Gently he felt along the base of her skull, fingers slipping through the silken hair. When they slid across the sizable goose egg, she yelped. There were no other injuries that he could see, and Jagger sat back on his haunches.
“You’ll live,” he said gruffly.
Skye looked up at him, her eyes indignant, cheeks pink.
“Thanks for pointing that out.”
“How the hell did she escape?” Nico’s voice echoed into the cave and they both turned as he entered.
Skye looked at the ground and muttered, “I don’t know. She was eating. I thought we’d established some kind of rapport and then …” She shook her head. “She just attacked me and I had no time to defend myself.”
Skye blushed and kept her eyes on the ground.
Jagger stared down at her. “It doesn’t matter. She’d never have told you a thing.”
“That’s not acceptable.” Nico said softly, his tone dangerous, his dark eyes focused solely on Skye.
Jagger glanced back at the warrior, not liking the insinuation in his words. “Back off,” he growled. The need to defend Skye was overwhelming, and even though his gut was telling him all was not what it seemed, there was no time to dwell on it. “Let’s bed down for a few hours and then head out. We need to get to that cave ASAP.”
Nico shrugged his shoulders, his body language nonchalant, but the energy that fell from his powerful frame was dark. “I’ll get you there by tomorrow afternoon and then, like I said before, I’m gone.”
Jagger didn’t bother to answer. He grabbed a blanket and tossed it to Skye and as she wrapped the softness around her body, he tried to ignore the ache that had settled deep inside of him.
He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and rest against her warmth, if only for a few hours. But something had changed. A new aloofness had taken hold of the blonde. He didn’t understand it.
He sat down a few feet away from her, his body tight with want and need, the cold rock a hard pillow at his back.
His eyes closed almost immediately.
Nico paced along the perimeter of the cave for several minutes. His insides were all tangled up, and the need to move was a constant pain that would not go away. He glanced back at the two people who shared the cave.
They were both doomed. Love was an emotion that belonged on the pages of fairy tales. Out here in the real world, it complicated things. It ripped you apart and left you less than what you were.
Its betrayal ran deep.
He should know. It was the reason he rarely slept.
Nico continued to pace and his gaze came to rest on something that lay along the floor of the cave. His curiosity piqued, he quickly crossed over to within a few yards of Skye for a closer look. They were the bindings he’d put on the female jaguar’s hands himself.
He reached down and gathered the remnants, fingering the edges carefully. They were clean and had been cut.
The obvious question was, who the hell had cut them? The female warrior or Skye?
He shook his head as his attention drifted to Skye once more before landing on Jagger.
Poor dumb fuck, he thought.
Nico turned away and tossed the bindings over the edge. He watched as they fell into the black nothingness that surrounded the cave, and inhaled deeply. The fresh, moist air tugged at the small part of his soul that was still alive.
He quickly pushed it away.
He didn’t care. He couldn’t care. He would lead them to the cave, like he’d promised. His debt to Jaxon Castille would be paid.
And he’d disappear forever.
Chapter 19
Jagger was awake well before dawn.