Home > His to Shelter (The Guard #1)(9)

His to Shelter (The Guard #1)(9)
Author: Em Petrova

She turned her face to the window and watched normal all-American houses slide by her window, which morphed into city streets and businesses.

When he pulled into a hotel parking lot and cut the engine, she met his gaze. “Where are we?”

“It’s a safehouse.”

“It looks like a hotel.”

He didn’t respond to that. “I trust the people inside. They’ll take it from here. Guard you until it’s safe and then get you home.”

A lump blocked off all words in her throat. She didn’t have time to utter them anyway, because he got out and came around the vehicle. He opened her door, and she stiffly climbed out. After spending a number of hours bound and rolling around in the back of a van, her muscles protested every step she took to the back of the building, and her head still swam occasionally with that sick feeling of a concussion.

Oz knocked on a back metal door used for employees. A woman took one look at him and motioned them inside. No musty hotel corridor with gawdy carpet greeted her—this was a home, with golden light and homey décor. A woman wearing a pair of loose pants and a blouse buttoned to the very top of her neck stood there.

She turned her attention to Rose, scanning her face and then smiling gently. “Come inside and sit down. I’ll see to that cut on your leg and get you some tea.”

Rose wanted to scream in protest, but what good would that do? Oz was right that she needed some sort of protection. If those men had taken her off the street once, they could again. This time she might not be lucky enough to be found.

A man died because of her. Oz’s pose on the sand reminded her that someone besides him would mourn for that man—a mother, father, sister, wife.

Tears rushed into her eyes, which she blinked away as the kindly woman pressed a mug of warm tea into her hands. She patted her shoulder. “Relax and I’ll be back with the first-aid kit.”

Rose nodded, aware of the fog edging into her mind and somewhere knowing shock took hold. In a detached way, she sipped her tea and waited on the comfy pale green sofa.

What felt like only moments later, Oz entered the room again. With his heavy stare pinning her in place, he sank to the opposite chair. “You’re safe here with Elizabeth. People will be by to see you.”

She met his stare. “Who? FBI?”

He shook his head. “Better that you don’t know. But you are safe here.”

“You’ve already said that. Where is here?”

“Elizabeth will answer all your questions when I leave.”

Pain flared inside her, hot and bright, cutting through her haze. “You’re going?”

She’d never seen him again.

He nodded, eyes fixed on her.

“Where am I?” she asked again. “Who kidnapped me and why?”

“We’re finding out as we speak.”

“Who is? It’s not the FBI. Is it Homeland?”

“No.” God, the years had been kind to Oz. He looked the same, except a few more lines cutting through his brow and bracketing his hard mouth, all of which only enhanced the gorgeous face of the man she’d fallen in love with in her younger days.

“You’ll know all you need to know soon, Rose.”

Her heart twisted at the sound of her name trailing off his lips. But she needed answers more than a glossy paperback romance.

“Where are you going?”

He shook his head.

“Can I call you?”

“No.”

Panic swept her. The only man who knew where she was might be killed and then what?

She set aside her tea and suddenly, she felt more stable, more herself. “What happens to the man who died back there?”

Not a flicker of an eyelash from Oz. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Would you like more tea?” The woman’s sudden appearance robbed her of her self-control.

Rose jumped to her feet and paced to a window. She stood there staring at the curtains for a long moment. When she brushed aside the fabric panel, her stare met with a wall. A false window.

She turned again, and only Elizabeth remained in the room. Oz was gone. She glanced toward the doorway of the living space but he didn’t stand there waiting for her.

He’d slipped out of her life as quickly as he slipped in.

Rose’s throat closed up. As a man appeared in the doorway, her heart gave a leap, but then she saw it wasn’t Oz but a man with chocolate skin and a smile for her. He entered with three more people behind him.

The group swept her up, talking to her in soft tones and trying to acclimate her to her circumstances, but no understanding dawned on her. How could she ever make sense of any of this?

And Oz had walked out of her life again.

“Would you like a hot shower, Rose?” Elizabeth asked after she cleaned the small cut on Rose’s leg.

She nodded. “And some painkillers. I think I have a mild concussion.”

“Oh dear. Let me look at your eyes.” Elizabeth searched her gaze and raised her hands to probe her head for knots, which she found on the side. Rose winced.

“I’ll get you the painkillers and a drink of water. We’ve got some clothes that will fit you. Come with me.” She turned to the man. “Keep a look out, will you, James?”

He nodded.

The next half hour, Rose went through the motions of getting undressed, showering and then putting on a pair of black lounge pants, a T-shirt and a hoodie that somehow were all her size.

When she came out of the bathroom in a fog of steam from the hottest shower she’d ever taken, Elizabeth met her in the hall. In the back of her mind, she wondered how many tears that shower washed away from people like herself.

“You must be hungry.”

She didn’t think she could eat but nodded anyway.

In the kitchen, several more people congregated, and when she walked in, she felt like a party crasher. For a moment, she almost giggled at the idea of pretending to know them.

Hi, Silvia! Man, that’s a great skirt! Killer heels too. Haven’t seen you since Damian’s party back in…

But she said nothing as Elizabeth led her to the counter where platters of food sat. Rose didn’t immediately pick up a plate and start filling it, so Elizabeth began fixing her a sandwich and adding other food to her plate.

Rose sat in a corner, watching everyone around her but ingesting none of what they said. A safehouse. In safehouses, did everyone pretend they weren’t all victims?

She nibbled a sandwich and sipped some Coke, but she had no appetite. And she kept looking around, hoping Oz might appear again.

She did a double take, and her heart hammered in her ears.

Oz, weaving through people. His dark hair and the black scruff of hair on his jaw that he never in a million years would have allowed to grow if he were still active duty stood out to her. With most of the shock of their reconnection gone, she could take note of things about him, such as the way he filled out that shirt to perfection and the confident air that only seemed to have tripled in their years apart.

Someone moved and she lost sight of him. Then suddenly, he appeared. His gaze latched on her, picking her out of the group.

Elizabeth spotted him too and stepped up to his elbow. They exchanged a few words, and then she nodded. Oz continued to come.

Rose stood up, plate abandoned, and shivers snaked through her. Of all the people in the universe she needed right now, she couldn’t deny it was Oz.

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)