Tasha looked at her in surprise, handed over the pistol she held, and asked, “Can you really fire these?”

  “I don’t need to fire them,” she explained. “For me, it’ll be a prop.” At that, with her jaw set, and leaving the other woman stunned, she immediately took up a position behind the front door.

  Tasha and Sophia exchanged a glance and immediately raced to hide. They had weapons at the ready as well.

  “So, we have a security system set up, and that’s what the alarm is from?” Cara asked them.

  “It’s been infiltrated,” Tasha noted. “Some other system is blocking it.”

  Cara tilted her head, concentrating. “I’ve got it mostly blocked, but it’s like a high-pitched, ear-piercing scream.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” Tasha murmured. “We’ve had some trouble with those before. It was absolutely horrific.”

  “It is, and it’s about to drop some people in here,” she warned them, looking around. “If you don’t have ear protection, you need to get something now.”

  With that, the women raced into the closet again, searching for any ear protectors they could use. Because of the other attack, there were some in stock, and, as soon as they had their ears covered, and a set distributed to Mariana and Little Calum, they returned to the computer room, looking to her for guidance.

  Cara shrugged. “Just hide and wait for it.”

  Within minutes, the sound split the air. All the women, even within ear protectors, bent over, but, in Cara’s case, she put an energy shield around her head and kept it there as firmly and as solidly as she could. She knew what this would do. It would drop everybody to the ground, and that’s when the intruders would enter, and she didn’t dare let anybody in.

  Not when so many potential victims were here, particularly Little Calum. The women here were capable, of course, but no match for these ruthless killers. These assholes didn’t give a shit who they hurt, but no way in hell would anybody get past Cara to hurt a child.

  The door burst open with a suddenness that shocked her, even though she expected it. She waited, as a machine gun appeared first. Almost instantly a handgun came up next, as a second man entered. She waited, her gaze on them as they slowly entered the room. They were probably expecting to see people on the floor, and instead everybody was hidden and struggling to stay conscious, even through the insufficient ear protectors.

  When the gunmen turned and found her, she smiled and immediately dropped her shield to reach out and plow the closest intruder with an energy jolt that should have had him dropping to the floor. He didn’t go quite flat to the floor, but he sank to his knees.

  She had been forced to put the shield right back up in order to block out the horrific noise again. Beside the first gunman, the second gunman turned in surprise, and she used his own weapon to buck up against his chin. This caught him off guard, frozen, as he stared at her in shock. Her knee to his groin bent him over quickly. She followed up her attack on the first gunman by using a back kick to knock him to the floor.

  With that, the other women came in, with guns raised, and stopped the intruders. The men dropped their weapons in disgust, but the stupid sound still raged on. Cara immediately removed the gunmen’s ear protectors and tossed them to the women. The men cried out, dropping to the ground, curled into fetal positions, trying to protect their ears.

  With the ear protectors designed to counteract this sound now worn by Sophia and Tasha, they approached Cara.

  Shouting over the noise, Cara asked, “You know how to shut it off?”

  Tasha immediately raced over to the computer. Suddenly all was silent.

  Cara looked at Tasha. “Did you do that?”

  “No, I think Gage and Damon are back,” she replied.

  Just then, the rear door burst wide open, and many men entered, but they were their men.

  Cara looked at Rick and smiled. “About time you got back.” Instantly she was plucked off her feet and hugged, as Rick threw his arms around her and held her close. She buried her face in tight against his chest. “That noise was awful,” she moaned.

  He nodded. “It’s doing what it’s meant to do.” He looked down at the men on the ground. “Did they hurt you?”

  “No, I didn’t give them a chance.”

  He noted the weapon she still held. “Do you know how to use that thing?” He stared at it and looked back at her.

  She gave him a flat stare. “I didn’t need to use it. It’s more of a prop than anything.”

  “We’ll teach you,” he stated, “because anytime you pick up a weapon, you need to know how to fire it.”

  “I would have figured it out,” she replied. “Generally I don’t need weapons like that.”

  Tasha nodded. “You should have seen her drop-kick those guys.”

  “So where did you learn self-defense?”

  “Growing up,” she said. “It just made my life a little easier when there was unwanted attention.”

  He snorted with laughter at that. “You, lady, are dangerous.”

  She smiled. “Only to the wrong person,” she murmured.

  “I hear you there, and I’m grateful I’m not on the wrong side.”

  She tilted her head and stared at him. “Are you sure?”

  He chucked her under the chin. “I’m positive. I might be slow. It might have taken me a while, … and mostly, because I felt like the choice had been taken from me,” he murmured, “but I don’t stay stupid for long.”

  She grinned. “I don’t know about that part. I figured it might take you a little bit longer to figure it out.”

  “Nope, won’t take me very long at all.” He bent over and kissed her passionately. He looked around at the rest of the guys, all staring at them. “Can you guys handle the rest of this? Cara and I have a few things to sort out.” And, with that, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to her room.

  She protested in the hallway, until Terk reached out, grabbed ahold of her handgun, and said, “You won’t be needing this.”

