33
R ose knew she’d been unfair. She could have answered him. She grabbed a basket and stepped onto the escalator. As it moved upward, the flash of a reflection in the window at the top made her pause.
Who is that?
But before she could fully make out the distorted figure, he moved to one side to allow a woman who was clearly in a hurry to pass him, and she lost the chance to figure it out. She took a giant step at the top. Someone had told her once that you could die by getting caught in the mechanism of an escalator. No matter how irrational it was, every single time she had to use one, she made sure her laces didn’t have an opportunity to slide between the grooves and capture her.
She turned left past the phone shop, and through the food court.
Maybe I’ll grab us a snack on the way out.
She was immediately annoyed with herself at the thought. If she was thinking ‘us’ instead of herself, then she’d already lost the battle to do the right thing. God would have to forgive her, because she didn’t want to do this thing called life without Caleb. Someone bumped into her when she stopped in her tracks.
“Scusa, Senora.”
She waved off the woman’s apologies. It wasn’t her fault that she caused a traffic jam. She forced one foot in front of the other. There had to be a way for them to be together safely.
Talk to Caleb.
That’s why he’s here.
If anyone knew more about figuring out how to stay alive and out of the clutches of a mad man, it has to be him… right?
Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a stuffed toy, and changed direction to check it out.
“I did say carrier pigeon.” She fished in her purse for her phone and opened the camera app to snap a picture of the bird stuffy. She opened a message box and pulled up the number Tex had given her when he’d called to tell her Caleb was coming to Italy, to her, and attached the photo to it. Her fingers hovered for a moment before she started to type.
Rose: I lo ? —
The hairs stood on the back of her neck, and her fingers paused. Suddenly, she knew without turning around that he was behind her. Janek had found her. Her time had run out. The future she’d just started to believe was hers for the taking was snatched from her grasp. Slowly, she turned and faced the creature of her nightmares. Her gaze flicked from the gun in his hand to his eyes and back again.
Shit.
To her amazement, she didn’t burst into tears. The fear that had driven her for so long receded and was replaced by a rage she’d never experienced before. There were too many innocent people here—she couldn’t allow him to hurt them. She just couldn’t.
“Well, well, well. What have we here?” the asshole said as he moved closer. A gel-greased lock of his hair spilled across his forehead as he bent towards her.
Rose was short, and Janek used every inch of his six feet to loom over her. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, preventing her from demanding he back off. She froze as past conditioning kept her in place as he reached for her.
Rose closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, picturing Caleb in her mind, calling to every ounce of love she felt for him in an effort to break free of the past and the hold of Janek’s training which kept her in place.
I love you, Rosey-Posey. I promise I won’t let you down again.
Her eyes flew open and narrowed on Janek. “Leave me alone.” She had little hope that he’d listen or even do as she asked. “I won’t tell anyone you were here if you leave now.”
His evil chuckle slithered down her spine like a snake of ice. “I think not. I keep what’s mine.”
“I was never yours.” Her hands trembled as she tried to think how she would escape him. She thought to run, but with the two men she could just about make out standing a few steps behind him, she didn’t there was any way she could outrun them. She pulled out the only weapon she had in her arsenal, opened her mouth, and screamed.
Caleb blew out a shaky breath as he watched Rose disappear into the store. He’d expected her to jump in his arms, to cry all over him. To demand he never left her again. He could confirm that all the books and movies lied. They fibbed so hard that their noses were longer than Pinocchio’s.
In the rearview mirror, he saw a car between the cart bay and the door reverse out and drive away. He fumbled with the gears of Rose’s dinky car but managed to reverse it into the free space before another driver claimed it. He touched the button to lower the window. Then he heard the scream. He knew that voice.
He contorted his body, forcing it out of the car until he popped free of its grip and it spat him out to land on his knees on the pavement. He scrambled to his feet and raced into the store, towards the sound. “Rose,” he yelled, only to be jerked back against a wall of solid muscle.
“Easy. It’s Cookie,” a voice whispered harshly in his ear.
He shot a glance over his shoulder and confirmed it was Wolf Steel’s teammate who held him. “Rose…”
“I know. Wolf and Mozart are tracking her.” Cookie handed him a Glock. “You might need this.”
Having a weapon in his hand snapped his focus back where it should have been. It pushed back the panic wrought by Rose’s scream to a level where he could channel the fury it caused to become the warrior the US Navy and Dalton had trained him to be.
He and Cookie had to stand aside as customers streamed from the store, blocking them from moving. Mothers hurried their children while old men ushered their wives ahead of them as they raced for freedom.
Caleb silently cursed the screams, sobs, and crying that kept him from hearing the one voice he needed above all others.
“Hurry up. Hurry up,” Caleb beseeched to someone, anyone who’d listen. He needed to get to her. Knowing one of the finest SEALs he’d ever known was there close to her should have eased his fears. Instead, it fueled his fury, because he figured out what was happening and why. Rose was bait. His woman, his heart, was bait to catch the fucker who hunted her, and nobody had warned him. “You knew,” he accused Cookie.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” Cookie admitted. “Orders came from the top; we had no choice.”
