Shattered (LOST #3)(51)

“And I wanted to be with you,” she said, giving him a small smile. “So I found you.” Worry slid across her face. “Victoria updated me. The victim . . . she’s still in ICU?”

He nodded, then he pulled Eve close to him. He just . . . held her for a moment. Sarah saw the long shudder that shook Gabe’s body when he had Eve close. He pulled back, but only so that he could kiss the blonde. And, watching them, Sarah felt like an intruder because there was so much incredible tenderness in that kiss. Powerful emotion. It wasn’t just about passion. With those two, it was about love.

Sarah hadn’t even been sure that she believed a couple could love each other that much, not until she’d seen Eve and Gabe together.

Jax cleared his throat. “I think your boss is good,” he said. “We should go.”

Sarah felt her cheeks flush. With Eve around, she was sure Gabe was more than good.

“Brent sent some cops to keep watch down here, too,” Jax added. “Molly is going to be safe.”

Gabe’s head slowly lifted. His face had softened with love as he stared down at Eve. But then he seemed to remember that he and Eve weren’t alone. He looked over at Sarah.

“Why don’t you and Eve go to the hotel,” Sarah offered. “I can—”

Eve turned toward her. “I’m staying with Gabe. Viki told me that you were in the fire today. How are you even on your feet?”

Her feet—and knees—were rather wobbly.

“We’ve got this,” Eve said, giving Sarah a faint smile. “Go and rest. And chalk this up as a win for LOST.”

A win . . . the way Eve’s case had been.

Jax followed Sarah toward the door.

“You’ll keep her safe?” Gabe called after them.

Before Jax could answer, Sarah glanced back at him. “I can keep myself safe.” Just what did he think her father had been teaching her all of those years?

How to hunt.

How to kill.

How to survive.

Jax was silent as they rode the elevator down to the parking garage. He led her toward a big, black SUV that waited near one of the columns. Before Sarah slid up onto the seat, she asked, “You’re taking me back to the hotel?”

He caught her chin in his hand. “No, Sarah.”

Her breath whispered out. “My clothes—”

“—will be taken care of.” He smiled at her, a smile that looked like a tiger, sharp and predatory. “So maybe you should send a text to your friends. Let them know you’ll be at my place. I will be keeping you safe.”

Oh, had that struck a nerve with him? Too bad. It was who she was.

“And we’ll be fucking.”

Yes, well, um, she wasn’t going to include that bit in the text.

He leaned down and kissed her. Hard and deep. He made her want more. “You scared the hell out of me today,” he muttered against her mouth.

Wait . . . she’d scared big, bad Jax Fontaine? Impossible. Nothing was supposed to scare him.

“Next time, run away from the fire,” he told her. “Save yourself.”

Ah, but that was what he didn’t understand. She had too many sins to atone for in this world. If she didn’t try to help, then . . .

What will I become?

She climbed into the vehicle. He slammed her door, then came around to the driver’s side. Sarah fired off a quick text to Gabe. A few moments later, she and Jax were leaving that parking garage and heading out into the dark night. “What’s their story?” he asked her, actually seeming to be curious.

Sarah glanced over at him. “You mean Gabe and Eve?” Well, technically, Eve wasn’t the blonde’s name. She was Jessica Montgomery. Or she had been.

“Yeah, them. Gabe looked like—”

“He could pretty much devour her.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Sarah clamped her lips shut. She had to learn to watch herself around Jax. For some reason, she revealed too much with him. “They’re pretty intense together,” she mumbled.

“They are.” His hand slid over. Squeezed her thigh. “And so are we.” His touch seemed to burn right through her jeans.

She wanted him to move his fingers a little bit. To slide them inside her thigh and up to the—

“Sarah? Their story,” he prompted.

Right. Coughing a bit, Sarah said, “Eve was a client. She came in the doors of LOST, and I’m pretty sure Gabe took one look at her and the guy fell . . . hard.” She’d never thought the mighty Gabe would go down that fast. But he’d been nearly obsessed. So determined to stay close to Eve.

To win her heart.

“Who had gone missing from Eve’s life?”

“She had.” Her head turned as she stared out her window. The streets were packed with people, and, up ahead, a horse-drawn carriage was slowly meandering through the city. “Eve woke up in a hospital, with no memory of her past. She happened to see a story in a newspaper—it was a story about the Lady Killer. He was a serial killer who’d been targeting wealthy, blond women—”

“I remember that story,” Jax said, his voice grim.

“Eve looked in the paper, saw the photos of the guy’s victims, and she saw her own face staring back at her.” The horse-drawn carriage turned. Jax sped up. “She came to LOST because she wanted us to find out if she had been a victim. She wanted us to find out anything we could about her.” And in the end, they had. They’d stopped the Lady Killer. Eve had learned about her past . . . and Gabe had fallen in love.