Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

She’d shot him. Right in the stomach. He hadn’t shut up though, he’d gone on and on as Vaughn and the agent, Jaime Alessandro, or so he said, had done the best to bandage Callihan, while also keeping him tied up.

Callihan had shouted terrible things about what he’d done to Gabby, but before he’d really gotten going, Agent Alessandro had knocked him out. Just a quick blow to the head. Then, they’d taped his mouth shut and thrown him into the truck he’d brought out to the desert.

All Natalie could concentrate on was how she’d tried to kill a man, and failed. She should be glad that she had failed, she should be glad that she hadn’t apparently hit any internal organs, and that he would probably survive. She should be glad that he would stand trial.

All she felt was regret. She wished she would’ve killed him. For Gabby, for Vaughn, for herself. She wished he was dead, and she didn’t know how to reconcile that with who she’d thought she was.

Despite being sandwiched between these two, strong, powerful men who were fighting for what was right and good, Natalie felt alone and vulnerable and scared. Which was something she didn’t understand, either. Because it was over. This hell was over and they had survived, and with very little hurt.

But Gabby had been hurt. Gabby had survived eight years of that horrible man, and Natalie didn’t know how... Now that it was over, over, she didn’t know what on earth would possibly come next.

Jaime pulled into what appeared to be the national park’s ranger station. “If you stay put, I’ll have them call for an ambulance, as well as call your precinct. We’ll see if there’s any word on the raid on Callihan’s house, where your sister was.”

Vaughn nodded stoically and Natalie just...stared. Word on the raid where her sister was. How was she supposed to respond to that? What was left? What was she supposed to do?

“Do you have questions about Gabby?”

She didn’t glance at Vaughn, because she didn’t know how to look at him. She didn’t know how to look at the future. It was like dealing with all the fear and the threat had completely eradicated her ability to look beyond...anything. And now...it was all gone.

What did she do? “I don’t know what to ask,” she managed to say. Because she was numb and somehow still scared, and she didn’t know why.

Vaughn didn’t move or say anything for a long time, but eventually his hand rested on her clutched ones. He rubbed his warm strong palm over her tight, shaking hands.

It was warm, it was comfort. But when she looked up at him, his gaze was blank and straight ahead. Though he was offering her comfort, it was much more like the comfort he’d offered her that first night after the fire. There was something separate about it. Something stoic.

This wasn’t the hug he’d offered her at the cabin, and that lack of...personal warmth made the frozen confusion inside her even worse. So she mimicked him. She didn’t look at him anymore, she didn’t move, she stared straight ahead.

When Agent Alessandro came back out, he explained that an ambulance would be waiting for them at the exit of the park, and he would have agents there who would confiscate Callihan’s car. He would accompany Callihan to the hospital and keep him in FBI custody. Someone from the local police department would be there to escort Natalie and Vaughn to the airport, where the FBI would fly them back to Austin, after a medic checked Vaughn’s wound.

He began to drive, explaining all sorts of things Natalie knew where important. What would be expected of her, what she would need to do and what questions she would need to answer before she was released.

But she couldn’t concentrate. All she could think about was... “What about...”

“Your sister?” Agent Alessandro supplied for her.

“Yes.”

“As I mentioned, the FBI is conducting raids on all of Callihan’s properties while I had him...distracted, so to speak. The property your sister has been at is on that list. As I’ve been working my way up in his organization, I’ve released some of the women, but—”

She whipped her head to face him, this stranger who’d helped them. “But not my sister?”

Something in his face hardened. “She wouldn’t go.”

“Wouldn’t go? What does that mean?”

“I’m afraid that’s all I’m at liberty to say.” His hands tensed and then released on the steering wheel. “But now that we have Callihan in custody, and with all of the information that I’ve gathered over my two years, there should be no doubt that the trafficking ring, and his entire business, will be gutted. You have my word on that Ms. Torres.”

She didn’t care about trafficking rings or business or anything like that, though she supposed she should. All she cared about was her sister, and why her sister could have been saved and wasn’t.

Natalie pushed out a breath, doing her level best not to cry. Not yet. Not in front of Alessandro and Vaughn.

Only then did Natalie realize that Vaughn had released her hands. No comfort. No connection. Just an officer and a victim.

If she had any energy left, she might’ve felt bereft. She might’ve cried. And now... Now, all she wanted to do was go home. To be alone. To deal with the last week in the privacy of her own house...

Except she didn’t have one, just a burned-out shell. She had so very little. She’d come out of this ordeal with her life, and she knew that was important.

Maybe in a few days, when the shock wore off and she saw Gabby again and held her and understood what had happened, she’d know how to feel.

Maybe it would take a few days for all the dust to settle, to hurt and grieve and feel. But for the time being, all she could do was feel numb.

Chapter 16

Vaughn wasn’t sure he’d ever felt