Page 62 of Deep Waters
Barreling around the corner could get Rae hurt. If our friendly neighborhood criminal wasn’t all that friendly after all, they’d have a weapon. I wouldn’t risk Rae. Waiting was torture. But I had to trust that, for the moment, she could take care of herself. That her words to me were a signal. As much as I wanted to claw my own skin off waiting, I’d do it. Ready to spring into action at the first sign she needed me.
Sitting on my hands went against every instinct. I held my breath, trying to calm my heart rate enough to hear movement at the back of the garage. Another shift.
“Where is it?” a low voice hissed in the darkness.
I dropped closer to the oil-stained concrete floor, peering around the boxes sheltering me. A bulky figure hulked over Rae, a ski mask obscuring the person’s features. Big. Male. But not visibly armed.
My pulse spiked, my muscles coiling for action, tight and ready. I wanted to explode into a fury of kicks and punches, take him down with my adrenaline alone. But fear for Rae held me back. Just because I hadn’t spotted a weapon yet didn’t mean he didn’t have one. Blind rage kept me tunneled in on her assailant, even as I needed to take in every bit of information available to craft my takedown.
Time slowed, and I breathed through the anger, focusing on the only thing that mattered: Rae’s safety. If love alone could shield her, she’d be fucking indestructible. I exhaled, shaky but resolved. He wasn’t going to hurt her. Not with me here. At the first sign of danger, I’d spring forward. Until then, I’d trust her. She was ten times smarter than most people. No doubt twenty times smarter than the fool cornering her in the garage.
If Rae could keep him calm and get him out of the garage, I could take him down. Sit on him until the deputies arrived if I had to.
“We found it in that box,” Rae said calmly.
The masked man dove for the cardboard box, seeming to forget that he’d cornered a very brave, very determined woman with him. Foolish in the extreme. The second he turned his back, she reached for something from the bench, whacking him on the shoulder and sprinting toward me.
“Close the door!” she yelled.
Fucking brilliant. Distract him and lock him in until help arrived. Risky as fuck if she couldn’t escape or he had a gun, but also fearless and smart. Just like my Rae.
I sprinted after her, punching the button to shut the door. It wasn’t perfect. He could still recover and find the manual latch, but it’d take precious time he didn’t have. I could already hear the scream of sirens. Tae and the local authorities had done their part.
I yanked Rae into my arms, holding her shuddering body tight as the large door closed, cutting off her assailant from freedom.
“Are you hurt?” I couldn’t hide the frantic edge to my voice.
“Fine. Just shook up.”
Crushing her to me gave me a sliver of peace, but it wasn’t enough. Not after almost losing her. I pressed my face into her hair, breathing her in. She was alive. She smelled like a mix of musty garage and grill smoke, and I huffed out a breath, half-laugh, half-sob, relief making me giddy.
“Sadly, I don’t think we can say the same about dinner.”
She let out a soft chuckle, her breath warm against my chest. “Yeah. I was a bit busy there at the end.”
“Not a complaint. I’m just glad you’re okay.” I stroked from her shoulders to her hands, twining our fingers. Touching my forehead to hers, just for a moment, to ground myself. “I can’t believe I almost lost you.”
I eased back, inspecting her from her wild curls to her composite toe sneakers. She was a little pale, but that was the only sign that anything was off. If it weren’t for the intruder locked in the garage, I’d think she just needed a little sun.
She rolled her eyes, but there was no real bite behind it. “Don’t get all freaked out, Fenwick. I’m fine.”
“Yeah, but I’m not.” I swallowed hard, my chest tight, my heart still trying to catch up with the fact that she was standing in front of me, whole and safe. “I love you, Rae Dawkins. I’m sorry I was such an ass about the whole Simon thing.”
She blinked, something soft and unreadable flickering in her eyes before she pushed up on tiptoe. Our lips brushed, the kiss barely more than a whisper. A gentle benediction that spread warmth through me.
“I love you too, Zach.” She shuddered, the tremor rolling through her. “And I’m glad you were here. You gave me the courage to face Brandon.”
Of course she’d figured out who she was dealing with. I rested my forehead against hers, shutting my eyes for a beat. “Always,” I promised. Because there was no other option.
A patrol vehicle slid to a stop in the gravel, Deputy Vega emerging with a nod to me and Rae. “Young Tae reported an intruder here. Y’all okay?”
Rae gestured to the closed garage. “Brandon Chen is in there. He admitted he’s the one who’s been burglarizing the place, looking for something of Jordan’s.”
“Any idea what?”
“You’ll have to ask him.”
Rae punched in the garage code, and Deputy Vega led a groaning Brandon to the back of her vehicle.
