26. Raegan

Chapter twenty-six

Raegan

Jackson takes us onto the roof, then sweeps his other arm under my knees so I’m cradled against his chest. “Hold on tight, little one.”

Thorne is standing there with his hands on his hips, smirking at me like he thinks this whole thing is too damn funny. I flip him the finger and then wrap my arms around Jack’s neck.

Just because I’m putting my trust in Jackson doesn’t mean I plan on playing nice for Thorne. Maybe I’ll find a chance to kill him while his guard is down.

Jackson leaps into the air, and I gasp and cling tighter to him once we’re airborne. A smirk tugs at his lips, telling me he caught my reaction, but he says nothing.

I’ll wait until we’re alone before finding out what the fuck Jackson’s gotten himself into and what the plan is.

I wish I could say it was a smooth journey, but both Jack and Thorne don’t waste their gift simply flying us through the sky. Instead, it’s like they give themselves a boost every time they touch down, then soar through the air until their feet land on something—a building, tree, whatever—and then shoot back up.

At first, I try to keep track of where we’re going. But the city looks completely different from up here, and after only five minutes, I’ve already lost where we’ve come from, let alone where we might be going. I bury my face into Jack’s neck instead, soaking in his scent and grounding myself against him while my stomach rides this roller coaster over and over again.

Eventually, I doze off. I don’t know how long we’d been flying for. An hour? Two? It feels like forever, and with nothing better to do and coming in so late this morning, my body conks out.

I wake up to the smell of salt and brine. I prepare to open my eyes, but stop when I realize we’ve stopped flying.

“We can chat after I’ve gotten her settled,” Jackson tells someone, his dark voice vibrating against my ear.

There’s a loud scoff. “I’m not sure what you see in a girl who falls asleep after being kidnapped.” Ugh. Thorne.

“Good,” Jack retorts calmly. “There’s nothing for you to see in her other than your lifeline.”

We start moving, but I keep my eyes closed in case there’s anyone else around. I focus on my other senses instead. The smell of the ocean isn’t as strong now, like we’ve gone inside, but I’m sure we’re on the coast somewhere.

The air outside felt cool, with the usual ocean breeze, but I didn’t feel any sunlight. So, is it after dark now?

“I know you’re awake,” Jackson interrupts my thoughts. A door creaks open and then shuts behind us. He sets me down on my feet, and I blink to gather my bearings.

We’re in a small room with a twin bed against the far wall under a circular window. There’s a desk next to a closet on one side and then a door on the other that’s most likely a private bathroom.

“Where are we?”

“On a cargo ship.”

“Uh-huh,” I murmur, looking out the window to check that we are, in fact, out at sea. Trapped in the middle of the ocean with no escape. Again.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I can feel Jackson come up behind me, even though I hear nothing when he moves.

I spin around to face him with my mouth set in a firm line and anger blazing in my eyes. My hand slaps across his face.

He doesn’t flinch or try to stop me. He lets me get that slap in and then just smiles knowingly at me.

Well, that’s not good enough for me.

“What the fuck , Jackson?! You’d better fill me in right now or else I’ll find a way to leave this and you behind. You owe me a really big explanation for what happened back there!”

He nods and crosses his arms over his chest while leaning against the wall that cuts into the room for the bathroom. “I’m using Thorne to infiltrate GE.”

“And you had to hurt the guys to do that?”

“Thorne got ahead of me. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that, but looking back now, he was testing me. He wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to care about them. It’s why I started the fire before I left too. To make sure I proved to Thorne that I didn’t plan to have them follow us. I’d keep them busy with the fire before they could see where we went.”

Kellan got hurt because of all that. I know he can heal, but that doesn’t mean I like seeing him hurt more than anyone else. And what if Kellan hadn’t been able to protect us? What if those hit Aiden or Dane? If Thorne had hit me, what would Jackson have done? Keep up the charade?

“He saw that you care about me. How does that factor in?”

Jackson tilts his head. “He knows about me and you. You come first, for me, which was why he decided he would come with me to pick you up. To…give me backup,” he finishes with a smirk.

I’m still not finding any of this funny. “So then, what’s the plan? You’ve got me out in the middle of the ocean on a boat, with one of our biggest enemies.”

He stalks toward me. I hold my ground, even though instinct tells me to back up and keep the distance between us. He stops just in front of me and cups my face. “I’m sorry, little one. I had to use you, too, but I won’t let them have you.”

My eyes search his, but it’s always been impossible for me to read anything from him that he doesn’t willingly give. “What do you mean?” I ask, my hand coming up to the back of his to hold it there.

