Avenged (Altered #2)(49)

“Think about it, Kit. I froze five men. One of them could still paralyze us. He tried to choke us. I had no idea which one it was, and I couldn’t stop him.” He ran his hand over his head. “But you? You knew which one was misbehaving, and you made him let us go. I might be able to make people move, but you can change people’s minds.”

She shook her head. “Only for a while. Jeremy fought back. I couldn’t hold him.”

“Because we didn’t practice. That’s what I’m saying. While we’d been focusing on me, we should have been focusing on you. You were the more important piece, and I didn’t see it.”

He thought she’d been more important than him? “You took out a bunch of cars. Ruined a helicopter.”

“Yes, but you walked us past dozens of people. And nobody noticed.”

She laughed. She couldn’t help it. The way he remembered it wasn’t how she’d seen it at all.

“I was terrified,” she admitted. She’d heard him wonder if she could do it, in the hall outside the conference room. But in truth, she’d wondered if she could do it, too. She’d been so afraid, walking through that compound. To hear him tell it, though, she’d been a hero. It was too much.

His face sobered. “Of course you were afraid. Being afraid is human.”

“I thought you didn’t believe I could do it.”

“Not you, baby. Never you.” He shook his head. “I think you could do anything, take anything and still survive. It’s not you that I doubt.”

He turned from her to face the window again. His head dropped low, and his uncertainties washed over her, filled her.

He didn’t doubt her. He doubted himself.

I almost lost her. Again.

Her throat tightened. How had she ever been so foolish? She’d known when she met Nick that he wanted to protect her, whether she wanted his protection or not. He held himself to a standard that he would never expect from anyone else.

But while he expected perfection from himself, he accepted imperfection from others. She’d thought that if Nick knew her, if he really knew her, he’d run screaming for the hills. He had a family full of love. He mastered anything he decided to do. More, he cared about people openly, without fear. How could a guy like that understand a girl like her?

She’d never fit in. She was awkward, introverted. She’d had a strange upbringing and a strange new power… Just an all-around strange girl.

She’d misjudged him. Maybe it was because of how he’d been raised, with that support around him, that Nick didn’t care what anyone else thought. He’d taken one look at her, and he’d decided he liked her. It mattered to him what happened to her and that had been the end of it.

She’d tried to shut him down, that first time in San Antonio, but he’d still come for her. He’d warned her against Jeremy, but she hadn’t listened. If she knew him, he’d probably blamed himself for her not listening to him. He’d come because he couldn’t leave her there, alone.

The others who’d come… She’d heard Kenny’s thoughts. He’d been committed to the mission, to taking down Fields. To stopping the distribution of Solvimine. They wanted to extract her, but it hadn’t been their primary objective.

Not, Nick… For Nick, it had always been about her.

This girl…I’d be lost without her.

Unable to take any more, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him close. Laying her ear on his back, she listened to his heartbeat and smiled against his shirt.

So, this is what it felt like. Those times he’d stood, touching her without saying anything, to comfort her? It felt as good to ease him.

He remained rigid in her embrace, as if he didn’t know if he should accept her support.

As if he believed he didn’t deserve it.

Luckily, his desire to hold her won out, and he turned, pulling her into his arms. She softened against him. He rubbed his cheek against her hair, exhaling an unsteady breath.

“You were wonderful,” she whispered against his chest. “You are wonderful.”

“No…” She could feel him shaking his head, shaking off her words.

Scowling, she pulled his face down, touching their foreheads. “You don’t get the only say.” Their eyes met and his fingers flexed into her shirt, holding on as if he never wanted to let go. “And I say you were wonderful. We made it out. Together.”

“We made it.”We made it. She’s here. We’re out. He shuddered, and his litany was full of gratitude and relief.

She nodded. “Yes. And you won’t lose me. We’re in this together.”

As the words left her mouth, she knew they were true. Truer than anything she’d ever said. Nick Degrassi had filled her, made her feel again when she’d believed she was broken.

She would keep that—his faith in her—always.

He tugged her to him, crushing her against his chest, as if he couldn’t get her close enough.

She ran her hands along the muscles of his back, much more accessible in the plain gray T-shirt he’d worn under his jacket. She only aimed to reassure him, but when he dropped his head to her neck and placed his lips in the crook, her hands stilled. She sucked in a shaky breath, the feel of his warm breath against the sensitive skin sending a shiver along her neck, down her back, and into her belly.