Page 60 of Falling Fast

As soon as he eased up she looked around his shoulder at the fiery wreckage, the acrid scent of smoke stinging her nose. She didn’t have time to process more than the thick black plume of smoke boiling into the air before Jamie caught her face between his hands, his eyes delving into hers. “Are you all right?”

It was over.

She nodded, put her hands on his cheeks. “You?” He was covered in concrete too, blood dripping from the cut above his eye, which was swelling shut again. But they were both alive.

“Yeah.” He hauled her into his arms, crushed her to his chest, his face pressed to her hair. “Christ, Trouble.Christ.”

Charlie clung to him in return, closed her eyes and just held on, absorbing the warm vitality of him, the rush of elation that they were both alive, both safe. Then the subtle vibrations of approaching footfalls behind them pierced her awareness.

Glancing back, she found her brother and Logan racing toward them, rifles slung across their backs. The other shooters must be dead then. And over the roar of the fire she caught the wail of sirens.Finally.

Her brother skidded to his knees next to her and grabbed her from Jamie. “Charlie,” he rasped out, locking those strong, familiar arms around her, one hand cradling the back of her head protectively.

For some reason, his embrace crumbled the last of her defenses. The brave front she’d been putting on melted away in a single heartbeat, leaving her raw and exposed and…vulnerable. She wrapped her arms around his back and hugged him hard, her face scrunching. The tears she’d fought so hard to hide came flooding out, no matter how hard she tried to hold them back.

“Ah, sweetheart,” he murmured, shifting to nestle her closer into his body. “You’re okay now. It’s gonna be okay.”

She nodded, hid her face so that Jamie couldn’t see her falling apart. But she felt him there, hovering behind her. A hand stroked over her hair and she knew without looking that it was his.

Without stopping to think or question her actions, she pushed away from Easton and reached for Jamie instead, grabbing fistfuls of his ruined and blood-stained tux shirt and burying her face in the side of his neck. He drew her up off the ground and settled her into his lap, closing his arms around her without a word.

At least to her.

“I got her,” he said quietly to Easton. “You guys go ahead and deal with the entourage.”

The sirens were getting louder now. Whoever was coming would want to know what had happened, and someone would have to try to stabilize Baker—

She jerked her head up, wiped at her eyes as she peered over Jamie’s broad shoulder. “Is he—”

“Dead.”

No.She slumped, laid her forehead against Jamie’s shoulder. “I only had a few seconds to transmit from his laptop. I don’t even know if I got anything,” she mumbled.

“You got some,” Logan said as he pushed to his feet beside Baker’s body. “Taylor was trying to work on it before we got the emergency signal from Jamie.”

Well, she hoped she’d transmitted something useful, because with both Baker and his pilot dead, they weren’t getting any other intel from them. Dammit!

As Logan walked away Charlie took several deep breaths to settle herself, then sat back and wiped at her dirty face. Jamie gazed into her eyes for a moment and must have been satisfied with what he saw, because he stood and helped her up.

He walked her a short distance away from Baker’s body. Easton was already at the road, talking with the cops and agents that were now swarming the scene.

“Where did they all come from?” she asked Jamie.

“Team had them waiting as backup.”

She looked up at him, brushed at some of the concrete clinging to the edge of his battered face. “I thought my heart would stop when I saw you tied to the chair in that room.”

“Yeah, mine did the same when I saw you in the doorway.” He shook his head once, a grin tugging at his mouth. “I still can’t believe what you did. Wait, yes I can.”

Despite the horrific situation they’d just gone through, she cracked a laugh. “It just came to me and I went with it. Figured I had nothing to lose by trying.”

“And you saved our asses in the process.” He dragged her into another tight hug, then cupped her chin in his big hand and bent his head to brush his lips over hers. “You really okay?”

She forced a nod. “Just glad we’re both alive.” And grateful that she would get the chance to say all the things she should have last night.

A smile lit his eyes. He kissed her gently, then bent and scooped her up in his arms.

“What are you doing?” she protested. “I’m not hurt.”

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