“I got GE’s attention by taking out everyone tied to them in our city. I killed every last one of them. Every supporter, partner, subsidiary, employee. There’s no one left there that belongs to them.” Something flickers in his gaze. “Thorne agreed to back me, then, once he realized the winning side. He got me a meeting to pretend that we’ll both join their side in exchange for your safety. ”

He really did it. He wiped the board clean in that city by himself.

Holy fuck.

“What is Thorne getting out of this?” I’ll never trust that man, even if he says he’s chosen to back Jackson. I’m sure his loyalties will flip the second it may look like Jackson’s not in complete control.

Jack’s thumb strokes along my cheek. “He plans to take over GE for himself. I kill the board for him and then let him take it over to do what he wants with it. But he leaves us and the others out of it.”

I huff at the audacity of that man. As if Jackson would put in all this effort to take down the organization just to let Thorne take it over instead. Jackson easily reads my line of thinking and smiles.

“All Thorne sees is my obsession with you. He believes that as long as I know you aren’t being hunted any longer, I’ll back off. He also thinks he can convince me to join him by the end of this. That I’ll see the power he holds and want some of it, too.”

“Well, that’s ridiculous.” He nods in agreement. Apparently, Thorne is only seeing what he wants to see in Jack. “So, what are we doing next?”

“We’re waiting for a helicopter to pick us up and bring us to the island. Thorne’s likely called them to confirm that I have you. But I want you to stay here when it comes.”

“What? Why?”

His hand moves down my jaw to my neck, his cerulean gaze following his hand until his thumb pauses over the pulse point there. “You’re my ticket in with them, little one, but I have no plans to bring you with me. I’ll tell Thorne I want to meet first to make sure they’re going to hold up their end of the deal before I bring you with me. You being here was enough for them to send the helicopter. You’ve done your part. And once we go, the captain will send you and a couple of his crew on a boat back to the mainland.”

Fear drops like a rock in my gut. I grab his arm in both hands. “You can’t go there alone. The entire island would be against you. And Thorne is just as likely to stab you in the back as he is to help you. I have to go with you.”

Sneaking around the city and taking out all the people related to Gifted Enterprise is one thing—a crazy, terrifying thing, yes, but it’s not the same as this. He could be walking into a trap. He just murdered an entire city of their people. Who’s to say their plan isn’t just to off him the second the helicopter lands? He doesn’t know the island, and he has no allies.

“Getting you involved this much is more than what I wanted. If I could have left you and the others out of it completely, I would have.”

“Well, I’m here now! So, let me help you! I can help keep up the charade until we find a good opening. They could suspect something if you suddenly refuse to bring me with you.”

Jackson smiles at me again, like his mind has been made up. “This is the only way, little one. Once I’m there, I’ll find a way to get into their computers and upload everything there to the cloud. Dane at least taught me how to access our personal drive to upload important things to. So, in case I don’t make it—”

I yank my sleeve down from my wrist to shove it between us so he can see it. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Jack. I’m coming with you, and there’s nothing you can say or do that’s going to stop me. Because of this.”

On my wrist is a black and gray butterfly filled in with a skull, just like his. But instead of memento mori , mine says memento vivere . Remember you must live.

“We’re going to do this together, and we’re going to win. We’re going to survive it. Together. Because where you go, I go.”

Jackson holds the back of my forearm and looks at the tattoo with surprise. It’s the most expression I’ve ever seen from him, and I think I’ve shocked any words right off his tongue.

His other hand snatches the back of my head, and the two of us are crushed together in a blistering kiss. He drops my arm in favor of wrapping around my waist to pull me tighter against him, even though I don’t think a single sliver of air could fit between us. My hands drive his hood back to grip and cling to his black hair, fisting it so hard, like I’m afraid he’ll disappear if I were to let go.

He’s mine. My shadow. My demon. And I won’t let him sacrifice himself for me. We’re in this together. I’ll stalk him right back if I have to, just to be sure he comes home safe and sound.

We fall back on the small bed, and my legs lift and wrap around his waist the second my feet are no longer on the ground. He drags me further up the bed until my head hits the pillow. He slowly coaxes my arms up and over my head, his hands covering mine to close over the narrow piece of wood for a headboard.

Then he presses a long kiss to the tattoo there. I watch him as he does it, breathless, and a heady feeling washing over me when his eyes close and he holds his lips against it. Almost like he’s taking a moment to pray or promise something in his head that I can’t hear, but I can feel in his kiss.

He pulls away and starts trailing kisses down my body. He licks, sucks, and kisses, every bit of exposed skin, and then finds more by pushing my clothes up and out of the way. Every touch is like a spark against my skin, echoing down to my core.

