Page 22 of Black Site

"I'll meet you there." I hang up. This entire time Libby has been nestled in my arms with her face buried in my chest. I look down at her and see the fear in her eyes. "Pack a bag. Expect to stay for a couple of days - a week maybe. Quickly!"

She's already turning and dumping her still packed suitcase from the trip we just took. In less than five minutes she is back. She doesn't ask me questions or try to put up a fight. I don't know what they told her when she answered her phone but I am thankful that she is going along with all of this without giving me grief.

Jack. He is the man I have worked with the longest. I recruited him to the team straight out of the SEALs. The guy could have stayed in the SEALs and led his own team but he made the choice to go with me. He's been my closest confidant and friend for years, fucking years. Dante and Duncan are outside waiting on us when we come out. I slide in the back beside Libby and am surprised when she reaches over to take my hand in hers, giving me comfort without me having to ask her for it.

I turn my hand over so that I can grasp hers, taking what she is offering me. We make it to the compound about the same time the helicopter is landing on the raised helipad. By the time I meet up with the rest of the men Doc is already working on Jack.

"He took five before going into the water. We got there about ten minutes after his comms went off and had to fish his ass out of the ocean. He was barely hanging on when we got him loaded. Doc came as soon as he heard. We don't know what happened, Jim."

Jack is the best. He doesn't make mistakes and he doesn't fuck up so whatever happened had to be bad. I follow them into the room we set aside for emergencies; with eight men in the line of work we're in, it was a necessary room. I look back I find Libby standing in the door, a look of shock and fear on her face.

"Someone get her out of here." Remy runs over to her and takes her somewhere she won't have to look at the blood and death that cling to Jack. She doesn't need to see this. Not after finding out about her fears of the people she loves leaving her. I don't know where this leaves us but I damn sure am not walking away from her and what we did. Not after she showed me so much during the time I was with her and while she was trying to comfort me.

Libby is mine. And as soon as this shit gets straightened out I'll be coming for her again. This time I won't give her the time to think about why she shouldn't be with a man like me. Next time I won't let go.

14

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Libby

"I bet you think since you got shot I'm going to be nice to you. But that isn't what you need right now, is it?" I've been sitting at the bedside of a man who might not ever wake up for the better part of a week. Doc says the wounds are healing nicely but Jack hasn't said one word or even blinked since he was operated on. No one knows what he saw or what transpired that ended with him being shot six times. At first, we thought it was five but Doc found another one while he was fixing him up.

"Right now you need to be told to get the hell out of that bed and off your ass because your team needs you. So get up." I smooth the cover over his chest and notice my fingers are trembling.

I've not seen much of Jim since he yelled for one of his men to take me out of the operating room. I guess I understand why he didn't want me getting in the way and it wasn't like there was a lot of time to explain in nicer words but all I have right now is time. He could have sat with me for a few hours and explained.

I stand and walk to the side table that has water sitting on it. I've been talking to him all this time hoping he'll wake up pissed at me and tell me to shut the fuck up.

"I was so worried Jim was going to break my heart. I had no idea it would be you causing me so much pain."

"Does that mean you love me?"

I spin around and see Jack looking at me with one eye open and the other scrunched up to the blinding light coming into his room. The cup falls from my hands making a mess on the floor at my feet. "Jack!"

"Cause I'm flattered and all but I just got shot. I don't think I could take Jim on right now and he would definitely try to kill me."

I am yelling for the guys before I can move my stunned body over to his bed and give him a hug gently. It doesn't matter; he still grimaces at the pain. "I could kill you for scaring me like this."

He starts to laugh but stops and it turns to a groan of pain. Serves him right for scaring me for a whole week. When I straighten the men have all filed into the room. I see Jim take in the fact that I'm hugging Jack and for a moment I think Jack might be right about Jim trying to fight him. It makes me let Jack go and take a step back.

"I'll go find you something to eat, you must be starving." I hurry out of the room so the men can talk. By the time I'm back the only two still in the room are Jim and Jack. Jack is sitting up in bed and his color has come back a little. He doesn't look like death warmed over.

"Libby, meet me in my office while I finish up with Jack."

Wow, dismissed again. I give him a cocked eyebrow before leaving and making my way to his office. I go over to the desk to straighten up for him when hands wrap around me and my mouth cutting off a scream I was about to unleash. No Jim!

The hands pull me back and show me a large knife, "Scream or call for the others and I make your death slower and a lot more painful."

"You should have kept your ass out of affairs that have nothing to do with you. It would have kept a pretty girl like you alive longer." Someone with a heavy accent has me.

My heart is pounding in my chest so hard I can barely hear what he is saying to me. The door to the office swings open and in the blink of an eye Jim has his gun pulled and aimed at the man who is trying to squeeze the air out of me. God this is eerily similar to the first time someone tried to kill me. So similar that I'm not sure where Jim stands on me being a priority to the team any longer.

"You're making a big mistake my friend." He pulls his glasses off as Remy and Duncan enter the room. I'm uncertain if they were following Jim or if he somehow called them because of the trouble. "Do you know who I am?"

"I'm not here for you...friend." Oh shit, that means..., "The girl shouldn't have taken the book. The people in that book want to remain anonymous and have paid good money for me to make sure everyone understands how serious this is."

Jim laughs. Oh shit, I hate when he laughs. It means someone is about to die and the rug is an antique. "She's mine, friend. Think real carefully about what that means before you sign your death warrant."

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