Keep (Command #2) (30 page)

“You’re allowed to be selfish.” His fingers skimmed over her bruised cheek. Sweet Shawn, disabling thought. “Do you… want to talk about it?”

“No,” she said, hushed. “Not right now.”

He seemed torn. Part of him didn’t want to know, and part of him looked desperate to. Yet it was apparent he didn’t want to push.

“Where are we going?”

He gave her a cryptic smile. He wasn’t going to tell her.

When they neared the outskirts of Frankfurt, she sighed in relief. A flight or two, and then American soil beneath her feet. Beneath their feet. Home.

-19-

Kara went up the steps of the plane after greeting the flight crew with a warm smile. Victoria pretended not to notice the bruises, and made a comment that she was glad to see Kara feeling better.

The realization that this plane was for her and what Shawn was giving up, slammed into her when she was in the empty cabin.

So she turned on him, kissing him with complete and utter abandon. Her arms flung around his broad shoulders and they pulled him against her. Her kiss was passionate, wild, and full of love. It took no time and he was matching her. He answered back, wrapping his strong arms around her waist, pressing her further into him. She drank it up. Her fingers threaded through his soft hair, holding on, not wanting it to end. The power of it left her shaking and greedy for more.

But he lifted his head to end the kiss and she found his eyes dazed.

“I don’t know where that came from, but can I get you to put it on hold for a minute? I have to finish check-in with the captain.”

She nodded slowly, but he hesitated, as if he doubted this decision. “I’ll be right back.”

He hurried down the stairs with lighting speed. Her hand reached out to steady herself on the chair back nearest her, but then she didn’t fight her wooziness and dropped down into the plush seat.

“Are you sure about this?” she said, when he reappeared beside her seat. “Your company —”

“They can function without me for a week. I can’t get anything done with all the attention right now anyway, and my mother’s got it under control,” he said. “There are seven breweries in North America. I can always visit one of them.”

“You’re being awfully nice to me.”

“What do you mean? You’re riding in the cargo hold.”

It felt foreign but wonderful to smile. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going now?”

“You’re welcome to try to make me.” He bent and put his arms beneath her, lifting her so he could sit in the chair with her in his lap.

“There are plenty of other seats on this plane,” she said in fake protest.

“Yes, but I like this one.” He pushed her hair out of his way so he could kiss her neck and make her shudder.

A hand went to the hospital bracelet around her left wrist, and she understood. “Yes, please.”

He tore it open and slipped it in a pocket. Then his eyes were curious, but he said nothing, and it took her a moment to figure it out. He was wondering about the rings. Her gaze fell to the hand in his, the platinum bands that looked at home there. He seemed happy to let her continue wearing them.

So, why not continue to do it? He’d given her so much, couldn’t she do him this small favor? Yes, she could. She ran the hand through her hair, pressing her lips together, making him aware she wasn’t going to return them without prompting.

His voice was low and deep, his eyes clear. “All right, then.”

A familiar ring sounded from his jacket pocket. Her phone? Sure enough, he pulled out her mobile, took one look at the screen and answered it. The angry scolding she was about to give him stopped when he spoke.

“Hello, Paul, this is Shawn.”

She couldn’t imagine what her face must look like.

“She’s on my Gulfstream IV, although I don’t know why that’s any of your business.”

Now she imagined she had a smile on her lips. That statement was sure to make Paul crazy with jealousy, as he was obsessed with status. She was close enough to hear that Paul was angry, but not what he was saying exactly.

“Let me stop you right there,” Shawn continued. “She’s been through a lot, but she’s all right. You have no idea what you’re talking about, so I suggest you shut the fuck up.”

Whatever Paul said next made Shawn lift an eyebrow.

“Thanks for your concern. Don’t bother her again, or I’ll have a chat with Dan Novak at Meridian. I can be persuasive.” He hung up her phone and handed it to her.

“Who’s Dan Novak?”

“He used to be my CFO until Meridian lured him away.” He didn’t need to tell her anything else. She knew that her company was bidding for a huge software project for Meridian’s billing department. The idea that one conversation with Shawn could kill it made her swallow hard.

He gave her a wicked smile.

“What?” she asked, nervous.

“I’m surprised to learn you’re only interested in fucking me. And from Paul, no less.”

Her face felt like it was on fire. “I can explain that.”

He had a full-out grin now. “Can’t wait to hear it.”

“He called me, jealous about the idea of you and I together. He said that you had a reputation of sleeping around, and he didn’t want to see me get hurt.”

His smile faded a touch.

“I got mad at that, so I asked how he knew I wasn’t interested in doing that to you.”

“Are you?”

“You know I’m not.”

He gave her a victorious smile. “I’m glad you’ve come to your senses.”

