personally, but I know of them. The DDI knew they might be operating in this area. It’s one of the reasons they wanted me to keep an eye on you, in case they were right. I was given a whole file on them, and I did my studying.”
Levi sneered. “And a file on me.”
Jacob looked down. “Yeah.”
Levi jerked his head to the side, knowing Lou was cleaved to him. “Go check around, make sure they didn’t have friends with them.”
I’m not leaving you with him.
“You are if you want to make sure I’m safe.”
That’s dirty.
“Bitch at me later about it then.”
Lou grumbled, but Levi felt his presence leave his side. He was surprised Levi hadn’t said anything more about his conversations with Lou. If anything, the man was frowning thoughtfully, as though he were trying to recall something.
Levi waited a beat before speaking. “You lied to me.”
“I did.”
“You made me believe you were someone else.”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
Jacob held his gaze. “I lied about my job, I lied about why I was here. But everything else? That was the truth. Everything else I told you about myself, the person you know, that’s all the truth. I never lied about that. And last night...that wasn’t a lie for me either.”
Levi blinked, finding himself at a loss for words. There was that same stubborn pride in Jacob’s face, the willful set of his jaw. If Levi were willing to risk it, he might even believe that was the face Jacob made when he was telling the truth. Then again, he wasn’t so willing to risk it. He’d already been lied to enough by Jacob, he wasn’t going to allow himself to be fooled again.
“You have no reason to believe me,” Jacob said.
Levi waited to hear the inevitable plea for Levi to believe him now. To his mild surprise, Jacob’s mouth stayed shut, and his gaze remained steady.
Before Levi could say anything to break the awkward silence, he felt Lou’s presence rush back. He rocked from the sudden emotion pouring off Lou, seething with both rage and fear.
Get down!
Levi’s eyes widened, and he echoed Lou. “Down!”
Without missing a beat, Jacob threw himself down on the ground just as Levi hit the floor. For a moment, Levi thought it had been a false alarm, hearing only their heavy breathing as they lay there.
And then the night erupted with noise and chaos.
Jacob
Wood splintered, and glass shattered, sprinkling the floor around them as they huddled on the ground. Jacob didn’t dare lift his head, swiveling it around to pinpoint where the gunfire was coming from. After a few seconds of continuous firing, he crawled over to Levi. The man was almost in a ball on the floor, clenching the shotgun tightly.
When Jacob reached him, he grabbed his attention. Silently, he pointed between the two of them and then toward the kitchen. When Levi nodded, Jacob held up a finger, telling him to wait. The gunshots were still coming, but Jacob had been keeping track of the seconds. He held up three fingers, waited a beat, dropping it to two, one, and then jerking Levi up and shoving him toward the kitchen.
They had only a couple precious seconds of peace before the gunfire erupted again. The sound of the wooden sidings of the house being pierced broke through the momentary peace just as they slid across the kitchen’s linoleum floor. Levi slid against the fridge, ducking his head and holding the shotgun in his lap.
Jacob had to give the man credit, he’d already dealt with two armed strangers breaking into his home and was dealing equally well with being caught under a hail of bullets. His eyes were wide, his face pale, but damned if he wasn’t keeping calm.
Without thinking about it, Jacob let out a little laugh as he heard a bullet hit the wall somewhere behind them. That earned him a bewildered, disbelieving look from Levi.
“Just been a while since I had to dodge bullets,” Jacob told him, able to speak now that they weren’t as close to the source of the gunfire.
“Okay, then why the hell do you look so pleased about it?” Levi demanded.
“Just call it adrenaline and don’t think about it too hard,” Jacob said with another laugh.
“Or you’re just fucking nuts!”
“That too.”
“Fine, crazy, what do we do?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Wait for them to come to us.”
“What?”
Jacob grinned at the incredulity in Levi’s voice. “Are you going to sit there and gape at me, or are you going to listen to the guy