While the four of us are out here, he’s in the SUV parked nearby, trying to hack into their surveillance cameras. If he can see inside, it will hopefully give us more intel on whatRobert’s doing here, and if we’re lucky, he’ll also get access to audio. If we know when he’s going to leave, we’ll have a chance to take him out.
“We have weapons, we should just go in there, guns blazing,” Dex says after a minute.
“Good way to get killed,”I sign back.
Over the next two hours, we watch quietly as a few men walk around the compound, but mostly, everything is quiet. Nobody sends any texts, and I find myself becoming more and more anxious the longer I’m away from Wren.
When Elias finally texts us to come back, it takes everything in me not to run back to the SUV; only self-preservation keeps me quietly moving through the trees. When I finally spot the vehicle, I sprint the last ten feet and yank open the back door.
Elias is sitting closest to the door, but a startled Wren peeks out from behind him, her eyes wide in surprise. When she sees it’s me, a full smile covers her face. “Jagger!” I reach around Elias for her at the same time she leaps toward me. I eagerly pull her into my arms, holding her tight as she wraps herself around me.
“Don’t mind me,” Elias mumbles in frustration as he closes his laptop and moves to the back row. I ignore him, lifting Wren into my arms and pressing my face to the crook of her neck, inhaling her sweet scent as I settle into the middle row of seats with her straddling my lap.
I squeeze her tight to me, and when I finally release my grip, she pulls back and smiles at me, signing,“I missed you, too.”
That, right there, is one of the reasons I love her. She knows what I’m thinking without me ever having to say a word.
I cup her cheek before pulling her lips to mine in a quick kiss. I was only apart from her for a few hours, but it feels like way too long. She turns sideways as the others greet her, and eventually she settles in my lap as I pull the seatbelt around us both.
Her head rests on my chest, and I kiss the top of it, closing my eyes as I hold her tightly in my arms. It’s only in moments like this, when I get to hold her close, that my mind finally settles. The rumble of the engine, the slight swaying of the vehicle, and the warm angel in my lap soon have me drifting off to sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
WREN
“Good, you’re getting faster,” Pete says as he motions for me to repeat the action.
When we got home from our stakeout, Pete and I had too much energy to sit down, so he took me in the yard for some training. He’s been teaching me how to move away from an attacker without getting hit. Each time I try it, I get faster and faster, and it’s definitely a boost to my self-esteem when I finally manage to slip out of his grasp.
“Now I want to teach you something else,” he says, moving behind me and gripping my shoulders. “One day you may find yourself somewhere in danger, but without a weapon.” He slowly turns us to face the whole yard. “There are a lot of things you can use as a weapon or turn into one. Tell me what you see.”
“Uhh…” My eyes move around the yard, but I don’t see anything useful. “There’s nothing here.”
I feel him shake his head as he points in front of us. “The shed, that’s probably filled with potential weapons.” He turns us away from it and asks. “What else do you see?”
“Um… a patio chair?” I ask, unsure.
“You could use that, although it’s probably a bit too heavy, and if your attacker is bigger than you, they’ll probably be able to catch it before it hits them.”
“It wouldn’t be my first choice either, but I don’t see anything else.”
He points to the table and says, “The coffee mug.”
“How do you use a mug as a weapon?”
“Anything can be a weapon if used right. The mug is light enough that you could get a decent swing and hit them in the head. Maybe it has hot coffee in it. You could throw that in their face. Or, grab the handle and smash the mug on the edge of the table. That should give you some sharp pieces to work with.”
“You’re very…creativewith hurting people,” I tell him.
His arms encircle me, and he nips at my ear, sending a bolt of lust to my clit. “Does that scare you, angel?”
“Not at all.”
“Hmm,” he hums in my ear, then releases me and steps back. I turn to face him, and he throws his arms wide. “Okay, what else do you see out here that you can use?”
I try to take his advice, remembering anything can be a weapon, as I scan the yard. I point to the flower bed by the back of the bedroom window. “Those wire frames for the vines, they probably have pointy ends in the ground.”
“Very good, what else?”