After lunch was over, they each took some time to handle business. When the time was right, he was going to convince her to come to Osterhägen. Incentive Systems granted her another two weeks of leave to recover from her ordeal. That should be more than enough time to persuade. The alternative, her seven hours away from him in Maastricht, was unacceptable.

When he was back on top of his e-mail situation, they still had five hours to kill before landing.

“Let’s take a nap,” he suggested. “As long as you can be an adult and keep your hands to yourself.” He said it as a teasing joke, but the truth was he was terrified of doing anything more with her after what she’d been through. It was up to her now to take the lead, or to tell him about what Juric had done, or maybe both.

Victoria turned down the couch to a bed and closed the shades, plunging the cabin into near darkness before shutting the galley door to give them privacy. He pulled off his shoes as he listened to Kara stretch out on one side of the bed. Even though it wasn’t huge, it was double the size of the hospital bed she’d shared with him last night.

He climbed onto the bed beside her, settling onto his back until the wound there reminded him not to do that.

“What happened to Ethan?” she asked. “I thought I saw him in the square.”

“When the cameras came out, he had to disappear.”

“Is he okay? He was bleeding pretty bad.”

“He’s fine. He stayed near, and he…” He was unsure whether or not to continue. “He helped Jason with the body.”

“Helped him do what?”

“Jason didn’t give me a lot of details. Ethan took the body and the authorities barely questioned Jason, or where the guns came from, or the fact that he shot a man dead in front of a hundred witnesses, all caught on video… He took care of every aspect. The way he explained it, this was them putting right the wrong they’d done by letting Juric escape.”

She paused. “Did you kill that man in the woods?”

He wasn’t sure if she’d seen that or not. “He was going to kill you, or Ethan, or both of you.”

There was acceptance in her eyes. She’d been forced to kill a man to protect them, and now Shawn had done the same. He didn’t want to push, but he was desperate to know. So he could find a way to help. “Will you tell me what happened?”

Her small, soft hand found his. She told him about the streaks of red the bodies left when she’d first been delivered to Juric, the fall she’d taken into the basement, and the knife he used on her. How she’d hidden the business card and clung to it, how difficult it had been to sacrifice and then return to the monster.

Finding out that Juric had been the one to kill Rhodes was a shock, but his motive for doing so was even greater. That Juric’s obsession had completely switched from L to Kara. Then came the topic he was both desperate and dreading to know: the shower.

“He’d drugged me with ecstasy, and because we were both covered in mud from the forest,” her voice wavered, “he took off my clothes, and his clothes, and forced me into the shower.” Her breathing increased with the stress and he thought about telling her to stop. That she didn’t need to think about this so soon, but she seemed to want to get through it.

“To go from so much pain and cold, to suddenly feeling okay and warm . . . He kissed me.” Her voice was like a ghost. “I closed my eyes, wanting to be somewhere else, and when I said your name, that’s what got him to stop.”

She’d fought back against Juric, which accounted for most of her bruises. Her worst was the one on her stomach where Juric had punched her so hard Shawn could make the perfect impression of a fist. It made him recall the damage the bullet had done to Juric, how his eye had been replaced with a black hole. The rest of what went with the memory didn’t sit well with him: Kara’s collapse and the worry that she was dying. He shoved that to the side so he could revel in the revenge for a moment longer. Even still, the bastard got off far too easy.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

The dark thoughts evaporated at her voice. “That he can’t hurt you anymore.” The words tumbled from his lips easily. “That I love you.”

She took in a startled breath, her mouth falling open. “I…”

When the response he hoped for wasn’t instantaneous, he claimed her in a kiss that was about love and not sex. It pulled the connection between them taut, strengthening it to what he wanted to be unbreakable, and she softened beneath him, answering him.

The jet engines’ hum was steady and powerful, and it wasn’t five minutes before they were asleep.

It was uncharacteristically hot and humid for late September in New York where they landed, and the second the cabin door opened the thick air permeated every inch of the airplane. A man in black pants and a royal blue uniform button-down boarded the plane, an ID badge clipped to his shirt that announced he was US Immigration. She almost cried at the sight of it.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Dunn,” he said. He gave a friendly, curious smile when he saw Shawn wasn’t traveling alone.

Shawn produced two US Passports and handed them over. “Thanks for getting the heat turned on for us, Phil.”

“Forget about it.” The official examined her passport and then her. “Is this your final destination?”

“No,” Shawn answered for her.

They weren’t staying in New York?

“Okay, you two have a nice flight.” Phil scribbled notes on a clipboard, stamped their passports, and returned them to Shawn. When he moved to the cockpit to check in the crew, she watched Shawn tuck their passports back into his suit jacket. It was ridiculous, but the idea of him keeping their passports together and close to his heart…

He loved her. She never thought it possible. Not just for her, but for him.

“We’re not staying here?” she asked. All he did was smile. “Where are we going?”