How Beauty Saved the Beast (Tales of the Underlight) (17 page)

Mercy picked off any approaching Atropos with her gun.

Jolie scratched the same rune into her staff. “Do I have to say anything?”

“I dunno,” Hauk slurred. She had to get him out of here. That last magic bit had scrambled him something fierce.

“Shoot this!” She tossed the staff at the doors.

Mercy took aim. Missed. The baton landed. One of the soldiers reached for it. Mercy shot again. The baton exploded, sending energy skittering through the air. Pierce dodged to the side as the soldiers around him collapsed.

Jolie reached the door, but they had a long way to go to reach the wall, and Hauk could barely move. Ananke had plenty of time to rally. She shoved Hauk forward anyway as Mercy covered them from the back.

They exited t {Thetimhe building to the purr of an approaching motor. Travis appeared out of nowhere with her car. Thank God. What was he doing here, though?

He opened the side door. Jolie shoved Hauk into the passenger seat as Mercy climbed over Travis and into the back.

As soon as Jolie’s feet were inside, Travis stomped on the accelerator, thrusting her into Hauk’s bullet-ridden body.

“Is he okay?” Travis asked.

“What are you doing here?”

Travis glanced at her and back at the road. “I heard too late what you were doing. Drove out anyway, found your car, parked mine and tuned in to their radio signal. When I heard the chaos I switched to the GT-R and drove in.” He shrugged. “I would’ve come
with
you
if you’d asked, you know.”

Jolie patted his shoulder. “Thank you for coming anyway.”

She managed to twist into a forward-facing position in the tiny space. Hauk’s arms slid around her like a seatbelt, keeping her from hitting the windshield, but his grip was so weak. He needed medical attention, now.

Mercy patted Travis’s shoulder, as well. “Thanks from me, too. I had no idea how we were going to get Hauk back over the wall. You saved our asses.”

Jolie nodded. “I’ll make sure to call you next…” Ananke’s front gate was broken. “You rammed the gate with
my
car
?”

They streaked toward the ruined metal and the two guards blocking the exit with their bodies. Travis didn’t slow down.

“Don’t hit them with my car.”

“They’ll move.”

“You’re going to run them over with my car. Pull over!”

“They’ll move.” At the last moment, the guards dove away. “Told ya.” But his pale face looked relieved.

“Have you lost your ever-lovin’ mind?”

“
I
didn’t storm Ananke’s stronghold with two people, half a map and no plan.” He glanced at Hauk. “Good job, by the way. How is he?”

“Beat to hell and not healing.” The hands around her waist gave her a light squeeze as if to say he was fine, but he’d looked awful
before
he’d taken bullets and been the bottom of a human pile. Now he looked half-dead.

Travis shook his head. “And he’s bleeding all over
your
car
. Awesome. I’m going to be the one to clean that again you know, big guy. I’d appreciate it if you’d stop.” Worry overshadowed the teasing in his tone.

“Yeah, he has a bad habit of doing that.”

They pulled off the road into wooded coverage, where Travis’s car was waiting.

“Split up here?” he asked as he and Mercy got out.

Jolie opened the door and uncrammed herself from the front seat. She buckled Hauk in. He wasn’t moving. Three angry bullet wounds sure weren’t healing like the one had last time they’d exited Ananke’s HQ. “Yeah. I’ll get him
to a hospital.”

Travis raised an eyebrow as he got out of the car. “A hospital? He doesn’t have insurance. Or an ID. Or anything. If they call the police…”

Mercy leaned over Hauk. From her paling {m hd aexpression, Jolie knew a hospital was necessary.

“If I don’t take him to a hospital, he’s going to die. I have to get moving.”

Mercy straightened up. “I know a doctor who’ll keep his mouth shut. You’re going to need to spend some money, though, and it’s not close.”

Jolie slid into the driver’s seat. “Money’s no issue and the car’s fast. Tell me where to go.”

Chapter Fourteen

Jolie leaned back against the door of Hauk’s hospital room, listening to the beep of his heart monitor. He’d lost a lot of blood and was nearly as pale as the bleached white sheets he’d been swathed in, bringing his tattoos out in bright relief. But the rise and fall of his chest was smooth and unhurried as he slept, and she’d been assured that with time he’d be okay.

The doctor had been every bit as discreet and expensive as Mercy had warned. But Jolie would burn every bank account she had to keep Hauk safe.

When they’d arrived at the hospital, his breath had come out in wet gasps. The orderlies transferred him to one of those wheeled beds, and the sheets blossomed bright red with his blood. She’d followed as far as they’d allowed, yelling at him to hang on, then rooted her feet to the ground and balled her fists. A sane woman shouldn’t deck the nurse blocking her path to the emergency room. The best thing she could do for Hauk was stay out of their way.

Half an hour later, in a paneled office of unnatural calm, Jolie wrote a check to pay for silence. She’d broken rules aplenty in the past, but that was the first time she’d used her fortune for a cover-up. She didn’t regret it. It didn’t sit well with her either. Hush money was the sort of unethical bypass rich people with dirty secrets, people like her father, would use.

