Page 9 of Vision of Truth

“Oh, God! Isaac, you’re bleeding. We need to get you to a hospital.” She suddenly noticed Rowan and stepped in front of him. It was endearing that her first thought was to shield him. Isaac put his hand on Julie’s shoulders.

“It’s okay, baby. This is my teammate, Rowan. This is Julie.” His friend’s eyes widened but he quickly schooled his surprise. Damn. He’d have to explain himself later. He’d only ever referred to Julie as his sister, and here he was calling her baby with his hands caressing her shoulders. Once they were back on The Teams, they were sure to have some cracks at his expense.

“So you’re Julie,” Rowan repeated looking directly at Isaac, before shifting his gaze to Julie. “Despite the circumstances, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He took her hand, cupping it between both of his.

A low growl escaped his lips, surprising even himself, and Rowan busted a gut laughing. “Can we save the pleasantries for when we’re not sitting ducks? There’s no way one of the employees inside didn’t call the cops.”

“I’m over there.” Rowan lifted his chin to the side lot of the building. Isaac recognized his black Hummer. His freckled face was serious as he scanned the area and loped with the bags toward the vehicle.

Julie was unbuckling Sabrina and lifting her from the car. The girl had her head buried in the crook of Julie’s neck. “Everything’s going to be okay, sweet girl.” He touched the child’s soft hair before wrapping an arm around Julie and leading her to Rowan’s vehicle. After helping Julie into the backseat and buckling Sabrina in the middle, Isaac rounded the car to the trunk and tore open a multi-pack of white tees. Wasn’t the perfect solution, but it would stop his wound from bleeding all over Rowan’s ride. He knotted the fabric off and got in beside Sabrina. Small hands twined around his arm and he was thankful his injury was on his dominant arm on the opposite side.

“She’s taken to you,” Jules murmured, although her voice didn’t reveal how she felt about Sabrina’s easy acceptance of him. Rowan wasted no time getting on the road. After a few miles he glanced back in the rearview mirror.

“Hey, Princess.” Rowan said glancing at Sabrina between them. “I’m Rowan. What’s your name?”

Julie put her hand on the girl’s slight shoulder and directed her attention to Rowan. “What’s your name?” she prompted.

“’Brina,” Her voice was high and sweet, sounding more like a question than an answer. Made him smile to hear her talk, knowing spoken words were a gift from her.

“Nice job, Sabrina.” Even in the dark, he could make out Julie offering a fist bump. Sabrina let go of him momentarily to tap her back.

“Sabrina,” Julie said. “I’m going to talk about you for a minute and share with our new friend some of the super amazing things about you. Sabrina is a big fan of slime and Play-Doh and is a wonderful artist. She especially enjoys painting pictures of bugs. If she gets excited or nervous, she might clap or flap her arms to self-regulate, which is part of her autism. She has a few great words, but mostly uses her tablet to communicate, which was lost in today’s accident.”

“I have an autistic nephew.” Rowan’s eyes softened. “You need to know something about a firetruck, he’ll tell you. He’s a frequent visitor of the fire station in our hometown. Talks truck makes and models with the chief and the guys for hours.”

“They bring so much joy,” she said softly.

A pair of headlights illuminated the road behind them, and he stiffened.

“Isaac,” Rowan had morphed from proud uncle to SEAL in a nanosecond.

“See it.” They were in tune with one another, could read each other with minimal conversation.

Julie picked up on the vibe in the car, and began distracting Sabrina with a round of Five Little Monkeys. He turned in his seat, keeping his eyes trained on the car. After a few minutes, the sedan passed them without incident.

“Ten minutes out.” Rowan said from the front. His shoulders relaxed a fraction. The sooner Julie and Sabrina were tucked into Rowan’s cabin the better. He couldn’t deny that he was dying for a few minutes alone with Jules. Part of him had been frantic when she pulled away from him at the house, effectively dismissing him. The knot in his gut had continued to twist and compact with each passing hour. He was a trained fighter, but the battle to change Julie’s mind about cutting him loose was going to be the hardest of all. Once her mind was made, she was stubborn as hell. There was steel under all of that warm and sweet. Just one of the many things he loved about her. He’d wait her out, though. Do everything in his power to change her mind. Failure would not be an option, not with Julie.

