Sallie clawed at the arm around her neck, shuddering, attempting to kick back at the legs she knew must be behind her. Legs she couldn’t find. There had to be legs back there, right?
“Where is he?” The snarl again, filled with rage, as the arm tightened further around her neck, stealing her air, threatening to steal consciousness.
chapter nine
“Right here.”
Jacob’s answer came through a dark stillness, a silence that had been smothering. The forearm around her neck released with the sound of an ominous crack and Sallie’s sudden freedom.
She felt the weight that had pinned her slumping to the floor, lifeless. She knew it was lifeless. Jacob had just killed a man because of her.
As a broken sob escaped her lips, she stood trembling, shuddering in place, knowing who was behind her, knowing any measure of mercy Jacob might have held for her, would no longer exist. He had been forced to take a life, there was no way he could ever look at her the same, or touch her with any gentleness.
She felt the tear that eased from the corner of one eye, felt the loss searing her, tearing at the deepest part of her heart. Bitter knowledge swept through her as she fought the sobs trying to break free, as well as the panic building inside her.
“Clear.” His voice was cold, like ice, sharp and clipped as he spoke behind her. “Get Lily to the ranch.”
It took her a second to realize he wasn’t talking to her, and she didn’t question who it was.
Thank God Lily was okay, safe. At least her friend had gotten away.
Sallie wanted to move. She needed to move, but fear, and something that went far deeper than regret, held her rooted to the floor as she felt Jacob staring at her, waiting. Like the specter of death, he stood towering over her, a dead man at his feet, and death in his voice.
“Let’s go!” Jacob’s demand was accompanied by a firm grip on her arm as he all but dragged her away from the fallen body to the back door. “Pride’s waiting till we leave to take care of this fucking mess.”
Beneath the ice was a burning rage. She could hear it, feel it. He was furious, and who could blame him? She’d endangered his cousin and forced him to kill.
Sallie stumbled as they neared the door, shaking her head desperately.
“No,” she whispered, barely able to speak, her voice shaking to the point that she could barely understand her own words. “No, I have to leave. I have to go…”
And of course, Jacob didn’t argue. Before Sallie realized his intent, he simply wrapped his arm around her waist and picked her up off her feet. Within seconds they were out the door, and he was all but tossing her into the pickup that braked at the back door a second before one of his men jumped from the driver’s seat, leaving the door open.
“Grange and a couple of our men are holding perimeter around the house,” the other man informed Jacob as Sallie was lifted into the cab. “We’ll take care of this and meet you back at the ranch.”
With a sharp nod Jacob slid behind the wheel, slammed the door closed, and reversed from the car port.
“Buckle your seat belt,” he ordered, pulling out onto the road and increasing speed. “Now!”
Buckle her seat belt? She reached for the strap, missed it, and tried again. Catching it in fingers that felt numb and disassociated from her mind, she tried to pull it around her but once again, felt it slip away.
As she reached for the belt a third time, Jacob’s arm reach across her, causing her to flinch as he jerked the seat belt around her and clipped it without so much as a word.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, wishing her voice would steady, to stop the hateful trembling.
She’d thought she’d defeated that once horrendous trait. When under pressure, when frightened, there had been a time when her voice trembled so horribly she couldn’t make herself understood. Her stepfather had always grimaced with distaste when it happened and her mother’s gaze had always been filled with such disappointment.
Jacob didn’t speak, didn’t make so much as a murmur of acknowledgement at the apology. Risking a glance at him, Sallie swallowed with more than a little trepidation. His expression looked carved from stone. No anger, no concern, nothing. Just completely impassive ice.
It was terrifying.
Gripping her hands in her lap she stared down at her fingers rather than the imposing profile, shadowed by the night and the dim glow to the dashboard lights.
He was furious, she could feel the anger rolling off him in waves, pouring toward her, and surrounding her. And she deserved it. Because she’d been so desperate for just a little time with him, she’d caused his cousin to possibly be hurt, or worse. And everyone knew Jacob was terribly protective of his female cousins.
She’d known what she’d found with him wouldn’t last, but she hadn’t expected it to end with his hatred.
For six years the memory of his touch had been her secret lover on long, lonely nights. She’d compared every man against him and none had measured up. She’d held those memories to her heart, warmed herself with them even as she assured herself she hadn’t loved him.
And she’d known better.
She’d often told herself and others, she’d never been in love, but it wasn’t true. She’d loved. For one impossible moment in time, she’d loved a man who had walked away from her with surprising ease and never returned.
It was breaking her inside, tearing her apart, piece by piece, and she couldn’t stop the pain from resonating through every part of her. It tore at every defense she’d ever built between herself and anything or anyone else who could hurt her. But she hadn’t had any defenses against Jacob, had she?
All she’d had was this unreasonable need for one man. A man who must surely hate her now.
* * *
Jacob could still feel the overwhelming terror that threatened to flood him when he stepped into the darkened house to see Sallie in the killing grip of the bastard behind her. Small, fragile, her neck arched back as she struggled to breathe, and still, she’d fought to get free. Clawing at the bastard’s arms, trying to kick back at him, terror filling her expression and the small, strangled cries she’d managed to make despite the pressure on her neck.
It had been all he could do to stay silent long enough to slip up on the bastard and eliminate the threat. The fact that Sallie had stayed on her feet, despite the shudders racking her body, still had the power to amaze him. And now, she was apologizing to him, and he knew if he made the mistake of speaking to her before he pushed back the utter rage tearing at him, then he’d never make it safely to the ranch before completely losing control.
Releasing that anger against her was unacceptable, but damn her, if she had just trusted him. All she’d had to do was tell him she was in danger; he would have protected her. No one would have touched her; he would have made sure of it.
“We have your grandmother safe, Lily’s en route, and the trash is being disposed of,” Justice spoke through the secured communication device Jacob had tucked in his ear. “Grange has an ID on the bastard too. Sallie’s assailant was Jorg Deverson. He’s linked to the Swiss-based militant group, Forefront, that you were investigating when that explosion nearly took you out about six years ago.”