Where was she? How long had she been gone? How badly was she hurt?How could I let this happen?
Stumbling out the door, Jake was down the steps before even realizing he’d walked outside. He passed by his teammates in a haze. Could hear their voices, but didn’t bother listening to what they were saying.
He didn’t care. All he could think about was the fact that the love of his life had been taken by a madman hell bent on revenge.
His breathing picked up. His heart raced. Liv was out there somewhere, and she was hurt.
That bastard, Cetro, had put his hands on her for the second time, despite Jake’s promises that he would never be able to touch her again.She may already be dead.
Ah, Christ, he couldn’t take this. The guilt, the pain, the fucking gut-wrenching fear for what Olivia may be going through was a living, breathing thing.
It was tearing him apart, piece by fucking piece. And it was all his fault.
“Goddammit!”Jake roared as his fist slammed into his truck’s passenger-side door.
He felt no pain, only the fear that now consumed him to the point of madness. Chest heaving, he raised his fist again. When he started to swing again, his arm met with a strong resistance.
Ready to fight, Jake spun around, surprised to find Grant’s hard eyes staring back at his. The other man must have arrived while he’d been in the house.
“Let me go,” Jake growled menacingly.
With zero intention of following orders, Grant said, “Can’t do that, boss.”
“What the fuck do you mean, you can’t do that?” Jake tried to jerk from the other man’s grasp but was unsuccessful. “Let. Me.Go!”
Grant’s only reaction was a curt shake of his head and a clear, “Not happening, boss.”
Jake’s nostrils flared as his breaths moved in and out in hard, fast puffs. He couldn’t believe that, Grant Hill—of all fucking people—had his hands on him. Wasdisobeyinghim.
Jake opened his mouth to tell the asshole off, but the big guy didn’t give him the chance.
“Don’t do this to yourself, Jake. It’s not your fault.”
“The hell it’s not!” Jake finally managed to pull from Hill’s grasp. “She’smineto protect, andIlet her go!”
“And she needs you, boss.” This time, it was Coop who spoke up. “You’re not going to be any good to her like this.”
Jake looked at Coop then glanced around at Trevor and Mac who had all moved in closer, their faces covered with matching looks of concern. Finally, he looked back at Grant.
“That bastard has her, again. He’shurther.” His voice broke. Tears fell down his face, but Jake didn’t care. “And it’s my fault.”
He looked back at the house, the images of what he’d found inside, forever burned into his mind.
“I swore to her that we’d caught him. I told her he’d never be able to hurt her again. And now he has her, and I don’t even know if she’s alive or—”
Trevor chimed in with, “She’s alive, Jake. If Cetro wanted her dead, we would have found her body in the house. There would have been no reason to take her.” Jake’s friend took a step toward him. “But you losing your shit, right now, isn’t going to help get her back.”
Jake’s mind cleared just enough to realize his friend was right. If Cetro just wanted to kill Olivia, he would have done it here and left her for him to find.
He was keeping her alive, for now at least, butGod...Jake couldn’t allow himself to think about what that bastard was doing to her. What hewoulddo. Because Jake had no doubt that Cetro would kill her eventually.
“Boss, this isn’t your fault any more than it is ours,” Grant spoke up again. “Now, you can stand here feeling sorry for yourself, or you can get your head out of your ass and do what needs to be done to ensure that Olivia makes it out of this thing alive.”
“You don’t understand Grant—”
“Do you love her?” Mac’s voice broke through.
Jake’s eyes burned. He blinked back more tears. Turning to her, he whispered, “More than anything.”
