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She knew how much this would hurt him. To be strapped down and helpless, unable to protect her. But he’d protected her so much in the last days and weeks. It was okay. He’d been there for her through everything, and he’d saved her life in more ways than one.
This time, it was her turn.
Chapter 25
Mark could see Jenna out of the corner of his eye, working over at one of the lab’s far tables. Her location choice was to deliberately create distance from him.
The message was clear: she was doing this work for Joaquin, and she wasn’t interested in discussing it.
He had so many problems with that. From the knowledge that he must have let his guard down for Joaquin’s thugs to have gotten the drop on them so quickly, to the fact that once Jenna completed what Joaquin wanted, they were both dead anyway.
When Joaquin had first left to get the food, Mark had tried arguing with Jenna—again—even though they were being observed. While she’d applied pressure to his wound enough to make sure he wouldn’t die of blood loss, he’d leaned in close.
“Don’t do this. No matter what. You can’t, librarian.”
Those brown eyes had met his. “I’m not going to let you die a horrible death if I can prevent it.”
“You can’t. You know that. I—”
She’d cupped his cheek. “You have to trust me. And if the roles were reversed…”
That was it. She’d moved away from him without another word and gotten to work.
But she was right. If the roles were reversed, would he be able to watch Jenna be tortured when he could prevent it?
No. Mark would let the whole world burn to the ground first.
He leaned his head back against the seat. He was weak, partially from the drugs remaining in his system, and definitely from the stab wound and blood loss. In a way, it was a blessing he was in restraints. He wasn’t able to move his leg and make it worse.
But that didn’t mean he hadn’t been trying every method he could to get out of them.
“Are you okay?” he asked Jenna quietly.
“I’m fine,” she said.
The words were short and clipped. She wasn’t fine. She was the furthest thing from fine. The only thing that would make this worse was if Joaquin had forced her to do it outside.
Joaquin sauntered in with someone following him and carrying a tray. “Food and coffee, as promised. But nobody is feeding him, Jenna. If you think it’s worth the time, you can do it.”
He could sense her glaring at Joaquin, though she wasn’t in his sight until she stalked over to the tray and grabbed a sandwich and one of the disposable cups of coffee off it.
“You don’t have to,” he said to her. “I’m fine.”
“We’re in this together.” Her features were pinched. “You need food. You’re injured.”
“And he’s going to be more injured if you take too much time with him.”
Jenna ignored Joaquin and tore off a piece of the sandwich and fed it to him, following it up with a sip of coffee. The coffee tasted burned and like the bottom of a day-old pot, but it was good to have any kind of hydration.
A couple more bites and Mark was finished. With the state his body was in, he wasn’t going to be able to keep much more down. “No more. Go do what you need to do.”
She nodded and disappeared out of his line of sight once more with her food. He wished he were turned just a fraction so he could see her. Just so he could see her. If this was going to be the last day of his life—and he wasn’t accepting that yet—he wanted to be able to see the woman he loved.
And he did love her. It was beyond falling now. Jenna was…
She waseverything. And right now, he needed to give her whatever she needed to make it through this. Because he’d gotten so caught up in theroles reversedstatement that he hadn’t focused on the most important thing—she’d told him to trust her.
He knew Jenna well enough to know she wasn’t simply going to hand Joaquin the key to taking over the world. She had something going on in that big brain of hers.
