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“Go home,” he said. As though she were a child.
“I’m not going anywhere until I see Jack,” she yelled at him furiously.
“Poppy, your brothers will be here soon…”
Her brothers?
She stared up at him in shock. “You called my brothers? Seriously?”
“Jack could be gone for hours, Poppy…” he tried again.
Hours? For hours?
He might not be coming back. That was what he was trying to tell her. That Jack might not be coming back.
“Poppy…” His voice was rough, strident.
She jerked against Ian’s hold, staring behind her, around her. He was there; she knew he was there.
“Jack!” She fought Ian then, and was surprised when he released her and stepped back, his hands held up in surrender, backing away from the enraged SEAL striding through the crowd of soldiers filling the area outside the warehouse.
His hair was tangled, blood smeared his face, and his jacket was torn along one seam. Behind him, Lucas, Hank, and Hayes limped in his wake. All four seemed the worse for wear, but Jack…
She couldn’t help but smile, then laugh as she ran for him. Her Jack. Her monster slayer.
His arms opened as she neared him, and Poppy launched herself into them, her arms wrapping around his neck as she felt his enfolding her, holding her safe against his chest, his face buried in her hair.
“I just lost ten years from my life, woman,” he growled, nipping at her neck, her ear. “Next time, I lock you up for my own safety.”
“Next time, you’ll tell me what the hell is going on.” She nipped his ear in turn, a little hard, she had to admit.
Hard enough that he drew his head back, his gaze locking on hers, a smile—and she knew it was a smile—tugging at his lips.
“When did you learn how to lie, baby girl?” he demanded. “You lied like a little trouper. Even I believed you.”
She had to roll her eyes. “I can lie, if I have to,” she informed him. “I have three older brothers. I had to learn how.”
He sat her back on her feet, staring down at her, his gaze still stormy, but not as dark, and no longer furious.
“You believed in me,” he said then. “You never once believed I’d betrayed you.”
And that seemed to surprise him, or confuse him.
“Monster slayers don’t betray the woman they fight for,” she told him, reaching up and touching his face, her fingers scraping against the shadow of a beard. “You’ve watched after me for too long to ever betray me, Jack.”
His expression softened, his head lowering until his lips touched hers.
“I love you, Poppy Octavia Porter,” he whispered. “I have always loved you.”
And she smiled.
“Of course you have, Jack. I made certain of it…”
And it was that love, and the man who gave it to her, that Poppy leaned on later when Saige’s brother River stepped into the warehouse, accompanied by several agents.
His weathered face was lined with grief, his green eyes filled with such pain that Poppy had to fight back more tears of her own.
Saige had been a sister to her. She’d loved her. Realizing her friend had been using her for so long tore a wound in her soul that she wasn’t sure would never heal.
