Page 25 of Inevitable
She hadn’t blinked an eye when I’d told her that I had a genius IQ and a photographic memory in Virginia Beach.
She’d simply…accepted me exactly the way I was.
She had never seen any of those things as odd or off-putting.
That’s probably why I’d become so crazy about her in Virginia Beach.
She’d gotten closer to me than any woman ever had in my entire life.
I took her hand from my face and held it against my chest. “I’m fine. I fed them a bunch of bullshit, and it stalled things until tomorrow. By then, we’ll be gone.”
“Thank God,” she said in a relieved voice.
“You were worried about me?” I asked.
That slayed me because Emma was the actual kidnapping victim.
I was trained to deal with kidnappers.
She smacked me on the shoulder with her free hand. “Of course I was worried about you. We have no idea what these guys are capable of doing.”
The last thing I wanted was to worry her because she’d already been through enough in the last several days. “Everything’s fine, Emma. I’m fine. You sound stressed.”
I pulled her down to sit with me on the blanket.
Without thinking, I wrapped my arm around her, and she put her head on my shoulder.
“Maybe I’m a little nervous about tonight,” she confided.
“Don’t be,” I insisted. “Brock and Nate have never failed at a rescue mission, and you know Nick. He’s reliable. He’s helped me out before. The guy is eager to get you out of here, too. It’s perfectly normal to be nervous, but don’t let those fears get into your head.”
“It’s hard not to,” she murmured against my shoulder. “What if I make noise and the kidnappers wake up? What if something goes wrong? What if I can’t keep up with you guys?”
“Do you honestly think we’re going to leave you behind?” I asked wryly. “You’re the reason we’re doing this. We’re goingto guide you every step of the way. We’ll make sure you don’t make a mistake, and we’ll move at your pace. If something goes wrong, we always have plan B and plan C. Things do go wrong sometimes, but we know how to adapt. We’ll take care of you, Emma. I’ll make damn sure you get home safely to Cherry Cove.”
“I trust all of you, but maybe I don’t trust myself. I’m out of my depth here. It’s my first kidnapping.”
“It’s also going to be your last,” I grunted. “I’m getting too old to be out in the field. After years of doing this, I much prefer my comfortable bed and running operations from headquarters.”
“Then why didn’t you send one of those younger guys?” she asked.
“Because the kidnapping victim was you,” I admitted freely. “I couldn’t sit on the sidelines for this one. I told you that you weren’t just a fling to me, Emma. Maybe we were only together for a short time, but those five days made a real impression on me.”
“Me, too,” she answered. “I regretted the deal we made after you were gone. I wish we would have stayed in touch. I was going to talk to you about it the morning you left. Maybe neither of us was in a position for something more, but I’d like to think we became friends.”
“It was better the way it worked out,” I replied. “I was never around for long, Emma, and I would have been a shitty friend. My whole life revolved around the Navy. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, but for what it’s worth, I had second thoughts about the deal, too. I swung by the beach house later that morning, but you were already gone.”
“You came back looking for me?” she asked in a surprised voice.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I was only back at base for a few hours before it hit me that I wanted to stay in touch, too. I didn’t knowwhere you lived but at least I could hear your voice on the phone once in a while.”
I wasn’t quite sure about the whole friendship thing. I doubted that I could watch Emma date other guys and make a life for herself with someone else, but I hadn’t really thought that far into the future at the time.
It had just suddenly hit me that I was an idiot for walking away from the most incredible woman I’d ever met.
“I wish we would have met up before I left,” she said regretfully. “I missed you after I left Virginia Beach.”
“I missed you, too.”
