Promises (Blood Brothers #1) (22 page)

What if she hurt herself while she was in the gym or virtual room and no one was there to get to them? What if he couldn’t get to them? His breathing escalated and his heart rate went through the roof as the scenarios raced around in his head until Kayne felt a warm body sliding onto his lap. Looking up, he found Chayle wrapping around him with tears sliding down her face.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his neck.

“I can’t protect both of you all the time and its killing me,” he growled, pulling her against his chest.” The ache was nearly crushing as Kayne realized he held his entire world in his lap.

“Ah, can I ask something?” Jollie whispered from Rafe’s lap, not really comfortable with interrupting the couple but feeling the backlash of emotions now filling the room thanks to her link with Rafe. It took a few moments for the couple to look up from their soft kisses and focus again.

“If it makes everyone feel better I can help protect Chayle now that I’m here. I’ve worked protection details before and have the skills, and I’m pretty sure I can handle myself. Besides, I doubt either of you are going to allow either one of us out and about by ourselves so we’ll have at least one another on protection.” She looked down at Rafe, taking in the smirk he was trying so hard to conceal. “Yep, I figured as much,” Jollie confirmed, hitting his shoulder.

“See,” Chayle whispered. “We’ll be fine. Besides, Jollie and I need to get to know each other better and both of you need to work. We still have at least a few months before the babe comes.”

“The doctor said we can’t be sure it will be full term, you know that.” Kayne tried to take a deep breath and felt his heartache as Chayle curled tighter around him.

“It’s not because of you,” she whispered again. “Stop it! It’s not a defect, Kayne so please, stop borrowing trouble.”

His deep cobalt blue eyes so like Rafe’s looked up at her and Chayle saw all the love there she could possibly ever want or need. This man would die for her and she for him. Her brother-in-law would protect them and her soon to be new sister-in-law would be there for the baby. It would be good.

“Ok folks. The men have work to do so we will leave you ladies to do women’s work.” The minute the words were out of his mouth, Rafe knew he was in trouble. Both mates looked at him as if he were road kill. “Well, shit.”

“Yep, pretty much, brother mine.” Kayne started laughing and couldn’t stop as Chayle jumped off his lap rather ungracefully to slap his shoulder as he tried to leave the kitchen. Both women listened to his laughing all the way out of the house before they both finally gave into their own belly laughs.

Chapter 29

Several weeks later, Rafe and Kayne mock battled each other in an exhibition on the matt in the training facilities until both of them were so exhausted and covered in sweat neither one could hardly move, both breathing hard as they finally had to called it a draw. A small crowd of onlookers had gathered around the outside parameters of the mats to watch the brothers in the intricate dance of Muay Boran martial arts that so few could perform as flawlessly as the twins. The fighting form was actually different forms of the more traditional Siamese or Thai styles of martial arts known as Muay Chaiya, Muay Korat, Muay Tasao, and Muay Jerng. It was beauty in motion, a dance of death and power in the way each used their arms and legs to hone muscles into the killing machines they were created to be and it was a rare sight for the group to actually get to watch the brothers against each other. When they finally came to a halt on the mats, each fell to the floor cross-legged and breathing hard, oblivious when Mercury crossed the room and handed both a towel and a bottle of water, shaking his head in amazement.

“So, have you finished working out whatever the hell is bothering both of you yet, or do I need to lock you in for the night until you work this out?” He sat back on his haunches, looking between them.

“We’re good,” Kayne said with a grin, gulping down half of his water. Rafe sat quietly, drinking his own water and looking off into the distance as if he had never heard Mercury’s question at all.

“Are you going to tell me what’s eating at both of you?” Merc could sense the unease just under the surface of his friends and he wanted to help. Now that the two men had found their mates it was understandable that both of them were worried, considering where the women had been found to begin with. If he had a madman on the hunt for his other half, he would be worried, too. Considering the extra Intel Gabriel had dug up, it wasn’t likely this monster was going to go quietly into the night. He thought about the circumstances and location where they had found the women, the fact that it had been rigged to blow once someone had gained access - with the women in it, and it was if a light had clicked on.

