Page 69 of Savage Escape

“Yeah, Quinny. She was… she was my baby. So brave. She didn’t fear him at all. It was my fault she wasn’t scared of him. I kept him away from her since the day her mama left her on our doorstep.”

“What happened?”

Caden opened her mouth to tell him, but then closed it again. This was the darkest part of her soul. The worst thing she’d ever done. And she was just going to say it out loud?

“He’d lost his job again, and he’d been taking it out on me all week. And then something… snapped. He was beating the hell out of me and I just knew he was going to kill me—he wasn’t going to stop.”

He squeezed her to him, and Caden felt compelled to go on.

“Quinn, she came out of the spot I hid her in. Started hitting him and trying to get him off of me. She was tiny. Of course, she bounced right off of him. She went and got a pot and that got his attention.”

The little shit never stayed where Caden put her. She always popped out of the closet or from behind the sofa like she had no fear whatsoever of their father. And that was Caden’s fault too.

“He stopped wailing on me and took it from her. And then he—he hit her with it. And kept hitting her. I didn’t get him off of her in time. And then it was too late.”

Tears tracked down her face. Even after all this time, it still hurt like it had just happened.

“Then he turned on me and… he just fucking killed me. Choked the life right out of me. Ezra had run to the neighbors when he started in on me and had them call the cops. The paramedics resuscitated me at the scene, but Quinn was… gone.”

Caden silently cried in the darkness as he pulled her even closer. It had been the worst day of her life tied with the day that Ezra died. It had been her fault. She hadn’t gotten up quick enough. Hadn’t gotten him off of her. Had failed as the big sister she was supposed to be to protect her baby sister.

“I’m sorry, Caden.” Nate nuzzled into her neck and squeezed her tight. “I wish I could take it all away.”

Eventually, the tears stopped and the ache that burned in her chest whenever she thought of that night eased a bit. With hisarms wrapped around her and his front pressed to her back, it was easy to forget that it was all her fault.

“Nate.”

“Caden?”

“Tell me why you were in Russia. Holden seems to think you weren’t there for a vacation.” She’d heard Holden question Nathan constantly about it and had grown curious herself.

“I was there to track down Charles Marskib.” He sighed and her hair fluttered against her neck. “The last case I worked was centered around Marskib and his operation. He was doing all kinds of evil shit. So it was an interagency task force.”

Usually just the mention of Charles Marskib had her clutching her favorite weapon and finding a place to hide. But she was warm and Nathan was holding her. She was safe.

“I was partnered with a couple of people. Good people. Except Sisco. He was a turncoat. But we didn’t figure that out until it was too late. Marskib setup a trap and we walked into it blind because of the information Sisco brought us. A lot of people died.”

Caden twisted in his arms so she was facing him. In the light coming in through the window, she could see the silhouette of his form. It was her turn to hug him.

“Good people dead all because of one man’s greed. There was a guy that I really connected with on the team. Agent Adam Fletcher. He was the father of two, with one on the way. I had dinner with his family the night before the bust was supposed to happen. He died right in front of me.”

She wrapped her arms around him as best she could and snuggled into him. Caden had neversnuggledin her life, so it was her best approximation of a ‘snuggle’.

“I retired after that. Took two years off to deal with it—I’d left Special Ops because of all the death and loss and I just thought… there wouldn’t be any working for the government. I was wrong.I went after Marskib. Didn’t really have a plan. But then Kyott got to me first and tossed me in with you.”

Where would she be if Nate hadn’t been tossed in that broom closet of a cell with her? Probably dead. Or still being tortured.

“Thank god he did.” Nate’s lips brushed her forehead and warmth bloomed on the spot and tingled down her spine and into her limbs.

Caden felt a surge of belonging at his words. Like she was where she was supposed to be—in this house, in his bed, in his arms.

“Yeah, thank god he did.”

24

NATHAN

Nathan paced the small kitchen area, trying not to panic. It had been almost three weeks since he’d brought Caden to his childhood home. Three weeks was a long time in Caden’s world. It was a miracle that he’d somehow gotten her to stay as long as she had, but he knew that time was running out.

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