Mary Wine (18 page)

* * * * *

How had it gotten so hot? Raising a hand to her forehead, Roshelle rubbed at the headache forming there. Despite coming outside, her body bitterly complained about the heat. Leaning over the porch railing, she tried to calm herself down. It was just a little heat. Her stomach twisted as her knees trembled dangerously.

Guns, explosives or assassins Jared could deal with, but being forced to stand by helplessly scared the hell out of him. Roshelle’s legs began shaking seconds before Jared watched her knees buckle. Jumping forward, Jared caught her before she collided with the deck. Only a straightback chair stood on the porch. Striding forward, Jared sought out his own bedroom.

How long did a faint last? If the cause was heat stroke he knew how to treat it. The current weather didn’t support that cause. Still, as he ran a hand over her face, Jared clearly felt the elevated body temperature.

She felt absolutely wretched! Forcing her eyes open, Roshelle tried to decide just when she had taken so ill. A pair of green eyes hovered over her. She looked into their concerned depths. Searching for the reason behind their distress. Nausea claimed her full attention as she scrambled to her feet.

Jared was waiting for her the second she emerged from the bathroom. A bit shaky, Roshelle still felt better.

“I guess breakfast didn’t agree with me today.”

“Just today?”

Jared’s question brought up an interesting point. Food in general had not been sitting well all month. Just not as violently as today. She just wasn’t a morning person. But getting sick in the mornings was…

Her eyes flew open as she mentally tried to count the days she’d spent on this mountain. The four boxes came to mind, which brought it to six weeks since they had first…

They had never used any protection. The stupidity of that action brought a flush to her cheeks. Pregnancy was the least of her worries in today’s world, with all of the sexually transmitted diseases out there, and it had never crossed her mind to suggest using a condom.

“I’m pregnant.” Her words were flat as she rolled back onto the bed. Her head throbbed as her body tried to adjust to a flood of hormones. Tears slowly slipped from the corners of her eyes as she considered just how uncertain a life she would be bringing her baby into.

“Don’t cry, Roshelle.” Her desolation cut Jared to the bone. His fingers brushed the tears away as he pulled her into his embrace.

His eyes sat open to her as she looked up into them. Not a single barrier prevented her entrance to his mind today. Mingling together she reached forward to grasp the joy he held for their child.

Jared continued to hold her despite the fact that her body told him she’d slipped into slumber. He turned her emotions over in his head, searching for a resolution. Settling her body, he smoothed the covers over her before turning to seek out his parents. Maybe they would have a solution.

Because there was no way he could ever let her go now.

 
Chapter Eleven

“You raised this guy in a helicopter, didn’t you?”

Grace Campbell took a moment to consider her before giving Roshelle an answer.

“He was flying before he learned to walk.”

“He’s got the idea of ‘hover’ down.”

A smile touched her face as Grace considered her son. Roshelle was currently attempting to escape from his excessive concern. The young woman moved every few minutes as Jared placed different offerings of food in front of her. His newest offering rejected, Jared once again headed for the kitchen as Roshelle moved away from the disturbing smell of food. The living room was becoming crowded with the untouched dishes. Grace’s smile became wider as she contemplated just how much longer the girl would stay in the house before the scent of food became too much for her to ignore.

“Stop right there, Jared Campbell!”

Jared sent her a grin as he kept to his course. Another plate was set in front of her causing her stomach to protest. Maybe it was the added knowledge of her state of pregnancy, but just the sight of food was turning her green now. One week after discovering the tiny life growing within her and symptoms were shouting loud and clear throughout her body.

“Roshelle, you need to eat.”

“A common misconception. I’ll eat next month.”

“You’ll eat tonight. That’s my baby.”

Jared ground his teeth together as Roshelle fled the room in response. Damn! Every time he claimed any connection with their growing child, she got a spooked look in the corner of her eyes. She had placed a solid wall between them. Jared could break through it but was loathe to create any further distress for her right now.

* * * * *

Roshelle came to an abrupt halt on the porch of the Campbell house. Some kind of aircraft came over the mountain peak like birds of prey. They were almost completely black, only green lights lit them.

The sound of their rotors rose to almost deafening as they hovered barely a hundred feet from the front door of the house. The door behind her flew open as Jared laid a firm hand on her shoulder and pressed her a step behind him.

