Whispers in the Dark (KGI #4)(83)

SHEA smiled as Nathan disappeared from view and she turned to stare out over the lake while she waited for him to return. It truly was a beautiful spot and secluded from the others. It afforded Nathan privacy while still being close to his family.

She took another step toward the lake, inhaling the scent of pine, honeysuckle and the slight damp in the air from the mist blowing in.

What if she and Nathan really could have a life here? Together? Now that one of KGI’s team had gone in search of Grace—well, if they found her, brought her to Shea and offered them their protection—what was to say that they couldn’t live here? Under the protection and umbrella of KGI?

It was pretty fanciful and she was way jumping the gun, but how else were she and Nathan ever going to have a life together if Shea didn’t factor in everything into the equation?

Sometimes things just weren’t simple, and this was just such a case. Maybe she and Grace would forever be running. Maybe they’d never be truly safe. Did Shea dare throw caution to the wind and settle here with Nathan and trust that KGI could handle any problems that arose?

She sighed and started to turn back toward the house. It did no good to dwell on the future when the present was still so up in the air. One day at a time. What mattered now was that Grace was found and that both of them stayed out of sight until Nathan and his brothers could determine who wanted them and why.

She hadn’t fully rotated when she was knocked off balance by a hard body from behind. A strong arm snaked around her, preventing her fall, while a hand was clamped tight over her mouth.

Fear and panic exploded through her. She kicked, struggled and tried to scream, but the grip only tightened.

Nathan!

“Easy with her,” a second man barked from behind her. “Resnick’s orders were that under no circumstances was she to be harmed.”

Oh God. Resnick. He was the man Donovan wanted to talk to—had already talked to about her and Grace. Son of a bitch. She’d known it was a mistake. A huge mistake to trust anyone!

She tried to focus her mind, to make that connection to Nathan, when a sharp prick in her arm had her making a muffled sound of pain from behind her captor’s hand.

“Sorry, Miss Peterson. It had to be done. I can’t have you using your telepathy to alert anyone to our presence.”

The world did this crazy swinging thing, and black spots floated in and out of her vision.

The hell of it was, the man actually did sound regretful. The grip eased around her body, and then she was simply swung over the second man’s shoulder and he ran toward the drop-off as if her weight was negligible.

She was too drugged to scream when a helicopter suddenly appeared, hovering at the very edge, so close that it would only take a small jump to clear the space between the cliff’s edge and the inside of the chopper.

Oh God, no, surely he wasn’t going to…

He never hesitated. He ran and then they were airborne for the briefest of moments before they hit the floor of the helicopter with enough force to knock the breath from her.

He tore off his mask and stared down at her, his eyes clouded with worry. He was young. And handsome. And there were at least three of him.

“Are you all right?” he shouted as the helicopter swooped away.

She wanted to kick him right back out of the helicopter. Of course she wasn’t okay. But she couldn’t speak. It was all she could do to even keep her eyes open. Her tongue was dry and stuck to the roof of her mouth. She was so damned scared that she wanted to curl into a ball and cry.

But that wasn’t going to help her now.

Her eyes rolled back into her head and still she fought to remain conscious.

Nathan.

It was weak. A mere whisper. A plea for him to hear her.

But all that awaited her was suffocating darkness that closed in from every direction.

CHAPTER 34

FEAR and panic blew over Nathan like a tornado. And then it was gone just as quickly, leaving him unsettled and dizzy. His mouth went dry. He dropped the plank of wood he’d gotten to show Shea and ran back to the front of the house, clawing at the plastic, ripping an entire sheet from the frame as he stumbled to where he’d left Shea.

She wasn’t there. He turned in a rapid circle. She wasn’t anywhere.

“Shea! Shea!” he yelled. Shea, where are you, damn it? Talk to me. Tell me where you are, baby. Help me help you. I feel your fear. What’s happened?

Nothing.

The sound of a helicopter sent him sprinting down the path toward the edge of the cliff. He topped the slight rise in front of the house and then stared down just in time to see the unbelievable.

Some motherf*cker with Shea tossed over his shoulder leaped from the edge of the cliff toward a helicopter hovering a few feet away.

Time stopped. He couldn’t breathe. Oh God, what if he didn’t make it?

When both landed inside the helicopter, Nathan nearly went to his knees in relief. But then he bolted into action and ran along the path paralleling the lake, keeping his eye on the rapidly fading helicopter.

Fuck it all, the goddamn thing had already become a blip on the horizon. It wasn’t a helicopter he recognized and he’d flown plenty. He knew every helicopter flown by the military whether it was the army or another branch of the service. This was none of those.

He’d never seen an aircraft like this one. He hadn’t heard it until it was literally on top of them. Which meant some goddamn top-secret prototype had just snatched Shea literally out of the air.