“Ah, guys, I think we might have missed something with all of this,” Merc offered, looking at his friends.

“What are you talking about?” Rafe growled, using the towel to clean his face of the stinging sweat and salt from his eyes. “Gabe is working with the Intelligence community covertly and hopefully we’ll have more Intel soon. Commander Derek is due here in the next few weeks so we can go over what information we’ve been able to find. What have we missed?”

“Ok, let me rephrase this.” Merc took up a seat on the mat across from the brothers, sending a silent message to all to vacate the building. The audience slipped out as quietly as shadows as the three men looked at each other.

“The women were in a remote location, the perpetrators all but gone except for a few left on guard duty. There were no computers or files for the most part, except what we found left behind, it was as if they had pulled out in a hurry. We were lucky, because as soon as we got the women out of there - boom! The place blew.” He watched the twins shaking their heads.

“Tell us something we don’t already know,” Kayne demanded, clearly running out of patience.

“Why did it blow up?” Merc whispered, watching the other two men, waiting for it to actually click as to
what
he was asking.

“What do you mean?” Rafe asked, looking between the men. “We somehow triggered it. Not sure how, but somewhere, somehow there had to have been a trigger.”

“No we didn’t.” Merc shook his head, closed his eyes and called up the scene once more. He had a photographic memory, so he could map each step the team took because they were so linked while on a mission it was as if they were one large entity. He could scent each anomaly, each possible threat, every single person who had come and gone since the last rain. “ I would have known and so would you. I can smell explosives a half mile away, and Davy is the best explosives expert we have so he would have been able to sense and detect any trips. That’s why we took our time and were so careful. There were none around the cabin, or going inside.” He watched the men, waiting, letting it sink in, hoping his conclusions were wrong but Merc didn’t think so.

“Oh Gods,” Rafe whispered finally, his eyes going wide. “They were going to kill them anyway.”

“Exactly. Whatever they were doing, whatever was happening was done. They had what they wanted and needed to clean it up. That’s why it blew. The fact that we got there when we did was purely by chance, or fate.” As the words faded in the now quiet workout room, Rafe took a shuddering breath.

“I could have lost her before I had even found her!” Rafe’s groan was loud in the room as all three men looked at each other, realizing the implications of what Mercury was saying. He shook himself, finally getting mad. “Then why did they send someone for Chayle? What’s the reasons behind the attempt if the women were meant to be dead anyway?”

“Cleanup.” Kayne’s one word sent dread and rage through Rafe’s entire system, causing him to shake at the idea that a fragile human life could be considered of so little value. “The girls must know something, seen something, who the hell knows but they wanted them gone.”

“Well, they’ve picked the wrong brothers to fuck with this time!” Rafe shot to his feet. “We won’t let them get to our mates and hell will freeze over before anyone else touches them!”

The other two men rose as one, leaving the building in a rush. Rafe needed to get to Jollie, the need so intense it was a burning hole in his gut. He sent out mental feelers to track her, not wanting to scare her too much but needing to know that she was safe and guarded. As he pushed out into the ether, the softness of sandalwood and smoke came back to him, unique and odd since he had never encountered it before. Closing his eyes, Rafe let his mind wonder and found his temper beginning to calm and his gut finally easing.

“They’re in the sunroom,” he whispered to Kayne, who was matching his long strides toward the house. Rafe noticed his twin’s head cocked to one side and then a slow smile that he knew was reserved only for Kayne’s mate filled Kayne’s face.

“Chayle said she’s been tired this morning so they decided to take it easy for a while. She’s been showing Jollie the house and its defenses to make her feel more at home.” The men took the back steps two at a time and came through the French doors as quietly as possible, but both women turned from the large wing-backed chairs where they sat talking. Jollie wore her signature dark jeans and a t-shirt while Chayle was in some soft lounge pajamas and tank top. Rafe’s eyes quickly locked with his mate’s.

“What have you boys been doing?” Jollie asked, instantly recognizing the tense stance Rafe took before he could stop himself.

“We just came from the training facility. Care to join me for a quick shower?” He moved in on her as she came to her feet, crowding Jollie up against the hutch behind her so he could take her mouth before she could argue and not really caring who was watching.

