Grab (14 page)

The shadow moved quickly back to where Mia was yelling, as if to quiet her, and Jordan followed, racing to overtake him before he made it into the room.

“Shut up, Evelyn,” Shadow Man, who Jordan presumed was Mike, whispered. Quinten’s words about the perp’s sense of reality being skewed flew through Jordan’s mind.

“I’m not Evelyn!” Mia was screaming, and when Jordan saw her, he allowed his personal feelings to merge with his military training. He no longer cared he was on US soil, where laws were upheld and citizens protected. Seeing Mia tied to that bed was enough to make him snap.

Holding up his .45, Jordan aimed carefully. Over the neon dots of the scope, Mike pointed his gun at Mia at pointblank range and closed his eyes, a look of determination slashed across his face. Without giving him a chance to shoot, Jordan fired, hitting Mike square in the chest, watching the bloom of darkness spread across his t-shirt.

He dropped everything and rushed to Mia’s side. “Shhh, baby. You’re alright now,” he cooed while getting his k-bar out to cut her restraints.

The knots around her wrists and ankles were tied tight, and her flesh had swollen around the coarse rope, red and raw, bleeding in some places. Jordan cursed under his breath.

“Jordan?” Mia whispered, and when he looked at her, he could see her eyes were wide, although he couldn’t see expressions in the darkness, but her voice held a dreamlike quality he didn’t like. Shock. No telling how long she’d been in shock.

“I’m here, baby,” he tried to reassure her but knew this was futile. Ryan flipped the breakers from the garage and walked back into the room where they were.

“Misty’s still alive in there. I called Hollerman. He’s pissed, but coming. I’m going to go see what I can do for her.” Ryan strode from the room with purpose, and Jordan finished cutting Mia’s bindings before crawling up into the bed next to her.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” He was afraid to ask the obvious but needed to know if she needed medical attention. By the looks of it, she did. This was not the Mia he knew, exhausted but still with an ever-ready smile.

This Mia was listless, close to giving up.

This Mia stiffened when he took her in his arms.

This Mia had had her spirit trampled.

He could only pray it wasn’t broken.

After a barrage of tests at the hospital, complete with a statement to the police, which Jordan couldn’t be present for—he was too busy giving one of his own—he was finally allowed to take Mia home after the promise of more visits from the police for his involvement in the episode. He wasn’t convinced he was in the clear, but he was more focused on what he could do for Mia.

She wasn’t doing so well.

She hadn’t spoken to him at all, only nodding answers to his questions. “Can I take you home with me?” Nod. “Do you want something to eat first?” Shake of her head. “Are you cold? Is that why you’re shaking?” Nod.

When he carried her limp but conscious body up to his apartment, she stiffened when they got into view of her apartment door but relaxed marginally when Jordan turned to his own door.

He carried her inside and immediately went to the bathroom. “How about a shower? I’ll get it going for you, okay?” Helplessly, he started the shower and got her some towels out of the cupboard. “I’ll bring you some clothes? Do you want long pants?” He was asking questions to get answers from her because her staring into space was scaring him. He got the shock thing, he’d seen it a lot in victims he’d worked with, but not in anybody he knew, cared for.

Getting her some sweat pants and a long sleeved shirt, he cranked the A/C down so she wouldn’t sweat to death but understood her need for coverage. He hadn’t been privy to the test results but felt confident the asshole had raped her.

He stretched his arm into the bathroom to offer her privacy, trying to set the clothes on the countertop, but her hand clutched at his wrist and yanked. When he pulled his head around the door, she was still sitting on the toilet, fully clothed, beseeching him with her eyes. Her body hunched in on itself, as if she were hiding from everything, and Jordan stifled the urge to cuddle her into his bed.

“You need help?” Nod. “Okay. Hang on another second, okay?” Nod. Still not wanting to freak her out, he went to his room and put on some swim trunks, a lame attempt at making himself as non-threatening as possible. Then he went back into the bathroom to shower his girl.

Wordlessly, he undressed her and carried her under the water, efficiently, yet gently washing her skin. He shampooed her hair, twice, enjoying the slick bubbles as he lathered it and coiled it on top of her head, watching her shoulders slump as she relaxed while he massaged her scalp. At least he could do this. He moved down from her head, and while her hair was rinsing, Jordan massaged her shoulders and neck until Mia was limp. Then he made sure she was rinsed completely and carried her out of the shower to dry her off and dress her.

Bundling her in the bed, Jordan changed into gym shorts and a t-shirt and looked at her. She was watching him, eyes at half-mast. “Do you need anything else?” Nod. “What?”

To his surprise, she gestured to her side and pulled back the covers for him to crawl in behind her, again with that pleading look. He tried to assuage it with a reassuring smile before he crawled in and curved his body around hers. Maybe after a good night’s rest, she would be able to talk to him.

Her body relaxed in his arms, and her softness made him realize he’d finally found what he needed.

That peace was broken three hours later with Mia’s piercing shrieks as she batted at his face and shoulders.

“I’M NOT EVELYN! I’M NOT EVELYN! I’M NOT EVELYN!”

“Shhhh, Mia, I know you’re not her. You’re Mia Reyes, you’re my neighbor, you’re safe, I promise. Wake up, please.” He spoke softly, trying not to scare her further, but knew it was futile. He grasped her shoulders, and Mia’s body stiffened at his touch, making him want to kill the bastard all over again. But he gritted his teeth against the violence and forced a calm into his voice. “Shhh… You’re safe, Mia. You’re with me, Jordan.”

