Page 8 of Javier

“Do ye mean to hurt ourcailín, big fella?” Sister Janet asked in her Irish lilt.

“I’m here to help.” The man stalked in my direction. “Do what I say.”

“Good Lord, this one’s bossy,” Sister Elsa drawled in her southern twang. “But he did save our lives. What does he look like?”

“Well, himself’s got a fine air about him.” Sister Janet eyed the newcomer with narrowed eyes and raised eyebrows. “The big fella might be the wolf hiding under the lambskin, but I say we fix to do as he says, at least fer now.”

“Well, if you think so.” Sister Elsa extended her cane and felt out for the closest body.

“Aye, those are the thug’s feet,” Sister Janet directed. “Pick them up now.”

Before my very eyes, the nuns began to drag the first corpse to the well. I tried very hard to suck in some air. It was like aspirating syrup, so thick and heavy I couldn’t get it intomy lungs. Defying my rattling knees, I braced on the wall and pushed up from the ground. The compound spun around me. I could barely keep myself upright.

Courage, Missy. Find your backbone.

I wasn’t as brave as my sisters. I wasn’t as gutsy as Thena, as smart as Cece, or as persuasive as Affie. I’d never been the strong one of the family. In fact, I’d always been the shy, bashful, skittish baby, the one everyone took care of.

“Mousy Missy,” the mean girls at boarding school liked to tease me. “Prissy Missy,” was another name they tortured me with before my sisters shut them up. Now I fisted my hands, and defying the tremors shaking my body, straightened my back. I couldn’t afford to be mousy today.

The formidable warrior mounted the concrete stairs and came to stand before me. “Are you okay?” he asked.

It was the last question I expected from him and it left me speechless.

No, I wasn’t okay. Far from it. I’d almost been killed. I had a bloody knee, a sore tush, and a throbbing headache. My balance was off and my heart pumped a million miles an hour, but I managed a shuddering breath.

“I’m fine,” I squeaked, just as my vision flickered and my knees buckled.

His strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. “Got you.”

The sounds cut out and so did the lights. The darkness held me in its thrall. When I next knew, the gentle touch of a calloused hand cupped the side of my face.

“Hey, Angel?” An oddly familiar male voice rustled in my ear, rich, soothing, and feathery to my senses. “I need you to wake up.”

I forced my eyes to open, blinked off the dark spots dancing at the edges of my vision, and squinted into the facethat hovered above me. I took in the raw masculine beauty of his features and grappled with the shock of seeing him again.

Again?

“There you are.” His face broke into a lopsided grin that had mischief written all over it. “Don’t look so spooked. You were only out for a few minutes.”

All I could do was stare at him.

His cocky smirk beamed down on me like a beacon on a stormy night at sea. It hit me with the power of a defibrillator, dispelling the haze and powering my senses. Lush lashes framed his eyes. The rich shade of brown gleaming in his irises reminded me of lightly brewed Earl Grey sweetened with amber honey. Somehow, his gaze calmed and soothed me.

An inkling of recognition prickled in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite pin it down. A sense of déjà vu shivered through me. Where had I been exposed to his roguish grin before? Why was the heat in his gaze so familiar? And how come his face’s expressions felt so intimate to me?

“Your friends came over when you fainted, but I sent them back to work,” he announced in his husky voice. “Meanwhile, I took care of your knee.”

I looked down and spotted a small pile of wipes next to me. In several spots, the sting of disinfecting solution evaporated over my skin. A small Band-Aid was wrapped around the top of my middle finger and a bigger one was plastered over my knee.

“I know you’re prone to fainting, but you’re gonna be fine,” he said.

Holy saints. How on earth did he know about my fainting spells?

“I need to ask.” He arched his expressive eyebrows. “Did you hit your head when that fucker attacked you?”

“Um…” My lips had trouble forming words and my brainrefused to help. “I think so.”

“Let’s see.”

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