Rescuing Jenna - Anna Blakely Page 0,43
missing several days.”
“Apparently, the young woman was embarrassed and ashamed about what had happened. So she went back to her hotel, packed her bags, and went to stay with her parents in Nebraska.”
“Let me guess.” Adrian put the pieces together quickly. “She didn’t tell anyone she was leaving.”
“Not a word,” Ben confirmed his theory. “Didn’t check out of her room or tell anyone what she was doing, so it took a few days to figure out what had happened. When we finally tracked her down, she told the detectives assigned to her case what happened.”
A soft exhale hit Adrian’s ears. He glanced over and found Jenna looking slightly less tense. “That’s good news, at least.”
“Very good news, indeed.” Ben smiled.
A stretch of silence passed before Adrian stood and offered the man his hand. “Thanks for sharing what you know about this.”
“Of course.” Ben stood and returned the gesture. “Sorry I couldn’t be more help.”
“It’s okay.” Jenna’s mouth curved into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I appreciate you taking the time to meet with us.”
“This guy and I go back a long way.”
Using that to his advantage, Adrian picked up the photo of Stella Gallagher and asked Ben, “Mind if I take this?”
“Sure. We have it saved in the system, so I can just print another copy.”
“Thanks.” He slid it into his back pocket.
“Let me walk you out.”
Ben started around the edge of his desk when his phone began to ring.
“Saved by the bell,” Adrian joked.
Ben’s rounded belly bounced as he scoffed. “Saved or slaughtered. Depends on who’s calling.”
With a tip of his chin, Adrian took Jenna’s hand in his. “We’ll find our way out.”
Back at the rental car, he pulled the photo out of his pocket and set it on the hood. Using his phone, he snapped a picture.
Standing across from him by the passenger door, Jenna asked, “Why’d you do that?”
“I’m sending it to Gabe.” He typed out a quick text that included the Gallagher woman’s basic intel.
“For…” Jenna let the word linger.
Adrian hit send. “I asked him to have Nate find out what he could about her.”
Nathan Carter was former Naval intelligence and Bravo Team’s technical analyst. The guy was crazy smart, and his computer skills were more than a little impressive.
“You think there’s more to the story than what Ben told us?”
“If there is, Nate’s the guy to find it.” Adrian started to reach for his door, but Jenna’s next comment stopped him.
“Isn’t Nate the name of the Bravo Team guy you shot?” Her expression was unreadable. “I thought that’s what Elle said, anyway.”
Shit.
He wondered what else Elle had shared about him. Not that it mattered, because he wasn’t going to lie.
Not to Jenna.
So he nodded. “Shot him in the shoulder.”
Shot him, kidnapped his wife…almost got her killed.
“She said it was so you wouldn’t blow your cover. That it was all part of the job and that you actually did what you could to protect Nate’s wife.”
Gracelynn wasn’t Nate’s wife at the time, but yeah. That’s exactly what he’d done. Still, his gut tucked in with regret.
So many regrets.
“It was.”
A long, painful moment of silence passed before she said, “I’m glad you quit. ’Cause it sounds like your job really sucked.”
The comment took Adrian by such surprise, he threw his head back and laughed. “God, I love you.”
It took two full seconds for him to realize what he’d just said.
His smile fell flat. His jaw dropped, and he stared at her from over the car.
Adrian opened his mouth, but he wasn’t even sure why.
To deny it?
To blow it off as an offhanded remark that meant nothing?
Or had he come close to telling her the truth?
The truth being he did love her. Probably had from the moment he first saw her. He just hadn’t realized it fully until that very moment.
Another truth was that the idea of letting someone get that close scared him more than bullets flying from an AK-47 with a Russian terrorist pulling the trigger.
He couldn’t tell her that, though. Right? Couldn’t actually admit out loud that just the thought of letting her into his fucked-up world terrified him.
No, he couldn’t tell her that part. But he could man up and tell her how he really felt.
Here goes nothing.
Drawing in a deep breath and said, “I lo—”
“Look out!” Jenna yelled, her eyes growing as big as saucers. A fraction of a second later, the driver’s window shattered into a million tiny pieces.
She screamed as Adrian yelled, “Get down!”
He was already in the process