Into the Mist (Falcon Mercenary Group #1)(55)

“One night I picked the pocket of a young man, only he was on to me in two seconds flat. He chased me down and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck. He had a friend with him, and they laughed as I threatened to kill them. I don’t think they believed me, but I would have.

“Damiano damn near killed himself trying to take them on, but they weren’t even trying to hurt us. When we realized that, we took off as fast as we could.”

“Jonah?” Eli asked.

She nodded. “And Mad Dog. They didn’t catch us that night, but they tracked us down two days later. I still don’t know why they did it. Maybe they felt sorry for us. But they took us in. Didn’t offer us sympathy. Just asked if we wanted a better life. It took a long time for them to earn our trust but when they did, it never wavered. We owe them our lives. We would have never survived on the street.”

“You would have,” Eli murmured. “You’re a survivor, Tyana.” He levered away from her and framed her face in his hands. “You’re one of the bravest and gutsiest people I know, man or woman. Damiano is lucky to have you.”

She shook her head adamantly. “No, I’m the one who’s lucky. I wouldn’t have lasted a day in that orphanage if it weren’t for him. He saved me.”

Eli kissed her forehead tenderly then slid his lips down to kiss each eyelid as they fluttered underneath his mouth.

“I think you saved him as well,” he said softly.

She closed her eyes and leaned until her forehead touched his. “I can’t lose him, Eli.”

“I know, sugar. And you won’t. We’ll find a way.”

Such simple words, and yet they lifted her up, filled her with such comfort. She wasn’t alone. Not anymore. Eli was helping her.

“You need to eat, and then I need to clean you up,” he said. “I’m beginning to think you’re using your face as a battering ram.”

She smiled and to her surprise got teary-eyed again. He smudged the moisture with his thumb then kissed the spot just below her eye.

“You managed to salvage the food?” she asked.

“Uh huh. Not much gets between me and my food.”

Relief, warm and liquid, pooled in her soul. He wasn’t disgusted by her raw account of her childhood. He wasn’t horrified by all she’d done and by all that had been done to her. For the first time in her life, she wondered if there was room for one more person in her heart.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Eli watched Tyana nibble at an empanada and was at a loss as to how to react to all she’d told him. He couldn’t sit there and say it didn’t matter, nor could he ignore the enormity of the fact that she’d shared such intimate details of her past with him.

What did he do? It didn’t feel right to take her to bed and make long, sweet love to her, though it was precisely what he wanted. He wanted to make her forget, to let her know that it didn’t matter to him, that only she mattered. But at the same time, how could he be sure that he wouldn’t shatter her already fragile emotions? Wouldn’t bring back those terrible memories of another man in another place?

And if he did ignore the urge, what kind of message was he sending? What would his reluctance to touch her say to her? That he was disgusted? That he no longer wanted her?

It was a hell of a hard spot to be in, and there weren’t handbooks for this sort of thing. Make the wrong decision and he risked losing her completely.

That was the rub. Did he want to keep her? Could he keep her? She was his perfect match in a world where he never thought to find one. What woman could possibly understand his life, the things he’d done, the way he lived? Only a woman who shared those same experiences. Tyana.

He hadn’t been honest with her, though. She clung to the hope that he could somehow provide help for Damiano, and he couldn’t. His ability to shift wasn’t something born of a freak science experiment gone bad. How could he tell her that and destroy her faith that somehow Damiano could be cured?

The small radio transmitter sitting on the floor beside the couch beeped, and he reached down to pick it up.

“Eli.” Gabe’s voice filtered through the static.

“Go ahead.”

“We’re in town. Number two house.”

“Lay low. I’ll be in touch when we move out again,” Eli said before putting the radio aside.

He had calls to make, favors to call in, but until they knew where they were going, his only option was to sit tight and hope this Tits guy came through for Tyana.

Her haunted stare found his. “So we stay here?”

He nodded. “I’ll make arrangements for us to fly out as soon as we have a location on Esteban.”

She frowned, and lines of fatigue rippled across her forehead. “What then? What’s our objective? Is it revenge or simply a fact-finding mission?”

He moved closer to her, wanting to be near yet so afraid she’d pull away. When she didn’t, he settled beside her, their shoulders touching.

“Honestly? I want to kill the bastard. But that helps no one. I say we take him alive and make him talk. He doesn’t want to die. He’s too absorbed in his whole power trip. After we extract what information we can from him, we can decide whether he’s worth more to us alive or if we kill him then.”

She nodded. “I agree. If there is a way to help Damiano…and Ian and Braden…” She glanced up at him, questions burning in her eyes. “What about you, Eli? Are you happy with your abilities? You and Gabe aren’t like the others. What if we find a way to make it all go away? Are you going to want that?”