“You have to tell me what’s going on, Camellia,” Kyle said. “I’ve sent for Jonas.”
She choked back her first reply and then indicated Kaden with a wave of her hand. She still couldn’t see straight. The palms of her hands were damp.
“I don’t know what that means,” Kyle said.
“He’s sick,” she hissed just as Jonas cautioned her against answering.
She didn’t look at either man as she rocked herself back and forth, burying her palms in the grass, digging her fingers into the ground to give back as much of the nutrients as she could. She didn’t want to waste the life-giving gift.
There was a short silence. The wind blew cooling air through her hair and touched the beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
I’m coming to you, Jonas said. There was determination in his voice.
She could tell he wasn’t finished questioning Crawley and that Ryland and whoever else was with him protested his decision, but he left anyway and started toward her.
“Kyle, go back inside,” Kaden commanded. “You can wait with my wife.”
“I have orders to stay with Camellia. If I leave her for any reason, Jonas will cut out my heart. I gave my word she’d be safe with me.”
“I’m giving you a direct order,” Kaden said. “That gives you no choice, so Jonas won’t be cutting out your heart. I give you my word, she’s safe with me. Go.”
I’m sorry, Camellia, I have no choice here, not without directly defying a commanding officer’s order. Kaden outranks me. We don’t usually pull rank on one another, so he’s serious.
“If you two have something to say, you can include me in the conversation,” Kaden snapped.
Camellia made every effort to focus on Kaden, but she couldn’t see him as anything but someone in need of healing.
I’ve got this, Jonas assured. I know what you’re looking for.
It’s all right, Kyle, go. Jonas is close. Deliberately, she used telepathic communication one more time in order to give Jonas the opportunity to discover how Kaden realized they were talking when there shouldn’t have been any rise in energy.
Jonas was close. She could feel him moving fast toward her. She’d come to rely on herself, but it felt good to know that when she was disoriented and surrounded by strangers, she could count on Jonas. He was a strong wall of energy, a force all his own.
Kyle nodded and, after shooting Kaden a dark frown, went back into the dining room, leaving her alone with the battle-scarred stranger.
“We can’t stay out here in the open when I talk to you,” Kaden said. “We have to be somewhere private.”
“Don’t touch her,” Jonas said, striding up, coming at them right from the front of the U-shaped garden. “You’ll make the symptoms worse, Kaden.”
Two blurry figures followed Jonas, but Camellia didn’t try to make them out. She closed her eyes and buried her face in his shoulder when he swept her up. Everything about him was familiar—too welcome. She didn’t question it then, not when she needed him.
“Follow me.” Kaden sounded terse. Abrupt. Not at all happy to see Jonas. “I didn’t realize this was going to turn into a circus, Ryland. My health is private.”
“What Camellia knows, I do,” Jonas said. “I didn’t have time to fill either one of you in on how that works between us. It has to do with our connection and the way Whitney paired us. It isn’t her fault or mine.”
Is she a psychic surgeon? Ryland asked. It would be a miracle for us to have one. Even a psychic healer would be a miracle, and we’d take that.
Camellia noted that Ryland spoke telepathically, so there was no way anyone could overhear them. He directed the question to Jonas but included her in the conversation along with Kaden and the other man trailing behind them.
She was shocked at the ferocious surge of reactive energy rushing through Jonas’s veins. Every aggressive animal trait he had roared to life. She felt the hot testosterone-laced adrenaline spread like a wildfire through his body.
You dare to ask me this when, right at this moment, Tansy, who just pretended to welcome her and act as though she wanted to be her friend, is examining her silverware in order to discover everything about her she can? That’s a betrayal by the way. Because it sure as fuck isn’t welcoming or friendship.
They were in another building now, striding down a hall. Camellia kept her face buried against Jonas’s shoulder. His rage filled the hallway and had to be felt by the three men accompanying them. She could feel their uneasiness. Their rising guilt.
Jonas, we couldn’t just accept a stranger into our midst with the stakes so high. We knew nothing about her, Ryland said.
What you’re telling me is that my word isn’t good enough. I told you I was connected to her, and I had already made certain she was safe before I ever took the chance of bringing her here. Jeff and Kyle did as well. You clearly don’t trust me either, despite all I’ve done for this team. If it weren’t for me sensing a warning no one else felt, we wouldn’t have known these men were on the way.