Jolie looked back at Hauk. Then again, her best friend
was
a convicted felon.

A convicted felon who’d actually done what he was accused of, even if there were extenuating circumstances a court wouldn’t even begin to understand.

Hauk could never have an even vaguely normal life. He was a fugitive with scars that stopped him from blending in, a dangerous job and a reckless tendency to throw himself in front of danger. Getting involved with him was a life-changing decision.

Her big soldier seemed so fragile lying in a hospital bed. He was good at his job, but nobody was invincible. They’d proved that tonight.

What scared her most, though, was despite every legitimate protest she could think of, all she wanted to do was curl up next to him.

She walked quietly to the bed.

To her surprise, Hauk’s gravelly voice broke the silence. “It’s cold in here. Gonna warm me up, Red Hots?”

“You’re awake!” Relief rushed through so sweetly, and in her joy she clambered onto the bed next to him. A pained groan reminded her he was still in a bad way. “Oh! I’m sorry!” She turned around to slide back off. “I didn’t mean to hurt—”

A muscular arm with a hand cast trapped her on the bed.

“Don’t leave,” he said. “I’m better with you here than I’ll ever be without you.”

A warming joy took the edge off the fear she’d been carrying around for hou ~ Haukh="1rs. Carefully as she could, she turned around to face him.

His blue eyes were wide and full of emotion. “What were you thinking, going in after me like that?”

Hopefully deflecting his ire with a joke would work, so she grinned tauntingly at him. “I was thinking I’d save your ass.”

“I don’t like you in danger.”

Fail. But she had to make him understand that her involvement was not negotiable. “We’re on the same team, you and me, and we’re fighting together. I am not the kind of girl who’s going to sit at home and wait for you. I’m the kind who’s going to go with you to the front lines. I don’t love seeing you in danger, either, but I put up with it because I know that’s how you choose to live. I choose the same. Not because of you, but because it’s what I want, too. I’ll listen to your superior experience because you’re good at what you do and I’d be foolish not to. But not if you’re going to use your influence to shut me away from the action. We fight together or we fight separately. But we both will fight.”

He looked like he understood, but there was still something haunted in his eyes..

“What is it? Talk to me.”

The expression turned hollow. “You got burned.”

Jolie fingered the bandage running down the back of her neck to the edge of her right shoulder. The bubbling mass underneath it hurt like hell. As the doctors had patched her up, she’d had another moment of awe at what Hauk must have endured. But she shrugged, trying to be strong for him. “Yeah.”

“Is it going to…” He studied her neck, his worry bordering on frantic. “Will you have a scar?”

Surprised, she opened her mouth then shut it again. “I didn’t think to ask.”

Eyes fierce, he pressed his fingers against her cheek. “Every year they learn more. And you’ve got access to the best. They’ll make sure nobody can tell.”

“Oh, Hauk, honey.” She put her hand on his and pressed it against her. “I don’t care if it leaves a scar.”

“You don’t have to lie to me.”

“I’m not. I’m proud of my actions. If it scars, it’ll be a mark that reminds me of something good.” She brought his hand down to rest on the tattoo at her hip. “Like my roses.” After a moment of debate she stated the obvious. “It’s not like the scar’s in that noticeable of a location anyway. My hair will cover it.” She gave him a small smile that she hoped was teasing. “You’ll still think I’m pretty, right?”

“Of course I will. You’d still be sexy as hell no matter what.” He examined her face carefully. “You really don’t care? If it’s there for the rest of your life, marking you?”

“No. Not in the least.” Releasing his hand, she waved at her hair, which she hadn’t had time to examine yet but knew was missing a few crispy chunks. “Honestly, I’m more worried what my hairdresser will say when I bring her this singed mess tomorrow.” She widened her eyes in mock-seriousness. “I don’t want to bob it.”

The ridiculous, but sadly true statement had its intended effect. All the worry left Hauk’s face as he shook his head. “You’re worried about your
hair
? It’ll grow. And you’d look cute with a bob. You’d look cute no matter what you did with it.” Huffing a quiet laugh, he ran the fingers of his good hand through the red strands at her tempds d yle. “Burns running down the back of her neck, and she’s worried about her hair.”

Jolie smiled at his return to calm and lay quietly to enjoy the soft stroke of his hand against her scalp. She could fall asleep like this. After a minute she tapped his chest. “I’m sorry about Ashley.” She’d never forgive that girl, not just for the physical pain Hauk was in, but for betraying him. “How did you find out?”

“I figured it out. Eventually. Not until after I was strapped to a table, but…”

“God, she’s so stupid. She actually thinks they’re the good guys.” A stupid, sickeningly goody-goody, naïve little idiot. “I can’t believe you were engaged to her.” She cringed. “Oh, that didn’t sound petulant.”

Hauk’s hand stilled. “How’d you know that?”

She shrugged, faking casual. “I heard you talking about it at the show. I came by to apologize for being a hot-and-cold bitch earlier, and I overheard your conversation. I wasn’t…okay, I was eavesdropping.” Dropping the pretense she grumbled, “I’m not used to being jealous. Apparently it does bad things to my character.”

