him in for a kiss.
“There’s a twenty-four-hour drugstore two blocks down. I’ll go. It will just take five minutes,” she said, already scrambling up to grab her clothes.
“Careful where you step,” he warned, remembering the broken glass. “You can’t go out in this storm,” he added, and she chuckled, a low, sexy sound he liked. A lot.
“Jonas, I would walk through fire to make this happen. A little rain is nothing.”
As much as he agreed, he couldn’t let her do it. He was here to keep her safe.
“It’s dark out. There are fallen wires, looters, it’s a blackout,” he elaborated.
“I’m sure it will be—”
Her cell phone rang then, and then again.
“Are you going to answer that?” he asked.
He heard her grab the phone.
“Hello, Kate?” Tessa said, and there was clear concern in her tone as she turned away to talk.
The wind rattled the windows a bit. Jonas sat back, trying to breathe evenly, letting his body relax, if that was possible. He was hard and aching. It seemed he was doomed to never have Tessa.
Served him right, he supposed. He never should have taken this job in the first place, and since he did, he really had to try harder not to cave so easily to his desire. But when he was with Tessa, it was hard to think of anything else, especially when the world was so dark, and they were here all alone.
She came back to where he sat, done with her call. He could sense the change in her mood, and his own heat waned.
“Everything all right?”
“Remember my friend Kate? The pharmacy has canceled deliveries tonight and she’s almost out of insulin. She doesn’t have anyone else. She’s also blind, so can’t go herself, and can’t reach her neighbor. I have to go get the meds and take them to her. I shouldn’t be too long. Maybe an hour. I can get our other … supplies, too.”
“It’s too risky, Tessa. There has to be some other way,” he said. “Call 911.”
“They won’t consider it an emergency. She’s fine now, she just needs another shot by bedtime. And you’re not my bodyguard anymore, Jonas,” she said, obviously bristling at his bossy tone. “You can’t really tell me to stay or go.”
Of course, she had no idea he was actually there to keep close, to keep an eye on her. Which meant he only had one choice.
“I don’t think—” he started to object.
“Listen, I’m going. She needs me. If you want, you can come with me.”
“How? There are no taxis.”
“We’ll take the trains.”
“They may have shut down several routes in the power outage,” he argued.
“I’m sure it will be fine. Even back in 2003, in the big East Coast blackout, only a few train routes were affected. It’s probably our best chance.”
He sighed. Tessa had her mind made up. “Where does Kate live?”
“Lena Street, in Germantown.”
“Okay, we can take the subway north, and figure out how to go from there.”
“That’s how I’ve gone before,” she agreed.
He didn’t see that he had any other choice, though Jonas had a bad feeling about it. This was not a night to be out in the city.
Still, he admired her concern about the elderly woman. Jonas had promised James Rose that he would stick close by Tessa, and he planned to keep that promise. He wasn’t sure how much help he could be to her, a blind man traversing in a city during a blackout, but he guessed he was about to find out.
Norfolk, Virginia
ELY BERRINGER CLICKED his phone off, shoving it in his pocket as he finished his beer in two deep swallows. He pushed his glass forward for a refill. The wind howled outside, but it didn’t seem to bother the bar patrons, most of them from the nearby naval shipyards. They paid the flickering lights little mind as they watched a game on the big screen in the corner, probably having been through far worse out at sea.
Ely had finished his assignment, guarding a bank executive who had been receiving death threats for the last few weeks. The FBI had arrested the perpetrators, a group of thieves who had had significant success getting inside vaults by threatening the lives and families of the employees who had access.
Ely admired the single-mom bank exec who’d had enough spine to finally step up and contact law enforcement. Several others before her had caved to the threats, and one of those had been killed during the resulting heist. Berringer had been brought in on protective detail in collaboration with the feds. It was a first for their small company, and a big step forward.
Now it was over, but he was stuck in Norfolk for tonight, riding out the storm. The bar was a place he used to visit often. He didn’t recognize anyone here now, but there was someone he was looking out for.
She was late tonight. Maybe the storm had her hunkered down elsewhere, but he hoped not. Human beings were tied to their rituals, and Chloe Roberts’s had always been to come to this particular bar on a Thursday night for a drink before heading home.
He hadn’t seen or spoken with her in three years, since she’d interviewed him upon his return from Afghanistan and his award of the Navy Cross. The interview had been a chore—Ely didn’t care for publicizing his accomplishments—but the brass had insisted, said it would be good for recruitment.
The night following the interview, however, had been much more satisfying.
He’d hung out with Chloe for a few weeks, while he was in Norfolk, but realized too late that he’d read her all wrong. She came off as a modern, career-focused woman, the kind of woman you could spend a few nights or a few weeks with, but who had no expectations of more.
In truth, she came from a large family herself, he discovered, and she wanted the whole package: a husband, kids, the white-picket fence. He didn’t realize that she had set her sights on him for the prize.
Ely hadn’t made any promises, and they’d parted ways more or less amicably. More on his side, less on hers.
He straightened as he saw her come in, her trench coat soaked, her umbrella bent all to hell. She struggled with it for a few minutes before throwing it into the corner in frustration.
Looking up, her normally well-styled red hair was wild from the wind, and she froze as her eyes met his. He nodded in acknowledgment, indicating the open seat by his. She didn’t move for a moment, looking unsure. A couple folks called out greetings, and she broke the stare, returning the hellos.
The removal of the traditional trench coat she always wore revealed the same bombshell body he’d enjoyed three years before. She hung her coat on the rack by the door and strolled over, her composure taking the place of her surprise at seeing him.
