Isaac nodded, tucking her head against his chest so he could rest his chin atop her head.
“I know it may not seem like it now, but honey, soon this will be all over and once it is, I’m making you mine legally, and then I’ll go to work making you so happy that one day you’ll look back at all that happened and it won’t be so bright in your memory.”
She yawned and snuggled closer to him, wrapping her legs around his. “You have no idea how much I want that, Isaac. But I’m afraid to dream. I’m afraid to hope. Before, I didn’t have anything to look forward to, dream about or that gave me hope, so it didn’t really matter what happened. But now there’s so much I want, and I couldn’t bear it if it was all taken away after I had the chance to experience it even for a short time.”
“With love, miracles happen, and you were already a miracle, so I’m liking our odds. Don’t count us out before we ever get to start on our journey together. I swear to you that if you’ll trust me with your heart and your happiness, you’ll enjoy every minute of the ride.”
TWENTY
ISAACeased himself from the bed, having waited until Jenna succumbed fully to the sedative, and he leaned down to press his lips to her brow, closing his eyes, his heart aching over what he knew lay ahead. She’d endured enough hurt and sorrow for a lifetime, and it frustrated him that he couldn’t just make it all go away for her instantaneously. Before it was all over with, she would suffer still more emotional duress, but he’d give his life to prevent her from enduring more physical pain. He fervently prayed that violence never touched her again, though he knew he couldn’t make that kind of guarantee. The only promise he could make was that he’d protect her as fiercely as he’d ever protected anyone and he knew his men would do the same. Their determination matched his own, and it was there to see in their eyes and their demeanor.
He quietly made his exit, softly closing the door behind him, and then strode to the living room, his mind already shifting gears to the next obstacle to keeping Jenna glued to his side for the rest of their lives.
“Sitrep,” Isaac said, not wasting any time in getting to the heart of the matter.
Dane turned to him with a grim expression, his jaw tight and his eyes blazing with anger and worry. And that made Isaac that much more uneasy because Dane didn’t get worried about much. Only when it came to the people closest to him, the men who worked under him, did he lose his characteristic unflappable calm.
It had been almost too painful to look at him when Lizzie had fallen off the radar and they’d learned she’d gone vigilante in order to spare the lives of the only people she cared deeply about: Dane and the men she worked with at DSS and the women, Tori, Ramie, Ari and Gracie. And when he’d knelt next to her while Sterling held her nearly lifeless body as blood ran like a river from the horrendous gunshot wound to her chest, it had been the first time Isaac had ever seen him in such an emotional state, battling tears and grief when the medics arrived and she’d flatlined.
Nearly losing Lizzie had changed him on a fundamental level. Though he was still cool and rarely rattled over any situation, he was more protective of all the people who worked under him and doubly so of the women who had such close ties to men who worked for DSS.
Where before he gave much latitude and adopted a hands-off approach when it came to missions he wasn’t leading, now he kept his thumb on the pulse of every single mission that came DSS’s way. He sat in on every meeting regardless of whether he was working that particular assignment and he checked in regularly with whoever was lead, always ensuring his men had every resource available to them possible.
And if he even thought there was any danger to any one of his teams, he didn’t hesitate to insert himself and work side by side with every agent, but he didn’t try to take over and assume leadership. Dane simply didn’t have an ego, and it was one of the things Isaac liked most about working under him. His only priority was getting the job done quickly and efficiently without any DSS agent getting hurt or killed.
“I called Caleb, Beau and Zack first,” Dane said tersely. “I explained what happened and that we’re ninety-nine percent sure this was a calculated strike planned before Jenna even escaped. That after the prearranged exchange, the bastard buying her ordered every single person who had any knowledge of her existence to be terminated. It makes sense. Jenna’s been with the cult nearly her entire life and no one outside the cult would have any way of knowing anything about her, so there would be no one to question her disappearance. The drug kingpin would have what he was desperate to possess with no fear of anyone ever causing an uproar over her vanishing. She simply wouldn’t exist, much like she hasn’t existed for the last two decades.”
