The good guys.
“Got her!” He lowered the gun, pressed an earpiece, and spoke quickly. “Hendrix, I’m bringing her out!” The man turned to me. “Come on, Ms. Noble. Let’s get you out of here. Hendrix will be happy as fuck to see you’re okay.”
Hendrix?
And okay? What was okay? Blood dripped from my face and my hands. It could always be worse. I nodded, my head bobbing. I was sort of okay.
But who was Hendrix? My brain struggled to free itself from survival mode, but I couldn’t answer my own swirling questions. Instead, I just latched onto the fact that he was one of the good guys.
The man helped me to my feet. One of my flip-flops was missing, but I didn’t care. I wanted out of this house. Right now.
“You want me to carry you, Ms. Noble?”
I shook my head and didn’t spit out the words I wanted to. Don’t touch me. Digging deep and grabbing hold of some fleeting reserve of strength, I followed him out of the room.
Bile rose in my throat at the dead bodies on the living room floor, blood seeping out around them into the beige carpet.
Tearing my gaze away, I searched for the door. Out. Now.
Men with SWAT vests swarmed the house, and confusion dogged my every step. Who called in the SWAT team?
One of the men slung his gun over his shoulder and rushed toward us. “Thank fuck,” he murmured as he grabbed me and pulled me into him.
I jerked back. “Don’t touch me,” I whispered, my voice harsh and broken.
He pulled away, his hands cupping my jaw before I could shove away. “I got you, duchess.”
My eyes met silver ones through the goggles.
Rix.
In a SWAT uniform.
What? My brain couldn’t keep up.
“Let’s get you out of here. Come on.”
He bustled me out the front door hanging drunkenly off its hinges. We reached a black Suburban, and Rix shoved the goggles up off his face and onto the helmet.
“Are you okay?”
That question again.
I nodded, but my heart rate accelerated. Tears stung my eyes at the concern in his gaze.
I wanted to turn away. Didn’t want him to see me like this.
Be strong, Valentina. Don’t break. Don’t let him see you break.
I tried to focus on him, not on the pathetic mess I knew I was. “Why are you wearing a uniform?” My words came out faint and shaky.
Rix ignored my question and ran his hands over my face, hair, arms, and hands. “Fuck. You got some cuts.” I opened my mouth to ask my question again, when Rix returned to the tender spot on my temple. “Already bruising, duchess. Dammit. We need to get you to the ER to get checked out.”
I couldn’t think about my injuries or I’d fail in my promise to myself not to let him see me break. Instead, I grabbed his hand as he smoothed my hair away from my face.
“Why are you wearing a SWAT uniform?”
The man who’d brought me down the stairs joined us at the SUV. “Good to have you back, man. Just like we trained at the academy.”
Academy?
“You want to get her out of here? No one needs to know you were here. Don’t want to blow your cover.” He dug keys out of his pocket and handed them off to Rix.
Blow your cover?
Even in the chaos of my mind, it all slid together. My gaze shot to Rix. His face was hard, but one thing was clear.
Rix wasn’t Rix.
And he’d been lying to me since the day we met.
The knowledge rocked me as the confession bled into his gaze. I didn’t need him to reply to know it was true. Rix isn’t Rix.
Jerking out of his arms, I stumbled back. He let me go—another confession of guilt.
“Who are you?” My voice shook, and the mess of my emotions rammed together like fists to flesh.
I was going to break. I was going to lose it. He was my safety. The one solid thing I could count on. And he wasn’t real. He was a lie.
“Thank fuck, you got her.” Another familiar voice joined the rush of static in my head.
Rhett came around the SUV. Rhett. The man who’d seen me at my worst before, and it had changed his opinion of me forever, no matter what he’d said.
“Who are you?” I demanded again.
Rix’s mouth tightened. “Beauregard Hendrix. NOPD. Undercover.”
The words were like a kick to the gut, shattering my ability to hold it together. Everything was a lie.
“I don’t even know you.”
His silver gaze pierced me. “I’m the same man I was before, duchess.”
I swallowed as hot tears spilled over. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t do this.”
I tore my eyes away from Rix, or whoever he was, and found Rhett. I spun and threw myself into his arms.
“Get me out of here,” I begged. The whole of me was falling to pieces. A full-on breakdown was imminent, and that wasn’t something I wanted anyone to see.
Rhett closed his arms around me. “Shhh. It’s okay. You’re fine. You’re just fine, honey.”
“Get me out of here,” I said again, my voice raw with the sobs I was holding back. “Now. Please.”
“Okay. We’re going.” Over my head, he spoke to someone else. “I’m taking her to the hospital.”
The thought of once again finding myself battered and bruised in a hospital bed, Rhett sitting across from me, shredded the remainder of my control. Sobs broke free, racking my body. He held me tighter, and I wanted to curl into myself and never come out.
I’m broken. I’m truly broken.
WATCHING AS VALENTINA SHRANK AWAY from me and threw herself into the arms of another man ripped at my insides. Fuck. I wanted to tear her away from Hennessy and hold her close to make sure she was okay, but the look on her face told me everything I needed to know.