“Jealous, huh?” He sounded amused.

“Yeah, yuck it up. I was jealous of the—” munchkin “—petite one. But engaged? That’s
serious
. I’ve never even vaguely considered marrying anyone.”

Hauk’s hand shifted from her hair to her shoulder, and he pulled her up on top of him.

“Don’t hurt yourself!”

“I’m fine.”

His hand stroked down her back as if he were placating a cat, and she liked it way too much. She had a bad feeling he could convince her to do all kinds of things if he just put his hands on her in the right way.

She could probably do the same to him…if she ever got her hands on his skin.

“Ashley and I were engaged for four months. And yes, I loved her. I was also eighteen.” The cast tipped up her chin to face him. “I’ve changed, outside and in. I don’t feel the same way about her. And I want—no, I need—somebody who isn’t interested in who I was ten years ago but wants me as I am today. Scars and all.”

Jolie bit her lip and tentatively reached a hand up to his cheek.

He took a breath as if steadying himself, but he let her hand press against his skin without a flinch.

“I don’t notice them anymore, you know,” she said. “I quit seeing them a long time ago. You are so much more to me than a face.”

He relaxed as she stroked her fingers up his temple, along the piercings above his eyes, feeling his skin for the first time while he was awake.

“I guess that’s how people grow old together. You don’t see wrinkles and receding hairlines. You just see what made you care to begin with—the beautiful things they have on the inside.” She scrunched her nose. “Unless you’re my parents. Then you get hair plugs and a face lift, ’cause God forbid you don’t look perfect.”

Hauk chuckled and closed his eyes as she tracked her fingers up to the phoenix and traced the pattern of one flame-red wing.

“I want to grow old,” she added. “And I want to look my age.”

“You’ll always be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

< same to h-1">She snorted. “Yeah, yeah. ‘Jolie’ means pretty in French. Did you know that?”

“That’s not what I meant.” He opened his eyes and his hand slid down her face, down her throat and came to rest on her heart. “Like you just said. Beautiful in here.”

His voice was so sincere, her heart beat faster under the pressure of his touch.

“I…” His mouth formed the beginning of several words before he came up with, “I care about you. So much it hurts sometimes. I want you, Jolie. I want you, and only you, so badly I can’t think of much else anymore. Please give me a chance.”

Those might be the best words she’d ever heard. She wasn’t used to dealing with guys who were so earnest and didn’t know the best way to go about it. So she tried to respond in kind. “You are the nicest, bravest man I’ve ever met.”

His eyes slanted to the side as he frowned uncomfortably.

“What?”

“I’m saying I want to be more than friends.”

For a moment she was confused but then realized he must know, or at least suspect, that he was nice and he was brave. That wasn’t what he needed to hear from her.

Well then, she was back on solid ground. Pumping up a male ego she could totally handle. With Hauk all she had to do was tell the truth.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

“Nice.” The kiss of death. He’d been “nice” before and it never got anywhere. Hell, Jolie thought the berserker-him was
nice
. And brave? Was there a more generic compliment for a veteran? No. Dammit all. At what point did continuing to pursue her make him creepy?

He supposed that would be now. He’d said he wanted her and laid it on the table as plainly as he could. When she finally got through enough bullshit compliments to tell him no, that would be the final word he had to respect.

And then she said, “You also give the best orgasms.”

That got his attention. “Eh?”

“Oh, yeah. The most breath-stopping, body-rocking, two-finger daydream-inspiring good time I’ve ever had was because of you.”

“Two-finger daydream?” Did that mean what it sounded like? Because that would be awesome. Much better than “nice.”

“You know
exactly
what I mean.”

Hot damn. This was no longer sounding like a brush-off.

The woman who figured pretty much exclusively in his own daydreams grinned and leaned coyly against his chest. “I tried so hard to assume it was the situation. The sheet thing was really hot. I’d never done anything like that. Or maybe it was the post-show glow or, I don’t know. A million things. And then you had to go and kiss me after a workout in the gymnasium. And when in that most unsexy of locations—”

“Sorry about that.”

“—I was ready to let you take me on the mat—”

“You were?”

“—I realized it had to be you.” She leaned over him until her cheek barely brushed his, and her lips were right next to his ear. “
Your
hands.
Your
mouth. You.” She nuzzled against him, sliding her smooth skin over the sknd her rough texture of his until her mouth was positioned right over his. “You’d better get your ass out of this hospital soon. When I decide what I want, patience isn’t one of my virtues.” She bit her lip and her voice dropped low. “And what I want, more than anything, is to shake you up and watch you explode like a damn rocket.”

He crushed her against him in a kiss. Desire that somehow rivaled his own poured at him through her touch, her tongue and her body as she strained against him.

He pushed up to sitting, cradling her as she straddled his lap.

She pulled back just enough to mutter, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Trust me, I’m feeling no pain.” He kissed her again.

She threw her arms around him and dug her fingers into his back.

The IV got in his way and, not for the first time in his life, he pulled the damn thing out. Some machine beeped like crazy, but he didn’t give a shit. Her arms were steady around him and her tongue moved so perfectly in his mouth, and that was all that mattered.