“But our interference changed everything and completely fucked up the asshole’s plan,” Knight growled. “Especially after we went in to retrieve Jenna and stole her back right under his nose. Now he has to contend with us and he knows that if he’s ever successful in getting Jenna back, we’ll hunt him relentlessly, and he can’t afford to add another enemy to his long list of people who’d like to cut him into little pieces and make him fish food.”
“Exactly,” Dane said. “Which means he’ll come at us with everything he has and he’ll move fast, because he can’t take the chance of the knowledge of Jenna’s existence going beyond our organization.”
“Fuck,” Isaac said, fury coiling and boiling through his veins. “God damn it. She’s had enough! How much more does she have to suffer? How much longer does she have to live in constant fear? She’s going to want to bolt the minute she realizes that we’re that fucking drug dealer’s next target and I’ve got to convince her that it wouldn’t make a damn difference now. Whether she’s gone or not, they’re going to try to take every last one of us out because of what we know.”
“Caleb, Beau and Zack are going to lock down the women and spread out to different locations so they don’t present a single target. Tori will be with Caleb and Ramie. I’m going to call in a few favors because I don’t want them alone, but we need every single DSS agent on Jenna’s detail, so I’m going to arrange for protection for them,” Dane said.
“What about Lizzie?” Isaac asked in concern.
“I’ve given Sterling the rundown and while Lizzie won’t be happy she’s in lockdown too, they’re moving to an undisclosed location. Sterling has enough manpower to give them adequate protection.”
Isaac exhaled in relief. He knew Lizzie was going to be pissed because she was a damn good agent and in any other circumstance, he’d be glad for her to have his back. But she still wasn’t one hundred percent recovered from her brush with death. She’d been through her own hell and the last thing she needed was to be right back in the line of fire. Not that Sterling would ever allow it. Lizzie’s husband was one of the few men who didn’t back down from her and had no problem going toe to toe with her when it came to her safety. Her being at risk was never going to be an argument she won with Sterling. The man was every bit as hot-headed, stubborn and rigid as Lizzie could be, especially when it came to anything having to do with his wife being in harm’s way. Sterling wasn’t above cuffing her to his wrist, a chair or his bed, because he’d unapologetically done it before.
“So what do we do in the meantime?” Isaac asked, noting every one of his teammates come to attention and focus intently on Dane. They obviously wanted to know every bit as badly as he did. They all hated just sitting around with their thumbs up their asses, waiting for the enemy to come to them.
That wasn’t who or what they were. It wasn’t the way they operated. Ever. They took the fight to their opponent. They called the shots. They decided when, how and where and they always opted for the element of surprise. It had certainly served them well enough in the past.
“We keep Jenna safe. We watch our sixes at all times. I don’t want anyone going anywhere alone. No easy targets. If they want us, they’re going to have to take us all on,” Dane said.
“So we sit tight, stay here and play house and pretend we aren’t being hunted and that those bastards won’t try to get their hands on Jenna again,” Isaac said bitterly.
The others didn’t look any happier with Dane’s edict. Dane gripped his nape with one hand, rubbing and squeezing, his agitation evident.
“If you think I like this any more than any of you, you’re fucking wrong,” he snapped. “Our primary objective is to keep an innocent woman from the hands of a goddamn monster. A man who ordered the slaughter of over one hundred people, including babies, children and women. Staying here is the very best thing we can do for the time being, until we know more about them than they do about us. If we show ourselves in public then we betray Jenna, when we’ve sworn to her that we’ll do anything we can to make sure she’s never subjected to that butcher’s brutality. Does it suck? Hell yeah. It turns my fucking stomach to stand down and hide like some fucking coward and send them the message that we’re afraid of them.”
Dane grew even more furious, his face reddening in rage.
“We aren’t afraid of inept dickheads who get off on making an innocent woman suffer. What we are is smarter. While they’re running out in broad daylight and in public, we’re lying low and waiting for them to fuck up and make a mistake, and that’s when we nail their asses to the wall. And you know what? Let them think we’re afraid. It will only make them that much more confident and bolder and since they’re already stupid as fuck, they’ll screw up. We just have to be patient and not be the ones to fuck up first.”
“Gotta say, boss man, that’s twisted yet very righteous logic,” Dex said.