“Jordan? Jordan can’t find me.”

“I did find you, Mia. I did.”

And so it went.

Three weeks later, Jordan was on administrative leave from Pierce Securities, pending an investigation, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Sure, he’d started out acting like a brat. Jordan could acknowledge that. He’d been so cocky about his skills with the Marines, he’d been pissed when he had to start from scratch at the security firm. But in retrospect, it was all part of the way things worked. Simon didn’t know him from Adam, only that he was Evan’s brother. So, he’d been given some simple jobs to start out with, which he’d fucked up, and that hadn’t earned him any points. Even so, when things got tough, the entire office had shuffled around and helped him find Mia. That was something his brothers in the Marines would have done, without question. And it made him feel like he was part of something again.

And now it was threatened. If the DA decided to press charges against him, he’d lose his PI license, his job, and probably go to jail to boot.

But he couldn’t worry about that. There were much more important things on his mind. Like Mia.

Just being inside their apartment building was hard on Mia. She hadn’t said as much. In fact, she hadn’t spoken much at all, but he could tell. Her eyes never strayed far from the door, and she was antsy and couldn’t relax.

Jordan desperately wanted her to open up to him, but at the same time, he was afraid of what she would say. She’d seen enough violence, and he didn’t want her to think he was the same caliber as the man who’d kept her tied to his bed, and it was hard to tamp down the rage that boiled to the surface every time he thought of it. So he’d called his brother, who had given him the keys to his building.

Jordan had moved him and Mia to Evan’s old apartment.

He and Paige had recently bought a house together, so Evan had only been renting out the downstairs part, a small curio shop full of touristy Austin shit. Upstairs was a nice place, a certain step up for Jordan and Mia from their previous apartments.

Mia was noncommittal about the whole thing, only nodding her agreement when he’d posed the question.

Their days were spent watching movies, listening to music, or reading, although he noticed Mia had a rather strong reaction to the suggestion of a romance novel and absolutely refused to let him read anything to her.

The good thing about her not talking much was she didn’t complain at all about his cooking skills, or lack thereof. Sort of wishing he could sample the baking skills she’d said she had prior to the incident, he bought everything he thought she might need, leaving them all out on the corner of the countertop in the kitchen, just in case she saw them and felt inspired.

So far, nothing.

Mia was an impression of her old self. She still wore the same clothes, fixed her hair the same way, smelled the same. But her smile was non-existent. If it was there, it was a ghost of the gleaming smile she used to flash at him. He hadn’t heard her laugh once. That sort of stuff would have to take time.

“Let’s go out tonight,” Jordan offered after coming out of the shower to find her on Facebook, shutting down her page.

She swiveled in her chair, eye squinting suspiciously. “Why?”

To get out from these walls, I’m sick of staring at them
, he thought to himself, but outwardly, he simply shrugged and smiled. “Why not? I think we deserve a night out.”

Leaning back in the chair, she crossed her arms and legs, effectively closing Jordan off. “I mean, why are you being so nice to me, Jordan? Why don’t you just move on and go back to your job?”

Jordan took the two steps toward her and crouched next to her knees. “Number one, I don’t have a job at the moment. I’m under investigation for my actions. It’s not really kosher for civilians to go all urban warfare and start lobbing grenades into residences. I crossed a line.” He didn’t touch her much at all, except when they were sleeping. But now, he clutched her shoulders, desperate for her to understand. “I would have ripped apart the hounds of hell to get you out of there, so don’t worry about it.” She looked guilty and Jordan would be damned if she would carry that burden with everything else. “Hounds of hell, Babe…” he murmured.

“Don’t call me that, please?” she whispered, and a gray pallor shone on her face.

“Okay.” He kissed her forehead and leaned it against his shoulder. “Number two, we have unfinished business, and I’m willing to wait as long as I need to. We had agreed to one thing, but I have to let you know, I want more, Mia. But because I want more, I’m waiting until you’re ready for everything. Because that’s what I want.” And then he held his breath. And waited.

He longed to show her just how much she meant to him but was terrified. She had opened up a little in the past few weeks, but not much. This trip out was an attempt to get back some sense of normalcy for her. But if he pushed, he knew she would just clamp her emotions shut again and crawl back inside herself.

“You can’t live your life with me, Jordan. I have… had things I need to do.” She was twisting her fingers in her lap and wouldn’t look at him. Jordan’s stomach sank.

He was confused. Was there someone else? If so, where was the fucker? What did she mean, things? “What?”

“I’m supposed to be bringing my sister to the States to live with me.” She sniffled, her chin quivering. “I have no idea how anymore, but she can’t stay with my mom. I haven’t told them what happened. I don’t know how.” A tear tracked down her cheek, and Jordan pulled her close. Relief filled him, swelling something inside. This was something he could fix. And he was ridiculously grateful there wasn’t someone else. He couldn’t believe he’d even thought that.

“I’ll take you
and
your sister. She’s part of you, which makes her part of everything.” He smiled into the top of her head. “In fact, I think that would be nice. It would make us more of a family.” Kissing the top of her head, he relished the smell. The top of her head smelled different from everything else, and it almost made him lose conscious thought. It took him to some other plane with Mia, someplace ethereal. When she spoke next, she brought him back to earth, but still floating above the surface.