Page 43 of Ace (The Deuces Wild #4)

‘I wish you’d waited until I got back to you,’ Isaiah told Savannah mentally as she sped along the interstate across Lake Pontchartrain.

Her inner sense of Keller had turned back on in her head.

He’d gone to speak with RJ this morning, but he wasn’t at RJ’s clinic now.

He was somewhere ahead of her. East of her.

That much she knew, so she’d packed up her dogs, and she’d gone after him. Waiting was not an option.

‘I couldn’t. I can sense him now. He’s moving farther away from me.’

‘But he’s in the air, Savannah. Keller was trapped in a convoy of four trucks the last time we spoke, but those trucks stopped at an airfield in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, hours ago. The containers are now on a cargo jet. He’s been in the air over an hour.’

Well, darn. Savannah ran a hand over her face, flustered that she’d wasted time going nowhere, just as flustered she’d wasted time waiting for Keller to come back when he was so far gone. ‘When your boss said convoy, I thought I could just… Never mind. You’re right. My fault. I should’ve waited.’

Still in his Georgetown hospital bed with Roxy by his side nursing their son, Isaiah was acting as Savannah’s go-between with his boss, Special Agent Tucker Chase and another FBI agent, Eden Winchester.

But it was no wonder Keller disliked working with them.

They were all mind-reading psychics, all capable of mentally contacting and communicating with each other, while he didn’t have a telepathic bone in his body.

Apparently, neither did Savannah. Chagrined, she aimed for the nearest exit to turn around.

‘I’m sorry. My fault. I should’ve talked with you before now. Keller’s heart rate is still quite low,’ Isaiah said. ‘That must be why you weren’t able to hone in on him before.’

‘I can only see things through his mind.’ Darn it . ‘Wherever he is, it’s dark, but he’s not in pain, and he’s not uncomfortable. I get the feeling he’s not alone, either. Someone or something is with him, only I keep losing the connection. It’s like he’s drifting in and out of consciousness.’

‘Which he probably is. Sorry, Savannah. Keller was in touch with my boss when he became trapped in the container. Fortunately, he was transmitting video when he blacked out. Tuck saw it. Mr. John used some kind of sleeping gas on those crates.’

‘Dr. John,’ Savannah corrected. ‘Rudy John. He’s a general practitioner. He was Gran Mere’s doctor.’ But he was most definitely not her friend. ‘What’s in the crates?’

Isaiah took a measured breath before he told her, ‘According to Keller, exotic hummingbirds, possibly other smuggled animals, too. There are nearly a thousand crates in that one container, and there were four trucks in the convoy. This is a huge illegal shipment. Tuck checked out the photo Keller sent. The bird is called a Marvelous Spatuletail, it’s one of the rarest hummingbird species in the world.

It only lives in the Rio Utcubamba Valley, high in the Andes of northern Peru.

Apparently, there’s a huge conservation effort to save these birds.

Because of Keller’s good detective work, the Bureau’s now working with the Division of Fish and Wildlife to seize the shipment.

We’ve been after Fontenette for years on other charges, but Keller might just have found the way to finally bring him down. ’

‘He is dedicated,’ Savannah said. That much she knew for certain. Keller lived to serve.

‘That he is. Let me know what else is going on with him.’

‘I will.’

But Savannah felt worse now that she’d connected with Keller.

After the way he’d held her last night, she’d been so sure he loved her, that he just didn’t know how to say it.

Guess not. Because now she also sensed she was fighting a losing battle by loving a man who wanted her, yet was convinced he wasn’t good enough.

Even as groggy as Keller was, he still transmitted strong undercurrents of honorable doubt that included him leaving her.

Foolish man, thinking he knew better than she did.

Yet he’d been so deeply hurt when Carol Marie passed away that something inside him was broken. Savannah got that, but for the first time since she’d fallen for him, she wasn’t certain she could save this damaged beast. You can’t make someone love you.

She’d never been in a relationship with a man like him before, and teenage romances didn’t count.

This was a fiercely different thing, loving an adult male who’d survived a nightmare childhood, then created an entirely new nightmare by joining the Army and running headlong into war.

Burying himself in protective, macho layers of military armor, pride, and male ego that distanced himself from everyone not in that raw, wild brotherhood who’d sworn to die for each other.

