Riley knew much of their communication was nonverbal.
 

Seconds later, Sabrina’s voice, calm and quiet, said, “Found her.”

“How is she?” Noah asked.

“Alive,” Aidan said, the bleakness in his voice telling them even more.

“Do what you can for her, Thorne,” Noah said. “I’ll have a medical helicopter at your location in approximately twenty minutes.”

“Roger that.” The radio clicked off.

Riley sat back in her chair and let loose an explosive sigh of relief. Now that it was over and everyone was safe, they could all relax. She refused to consider what Taylor Vaughn had endured while in captivity. There was no telling what those fiends had done to her, and dwelling on it was pointless. What one human being could do to another didn’t surprise her. She’d lost her faith in humanity years ago. Last Chance Rescue had restored some of that faith. Not enough for her to let her guard down, though. Never again.

Pushing those dark thoughts away, she glanced over at Justin and then swallowed hard. The fire had chased away the icy chill in the room, and the air had gotten downright balmy. Justin Kelly, who’d never had a modesty problem in his life, had stripped down to a pair of loose shorts and nothing else.

Being attracted to a man wasn’t something Riley had ever believed would be possible. She hoped many of the memories in the dark recesses of her brain never emerged, but the ones that had were horrible, vile. Sexual desire had seemed as far out of reach for her as a kitten flying a plane. Utterly impossible.
 

But then she’d met Justin Kelly, and all her preconceived notions evaporated.
 

“She’s safe now, Ingram.”

“What?”

“You have a worried look on your face.”

Yes, she was worried, but it had little to do with the journalist’s rescue. Justin was right. Taylor Vaughn was safe and would get the medical care she needed. This had been the best kind of outcome. No operatives injured and a successful rescue. It didn’t get better than that.

So no, she wasn’t concerned about that. What troubled her was the man sitting across from her. Those intelligent, piercing eyes saw too much. And now endless hours were ahead of them with nothing to do but talk. Oddly, talking was the lesser of her worries. The biggest were the nightmares.
 

They had been with her from the beginning. Some were so obscure that when she woke, the memories of them were like wisps of thin fog, disintegrating instantly. Others stuck with her longer. Still others had her waking up screaming. What if she had a screaming nightmare? How the hell was she going to explain that?

This wasn’t the first time they’d spent the night together out in the field. They’d been on missions where the accommodations were a hard ground and a small fire. On those occasions, she’d slept lightly, waking frequently. This time would be different. She’d had almost no sleep in over twenty-four hours. That and a long day of hiking had worn her out. Sometimes, exhaustion meant she slept like the dead. Other times, if her body was too tired, she couldn’t fight the demons that invaded her sleep.

And now, having decided to do something about confronting her past, would her subconscious do everything within its power to stop her by reminding her what hell was like? Hiding those violent episodes from Justin was going to be difficult, if not impossible. Just how long could she stay awake tonight?

Justin clenched his fist to keep himself from reaching out to his partner. The wary glances she was giving him were breaking his heart. Addressing them might not be the best idea, but dammit, he had to know.

“Ingram, do you have doubts about me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, do you think there’s some kind of flaw in my character that gives you cause for concern?”

She jerked back as if shocked that he could say such a thing. “Of course not. I have total faith and trust in you.”

“Then you have to know you can tell me anything.”

She looked away from him, and he figured he’d gone too far. He waited, though. They’d come this far, could they go further?

“Justin, it’s not a lack of trust. It’s just… I don’t know. Saying it’s complicated sounds like a cliché, but in this case…” She sighed. “Sometimes I can hardly believe it myself, and I’m the one who lived through it.”

“Did what happened to you occur after your parents’ deaths?”

An odd expression flickered on her face. The answer she gave was even more enigmatic. “Yes, I guess you could say that.”

“Are the people…or man who hurt you still alive?”

“I don’t know. Probably. I don’t usually worry about being out in public, but Brennan and Kacie’s wedding was international news. I felt I had no choice but to disguise myself.”

“Can you tell me how you started with LCR?”

“No,” she whispered. “I can’t.”
 

Before the disappointment could even register, her next words cracked his heart open wide. “Have patience with me. Please, Justin? This is really hard for me.”

“You take all the time you need, sweetheart. Just know I’m here when you’re ready.”

The endearment was deliberate. He wanted her to accept the transition, if she hadn’t already. This was no longer Ingram and Kelly having a discussion. An intimacy had developed between them. One that he wanted to grow and expand.

The response to his comment was more than he could have hoped for. Her eyes took on a soft, dreaminess, and her mouth lifted in a rare smile.

Justin’s heart was beating like the bass line of a hard rock song. If he said anything more, asked anything else of her tonight, he was certain she’d close down.
 

He said the first thing that came to mind. “Fox and Thorne have a good partnership.”

The relief on her face told him he’d said the right thing.
 

“Noah’s good about pairing up people who work well together.” She tilted her head. “Did you worry he’d made a mistake with us?”