It galled him to nod in response, but he did it anyway when he saw the remorse on Cookie’s face. He understood orders better than most. But acknowledging it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Cookie motioned him forward and slotted into place on his left shoulder, “she’s never been alone since she left your place. Not for one moment. Despite encouragement to do differently, we’ve made sure she was safe.”
Someday, he’d be able to appreciate that. Today was not that day. He ruthlessly pushed everything aside and started to progress up the escalator into the grocery store while offering up a silent prayer.
I’ll give you anything you want; just don’t let her die.
With more courage than she felt, Rose moved to the left and glanced over his shoulder to check where his goons were. She noticed two men creeping behind them and silently cursed when she recognized them as Matthew ‘Wolf’ Steel and Sam ‘Mozart’ Reed.
Trying to distract Janek from noticing, she hoped her feet kept up with her heart as she whirled around and raced away from him. She hadn’t taken three steps before another goon stepped into her path, his hands taking hold of her wrists painfully.
“Going somewhere?”
“I—le—” She blinked as Caleb appeared in her peripheral vision and launched himself at the asshole holding her. A lethal smile ghosted across his face as his shoulder slammed into him, sending all three of them to their knees.
“Run,” Caleb yelled at her with a jerk of his chin as he rolled up, keeping his knees in the center of the asshole’s back.
Rose didn’t need to be told twice. Despite having no idea who was out there or what awaited her, she bolted in the direction of his chin jerk.
Rose heard the sound of footsteps behind her and knew Caleb couldn’t have gotten the goon under control that fast. She raced down the aisle as fast as her legs would carry her, but it wasn’t fast enough.
A jerk on her hair brought her to a sudden and painful halt.
“Why run when you know I will catch you?” Janek snarled. He wrapped his hands around her throat and squeezed, cutting off her air. “I told you. If I can’t have you, nobody can.”
She struggled for breath, her hands flailing. With the sounds of fighting all around them, she knew there was little chance of rescue. It would be so easy to give up. So easy to admit defeat and allow him to kill her, but her heart which beat for Caleb refused to allow her to stop fighting.
She beat at Janek with her fists, growing weaker by the second.
He laughed evilly. “Too bad you ran from me and showed how unworthy you are. You would make an excellent wife.”
“Never.” Unable to speak, she mouthed the word. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Caleb, Wolf, Mozart—and was that Cookie?—fighting with the goons.
She had to somehow get away from Janek without help from the guys. She just had to. She had a man to tell she loved, and a life to live. She wanted her fairytale happily ever after, damn it. She’d more than earned it.
Black spots danced in her vision. Her hands pulled weakly at his fingers, trying to give herself just a tiny inch of room for air.
“Enough.” His voice boomed around her as he shook her hard.
Her arms flailed, hitting something sharp that she couldn’t see on a shelf. She ignored the pain, her instincts taking over. God, she hoped whatever it was she’d managed to pick up wasn’t something too small. Rose put every ounce of the minimal strength she had left into her swing and slammed her arm forward.
Janek screamed, released her, and put his hands to his face. She watched in horror as he dropped to his knees and sank sideways to the floor with a knitting needle sticking out of his eye.
Her legs refused to hold her any longer and she fell to the floor, scooting her butt back until she hit a shelf. She brought her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and squeezed her eyes closed to shut out the horrific sight in front of her. “Oh my God. I killed him.”
“Rose. Rosey-Posey?
When she opened her eyes, Caleb knelt in front of her.
“Hey, baby girl.”
“I—I killed him.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
She threw herself at his chest, and his arms closed around her as police swarmed the store. “Oh God.”
“I’m so fucking proud of you,” Caleb whispered against her head.
“On the ground. On the ground,” a policeman ordered in Italian, then repeated it in English. “On the ground.”
Caleb eased her out of his arms and nodded. He lay down and spoke in halting Italian over his shoulder as the policeman cuffed him. “My woman is hurt; he tried to kill her.”
“I will see she is looked after.”
“Grazie.” Caleb lay passive and let what needed to happen, happen. “It will be okay, Rosey-Posey. I promise.” He climbed to his feet as the policeman half lifted him. “Sir, can you call the base commander at NSA Naples? Our commander in chief will need to know what happened here today.”
“You are military?”
He eyed the Italian, as if unsure how to answer. “Sometimes.”
The Italian cop barked a laugh. “My cousin, Midas, is sometimes too.” He paused to check Janek’s pulse, then turned to her. “Come with us, miss.”
Rose scrambled to her feet and trailed after them as they were led to the other aisle where Wolf, his two men, and four of Janek’s goons sat handcuffed on the floor.
What a mess.
I’m alive.
We are all alive.
I’ll take it.