A man jumped from one helicopter before the thing even touched the ground. He kept his head low as he moved away from the spinning rotors. He straightened as he approached.

Roshelle gasped as she felt the unmistakable brush of mind to mind. What shocked her most was the familiar feel of it. This man had touched her senses before and she’d never really noticed that it had happened.

“Sweet God in Heaven.” That man was her father. Emotions sprang up inside her but Roshelle couldn’t deny the fact that she knew him. In the deepest core of her mind, this man’s touch was familiar.

And he’d left her ignorant. Anger boiled inside her chest as she considered the fact that he’d cut her out of his life. She wasn’t weak! The fact that everyone seemed to be thinking for her made her step past Jared and right down those steps towards the man that had judged her without letting her speak her mind.

“Roshelle.”

Jared’s hand stopped her in her tracks. She whipped around to glare at him.

“I am not your housecat, Jared. Believe it or not, I can face my own life just fine.”

The hand on her shoulder didn’t release. Instead, Jared slid it down her back until he found her belt. He caught the strap of leather in a hold that cut enough into her waist to make her back up a step.

“Devon Ross is part of my world. This isn’t the time to teach you about some of the harsher realities of my life.”

“Pup, you’d better get your hand off my little girl.”

Her eyes rounded as Roshelle listened to the term. It wasn’t sweet, instead it sounded like a label. Jared’s hand gave a quick tug that sent her stumbling back as he released her belt and stepped forward to confront her father.

“Your eyes must be failing, Ross, there’re no kids around here.”

Her father’s face tightened as he considered her. Movement from the dark suddenly caught her eye. Her father’s men crept through the night like shadows as they tried to get behind Jared and his men.

Rifles rose towards the intruders as Roshelle felt a heavy hand fall onto her shoulder again. Shane Jacobs began to steadily pull her back from Jared and her father.

“Let’s go, Roshelle.” Her father sent her a flick of his wrist with his order.

Go? Roshelle looked at the helicopters with rotors still whirling at flight speed. Her father’s men held their guns towards Jared’s men as Shane continued to pull her back towards the house.

“Get back on your bird, Ross. Roshelle stays with me now.”

“When I’m dead.”

“However you like it.”

Her father grinned before sending a solid right cross at Jared’s face. The two men immediately began an all-out brawl. Fists flew as grunts told of impact. Roshelle felt her temper explode.

They were fighting over her like a scrap of meat. She turned away from the display and Shane let her go because she headed away from her father’s position.

Grabbing a water hose neatly stored next to the front steps of the house, Roshelle smiled. It wasn’t a household hose. It looked like a small fire department model. Complete with brass nozzle.

Giving a hard twist on the controls, she turned the full blast of icy water onto Jared and her father. Both men cussed as they jumped around to glare at her. Roshelle hit the controls again and dropped the hose.

“If you two want to fight, that’s just fine! But don’t you dare use me as an excuse for your idiotic behavior!” She turned and took the stairs two at a time as she fumed over the display. Flipping around, Roshelle looked at the man that she would have rejoiced over seeing ten years ago.

“Hi, Dad, nice to meet you.”

* * * * *

She was suffocating. Roshelle could clearly feel the steel claw as it wrapped around her throat. The very walls were pressing in on her. Her feet halted in indecision, the sentry in front of her was calmly observing her from his concealed location.

But she knew he was watching her. She could feel the man’s eyes as they inspected her. Every step she took attracted the eyes of the watchful sentries. Moving back along the porch she settled into a chair. Surrounded by the night, she searched for the peace she craved.

She didn’t understand it. Deep male laughter came from the front drive area now. Her father and Jared were clearly dealing with each other. She snorted briefly as two more men came to stand guard over her.

She didn’t need them. But the fact that Jared intended to force her to stay with him brought too many emotions bubbling to her overtired brain. She did know one thing.

She wouldn’t be trading the man she knew for one she didn’t. This was between her and Jared. She would finish it that way.

Her father’s aircraft lifted off the ground to leave the night as peaceful as it had been. Roshelle tried to relax as she felt a wave of fatigue hit her brain.