  “You’re right,” she agreed. “I don’t need any weapons for this guy.” She snorted.

  Rick laughed, as he closed the door behind him. “I’m glad you feel that way because you know that I’d never hurt you, right? At least not intentionally.”

  She stopped, looked at him. “I know that.”

  He searched her gaze and, apparently satisfied, nodded.

  She smiled. “Besides, I wouldn’t let you.”

  “I do like a woman with confidence.” He chuckled.

  “I mean it,” she repeated. “My mother was an abused wife, so no way in hell would I ever let myself become part of that same scenario.”

  “Good. No woman should ever have to fear for her life at the hands of somebody who supposedly loves her,” he said in disgust. “But it happens more often than a lot of people realize.”

  “Too damn often,” she murmured.

  He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “I didn’t get it at first. I started to feel like something was wrong later.”

  “It came on very quickly,” she murmured. “I think because you guys have so many protective measures in place that I couldn’t get any of the energy I needed as a warning system.”

  “Well, we’ll have to work on that,” he noted.

  She looked up at him. “How did it go for you?”

  “Well, we found the guy who was supposedly trying to hire a hit on you. His buddy shot him, but he’d already managed to get a call out to reaffirm his intentions. But, as Terk and his brother arrived, the broker’s own cohorts blew his head off. So, once we figured out what was going on,” Rick explained, “we offloaded the dead guys on poor Merk and came back here.”

  “MI6 will not be happy with you,” she murmured.

  “Probably not,” Rick agreed. “Do they know about you?”

  She just gave him a look.

  “Will you ever fully share who and what you are?” he asked gently.

  “One day”—she shrugged—“but it’s really not that mysterious. It’s just that more than a few people know what I can do, and, when it suits them,” she noted, “they call me.”

  He nodded. “Got it. I really am grateful to you for saving my life.”

  She shrugged.

  “And I know you don’t want to hear gratitude, but it needs to be said. It took me a while to figure out the reason why I was so distrustful. Remember when I woke up, and I asked you if anybody had been in my sickroom?”

  She nodded.

  “And you said no.”

  Cara smiled at him and explained, “I knew people had been there, and I told you that it was Terk, but on an energy level.”

  “Sure, but that was a bit more than I could believe at that time,” Rick added, “and I wasn’t exactly seeing or understanding what you could do,” he murmured quietly. “And it was a bit much, so I always had this little bit of distrust about it all.”

  “And now?” she asked, looping her arms around his shoulders.

  He dropped his head, so their foreheads rested together. “Now I get it,” he replied. “When you said we were joined, I thought you just meant energy.”

  “I did,” she said in surprise.

  He nodded. “But that energy has entered at a level that I had no idea was possible,” he murmured, “and, because I didn’t understand it, I didn’t trust it.”

  She nodded. “You’ll be one of those who has to see everything for himself, won’t you?”

  “Well, I didn’t think so. I mean, Terk has certainly helped me get over some of that.” He chuckled. “But I can see how it looks from your perspective.” He reached down and kissed her. “And now I do understand. I can feel it myself. It’s inside our hearts.”

  “That’s what happens,” she stated. “With something like that, you have to actually feel it in order to have that level of healing over somebody. In order to feel, I have to surrender. In order to surrender, you do too,” she murmured. “And what ends up happening is that we bond on a level that most people never achieve in their entire lifetimes.”

  He held her close. “I’ve always been a bit of a loner,” he murmured, “so it all just seemed very strange to me.”

  She chuckled. “What about now?”

  “Now it feels normal. It feels natural, and unfortunately it also feels like, if anything ever happens to you, I’ll probably have to kill myself,” he murmured.

  She shook her head. “Nope, what you don’t realize is, at this level, even if I am not on this planet anymore, I’ll still be in your heart. I’ll still be there. I’ll still be part of your soul. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

  He held her close, overwhelmed, and she just cuddled him, feeling the tremors in his body.

  “It’s okay, you know?” she said. “I get that it’s new, but it will become something you become quite happy with.”

  “I get it. Mostly,” he murmured gently. “I’m almost there.”

  “No, you are there,” she argued. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have come racing back.”

  “You knew I was coming, didn’t you?”

  “Sure,” she agreed. “I wasn’t really trying to hurt those guys. I just wanted to keep them from hurting anyone, until some of you guys got here to deal with it.”

  “Yeah, it looked like we all got here at once.”

  “Interesting how you so casually tossed off dealing with those gunmen onto your team.”

  He chuckled. “Hey, I had more important things to do.”

  “And what was that?” she asked, her eyes wide.

  He lowered his head and whispered, “This,” and kissed her with renewed understanding.

  When he lifted his head, she murmured, “We really should be lying down on the bed for this.” But she already was. She laughed out loud, wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh, you’re good.”

  “I’m glad,” he whispered, “but you’re much better.”

  When he lowered his head this time, their passion overtook them at a speed she’d never experienced before. Their clothes were tossed to the side, and, before she realized what was going on, he was already at the entrance to her body.

  He whispered, “Let me in.”

  “Come on home.” She smiled against his lips. She opened herself up, letting him slide deep inside.

