Way of the Warrior (Troubleshooters #17.5)(30)
“Joke’s on me then”—he laughed at himself, at the crazy turns of the world—“since I’m dependent on just about everyone now, including my dog.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Finding a career choice has been…challenging. I’m a military medic, a pararescueman. Tough as hell to do either of those without eyes.” He drew in a breath and admitted to her something he hadn’t told anyone else. “I’ve been working on braille, so I can go back to school and get my degree.”
She cupped his face, and he could feel her looking at him. “That’s fantastic. What are you planning to study?”
“Social work and counseling.” He grinned. “I’ll get to listen more, talk less.”
She pressed a kiss to his mouth, lingered, then said, “You are an incredible man.”
He gathered her closer, cupping the back of her head, wondering how they’d gotten so off track. Wanting to be the man she thought he was but not certain he could be what she needed now any more than he had then. He couldn’t even keep her safe on his own. His arms twitched tighter around her.
Just as his radio blared with an alarm next to him.
CHAPTER 5
Heart pounding, Stacy leaned in to hear their conversation over the two-way radio.
Liam reported, “Jared Lewis parked next door and is approaching the house from the east. He’s slipping through the fence gate now.”
Stark, efficient words that didn’t begin to convey the horror of what was moving toward them. Her mouth went dry.
Stacy’s stomach plummeted. She looked at Gavin, trying to gauge his mood, but his face was stone. Focused. He was in some other zone. She wanted to warn him how bad this could be. What if she hadn’t made it clear how dangerous Jared could be? How relentless and—
“Roger,” Gavin replied. “Am securing Stacy now. Over.”
“Gavin?” She felt sick.
He hooked the radio to his jeans. “We’re going to lock down in the bathroom with Radar. Jared Lewis will never get anywhere near you.”
Radar growled low, as if in agreement.
Oh God, how could she have been so selfish as to put him at risk like this? Once she’d found out he was blind, she should have gone to the cops again or left town. This wasn’t fair to him or to his friends.
And something niggled at her. Why hide? His military buddies were outside. This plan had sounded so smart when they’d presented it to her over pizza, but now she wasn’t so certain. She slid off the bed, standing. “Are you sure they’re okay out there?”
From their radio conversation, it hadn’t sounded like they were outdoors at all.
“They’ll be fine. And so will you,” Gavin assured her, gripping her arm to steer her toward the bathroom just as Radar’s growl ramped.
A body hurtled through the window and hit the carpet, shattered glass all around him. For an instant she thought one of Gavin’s friends had come in only to realize…
She screamed. “Jared!”
Masked, Jared rolled to his feet, a knife in his hand, tiny glass cuts giving him a blood-speckled, eerie look. Noise rumbled from next door. Gavin’s friends? The bark of Rachel’s dog pierced the wall.
“Stacy…” Jared called out in a low hiss, “you can’t hide in the shadows forever.”
Beside her, she felt the muscles in Gavin’s body bunch. He and Radar launched as one directly at Jared.
“A knife,” she shouted, “he has a knife.”
While Radar clamped his teeth around Jared’s ankle, Gavin was fighting blind but with instincts no blindness could dim. He locked his arms around her wiry ex-husband, using his bulk to weigh the man down, making himself a human barrier between Jared and Stacy while his fist found Jared’s jaw. Neck. Whatever he could reach. Her ex-husband wore his standard stocking cap, but it slid askew in the struggle, showing the evil face she recognized too well. Jared slashed the blade across Gavin’s arm. She felt the cut all the way to her soul.
“Why did you have to come back to town? She’s mine. She’ll always be mine,” he rambled madly. “You thought you could lure me next door to your decoy, but I’m smarter than that. How are you going to fight against me, blind man?”
Blood leaked onto Gavin’s carpet. Gavin’s blood. Damn it, she wasn’t going to stand here frozen, doing nothing. She refused to let fear paralyze her. She had too much to lose. She considered racing next door for help, but Gavin could be dead before she got back. So she screamed, and screamed, and screamed again while searching for a weapon.
Gavin’s cane.
Still screeching her head off because no one would ever silence her again, she grabbed the thick wooden cane and waited for just the right moment…
Gavin had Jared pinned to the floor, but her ex-husband started to swipe with the knife again.
She swung the cane, smacking full force into his wrist. The sound of cracking bone mixed with Jared’s howl of agony.
The knife skittered away, and she swept it up quickly, adrenaline pumping hard. “Gavin, I have his knife and your cane, and trust me, Jared, there’s not a chance in hell I’ll ever let you use either of them against me.”
Jared cradled his shattered wrist to his chest, rolling from side to side, whimpering. Radar released his grip, but let loose a low growl of warning without backing up. Gavin rose cautiously to his feet, blood flowing down his arm, not that he seemed to care or notice. The difference in the two men had never been so stark as now.