What civilian—what woman—could compete with a bond built on lives freely given?

On blood spilled for love of the warrior at your side?

She honestly didn’t know. Maybe Keller was right. Maybe it was time to admit they really were worlds apart. It made sense. War was all he’d ever known. He’d developed a keen sense of survival since he was a baby. How could he not? He knew how to fight with his entire soul—just not how to love.

It was that sense of internal anguish she’d zeroed on the moment she’d opened Gran Mere’s door. Just as his empathy had reached out to comfort her, Savannah’s aptitude for comforting those around her snagged him at first sight. Like did attract like. That much was true. That much she knew .

Okay then. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?

She just had to persuade Keller to let down his defenses and try a little harder, to let her love him a little longer.

A little better. That was what this badassed, scarred, banged-up warrior needed.

That was who could rescue him from himself, someone strong enough to always be there for him at the end of the day. And that someone was her.

He’d never quit fighting the good fight, and Savannah didn’t want him to change, not for her.

They were strong empaths. They could be good together.

But every warrior needed a safe place to hide when his daily battle was over.

Some place safe and dark where he could lick his wounds and know for certain that someone would be waiting there just for him.

To feed him and wash away the grime and blood from his handsome body.

To listen. To hold him when he cried. To love him with all her heart.

‘I’m worried,’ she confided to Isaiah. ‘I’m not sure Keller knows how to let down his defenses long enough for anyone to speak psychically with him. He’s blocking me even though he’s passed out.’

‘Which proves he’s a stronger psychic than he realizes. This is why he needs you. One day at a time, Savannah. Isn’t that what your great grandmother used to say?’

That made her smile. ‘I think you know me too well, my friend.’

‘It happens. Listen, when this is over, I want you to visit me at FBI Headquarters and undergo a few tests. Meet my boss. Tuck’s always looking for new talent. ’

‘No. Strong trees need each other’s shade, but they also need to stand in their own sunlight to grow. I’d never intrude on Keller’s workplace unless he asked me.’

Isaiah chuckled. ‘Another one of your great grandmother’s pearls of wisdom?’

‘Actually, that one’s all mine,’ Savannah answered with a titch of pride.

‘Remember, I’m from the bayou where clinging vines kill even the hardiest trees.

That’s not what Keller needs. Did you know he can’t read your mind?

Do you know how hard that was for him to sit with me and not know what you and I were talking about that day? ’

‘You mean the day you saved my life?’ Isaiah whispered psychically—as if anyone else could hear him. ‘I still can’t thank you enough. You’ll never know what you did for me and Roxy. My son.’

‘It was my pleasure,’ she replied. ‘You’d do the same.’

‘I would. But yes, I know Keller’s not happy. The adjustment’s been hard on him.’

‘Because the rest of you can psychically check in with each other anytime you want. You talk to each other like it’s no big deal, just like we’re doing now.

But Keller can’t. Think about it. He was used to being the man in charge when he was in the Army, but now he’s the odd man out.

The wannabe, always looking in, but never quite belonging to the mean kids’ club. ’

‘Hey, whoa, I object. We’re not intentionally mean to anyone, and— '

‘Yeah, I get it, you don’t mean to exclude anyone, and if anyone was the odd man out as a kid, it was certainly you. But honestly, Isaiah, each time you Deuces Wild guys converse psychically behind his back, that’s precisely what you’re doing. All of you. Even your boss. How would you feel?’

That shut Isaiah up. Because of their shared mental link, Savannah now knew precisely what a misfit he’d been as a kid, even as a young adult, right up until the day he’d met Eden Winchester, the FBI agent now tracking Keller.

How could they both not understand Keller when they’d been the exact same type of misfit?

‘I never thought of it like that,’ Isaiah finally murmured. ‘You’re absolutely right.’

‘It’s simple pack mentality. Dogs do it all the time, and human beings aren’t much different. They tend to forget what it’s like being the outsider the second they belong to a family, a society, a church, or whatever. They clan up, close up, and they draw a line to fence everyone else out.’

‘Man, we could really use another Level Ten, someone with your unique insight on our team.’

There was that term again. ‘What on earth is a Level Ten?’

‘Someone like me. Like you and probably your Gran Mere, too. Someone with multiple psychic skills.’

‘Like…?’