Page 18 of Dirty Gambit

He started to ask what she considered stupid, but she had already slammed the door shut and was fumbling towards the backseat.

“What are you doing?” he demanded when she opened Jessie’s door.

She tucked the gun into the back of her waistband. “I’m not leaving her in here with you.”

“You’re not taking her anywhere without me,” he shot back, struggling to turn in his seat.

She sighed as if exhausted by the argument. “We’ll come back.”

The reassurance did nothing to appease his frantic mind, but the words died on his tongue when Lena choked out his name. Her arms sprung forward, fingers extended. They closed into thin air. Then she was falling sideways. Her knees went out from under her and her body crumpled. She landed with a thud across the dirt, amongst the brittle twigs and jagged stones. Long coils of black unspooled across the filth, catching strobes of light and highlighting hidden strands of auburn. In the backseat, Jessie shrieked. Jaxon cried Lena’s name. The chains on the cuffs rattled with every vicious yank of his arm. But Lena never budged. He couldn’t even tell if she was breathing anymore.

“Lena!” He fought against the restraints now slick with his blood. “Fuck!”

Chapter Five

LENA

Someone had filled her mouth with pennies, or at least, that was how it felt when Lena crawled back into consciousness. A dull buzzing had formed at the back of her skull, consistent with someone wielding an electric saw. The grating sound rattled through her, its vibration making her teeth ache.

Somewhere in the distance, she was vaguely aware of someone yelling her name, but the sound was muffled by the wails of a child. Beneath all that was the quiet rustle of nature, the click of branches teased by the breeze blowing lightly at the sweat along her brow.

Lena groaned. Bits of stone and knobby twigs bit skin through clothes with the shifting of her weight. Muscles bruised by the fall thrummed, drawing attention to each of them before her eyes were even opened.

“Lena!”

With a groan, she forced apart weighted eyelids. A shaky hand lifted to graze the lump at the back of her head. Grains of dried mud clung to the strands when she drew away.

“Damn it, Lena, say something!”

Disorientated and thirsty, Lena struggled to focus on the pale face peering at her from between the front seats. In the back, angry, little fists flailed, trembling with the pure rage that fit the high-pitched wails.

“Jessie.”

Half crawling, half scrambling to her feet, Lena pushed to the opening of the car door, using her nails to dig into the worn leather of the seat to anchor her. The dark interior swayed. The ground kept shifting beneath her feet. The seat rocked when she pulled herself in next to the sobbing child.

“Shh,” she slurred, careful to be certain of her hand placements when reaching to touch Jessie’s soft cheek. “It’s all right. You’re fine.”

The lack of familiarity only seemed to agitate the girl further. Her cries escalated to volumes beyond comprehension when every sound, every shift in movement sent ripples of pain through her.

“Let me hold her,” Jaxon shouted over the din.

Lena shook her head, more to clear it than refusal. “She’s just hungry.”

“She’s not hungry,” he protested. “She’s tired of being in that seat. She needs to get out. She’s probably sore.”

He was probably right, but she couldn’t trust her reflexes to hold the baby if Lena tried to pull Jessie free.

“Let me hold her,” Jaxon persisted. “Uncuff me and I’ll walk around the site with her for a few minutes. You have the gun,” he pressed on. “I won’t do anything to put her life in danger, you know that.”

She did know that. It was the only thing she really did know. Plus, it was the best excuse she had to take a few minutes and get her bearings.

Careful getting out, she rounded the trunk and shuffled up to his door. She pulled the gun free of her waistband with one hand and the handcuff keys with the other. It took all her focus to keep the gun level while unsnapping the metal bracelets. She tried not to notice the blood soaking the cuff of his shirt and forming a crimson bracelet around the torn flesh of his wrist. Her shoes kicked up clouds of dust when she scuffled back when he unfolded his massive frame out of his seat and stretched. Every sinewy muscle moved and flexed with the motions. The rumpled state of his clothes did nothing to conceal the power and strength hidden beneath. If anything, they only seemed to emphasize them.

Jaxon caught her wandering gaze. A raised eyebrow was all the indication he gave before turning to the back door and yanking it open.

“Hey, there sweetheart.” He bent at the waist and ducked inside.

Jessie’s sobs slowed to pathetic little hiccups. Her entire, tiny body trembled with each one. She clutched at him with both chubby arms encircling his neck and her cheek mashed against his, wet and splotchy with tears and snot. She eyed Lena with all the distrust in the world and squeezed closer to the giant cradling her as if she were a scared kitten.

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