I whirl on him, betrayal flooding every inch of me. “I don’t carewhatyou are. You put us in danger with little more than security cameras and a single guard as a shield. What were you thinking?”
“I had everything under control.”
“Is that what you think?”
His stare is distant as his fingers curl around the steering wheel, knuckles blanching. “I’ve been tracking Volkov for weeks. I don’t know how he slipped past me, but it doesn’t matter now because it’s over. We’re safe. Isa will recover and wake up without fear of retaliation, and we can all move forward together.”
I laugh, hollow and furious. “Together? You’re out of your mind if you think I’m staying anywhere with you.”
My blood runs cold when he doesn’t respond.
“I’m going home, Jaxon,” I say more firmly. “First thing tomorrow morning, and I don’t care how you have to make that happen.”
His jaw sets, lips tightening, not in anger, but in something colder. Something final. And when our eyes meet, the air shifts.The warmth I’ve seen in him when he’s holding Leo or grinning at me after I’ve made him laugh is replaced by something darker. Not unkind. Just…unwilling.
“You’re not going to let me go, are you?” I whisper, a chill curling up my spine.
Eyes softening, he reaches for me, but I jerk away.
“Please, Callie. I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he says, voice low and wrecked. He brushes the back of my hand with his finger. “I don’t want to lose this.”
I glance back at Leo, torn over leaving him and struggling to accept that the safe haven the three of us built is no longer.
“I need some space.” I pop the car door open, the urge to breathe, to move, to be anywhere but trapped in this car with him, overwhelming me.
The air in the dark cave is thick and pungent with the tang of dirt and stale water. I wind my arms across my middle, but the subtle warmth is a poor substitute for the comfort I desperately crave.
Jaxon gathers Leo in his arms, tucking the stuffed dragon under one arm before shutting the car door behind him.
Leo melts into him, instinctively curling against his chest with his feet dangling at Jaxon’s sides, and in the dim light of the tunnel, I lock eyes with the dangerous, formidable man I thought I knew.
And yet, as he steps closer, I’m given a glimpse at the quiet ache of someone carved from violence, still learning how to hold something soft.
“This way,” he says before leading us down a dark hall toward an automatic door.
The stuffy darkness of the cave is a dizzying contrast to the hidden fortress we enter, which reeks of steel and survival.
Gunmetal-gray walls and harsh overhead lights greet us. We pass a wall of security monitors before reaching a central roomwith a small kitchen area, two cots, and a sleek metal table and chairs.
A hydraulic whine sounds before the exit door lowers, closing us in like prisoners in a cell. Light-headed, I press a hand to my tightening chest and start to pace while Jaxon tucks Leo into one of the cots.
As if sensing my panic, Jaxon nods toward the door to my left.
“There’s a medic room through there,” he says. “Go catch your breath. Scream if you want. Either way, I’ll come find you when I’m done here.”
He turns back to Leo, who mumbles sleepily while tucking the blanket Jaxon covers him with beneath his chin.
I want to tell him not to bother coming after me. That I’ve made up my mind about leaving, and there’s nothing left for us to discuss. But I stop just before the exit and look over my shoulder.
Blood from Jaxon’s wound has completely soaked the cloth he tied around it, but it doesn’t faze him. He’s too focused on putting Chancy in a spot where Leo will see him when he wakes and making sure the covers are wrapped around his little bare feet.
I wish watching a grown man fussing over the placement of a stuffed animal while caring for a child who isn’t even his didn’t move me as much as it does, but here we are.
“Uncle Jax?” Leo murmurs, peeking one eye open before sitting upright.
“Hey, buddy.”
Leo stares at Jaxon’s injury, and the blood splatter still marking his skin. To Leo’s credit, he remains relatively calm. And for a moment, a sense of pride replaces the anger and betrayal warring inside me.