Chapter Seven

The ride up to the cabin was going to suck. Sabrina had been a champ for three days. Three. Days. It wasn’t fair to ask the six-year-old for more, and yet, more than ever it was clear that their lives were in danger. In the past seven hours there had been two attempts on their lives. Isaac had been shot.Shot. Before they’d ditched the Hummer, Isaac had ripped the blood soaked t-shirt binding his arm the same way she tore the wrapper off of a burrito—with careless abandon. Like it was no big deal a bullet had sliced over his shoulder. He’d rewrapped it and they began the mile hike to the spot where Rowan stashed his four-wheelers in a hunting cabin that had seen better days.

That’s where she failed Sabrina by missing a critical opportunity to share the sensory overload that was about to ensue. Whether it was the post-adrenaline dump or the pure magnitude of the danger they’d faced, she didn’t prepare her little friend for the rumbling of the engines, the vibrations of the ground, or the scent of gasoline. When Rowan backed one of the four wheelers out of the cabin, Sabrina clapped her hands over her ears, collapsed to the ground and shrieked so loud they might as well have had a fog horn shouting out their exact location. Rowan immediately cut the engine and Isaac bounded forward, dried twigs snapping beneath his feet.

“How can we help?” That was Isaac, always ready to give willingly of himself. Well, in most things.

“Do we have a blanket?” She was careful to keep her voice calm and quiet despite the screams piercing the air. Isaac would pick up on that and follow her lead. Without a word he turned and began rummaging through the shopping bags. He ripped the tags off of a fuzzy kid’s blanket.

“That’s perfect. Lay it on the ground.” Jules hitched one hand behind Sabrina’s back and the other one behind her knees and gently placed her in the center of the blanket. “You take those two corners and I’ll lift mine. This will be our makeshift sensory swing.”

They raised the blanket in tandem, slowly rocking it back and forth. Sabrina’s screams faded to a whimper then ceased until the only sound was the cold night’s air weaving between the bare branches. Isaac’s eyes grew wide at the silence, and at the expression of approval on his face, warmth hit her chest chasing away the chill that seeped beneath the collar of her coat. Just as quickly, a sour note overtook the warm and fuzzies. It was toxic to let herself hope. Isaac was never going to change his mind about their relationship. And really, the last thing she should be doing as they snuck around beneath the blanket of night was thinking of how much love sucked. What would suck more was getting slugged by a bullet because her head was muddled. “Okay. Ease her down.” She winced at the sharpness of her voice. Once the blanket was on the ground she scooped up Sabrina. The girl sniffled and wrapped her arms around her neck. She took a moment to explain what was going to happen next, and that the machine was going to make noise. The experience went better the second time around.

“Can we roll out?” If Rowan was anxious, it didn’t show. Nope, he and Isaac were unflappable. Their calm demeanor was the exact opposite of the churning in her gut. The more time they spent in this clearing the more likely that someone would close in on them. Isaac’s body shifted as he glanced over his shoulder. She was sitting on the back of one of the four wheelers, with her hands planted on Isaac’s sides and Sabrina between them.

“Jules?”

She shook away the sweetness of his tone and shored her defenses. “Hold onto Isaac, Sabrina,” she said against the girl’s hair, and then gave Rowan the go-ahead. With a nod of her head the four wheelers shook to life, and before she or Sabrina could protest, they were jerking forward, weaving through the forest. There was no light illuminating the path. All she could do was trust in their skills to navigate the terrain. The equipment jerked over rocks and branches, and wheeled around tight corners.

The trail seemed to go on forever. Her arms ached from holding them up like twin barriers around Sabrina’s body. She clutched Isaac’s waist, curling her fingers into his shirt. By the time the men slowed the machines to a stop her arms and legs were quivering. She scrambled off of the four wheeler while Isaac’s back was still turned so he wouldn’t see how unsteady she was. Looking weak in front of two hardened SEALs would not only be embarrassing it would cause Isaac to hover. As soon as they got inside, she wanted to retreat with Sabrina and put some much needed distance between them. Of all the emotional upheavals of the day, deciding she’d given up on Isaac, that she finally had to let the dream of them die, was the hardest to accept.

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