“Oh, God, Jake. You know what this means, right? It really was my fault. They were all killed because of me.”
The guilt in her eyes as she referred to the other nurses and doctors Cetro’s men had gunned down right in front of her gutted him.
Tears began to fall freely down her face, but she didn’t seem to notice them. Jake sure as hell did. Screw processing time.
In an instant, he was out of his chair and pulling her into his arms. “No, baby,” he said fiercely as he held on tight. “This was not your fault. The only ones to blame are Cetro and the other men we took down.”
Jake spoke the truth, but knew Olivia would continue to blame herself. Time and support would help her come to terms with it all, but for two months she’d been forced to deal with it all on her own. A fact that shredded him.
He was here now, and for him, there was only one option. Jake had to make her understand. She had to let him back into her life, because if she didn’t...if she spent one more second thinking she was alone in all of this, it would fucking destroy him.
With her head pressed against his chest, he said, “I know this is a lot to take in, Liv, and I’m so damned sorry for leaving you the way I did. But, after finding you alive in the jungle after I’d thought you’d been killed, knowing what you’d gone through...what they almost did to you...”
Damn it. Jake’s voice broke, and he had to clear his throat to keep from breaking down.
“I had to make sure those assholes were put away for good. I needed to know they wouldn’t be able to come after you ever again. The thought of that happening...”—He got choked up again, but pushed through it—“Sweetheart, that’s what drove me onto that plane two months ago. It was the only thing that could have taken me away from you that day. I had to know you were safe, and that those bastards could never hurt you again.”
Olivia continued to let him hold her like that, with the back of his shirt bunched in her hands for the second time in only a few minutes.
When she finally stopped shaking, she pulled back. Her eyes clear were and focused. Jake looked down into them and this time, he saw the one thing he’d prayed for...Acceptance.
“Thank you. For going after those men,” Olivia offered solemnly.
Relieved beyond words, Jake kissed her forehead, then her cheek. His lips barely touched her ear when he whispered, “You don’t ever have to thank me for that. Your safety is everything to me, Liv.”
He moved in for a long, slow kiss. When it was over, he pulled back only slightly. Then, with his eyes locked on hers, Jake relinquished even more of himself to her. “You are everything to me.”
After brushing some hair from her eyes, he cupped the side of her face. “I need you to believe that, baby. You have to know the only reason I left the way I did was to make sure the bastards responsible for taking you away from me never got the chance to do it again. I couldn’t risk letting another team take over. I had to be the one to do it. Can you understand that?”
More moisture spilled from her forgiving eyes as she whispered the only answer he could bear to hear, “Yes.”
Jake exhaled loudly, feeling as though a two-ton boulder had been lifted from his shoulders. “Thank God.”
He hugged her tightly again. Knowing she not only forgave him for leaving the way he had, but that she actually understood the position he’d been in, made him want to cry like a baby.
His eyes stung, but he squeezed them shut to keep his tears from falling. After collecting himself, Jake put some space between them but kept his hands loosely resting on her hips.
“I promise I’ll never leave you like that again.”
There would be other jobs, of course, but he meant every word. No matter what he had to do, Jake would never leave without telling her goodbye again.
Chapter 4
Olivia could hardly believe what had transpired since coming home from work. In less than an hour, Jake had shown up unexpectedly, and they’d hashed out their issues—well, the most immediate ones, anyway.
She’d also learned that, without a doubt, all of the men responsible for what had happened to her were either dead or locked up for good.
She started to thank him again, but when she tried, the only thing that came out was a yawn. She covered her mouth until it was over. “Sorry,” she said, embarrassed.
Jake smiled, and her heart did a complete somersault. “Don’t apologize. Why don’t you go get some rest?” She felt a sliver of panic until he said, “I’ll be here when you wake up. Assuming you’re okay with that.”
Olivia knew they still had a lot to work through, but she couldn’t bring herself to worry about that now.
“You’d better be,” she said, giving him her first real smile in months. “I’m going to take a quick shower, first.” She leaned up and gave him a sweet, chaste kiss. “Make yourself at home.”
Not waiting for a response, she turned and headed toward the bathroom, her steps feeling much lighter than before. Olivia used her time in the shower to try to wrap her mind around everything she’d learned.
She understood now why things had happened the way they did. Jake had been out there fighting. For her, and for all of the women those bastards had hurt before her. For the ones they would have kept hurting, had he and his team not stopped them.
She knew enough from when Mikey and Jake served together to understand that, oftentimes, military men and women weren’t allowed to share anything with their families about where they went or what they did. A mission like the one Jake’s team had been on wasn’t
