Her ashen cheeks were wet with tears, snot glistened on her upper lip, and the froth at the corners of her trembling mouth was tinged pink.
Nasa had no idea if she'd been hurt, or if she'd bit the inside of her cheek, but the sight of her this way utterly destroyed him.
He went to his knees in front of her, his heart barely able to take the way she flinched when he curled his hands around her ankles, jerking like he'd electrocuted her.
“Dillon, it's alright now. You're safe, you're safe. No one is going to hurt you.”
Nasa honestly didn't know what he said as he knelt there, rubbing his hands up and down her calves, just talking to her to try and get through.
The way she was sucking in air like there wasn't enough in the entire house should have knocked her out, but the adrenaline clearly pumping through her kept her alert, and just like Veracruz said, Dillon didn't seem to know when she was.
Huge tears spilled down her cheeks when she finally focused on his face, her words slurred and stilted as she struggled to string a coherent sentence together.
“I can't go back, I can't go back. Please don't... don't-don't let them take me again, please don't let them hur-hurt me anymore.”
The paranoid bastard inside him hissed that this was some kind of trick. Making herself out to be the damsel in distress, rousing his caveman instincts to rescue and protect her.
But looking into her too wide eyes, hearing her beg him to keep whoever the fuck they were from hurting her, left him no choice.
“I'm here. I'm right here. I'll keep you safe.”
Dillon looked like she desperately wanted to believe him, but whatever had happened to her, whoever hurt her, left her so broken and wounded, made her doubt his ability to keep his word.
Nasa pushed his hands higher up her legs, over her arms to carefully take hold of her wrists.
Nasa pushed his hands higher up her legs, over her arms to carefully take hold of her wrists.
She was stiff and resistant, but Nasa was patient, gently pulling until he could flatten both her shaking hands to his chest, right over his heart.
“I promise, Dillon, no one is going to take you away. No one will hurt you. I won't let them. You're coming with me, and you're going to be alright.”
She nodded like a bobblehead, choking on a sob when he pulled her to her feet and into his embrace.
He shushed her gently, urging her to wrap her arms around his neck, taking a minute to let her get used to the feel of his body against hers before he scooped her up and carried her out.
CHAPTER SIX
Veracruz led their convoy of bikes and trucks around the outskirts of the city to what looked like an abandoned fire station. The rickety door to the garage bay rolled up without a sound, and when Damon pulled in, Nasa realized the outside was one hell of a facade.
Inside, he saw reinforced steel shutters over every window; the entire garage was painted white, and the overhead lights were bright enough, there was no place for an enemy combatant to hide.
Directly ahead of them, where the gear lockers would have been, was an office space completely enclosed in glass. A war room with maps, whiteboards, and huge flatscreens mounted on the far wall.
Above seemed to be the living quarters, and that's where Veracruz silently led Nasa. They'd only been driving for a half an hour, but barely five minutes into the trip, Dillon passed out.
For a split-second, Nasa thought she'd had a heart attack from the adrenaline overload, because she went from clinging to him to flopping back in his arms like a broken doll. Completely dead weight.
Up the stairs they went, Elka's nails clicking on the old hardwood floors, down a hallway with door after open door of bedrooms and bathrooms until Veracruz waved him into a suite that had no windows and no other entry or exit aside from the one they walked through.
Only one of the brick walls had been left raw and natural, the rest were painted white. The nightstands on either side of the bed had long pendant lights; the soft glow and clean linens lent warmth to the room instead of making it seem like a cell.
Without a word, Veracruz pulled the blankets down and tossed the excess pillows on the rattan bench at the foot of the bed, getting out of the way so Nasa could lay Dillon down.
He pulled off her shoes and shorts before tucking her in, unable to help the brief smile when Elka hopped up and very pointedly lay down beside Dillon, putting her enormous body between them.
“Good girl,” he told the dog, getting a bitchy glare in return. With just that one look, Elka made it clear she was still deliberating as to whether Nasa was trustworthy or not.
Nasa stepped out, glad when Veracruz kept his voice down. “This room is completely wired with cameras. We can keep an eye on them from downstairs.”
He didn't want to leave Dillon and risk her waking up in a strange place alone, but he needed to know what the fuck happened to make her fall apart the way she had.
The tension in the war room was thick enough to taste. Nasa glanced at Raid and Damon, where they leaned against the far wall, and followed their intense stares to see Tobias chugging from a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue like it was water.
“Is anyone going to explain what the fuck we just put our dicks into?” Duke finally asked, looking at Nasa like he had the answers.
Nasa started to say he had no idea, but Tobias slammed the bottle down on the table in front of him with a thunk.
“It's my fault. Shouldn't have gotten that close. She looks different now.”
“You know Dillon?” Veracruz asked, tossing Nasa a confused frown, but Nasa was as clueless as the