The taste of her, a hint of cinnamon and coffee overlay the sandalwood kicked Rafe’s need into high gear before he could get a handle on it. It was as if a switch was thrown and his body was burning, the sudden need to taste the warmth of her body again actually making his knees weak. He had to push back the sudden panic he had felt earlier when he realized both women could have been killed before either of the brothers found, and it was still causing his fight or flight responses to rush to the forefront. He needed his mate, needed to touch and taste her on a fundamental level that could only be done in private because he could never allow another human being to touch what was his again. As those thoughts hit Rafe’s brain he picked his mate up and slung her, fireman’ style over his shoulder, and headed to their rooms unable to stop the groan that slipped from him or Jollie’s yell at being manhandled.

“Rafe, put me down!” she was screaming, pounding on his back but he couldn’t stop, couldn’t wait to explain why it was important to get to their rooms. He had to get her there so he could explain how close he had come to losing her but first - first he had to be buried deep inside of her again.

Chapter 30

Jollie tumbled onto the bed as her mate dropped her, then followed her down, almost covering her with his huge body. Her newly awakened senses could feel a unexpected panic filtering back through their unique link she was still becoming accustomed to over the last several weeks, yet Rafe’s face was almost stoic and strained with no emotion showing on the surface other than the lust she could see in his dark blue gaze. She looked down her body as she silently him remove her sneakers and jeans, lift her up and slip the t-shirt over her head, all without uttering a word but doing so tenderly and with care as if he were handling a child.

“Baby,” she whispered, running her hands down Rafe’s thick arms, “your scaring me. What’s wrong?”

She lay totally naked before him now, and Jollie watched as Rafe stood and stripped with quick efficiency next to the bed before offering his hand. She took it, anxious to know what was bothering him on a bone-deep level but realizing this hulking leader of such a ruthless group of men could also be this vulnerable. The need to protect him, take away whatever had put the haunted look in his eyes rose like an avenging angel and Jollie knew in that instant that she loved this man and would kill anyone who stood between her and Rafael McIntyre.

They stepped into the large shower without saying another word, Rafe pulling her close against his chest as he poured the body wash into his large hands and began washing both of them. Jollie just stood against him with her head on his shoulder, allowing him to care for her. She tried to reach out on their special bond again but came up against a brick wall, and she leaned back from him, looking up.

“No fair, lover.” Her dark eyes took in his haunted blue ones, reminding her once more of the amazing sunsets she had seen her in Texas set against those blue skies. “You told me that I couldn’t lock you out of my mind so play fair. Something is bothering you and I want to know what it is - now!” Jollie punched his upper chest, knowing the tap would never actually hurt him.

Rafe’s hands stopped and he pulled her to him once more. Gods, how could he tell her?

Taking a shaking breath, Rafe opened his blocks and allowed her in to see, to feel what it was that bothered him. There were no words that could describe how he felt, no way he could explain to Jollie Sanchez that in such a short time she had become his world, he center, and his very soul. When he finally looked down into her face, the water couldn’t hide the tears or the emotions that looped back when she realized the enormity of how he felt and why. Quickly washing them both, Rafe pulled her from the shower and took a large towel from the heating bar to dry her before quickly doing the same.

“Now you know how much you mean to me,” Rafe whispered into the shell of her ear, licking it, “I almost didn’t find you, baby. You are my soul, my other half.” His voice cracked, and Rafe buried his face in the damp hair of Jollie’s neck.

“Stop it,” Jollie said, grabbing the back of Rafe’s neck. “The Fates led your team there for a reason, otherwise both of us would have been dead. You’ve got to count blessings instead of second-guessing what could have happened. I could have died several times over the last few years. There are many things that you don’t know which happened after I left the Marines, especially the last time the bastards got their hands on me. Do you honestly think that I’m that hard to kill?” She was angry, and Jollie didn’t try to hide it. She let him feel it as she pushed it back at him along their link. He needed to realize she was no longer afraid of the big bad wolf in the dark. It was time to kill the motherfucker!