“She has children.” Camellia leaned her head against Jonas’s shoulder and closed her eyes.
Jonas was okay with that. “Camellia brought up a very good point. Our team is willing to send our women and children to Team Two to guard for us, and yet we’re acting like they’re the enemy. We’ve got snipers on them, and every time I’m near them, I want to rip into them.”
Kyle tapped the steering wheel and glanced at Jeff. “Yeah, she’s got a point. I can’t help but get a little tense around them too, but I don’t have any idea why or when it started happening.”
“Gotta agree,” Jeff said. “Weird acting like we trust them, but not really trusting them. As far as I know, they haven’t done anything to earn our distrust.”
Jonas slid his palm over Camellia’s thigh. “And this thing with Ryland and Lily. Rye said things to Lily that one of us might say because we’re idiots with women, but Ryland isn’t. He not only compared her to Whitney once, but he did it twice.”
Kyle and Jeff both gasped. “No way,” Jeff protested. “No way would he do that.”
“Something isn’t right,” Jonas concluded.
Camellia kept her eyes closed. “Someone’s found a way to drive a wedge between everyone. I have no idea how, but your team seems to be infected by it. Team Two isn’t.”
There was silence in the truck. Jonas sighed first. “Ryland is planning to move our families to Team Two’s compound for safety. The troops coming at us aren’t enhanced. They’re mercs hired by the conglomeration. Only those leading them are. Since my woman is probably right about her suspicions, and something may have been done to try to turn us against each other, I’m going to text Ryland about the possibility and suggest in the nicest way possible that the situation between he and Lily may have developed because of this very thing.”
Jeff drew in his breath. “Could get you killed, bro.”
“You might rethink that last part,” Kyle added.
“Rye wanted an advance force to take out the enhanced leaders before the troops ever made it to the compound.” Jonas shrugged, trying to sound casual as he sent off a text. “He might never get the chance to yell at me.”
“By advance force, you mean you, Kyle, Jeff and me?” Camellia asked with a faint grin.
“A couple of others might come with us,” Jonas agreed. “Then we’ll face the larger force with both teams.”
“That will take some coordination on the battlefield,” Kyle said. “Signals are spotty at best on the mountain. You know that, Jonas. No matter how well we work on the equipment, we just don’t always get what we want. Not everyone is telepathic on both teams. Bridging for everyone takes tremendous energy, and sometimes that fails.”
“Jonas and I can handle communication for everyone,” Camellia said without opening her eyes.
We can? Everyone? Even Team Two? He was going to have to sit the woman down and find out exactly what they could do. Clearly, he was missing out on the application of great skills. All of them?
Her soft laughter bubbled up. Got to him. Got to Kyle and Jeff too. Both men looked at her. Kyle nearly ran off the road.
“How can you do that?” Jeff asked. “I’m not doubting you, Camellia. I wouldn’t doubt you if you said you could walk on water. You can’t, can you?”
“I haven’t tried. It never occurred to me that I might not sink.” Amusement permeated her voice, inviting all of them to share in her laughter.
Jonas found heat blossoming between them. Joy spreading when he hadn’t known joy since his parents had died. In the middle of a mess, Camellia still found a way to share humor. The mood in the truck lightened considerably. He realized several times, when the nearly uncontrollable enhancements had overtaken him, what used to take him hours of isolation to suppress, she had handled with seeming ease. That realization sobered him.
There was so much to love about Camellia. Jonas was like his father, an intensely passionate man who would give himself completely to one woman. He would be loyal and ferociously protective of her and their family. Whitney had amplified those traits so much more, enhancing them to the point of borderline obsessive. If his father had been so out of control that he hadn’t stopped to think about the son who would need him after the loss of his mother, what would Jonas ever do if he lost Camellia under similar circumstances? In the past, he’d already proven he could be a monster.
Stop. Camellia’s warmth slid into his mind. The species Whitney made a part of you aren’t all bad. They have wonderful traits, Jonas, and you never give the good traits a thought.
Jonas dropped his hand over hers and pressed her palm into the muscle of his thigh. He’d just been thinking how Camellia didn’t see herself the way she was, persisting in believing she was so tough and unforgiving, yet they were on their way to see Marigold, the woman who had hurt her the most in the world.
Jonas knew without a shadow of a doubt that Camellia would help her if she could. He’d known they would be going to her aid sooner or later. He had wanted to spare Camellia the pain of seeing Mari, but he knew he couldn’t. Camellia would go because Marigold was suffering and needed her. He saw that loyalty and compassion in her so clearly, yet she didn’t. Was she seeing something in him that he didn’t?
He closed his fingers around hers, caging her hand in, wishing they had more time to be alone together. He needed to disclose everything to her. The longer they were together and the more he knew her character, the surer he was that they were meant to be together and that they had been even before Whitney paired them. Before.
After. He heard her muffled laughter. At first he thought it was aloud, but then he realized she’d laughed only for him. In his mind.
You don’t have all the facts.
Just pushing the statement into her mind sounded melodramatic. She tilted her head up, her eyes meeting his. All that intense blue looking at him. The laughter faded, and he was looking at something else altogether. Another emotion he hadn’t seen in a woman’s eyes ever when she looked at him. His stomach dropped away. She had the ability to tear out his heart.
“Coming up on the house now, Jonas,” Kyle announced.
Jonas brought her hand to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. “Long fall, honey,” he murmured, conceding. If love was a battle, he’d lost that war before it had ever started.
Her gaze softened even more. He didn’t have to explain anything to her. She understood him probably better than he understood himself.
Kyle circled around and parked the truck, nose out, behind Jack Norton’s truck, making certain he had plenty of room to exit quickly. Jonas made no move to get out of the back seat with Camellia until both Jeff and Kyle were out and waiting for them.