Jackson takes his time in his descent down my body. His touch is soft, but demanding. Reverent, while edged with obsession. He makes me feel like an angel fallen from heaven that he’s sworn to worship and please until we’re both ruined. I’ll gladly fall from grace if it means having him touch me this way forever.

He moves to the side to slide my pants and underwear down, but stops them at my ankles before pushing my knees up and then leaning over them. I try to shift my legs, but they’re trapped by my pants and his weight on them.

“Jack,” I pant, because I can’t shift myself the way I want to.

“Shh,” he breathes against my folds. I shudder with pleasure at him being so close, and then a whimper falls from my lips when his tongue splits me open.

“Oh, fuck,” I whimper, throwing my head back.

His fingers pull me apart to give him more access, and then his tongue firmly glides between me. My body convulses when he flicks my clit before moving back down to make sure there’s no area forgotten. My pussy grinds down on his face, desperate for the release that he’s been teasing me with as his tongue and lips lick the soul from my body. I whimper and writhe against him, needing more.

“More,” I beg. “Please, Jack. I need—”

He slides his fingers into me, and it feels like all the air leaves my body in a rush. Yes! I don’t know what garbled sounds are coming from my throat now as he strokes my inner walls at the same time as he plays more with my clit.

My lower back tightens, and I grip the wood above my head so much that I don’t know if my hands or the wood might break first. “Fuck! Yes! Yes! Ungh…Jack!”

He adds a third finger, and I’m done. Destroyed. My orgasm takes me over completely until I’m nothing but nerve endings and pure fucking pleasure that I scream out to the world, not giving a fuck that other people live in it outside of me and him. It rushes through my limbs in an instant and then drags itself back and strips me bare of my strength.

My body sags against the bed when it finally passes, leaving me breathless and boneless all at once. Jackson’s crawling over me, and I instinctually turn my mouth to his because I know exactly what he wants, and I’d give him anything right now.

He kisses me slow and deep, stroking me with his tongue once again into submission as I fall deeper and deeper for him. I kiss him like he’s the one who supplies my oxygen, and I need nothing else. I can taste myself in his kiss, and it’s like he’s mixing me with me because he wants all of it at once and can never get enough.

When he finally breaks away, he barely raises his face above mine so my eyes are captured in his. And they are. I latch on to his gaze and couldn’t look away if I tried, with the way he’s staring at me.

Like I’m the entire world, right here in his arms.

“I love you, Raegan,” he whispers above me. “More than oxygen or air. More than every star in the sky. I have always loved you, and there is nowhere you can go where I won’t follow.”

My lungs freeze, and I think I’ve forgotten how to breathe. Jackson kisses me again, and fuck it; I don’t need oxygen either.

A knock bangs against the door, and Jackson snaps backward to swing his head around and look at it. His face tightens, and then he’s up and moving. He wets a washcloth in the tiny bathroom to help clean me up before he opens the small port-hole window to toss the cloth out. He spins a few fingers, and there’s a quick breeze that rushes through the room and back out the window while I pull my clothes back on and stand.

Jackson looks me over to make sure I’m good, which I give him a quick nod to, and then he crosses the room to open the door.

“I’m so sorry. Did I interrupt something?” Thorne sneers from the doorway.

I move up just behind Jack so I can see him and cross my arms.

His one good eye drops to look at me, and his face twists with disgust.

“Were you hiding yourself from me?” Jackson asks, his tone unperturbed, but I can tell from the tension in his stance that he’s angry about it. “How long were you standing there?”

Fuck.

Did he hear Jackson’s plans?

Thorne looks back to Jack. “Long enough to hear you wasting your time with sex when we have plans we should prepare for.”

Gross.

I mean, yay that he didn’t hear our plans, but did he just stand there and listen to that ?

I need a fucking shower.

Jackson’s hand grips the door frame while he leans against the other side, effectively blocking me from Thorne’s view. But I’m staring at the white knuckles of his hand as he holds himself back from attacking Thorne.

“Eavesdrop on us again, Thorne, and I’ll cut your ears off and stuff the holes with cotton balls.” I can’t see Thorne’s reaction now that Jackson has changed his position, but Jack doesn’t let him respond to that. “The plans have already been made. We’re waiting on the chopper. Is it here?”

Thorne’s voice is slightly raised, and he bites the words out in his anger. “It’s five minutes out.”

“We’ll meet you up there, then,” Jackson says right before slamming the door in his face.

I tie my hair up in a ponytail when he turns back to me. “Guess our time’s up, huh?”

Time to prepare for entering the enemy stronghold.