God, I need Your strength. Please carry me through this.
“I love you, sister,” she whispers.
“I love you, too.” Pulling back, I squeeze her arms, then turn toward Jack, who, for some reason, still cares enough to let me live.
“Thank you for being here.”
“I told you that I’d protect you, Anastasia.”
“I know.”
He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Be safe.”
“You, too.”
After an awkward hug, I follow Zane toward the back door, while everyone else follows. Ryker and Weston move around us, and Weston opens the door to step out before I can.
“Are you seriously shielding me with your own bodies?” I ask the men when Garrison falls into step on my other side and Jack moves in right on my heels. The idea is just as horrible as the fact that they feel like they have to.
“Don’t you know I’m bulletproof?” Ryker jokes.
“Not funny,” I snap.
“It was a little funny,” Garrison offers.
As a single unit with me trapped in the center, they guide me toward Zane’s truck, only stepping aside long enough for me to get into the cab. Zane climbs behind the driver’s seat and pulls out of the little parking lot without so much as a moment’s hesitation. Likely because the windows aren’t bulletproof.
Oh, what has my life become?
“The boat is stocked for another month,” Zane tells me. “Sawyer knows how to drive it, but?—”
“So do I,” I say. He hadn’t mentioned the boat back in the apartment, but I’d been able to pick up on some of the cues. It’s the most isolated place I could be. Out at sea with a Navy SEAL.
“I know.” He reaches over and takes my hand with his. “It’s going to be okay, Anastasia.”
“I’m scared. And I’m angry.”
“I know you are.”
“This is my home. And I’m running away.”
“Don’t look at it like that. Think of it like you’re changing the rules on him. You’re taking away the advantage he thought he had.”
“How am I doing that? I’m losing the safety of my home.” Except, is it really that safe? He blew up Sawyer’s shop—with us partially inside. Then, shattered my windows with a single bullet.
“A man like that wants to hunt,” Zane explains. “He has likely spent a while tracking your every movement, watching until he believed he fully understands you.”
“Gee, that’s comforting.” My stomach rolls.
“What you’re doing by leaving is proving that he doesn’t.”
“And if he finds us? It’ll just be Sawyer and me.”
“Even injured, Sawyer is the best hand-to-hand guy I know. There’s a reason this guy used an explosion to try to take him out, rather than coming after him himself. It took a bullet to take him out of play when Katelyn was attacked, and that’s exactly what it will take for anyone to get to you.”
Bile sears the inside of my throat. “That’s not any better.”
Zane squeezes my hand. “Look, we’re putting you out away from everyone because it’s the absolute best thing we can do. Trust us to find him.”
