Page 34 of Veil of Shadows

I swallowed thickly as I closed my eyes and leveled my head out on my shoulders. “Before I knew it, her weapon fired, and I know that specifically because Jacob and I were clearing houses together and Brutus was still back at the chinook, waiting for his command. There’s no one else’s bullet it could have been since everyone else was asleep in that little village. But…”

“Shit hit the fan, didn’t it?” Voss asked.

I slowly opened my eyes. “Yeah, something like that. She fired off her fucking weapon and everyone woke up. I mean, absolutely everyone. Jacob and I stood over a married couple who pulled out a goddamn oozie from beneath their bed. A fucking oozie, of all things. And it was a mad dash to get out of there with us intact.”

The guys waited for me to continue as I tried to figure out my next set of words.

“So, Delilah’s barking orders from somewhere. I don’t even know where she is at that point. All I know is that I can hear her, but I can’t see her. I hear the chinook blades whirring in the distance as Brutus approaches us, so he either heard the gunfire or she gave the command. Either way, while that loud-ass helicopter was coming our way, Jacob and I were basicallydragging one another as quickly as possible back to that damned thing. And then, before I knew it, he just collapsed.”

“Collapsed?” Voss asked.

I turned my gaze to my lap and fiddled with the beds of my nails. “Because the chinook alerted the village to what direction we were headed, the people living there chased us back to the thing. His legs were peppered with bullets. They came right out from underneath him, just like that.”

I snapped my fingers before I swallowed the knot working its way around my throat. “And…”

Dom squeezed my left knee softly. “And what, sweet girl?”

Tears crested my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Goddamn it, I was tired of crying.

“Bumblebee,” Ronyn said softly.

I slid my watery gaze over to him. “Yeah?”

“What happened?” he urged with his low rumble of a voice.

I clicked my tongue and cleared my throat. “Jacob couldn’t walk. He couldn’t stand. I did my damnedest to drag him behind me while Brutus landed the chopper. But it kicked up sand everywhere, and we couldn’t see, and before I knew it, Delilah snatched up my arm and dragged me to the damned chinook.”

My hands quivered as I settled them into my lap. “And I swear to you, I did my best to get out of her grasp. She was fucking strong, though. I’ll never forget it. It was like a damn vice grip that I couldn’t wiggle away from, and I screamed out for Jacob. I cursed that woman. I told her that we couldn’t leave him. That the CIA left absolutely no one behind so long as I was around. But, she just picked me up and tossed me into that goddamn helicopter as if I didn’t weigh anything, and… and we left.”

Something warm pressed against my cheek before I realized it was Dom, kissing away a tear that managed to snake its way down my cheek. I felt the rough calluses of Ronyn’s hand as hebrushed his knuckles against my other cheek, wiping away the tears I tried so hard not to allow to fall. Even Voss’s feet slid against mine beneath the table, trying to provide me with some sort of comfort.

“I’m so sorry, sweet girl,” Dom whispered.

“What she did was wrong, Bumblebee,” Ronyn said.

I finally picked my teary gaze up and looked at Voss from across the table. “The whole point of this story was, she said something to me that day that I’ll never forget. Something that has always stuck with me. And it wasn’t until I heard you guys talking down here earlier that I realized why it stuck with me.”

“What did she say?” Voss asked.

I licked my lips as my gaze grew unfocused. “She said, ‘sometimes, Special Agent Anna, we don’t get to choose what other people’s destinies are. Sometimes, the only thing we can do is give them a choice. And he made his choice. Do you want to spit in his face by going against his choice and getting yourself killed?”

Voss furrowed his brow in confusion. “What choice?”

I drew in a deep, shaking breath. “When Jacob collapsed and I tried to help get him to the chinook, he kept telling me to leave him and save myself.”

Ronyn and Dom both squeezed my knees as I paused to gather myself. I blinked away the tears and wiped the rest of them from beneath my eyes before I continued.

“He, uh…he kept begging me to go. To get to the helicopter and save myself. Bullets whizzed past us as I tried to get him onto my shoulder. I should have been able to get him onto my shoulder. I don’t…”

“Hey, look at me,” Voss said with a curt voice.

It was enough to stun me out of my trance and I focused my panicked gaze on him.

He leaned forward, settling his forearms against the kitchen table. “What happened to him wasn’t your fault. You didn’t discharge the bullet that woke everyone up. You didn’t shoot him. You didn’t choose to leave him behind. All you did was what you could do, nothing more, and certainly nothing less.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “I still think I could’ve gotten him to that helicopter. To this day, I know that if I was stronger, or maybe a bit faster, or even a little bit?—”

“Bexley,” Ronyn said hotly.

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