Page 49 of Flawed Revenge

Turning her head, she saw that the reason there was no longer a hand resting on her hip was because the owner of the hand was now standing beside the bed, looking down at her with worried eyes.

“What's wrong?” she asked, trying to blink the sleep out of her eyes. After making love to Leo several times in the bathroom, she’d accepted that every single person in the house, minus her daughter, and maybe Indigo, who was still sedated, knew what they’d been doing. It was silly to have thought otherwise. Even without their enhanced skills, it was pretty obvious, and neither of them had been as quiet as they should have been. Exhausted, Kate had allowed Leo to help her put her clothes back on, then carry her to the bedroom and tuck her into bed. When he’d slipped under the covers on Ariella’s other side, she’d finally relaxed enough to sleep.

There were zero memories after she’d closed her eyes, and now that she was awake, she realized she hadn't even rolled over, crashing hard. Her body had needed the rest, but it also needed a whole lot more than it had gotten.

“Someone is coming,” Leo answered, and it was only then that she saw the sharpness in his gaze. She remembered it from that first day when she arrived at the mansion. This was Leo in soldier mode.

She didn't need to ask who that someone was. The expression on his face told her everything she needed to know. Their worst fears had come true. The mansion’s location must have been compromised, more than likely because someone had followed her, the plane had been sabotaged, and now they’d been tracked to this abandoned farmhouse.

“What do you need me to do?” she asked, already pushing back the covers and sitting up. Just because she didn't have the same fighting skills as Leo and his teammates didn't mean she wouldn't contribute in whatever ways she could.

“That’s my girl,” Leo praised, leaning in to give her a quick kiss. “I need you to get up, get dressed, shoes on, coats on, and grab the blankets as well. Then get Ariella up and dressed. Make sure you have her medications on you in case we need to leave in a hurry.”

“I can do that,” she assured him. The last thing she wanted was to be a burden. Well, more of a burden than she already was.

That was why she tried to hide her wince as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. If she’d hoped that rest would ease the pain of her broken ribs, she was out of luck. In fact, they felt worse this morning. Her entire body did. Whatever adrenaline had been masking some of the pain the day before was gone now, and she ached and throbbed all over. She was so stiff that moving was hard too.

“I'm sorry, Katie-Bear, wish I could give you the time you need to rest,” Leo said, steadying her as she tried to bend down to grab her pants, and the stabbing pain in her chest made her gasp.

“I’ll be okay,” she promised, determined to fulfill that vow.

“You're hurting.”

“And there’s nothing we can do about it. I'm sure you're hurting too.” Although his eyes looked clear, and he didn't move like he’d been mostly unconscious for twelve hours just the day before, she was sure that the concussion still had to be bothering him, at least a little.

Shaking his head, Leo grabbed her pants and shoes for her, setting them on the bed beside her. “Sorry, babe, but I feel fine now. The benefit of enhanced healing. The guys will be okay, too. Even Indigo will have healed substantially despite how serious her injuries were. It’s you, Ariella, Rose, Cassandra, Whitney, and Maya that we’re worried about.”

“I'm good,” she insisted, doing a better job of hiding her wince this time around when she grabbed her jeans and shoved her legs into them.

Still looking doubtful, it was clear Leo wanted to argue but didn't have the time. Instead, he gave her a single nod. “Come downstairs when you're ready. We might need to move quickly. Depending on how many there are, we could eliminate them all and then pack up and go. Otherwise, we’ll need to evade gunfire as we head out.”

“Whatever we need to do, I’ll do,” she assured him.

Curling a hand around the back of her neck, Leo dragged her closer for one last kiss before he was striding out of the room, leaving her fighting the urge to call him back. She’d just promised Leo that she could handle this, that she could do her part, letting him down wasn't an option.

Once she was dressed, shoes and coat on, Kate reached for her daughter. “Wake up, sweetie-pie,” she crooned, keeping her voice soft because the last thing she wanted to do was scare her daughter even more than Ariella had already been traumatized.

“Mom?” Ariella moaned, shifting slightly but not opening her eyes.

“Need you to wake up, sweetie,” she said, a little firmer this time. She had no idea how far away the people coming for them were, but she knew enough to realize that time was of the essence.

“What time is it?” Ariella asked on a yawn.

“Early. But we need to get up, get dressed.”

“Is something wrong?” the smart little girl asked as her eyes finally blinked open.

Lying wasn't really an option, because any minute now, there was going to be gunfire piercing through the quiet night. So instead, she did her best to present the truth as simply as she could, keeping her own fear carefully under wraps. “Dad said that some bad men are coming. We need to be up and dressed so we can leave as soon as your dad tells us to.”

“Did the bad men make our plane crash?” Ariella asked.

Seeing bruises on her child’s skin was nothing new, even before Ariella got sick there had been a some. All little kids usually had a few cuts and bumps at any given time. After she got sick, those bruises grew worse, and those cuts took longer to heal. But these bruises covering her daughter today made her little girl look closer to death than Kate had ever seen her.

In just nine short years, her daughter had already been through so much, and now she was trapped in a farmhouse, with people wishing them harm coming for them, still no closer to getting her potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant. It wasn't fair, and Kate hated that her daughter just couldn’t catch a break.

“I think they probably did. Now I need you to get up, Ariella. Get dressed, go to the bathroom if you need to, then we need to go downstairs. Whatever your dad asks of you, you need to do, no argument, no discussion. Not just your dad. If Steel, Dragon, Blade, Voodoo, or Thunder ask you to do something, the same rules apply.”

“Okay,” Ariella agreed.