Surprised but pleased that she’d asked something even remotely personal, he nodded, knowing she wouldn’t take offense. “Yeah, I did. We didn’t seem to have a lot in common.”

“Until that first op.”

Their first op together had been an eye-opening experience in many ways. Riley had seemed so closed-off and distant, he had anticipated major problems, even a failed op. He’d voiced his concern to McCall, who’d told him to give her a chance. He was damn glad he had.

“Why do you think we work so well together?” she asked.

He had some theories but doubted she’d be interested in hearing them right now. Baby steps were his only choice. The caution, however, didn’t stop him from countering. “Why do
you
think we work so well together?”

She sent him a teasing grin, a rarity for her. “Really bad deflect, Kelly. And I don’t know why either. We train together a lot, so that might be one reason. But other than I can somehow read what you’re going to do before you do it, I think we complement each other. Our strengths somehow mesh.”

“Yeah. Did you have skills before you came to LCR, or did you learn them all from McCall’s training?”

Skills? Riley almost laughed out loud at that. She’d had no knowledge of how to defend herself, physically or emotionally. When Noah had found her, she’d barely been able to function as a human being, much less as a confident, skilled operative.
 

Since telling him that would create a multitude of questions she wasn’t close to being ready to answer, she responded truthfully if vaguely. “All LCR training. What about you?”

“Already had military training, but my hand-to-hand needed some work.”
 

“Logistical planning of a mission was a breeze for me. I did pretty well on shooting, too, but my hand-to-hand sucked.”

He flashed her one of his teasing grins. “Bet that creep you took down in Iraq a couple of weeks ago thinks differently.”

Riley felt an unusual burst of pride. She had taken the cretin down, and with minimal effort. If she’d had this skill earlier in life, everything could have been so different.

“A smaller size can be an advantage, because most people underestimate you.”

“That’s what Noah said.”

There was no need to go into detail about how her size had nothing to do with her difficulty in learning how to physically defend herself. It had taken her months to allow anyone to touch her. Putting herself into a training exercise in which physical contact was a must had been unbearable. But with her therapist’s help and Noah McCall’s incredible patience, she had overcome that fear, along with a multitude of others.

A giant yawn took her off guard. The lack of sleep plus the hours-long hike today, along with the additional stress of Justin’s questions, had taken their toll.

“Why don’t you take the bathroom first? I’m going to do a quick perimeter check.”

She stifled another yawn. “Call me if you need help.”
 

Justin watched her walk away, almost stumbling in her exhaustion. He’d learned a lot tonight. Not so much actual information, but a whole lot more about what was in Riley’s mind and heart. First, she did trust him. He had known that, but he’d wanted to hear her say the words. And second, she was having the same thoughts he was about their relationship. He’d seen the spark of attraction from her before, but tonight there had been more. Even though he told himself to take it slow, that anything this good would be even better if it wasn’t rushed, it was still damn hard to hold back.

He took a little longer than normal to check their surroundings and then lock up. He wanted to give her a chance to settle down. Hopefully, she’d be asleep when he went back inside. There was only one bed in the cabin, and no way in hell was he going to sleep on the too-short couch or the floor. If she was already asleep when he got in bed, it would make things less awkward. He wouldn’t do anything without her permission, but neither did he want her to worry about it. As he had told her, she could take all the time she needed.

Didn’t mean things were going to be easy, but anything worthwhile was worth waiting for. And he was learning, Riley Ingram was definitely worth the wait.

***

Why did the dreams always begin the same? Even as she told herself she was falling into one, she couldn’t prevent the descent into darkness.

First, there was only pitch-black nothingness, then the fear came, almost overwhelming in its intensity. What would he do this time? What could she do but allow it to happen and pray it wasn’t as bad as last time? But she knew those prayers were pointless. She had defied him. The other times had been about his pleasure. This time…this time it would be about her punishment.

Could it be worse than it had already been? A secret, evil voice cackled inside her. Yes, yes, yes, it could and would.

She heard the sounds first. Soft little scratches, then the pitter-patter of tiny little feet. What was that? What was he doing now? She struggled against the ties at her wrists and ankles. She had expected pain and fear, but this was almost worse. Not knowing fed her imagination until her fear was at a fever pitch. The noise grew louder and louder, and then the squeals came. It sounded like an army of rats! He was going to let rats devour her, feed on her? This was her punishment? So it was to be death this time.

Screams built inside her, but he had filled her mouth with a ball gag, which only allowed muffled sounds. Why couldn’t he have allowed her the release of screaming? She struggled, the bindings on her wrists and ankles becoming unbearable as she fought to break the bonds. Blood dripped down her arms, and her panic grew. The rats! They would smell the blood! They would be on her in seconds, feeding, devouring!
Help! Help! Please!
Her mind pleaded for a faceless, nameless person to save her, but there was no one to care. Even if she had been able to utter a word, no one gave a damn about her. She had learned that final truth today.