focus this time. Carmen means too much to Ryan for me to fuck this up.
“We’re going to have to work together on this,” I say to Roni.
“Already ahead of you,” she says as she unfastens her seatbelt. “I’ll get in the harness. You just get me close to the building. I got her.”
I nod as the hospital comes into view. We are so close but so far. My heart is pounding.
“Baby, relax. Be still for me,” Ryan’s voice comes through the headset.
He didn’t close the connection. The emotions in his voice cause my throat to tighten with my own. Carmen’s sob nearly guts me.
“Ryan, I don’t want to die.”
“Who’s dying? How many times do I have to tell you I’ve got you?” Just like my little brother. He’ll keep a cool head for Carmen, although I know him well enough to know he’s freaking the hell out.
Always the joker. I don’t know how Carmen deals with his ass, but I get why he has resorted to jokes. The fear in Carmen’s voice is vibrating through the connection.
Ryan calls me out of my thoughts as I try to tone his crazy out. “John?”
“Almost there,” I reply.
I can see their figures over the side of the building. Fuck, I need to move faster. I don’t know how much longer he’ll be able to hold her at that angle.
Clenching my jaw, I listen to Carmen’s pleas and screams. It’s as if everything has started to move in slow motion. We’re getting closer. The sound of Roni opening the door causes my adrenaline to spike.
We draw nearer still and I hover over the hospital, not yet able to breathe. “Don’t. Let. Go.” Is the last thing I hear Ryan say before Roni jumps out of the helicopter and time seems to still.
Roni
Everything halts around me. The world seems to have taken a pause. My focus is on one thing.
Carmen is slipping. Ryan isn’t going to be able to hold her at this rate. Wind blows in my face as I leap down to wrap my body around hers, to press her to the building long enough to latch onto her and secure her to my rig.
I’m a breath away from her when I see it happening. Carmen slips right from Ryan’s hand. She starts to drop.
“You’re not dying on my watch,” I mutter to myself as I thrust my body forward and wrap around her, flattening us both to the building with a thud.
Jesus, I’ve got her. Thank God, I’ve got her. I haven’t failed my friend.
“I’ve got you,” I say as I secure her. “I’ve got her, John. Pull us up, I’ll get her on her feet, and we can go in to help.”
“Copy.”
It’s a single word, but I can hear the relief in his voice. Carmen is trembling against me. If I’m not mistaking, she’s murmuring praises.
I don’t get us on solid ground before Ryan wraps around us both. I do my best to unhook Carmen so they can have their moment. I’ve just gotten out of my harness after I release her when I give John the thumbs up to land.
That’s when the door to the rooftop bursts open. Instinct tells me to pull my Glocks and cover Ryan and Carmen with my body. However, instinct nor my training could prepare me for what comes through the door.
My past. The one that’s been so fuzzy, strolls right through. It’s like a bolt of lightning hits. Everything floods back to me in this very moment.
Then the sound of a gun firing rips through the air. Everything slows down. My breathing, this moment, my thoughts. In the wind, along with the whistle of the bullet, are the last words I remember from the past who’s looking at me.
Chapter 2
Toxic
Roni
I walk into the house feeling amused and sort of excited. I’ve been shopping all morning, trying to find the perfect lingerie. I want to lose my virginity.
“Tonight’s the night,” I whisper to myself as I cross the threshold of my boyfriend’s house—if I can call him that.
I moved in a month ago on my father’s suggestion. Yes, totally not normal. It should have been my boyfriend’s request, but my life works different.
For starters, I’m in a relationship I’m completely conflicted about. My father has controlled every detail of my life since he came to get me after my mother died. Lately, I’ve been feeling like I have no power over my own life.
My need to please my father has suffocated the woman inside. I