Too focused on keeping Jared out of her mind, Roshelle discovered that letting her walls slip away relieved a good deal of her exhaustion. It also let Jared back into her head. It wasn’t the precise probing that the man was capable of; no, it was simply his presence as he tried to renew their link.

The light contact brought a smile to her face. There was a familiar confidence that spread through her body, as she once again became aware of him. Just why Roshelle found his presence comforting, she wasn’t sure.

It was really strange the way her abilities just seemed to respond to her commands. Now that she’d witnessed the precise manner that Jared and his family used to apply their own skills, she felt like the junior member of the team, envious of the clearly more advanced members.

Jealous and resentful. It was all milling about inside her head. Should she be grateful for the fact that her abilities had led her to Jared? Maybe not, but she’s a;lso not bitter, either.

Tipping her head back, she studied the night sky. She was so very tried of fighting. Tonight there seemed to be nothing more appealing than surrender. There were far worse places than this mountain.

It was really strange the way she was learning to focus in on one person at a time. At the moment she could clearly sense Jared as he searched about her feelings. Forcing her attention away from his, Roshelle tried to point her talents onto another target.

Controlling the image forced Roshelle to apply brutal self-control over herself. She could feel it, almost taste it but identification was refusing to become clear. The mental picture was far too fuzzy for her to make out. Shifting her aim she sought to simply feel the image, opening her mind to the complexities of the human soul.

Her body jerked violently away from the reminder of evil. The thick stench of self-centered greed invaded her mind as she found herself facing her captor again. More skilled at interpreting her feelings, Roshelle found another layer to the man’s depravity. She recoiled from the horror but forced herself to hold onto the image.

She could see him if she just forced the image to become clearer. All she needed was a name, maybe an address anything that would provide a way to find him.

She never got it. Jared snared her attention as he plucked her from the chair by her biceps. Knowing the brutal precision of his mind didn’t lessen its bite as he probed her thoughts in search of her vision. Pain snaked through her body as she simply tried to prevent herself from slipping into an oblivion that would shelter her from the agony.

“Jared, release her.”

He heard his mother, but Jared just couldn’t let it go. He could feel the bastard. If he just pushed harder he’d form the link that would allow him to track him down.

Grace wanted that link almost as badly as her son did, but the processes of pulling it from Roshelle’s mind would be traumatic enough to send the girl into shock. Not an advisable course of action when the girl was pregnant. Jared was too intent on his course to consider the physical consequences. The fact that her son was twice her size didn’t deter Grace from attempting to separate Jared from his quest. One solid sidekick sent him crashing over the porch railing. Jacobs made it onto the porch in time to snag Roshelle before she collided with that same railing.

“Put her down a moment.”

As Jacobs complied with her request, Grace settled on her heels in front of Roshelle. Her eyes were still glassy and unfocused as she hovered on the edge of her vision. The pain inflicted on the young woman’s body was too much for her to ignore and the interference was breaking her emphatic link. Reaching forward, Grace ran a hand over Roshelle’s cheek as she gathered the remaining pieces from her mind. A scent, the feel, nothing much more but it was still a place to begin.

Confusion spun her about on its head as Roshelle tried desperately to keep her eyes open. Her body seemed almost disconnected from her brain as she tried to decide just where she was. Her vision darkened dangerously as she tried to keep her grip on reality.

Grace surveyed Roshelle’s battle for a moment before she moved away to investigate her own findings. The girl was stronger than she looked, most people would be out cold.

“Come on, Roshelle, fight for it.”

Jared. Yes, Jared had been looking for something. Jared was stronger than she was! Snapping her eyes open, Roshelle found him standing over her. She thrust her feet beneath her body as she rose up to search his eyes. The emerald intensity was exactly the same as the night they’d met. The sharp-edged intensity glittered in their depths as his face betrayed his aggression.

“Can you find him?”

It wasn’t a question. Roshelle demanded it in a voice that had him raising his lips in appreciation. She wanted her pound of flesh as badly as he did.

“I’ll try to.”

“Good.”

Watching her body crumple into the chair once again caused Jared to hesitate. But distraction was fatal to his abilities. Helping her now wouldn’t matter if their problem escaped. Turning towards his mother, Jared forced his mind back to the business at hand. Neither of them had a clear link, otherwise they would already be on the move. But between their two minds it was possible that there was enough evidence to box their prey in.