Page 26 of Protected from Reprisal
Another smile lights her eyes, turning them more gold than green. “Pepperoni and olives?”
“Of course. Unless you have a new favorite now?”
She shakes her head. “Nope. Pepperoni and olives is the best combo, hands down.”
“Alright then.” Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my phone. “I’ll call in the order. Do you want garlic knots, too? Anything else?”
“Garlic knots, definitely. And ask if they have any cannolis.” Yara catches my quick glance at the bag of cookies and adds, “I want both.”
It takes a few minutes to place the order and arrange for delivery, and by the time I end the call, Yara’s staring across the room with a pensive expression. In profile, her elegant features almost look sad, and I’m struck by that same feeling I had in Tacoma when I wanted so badly to pull her into my arms.
“Yara?” I ask. “If you’ve changed your mind?—”
She turns to me. “It’s not that.”
“What is it, then? I know you’re probably sick of me saying this, but you can talk to me. About anything.”
A long stretch of silence goes by—-long enough that I’m not sure if she’s going to answer.
But then she says, “When I hurt my hand. Itwasan accident. But what happened… I was walking out to my car after class. The parking lot was empty.”
“And?”
“I thought I heard a noise. At first, I told myself it was nothing. An animal, maybe. Or trash blowing in the wind. Butthen I heard the sound again. It was footsteps. Quiet ones, like they were trying to be sneaky.”
Everything inside me draws up in alarm. “Someone wasfollowingyou?”
Shit.Shit. Winthrop is on house arrest in Tacoma, but what if he slipped away and came to Seattle to get revenge on Yara? Or he paid someone to come after her?
“No.” Yara pats my arm. “I just thought someone was. And it was so stupid—even if someonehadbeen out there, I could have defended myself. I had my multi-tool with the whistle and pepper spray. Plus my self-defense… But something just came over me, and I panicked. Ran to my car like there was an army of insurgents on my heels. And when I tried to close the door…”
Yara lifts her bandaged hand as evidence. “I shut my hand in it. After sprinting across a perfectly empty parking lot like an idiot. Then I look around and no one’s there. Dumb, like I said.”
The self-recrimination in her eyes makes my heart twist. “Not dumb, Yara. I think a lot of people would have reacted that way.”
“A Green Beret?” she asks with a skeptical tilt of her head. “Or at least, I was. I know what to do if I’m attacked. I still practice Krav Maga and Jiu-Jitsu every week. A regular person might have panicked, but I shouldn’t have.”
“That’s not true,” I persist. “Everyone has?—”
“Really, Ace? So you’d panic if you—” Yara stops. Sighs heavily. “Sorry. I’m just frustrated with myself.”
I touch her arm. “Why?”
Another sigh. “Because I’m not doing quite as well as I said. Since Tacoma, I haven’t felt right.”
“Like how?”
“I’ve been extra anxious. Unsettled. I can’t get rid of this feeling that someone’s coming after me. I know it’s not true. Butit doesn’t stop my imagination from going haywire. And I hate it.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to suggest that maybe Yarawasn’timagining things in the parking lot. She doesn’t have as many enemies as I do, thanks to the criminals I’ve helped put away with Blade and Arrow, but anyone who served in Special Forces has their fair share of people with a motive for vengeance. And that’s not even counting that slimy asshole, Winthrop.
But Yara’s opening up to me. And I don’t want to ruin it. Maybe later, when I can’t put it off any longer, but not now.
“Hey.” I jostle Yara’s side. “It’ll get better. Trust me.”
When her gaze meets mine, there’s a vulnerability in them she hasn’t let me see before. “I hate not feeling like the Yara I used to be. I never used to get scared. Even when things were at their worst, I was confident in my skills. I was confident in my team. And now…” She shrugs. “Sometimes I feel like a shadow of my former self.”
That wrenching feeling in my chest is back.
