Jack stepped away from the wall and stalked toward her. Charlie glanced frantically around, but she had nowhere to go unless she plunged into the dwindling daylight and took the risk of exposing their hiding place.
When Jack placed his hands on the wall next to her head, she lifted her chin as she prepared to knee him in the crotch. It didn’t matter that she’d spent a couple of hours receiving a lot of pleasure from his cock, she’d ram it into his intestines if he did anything she didn’t like.
“I’m not going to be flitting in and out of your life,” he said.
“That’s easy to say, but we barely know each other, and people grow tired of children who aren’t their own.”
“I helped raise a brood of children who aren’t my own. There were plenty of times they drove me nuts, and they still do, but I love them all. I’d kill for them, and I’d die for them.”
“You helped raise those children from the time they were babies. Coming into a child’s life when they’re older is a totally different thing.”
She was the most stubborn, infuriating woman he’d ever met, but he refused to argue with her further. Fighting wouldn’t change her mind; it would only cause her to dig her heels in deeper. Her past had damaged her, and her walls weren’t the type that could be hammered down with logic and anger. No, her walls needed to be picked apart, brick by brick, so she didn’t realize they weren’t standing anymore.
“Believe what you will,” he said and lowered his arms to step away from her.
Charlie hated the disappointment washing through her. He’d given up so quickly.
“But I’ll prove to you I mean what I say,” he said.
And she hated the hope his words gave her even more. Hope would only lead to another broken heart. “And how will you do that?”
He shrugged. “I’ll find a way.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Charlie followedJack over the jetty before pressing close against the cliff face as she paused to take in the vast expanse of wide-open beach before them. They should have made their move during the daytime. Yes, it would have been easier to spot them, but they weren’t invisible here, and judging by the howls and screams filling the night, the hunt was in full swing.
She tried not to let her terror show, but when a howl echoed down the rocks until it reverberated all around them, she couldn’t stop herself from shivering. Jack’s eyes were tinted red when they met hers before he gazed at the top of the cliff. The screams sounded as if they were directly above them, but with the way they echoed, they could be coming from ten feet down the beach.
Jack leaned back on his heels as he surveyed the cliffs and then the beach. The echo made it sound as if a hundred Savages were closing in on them. He knew they weren’t close by, but the two of them shouldn’t be out here. His gaze fell on Charlie as she huddled closer to the rocks. The gun strapped to her back wouldn’t do them much good if they came up against a hoard of Savages.
He would get her out of this. He wouldnotlose her to these bastards, but he didn’t know what to do. Staring at the beach and then the cliffs against his left shoulder, he knew there was only one choice—they had to swim for it.
He was a strong swimmer, but he didn’t like the idea of being caught between the ocean and the cliffs, especially with the tide in. They would stay close to the cliffs as they swam around them to one of the side tunnels. They wouldn’t be as noticeable in the ocean, not with the waves crashing over them. And if they couldn’t get into one of the side tunnels…
Jack shut down the possibility. They had no choice. They would eventually be spotted on the beach, and they would get caught if they scaled the cliff to the top.
“We have to go back,” Jack said.
“There’s nowhere to go back to.”
“We’ll swim around the cliffs to get to the side tunnels.”
“There’s no guarantee any of the side tunnels are open.”
“No, there’s not,” he said. “But we’re guaranteed to be spotted or killed if we keep going this way. The cliffs and waves will make swimming difficult, but we’re immortal, so it’s not like we’re going to drown.”
“Yeah, but…”
“But what?” he asked when her voice trailed off.
Charlie didn’t know what to say. He was right; they had no other choice but to go back and around the cliffs.
Jack frowned at Charlie when the color drained from her face. “Can you swim?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she muttered.
But she didn’t know how well she could swim in the ocean; the only place she’d ever swam was in a pool. Growing up, her parents hadn’t bothered to teach her to swim, she never got invited to a pool party, and the only time she saw a lake was when they drove by it on their way to her ballet lessons.
