In His Keeping (Slow Burn 2)

Ginger too looked up, turning to face the man who’d just declared he’d save her daughter. She studied him even as Beau’s men surrounded them and began herding them toward the door.

Ginger paused when they reached the point where Beau was standing, waving off the efforts of his men to get them on the move. She reached out and gently touched Beau’s arm.

“What is my daughter to you, Mr. Devereaux?” she asked softly.

“She’s everything,” Beau said bluntly, not even trying to disguise his own vulnerability, the wealth of emotion he was sure shone in his own eyes.

It should have made him crawl right out of his skin to make such a personal, open declaration in front of two people who were strangers to him as well as his entire team of operatives. But he didn’t give two fucks, because damn it, she was everything. His everything. Without her, his life would be incomplete and he didn’t give a shit who knew it.

Ginger squeezed his arm and then to his surprise, she leaned up on tiptoe and brushed a kiss across his cheek.

“I think my daughter could be in no better hands,” she whispered. “Bring her back to me, Mr. Devereaux. I’m begging you. Bring our baby back to us.”

Beau gently touched her elbow, guiding her toward the hallway so they could be taken to safety.

“I will get her back,” Beau vowed, including Ari’s father in his sweeping gaze, one firm with resolve. “You have my word.”

Just as they reached the cell where the explosives had carved out an exit through the wall, the ground beneath them quaked and rolled, nearly knocking Ginger off balance. Gavin made a grab for her, securing her against him as they all looked around in bewilderment.

The entire building began to shake. The walls vibrated. Dust kicked up and swirled. Objects began flying around the air in a vortex that resembled a tornado. In the distance, loud cracking and splintering sounds erupted. Harsh shouts of fear, muffled by even more quaking.

The sound of grown men screaming in fear and pain sent a bone-deep chill through Beau.

Again the floor literally rolled beneath their feet. A crack appeared in the concrete, rapidly snaking its way along the floor, opening up, widening. Then more. Like a spiderweb, smaller cracks burst through the floor and raced in all directions. It was like experiencing an honest-to-God earthquake. A huge one.

Unease crawled up Beau’s spine even as he shot an urgent look in Zack’s direction. Dane’s expression was grim with the realization that had hit them all. Only Ari’s parents seemed bewildered and uncertain of what was happening. But everyone else knew.

Ari’s powers had been unleashed and this was only the beginning. Beau knew that the full extent of her powers had yet to be tested and that she was capable of so much more than that which she’d come into in a very short period of time.

“Oh fuck,” Beau swore.

“What?” Gavin demanded.

“What’s happening?” Ginger cried.

The desperation in both their eyes was evident. Fear. Worry for their daughter. They had no idea what Ari was capable of. They’d only gotten a taste of the full extent of her powers. Hell, Beau himself was certain he had seen only the tip of the iceberg and that now, unchecked, Ari’s rage would be a terrible thing to behold.

With the threat of her parents’ lives hanging in the balance, Ari’s fury would know no bounds. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to save the people she loved. And Beau was terrified for her. Because though Ari was steadily coming into her own and growing more adept at directing and focusing the awesome scope of her abilities, she was extremely vulnerable in the aftermath. She could die from a massive brain bleed or suffer a stroke she never recovered from. The probability of her incurring a debilitating injury was extremely high, and unless Beau got to her fast, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to save her.

“What the hell is going on?” Gavin barked. “Is my daughter in danger?”

Beau looked up at Gavin as they shoved out of the hole in the wall and stood outside the shaking building. Pieces of the roof, shards of glass from broken windows and even pieces of the stone exterior littered the landscape. Ari was taking down the building and everything in her path. With her in it.

“Sir, your daughter is the danger.”

THIRTY-FIVE

IT took precious minutes—minutes they didn’t have—for Beau to convince, or rather order Gavin Rochester to remain at the rendezvous point with his wife, the pilot and a very reluctant, displeased Eliza.

Dane had insisted Eliza remain behind and she was not chill with that at all. Her eyes had narrowed to glaring slits and Beau had heard more than a few curses tear past her lips. But when Dane had put it in the light of there needing to be at least two people on point to protect not only the Rochesters, but the helicopter as well, because if the helo was disabled, they were fucked in the middle of the desert, Eliza had grudgingly capitulated.

Still, Beau could feel the heat of her glare as he, Zack, Dane, Cap and Isaac rapidly made tracks back to the inner sanctum of the compound.

Zack walked ahead at Beau’s side, pulling up Ari’s position, as well as pinpointing the other heat signatures in the building. Beau’s eyes widened when he saw the screen flash and display the results.

“What the fuck?” Beau asked incredulously.

Dane caught up on Zack’s other side to peer at the device and then whistled.

“I’d say you’ve got one pissed-off hellcat,” Zack said.

Where before there were at least four dozen heat signals inside the building, there were now only a little over a dozen. As he’d noted before, heat meant life, and well, unless the device had malfunctioned, Ari had gone on a rampage and taken down three-fourths of the men responsible for holding her and her parents prisoner.