  He groaned and shuddered in her arms, as he struggled for control, but she didn’t want him to have it. She wanted him to lose that control and to just show up 100 percent right now. She reached down between their bodies and gently stroked him. He immediately shattered and thrust hard and deep. By the time he reached for one more thrust, she was already arching into the next one. She cried out, and, by the third one, had already exploded in his arms. She dimly remembered him coming soon afterward, before he collapsed beside her.

  “Wow,” she murmured.

  “Yeah, I’ll say,” he whispered, holding her close.

  “If I’d realized that was waiting for us, I might have pushed you a little harder,” she murmured.

  He burst out laughing. “I don’t know about that. I had to get to this on my own.”

  “Yeah, and you’re definitely a little on the slow side.”

  He snorted. “I promise I’ll pick up speed now.”

  She grinned. “Don’t change, Rick. You’re exactly the way you’re meant to be.”

  “And how is that?”

  “The other half of my soul.” And she wrapped him up in her arms and just held him close.

  Epilogue

  Scott woke up. His gaze was fuzzy, his eyes ached, and he didn’t recognize anything around him. The woman sleeping in the chair beside him though, that was someone he knew. He blinked several times to be sure. “Naira?”

  She bolted to her feet and raced to his side. “Hey. How are you?”

  He drifted back under without answering; just knowing that she was here was incredible. It felt like he’d been climbing through the clouds to get back to her for a very long time. There was another woman though, a woman whose named evaded him, and that bothered Scott because he felt like she was important, and he didn’t know who or how she fit into things, but Naira was here, and that mattered in a way that he couldn’t even explain. He heard voices dimly in the background, and he tried hard to focus, but he couldn’t.

  Another voice whispered in his consciousness. Relax. You’ve made the big jump. Now just calm down and rest.

  Scott kept fighting toward consciousness, and, when it wouldn’t work, he felt himself panicking. A gentle touch reached out, stroked his forehead, and he was out cold.

  When he woke the next time, a frown was on his heart. He didn’t know what was going on, but more awareness was slowly returning. Had he just dreamed that Naira was here? He opened his eyes, and, sure enough, she sat at his bedside again. He stared at her. “What are you doing here?”

  And damn if his voice didn’t sound like it was rocks in the water, gravelly and yet soft.

  She bounced to her feet. “Terk told me that you were here and that you were hurt.”

  Scott noted a little nervousness in her voice and her gaze. He closed his eyes again. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

  “I know,” she admitted in a low voice, “but I couldn’t stay away.”

  He tried to open his eyes, but, once again, he went under.

  When he woke the next time, he was alone, and he hated to say it, but it was a relief in itself. He wasn’t sure what he had seen before, but no way Naira should have been here. She was married, with a husband and a whole different life, one that didn’t include Scott. He rested for a moment and then slowly shifted in the bed, searching, looking around. He didn’t know where he was.

  Almost immediately the door opened, and Terk stepped in, along with another woman. Thankfully it wasn’t Naira. Scott wouldn’t mention Naira’s presence either, since it would show where his mental state was, and he couldn’t afford that. The woman stepped forward, placed a hand on his forehead, and he determined she was a nurse, although she didn’t wear the traditional scrubs.

  She smiled at him. “My name is Cara. How are you feeling?”

  He stared up at her, feeling a recognition that he didn’t quite understand, but he nodded. “I think I’ll live.”

  “Good.” Terk stood beside him. “We’ve been waiting a long time for you to come back.”

  Scott stared at his old friend. “How long?”

  “Over a month,” Terk replied. “A few days longer, I guess.”

  Scott’s gaze widened. “I’ve been out that long?” he asked in alarm.

  Terk nodded. “And you’ll slowly recover. You know what happens when your body has been incapacitated for that long. It’ll take some time to recuperate.”

  “Well, I’m sure you probably have some magic juice to help me get back on my feet faster,” he murmured. “The nightmares are the worst.” He shook his head. “God. It’s almost enough to stop me from going back to sleep.”

  “We can’t have that.” Cara stood at his side. “Rest is what you need, and rest is what you’ll get.”

  Something was in her tone. He looked at her. “As long as you don’t do anything to force me back to sleep again because I’ve had some of the roughest nightmares ever.”

  “Not at all,” she replied gently, “but you do need to rest, and you do need to sleep.”

  “Maybe.” He yawned, looked around. “Where’s everyone else?”

  “Most of the team are back on their feet,” Terk noted. “I hate to say it, but you’re one of the last few to surface.”

  He stared at him. “Seriously? Even as strong and fit as I was?”

  “You also took part of that blast a little harder than anybody else.”

  “I don’t even remember what happened.” But he felt the need to sleep taking over again. “I’d go back to sleep right now but for those damn dreams.”

  Immediately Cara put her hand on his forehead and said, in a gentle voice, “Sleep.”

  And just before he lost consciousness, he whispered, “Was she here?”

  “Was who here?” Terk asked, his voice low.

  He whispered, “Naira. Was she here?”

  Scott waited desperately to hear the answer, only to go under—the question left unanswered.