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Her screams were digging into his head now. Piercing, filled with fury and pain. As he reached the house he jerked his gun from its holster, gripped it with both hands, and tore around the side of the house.
God, he had to run faster.
It seemed to take forever to reach the corner of the house and move around to the back deck. The fog was so damned thick he didn’t know how Jonesy had navigated through it. But Zeke could see. He could see everything in slow motion. The gun in her face; Jonesy’s finger tightening on the trigger.
“No!” he screamed out in fury as he lifted his gun, then watched as Jonesy jerked at the same moment and the back of his head exploded out into the night.
Zeke didn’t pause to think, he didn’t give himself time to worry about shooters that might not be friendly. As Jonesy toppled over Rogue’s fallen form, he jerked the other man off, threw him back to the ground, and lifted Rogue into his arms.
Keeping his body hunched he raced up the deck steps, threw his shoulder into the door of the house, felt the locks give, and fell inside the house with her. His body covered hers as he rolled her across the floor, forced to ignore her cries until he could get her safely on the other side of the room, behind the couch.
“Rogue. Baby. ” Propping her against the couch he let his hands race over, his gaze searching her body for wounds or broken bones. “Rogue, talk to me. ”
“Son of a bitch,” she gasped, her bruised face swelling, her violet eyes filled with rage.
Zeke watched her in shock until her hand cracked against his face. The stinging slap wasn’t gentle. It slammed into his cheek with enough force that he knew he’d be carrying the imprint of her hand for hours. In the next second, his ever-strong, impossibly stubborn Rogue collapsed into his arms in tears.
“I have you, baby. ” He buried his head in her hair, a shudder working through his body at how close she had come to dying. “It’s okay, baby. I have you. ”
Rogue never cried. She wasn’t a whiner. She didn’t complain. She was sobbing in his arms, holding on to him with desperate hands and trying to burrow into his chest.
And God help him, he didn’t blame her. Tightening his arms around her, he held her to him, rocked her, and closed his eyes as he fought the overload of fear and remorse that struck his system.
He shouldn’t have left her. He should have never left her, believing she would be safe.
He should have considered Jonesy, but instead he had relied on the loyalty the other man had always appeared to show her. Zeke knew he should have known better. It was his mistake, and it was one Rogue had nearly paid for.
“Damn, he’s in trouble,” Rowdy’s low voice whispered across the room in a tone of amazement and male concern. “I’ve never heard of her crying. I bet she cuts his dick off for him. ”
“Shut up, Rowdy,” Dawg growled.
“Yeah, shut up, Rowdy. ” From Cranston, his voice low and filled with regret.
Zeke lifted his head and stared back at the agent.
“I have to take you in, Zeke. ” He sighed. “This has to be wrapped up. ”
His arms contracted around Rogue. God, he’d known it was coming. He’d known all along that the sins of the past could never be buried or even forgotten by the DHS agent that knew the truth.
“God, Cranston, give him a day or two at least,” Rowdy protested. “You mean-hearted, slimy bastard. Someone’s going to end up killing you. ”
Zeke heard sirens wailing in the distance then. Reinforcements that would have been too late if Natches hadn’t managed to get in place with that sniper rifle. Zeke knew it had to have been Natches, because he was the only one missing at the moment.
“Zeke knew our deal,” Cranston stated. “We need the information, those pictures, and his testimony. This wraps it up, boys. The pictures he sent earlier had faces of men we don’t have in custody, and he remembers them. This fucking group is gone. It’s damned history and I’ll do whatever it takes to wrap it up for good. ” Because this group had destroyed his family, had killed his wife, his daughter, and his grandchild. Because destroying them was all Cranston knew and he would stop at nothing to see it finished.
It finished here, just as he said.
“No matter who you have to destroy?” Rowdy asked.
“No matter who’s destroyed,” Cranston affirmed. “No matter what it takes. ”
Zeke held Rogue closer, already feeling the chill inside his soul because he knew he would have to let her go, walk away again, and walking away would destroy him more than the truth of his past ever could.
Pressing his lips to her ear he whispered. “You fill me. Remember that, Rogue. For the first time in my life, I knew what love was supposed to be. ”
Her head shook against his chest as another sob tore from her throat. Her arms were like silken bands of steel around his neck, and God knew he didn’t know if he had the strength to force her to release him.
“I didn’t use you. ” He kissed the top of her head, her forehead. “I was helpless against you. Know that, Caitlyn Rogue. I couldn’t have walked away for anything. Even my own life. ”
