Page 98 of Billionaire Unreachable: Wyatt

Even Tori’s second kidnapping had ended with her being rescued by Cooper with Last Hope’s assistance.

The other thing that had shocked me was that Tori and Harlow were actually volunteer members who lent their skills to the volunteer rescue organization. Savannah and Taylor weren’t official members yet, but they planned on volunteering as advisors in the near future. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that all of them wanted to be involved with helping people who had gone through the same thing they did, but the sheer scope of Last Hope’s members was mind boggling.

“Do you understand why I didn’t try to explain all of this in a couple of minutes now?” Wyatt asked drily as he lounged next to me on the bed, his back against the headboard.

Really, he wouldn’t be explaining itnowif I hadn’t insisted on knowing immediately, but I let that slide.

He’d wanted me to rest on the ride home, but I’d reached my limit. I’d basically lied to my family to cover up the fact that Wyatt had come and rescued me himself.

I trusted him, but I’d wanted answers.

And…I’d gotten them.

We’d been talking about this for over an hour, and I still had questions.

“Does Kaleb know?” I questioned.

“No. I was forced to give him some brief information earlier today because he knew I’d gotten shot, and he suspected the fed rescue was bullshit. But that explanation was very basic, and I asked him to keep it quiet. All he knows is that some of the previous special forces members help people out of bad situations, and I admitted that I pulled you out myself. It’s not that I wouldn’t trust him completely with the information, but the less people who know, the better. We’re filling a need that needs to be filled. There’s a reason Marshall named the organization Last Hope.”

They were saving the lives of hostages and kidnapping victims that would probably otherwise be dead without help, so the moniker definitely fit.

“I understand,” I murmured. “I think it’s an amazing thing you all do, but give me time to digest the fact that a group like this even exists. Why didn’t you tell me before that night you pulled the disappearing act?”

Wyatt shrugged. “I trusted you enough to tell you, but I just hadn’t gotten the opportunity. We were still getting to know each other, sweetheart. It wasn’t something I wanted to spring on you out of the blue. Sometimes we don’t do an op for months on end. It was a busy period for Last Hope. That was the third mission we’d run in a matter of weeks. Things don’t usually happen that way. I thought I’d have time.”

“Were you out at headquarters with Xena monitoring an operation the night of the break-in?”

“Yes,” he answered simply. “Tori and Cooper were still there with me, too. We were just finishing up at headquarters. That’s how I knew what happened to you.”

It made sense now. That’s why Wyatt was out with Xena, and why Tori was awake so late.

“Will I get to see this high-tech headquarters someday?” I queried.

I had to admit that I was curious to see where these secret operations were monitored and run.

Wyatt turned his head and grinned at me. “I’d show you, but then I’d have to kill you. It’s a top secret place that’s designed to look very mundane.”

I snorted. “I think I’ll risk it. I suppose that tour will have to wait. Right now, you can’t even stand to look at my bruises.”

His smile disappeared. “You’re right. It kills me that I wasn’t there to keep this from happening.”

I reached out and took his hand. “You can’t be with me every moment of the day, Wyatt. It was my fault. I was the one who went out to the barn by myself. I didn’t want to wait a few minutes for Kaleb. I probably made the wrong decision when it happened, too. I probably should have fought Ted harder.”

“He had a goddamn gun to your head,” Wyatt reminded me. “You might have died, too. Don’t second-guess the decisions you made, Shelby. It will make you crazy, and you’re alive. You did everything right.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing?” I challenged.

“That’s different,” he grumbled.

“No, it’s not,” I insisted. “And it was your instincts that saved my life, Wyatt. If I hadn’t been wearing the GPS tracker, I’d be dead right now. No one would have been able to find me before he killed me. And I’m still pissed off that you ended up shot. You could have died, too.”

The emotional stress and the fact that he could have died doing that rescue overwhelmed me.

Tears started to flow down my cheeks unchecked.

“There is never going to be a time that I wouldn’t take a bullet for you, Shelby,” Wyatt rumbled as he turned and started to swipe the tears from my face. “Don’t cry. I’m not dead, and I fucking hate it when you cry.”

I punched him on the shoulder, but I didn’t stop bawling. “Then don’t ever risk your life like that again. You knew you were coming to try to get me away from a madman, and you did it anyway.”

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