Week 191 – Overcome

Setting his rifle down felt like leaving piece of himself behind but Jacob knew he didn’t have a choice. There was no way he could shoot whoever was attacking Elle because there was a very real chance that he would hit her instead, and that was unacceptable.

Even if it meant that this man got away and he missed out on an opportunity to get the answers he needed.

Elle would always come first.

Right now he wasn’t sure how he was going to overcome the problems he’d created by letting her believe he was cheating on her so she’d walk away. The idea of hurting her made his gut boil with a sickening mixture of guilt, regret, and pain, but it was better than the alternative. The only way to get her to leave him was to let her think that he had betrayed her, it sucked but it was what it was, and he’d do anything to get her out of the line of fire. He had brought this danger to their doorstep and he hated that Elle was hurt because of it.

Wading into the cool water, Jacob scanned the area searching for signs of life. Thanks to his years as a SEAL the water was his second home and when he spotted something he thought might be signs of movement he moved quietly and stealthily through the water.

As soon as he got closer he saw them. A man dressed in black with a SCUBA tank and Elle hanging limply in his arms.

Anger surged through him, nobody hurt his Elle.

Spurred on by the deep protective rage she brought out in him, Jacob closed the distance between them, slid the knife at his ankle free and stabbed the other man once right through the heart.

There was no need to check the man was dead, he wouldn’t have survived at this undercover cop gig if he wasn’t ruthlessly efficient when he needed to be, so he simply grabbed Elle, yanked her up against his chest, and swam them both to the surface.

They weren’t far from the shore and he got them there quickly, and laid her down on the grassy bank. One hand on her neck, the other on her chest, his head above her lips, when Jacob felt no signs that she was breathing he shoved back the fear and started CPR.

Two breaths, fifty compressions.

Two breaths, fifty compressions.

Two breaths, fifty …

He was rewarded with Elle dragging in a breath and starting to cough up the water she had inhaled.

“There you go, baby,” he soothed as he rolled her onto her side so she didn’t choke on the water her lungs were trying to expel.

When he was sure that most of it was out he rolled her onto her back again and tucked a lock of hair that was stuck to her wet cheek behind her ear. How much he wanted to drag her into his arms, apologise for lying about his job and the supposed affair, then whisk her away to an island paradise where they would never have to worry about anything else again.

Elle’s green eyes focused on him slowly, and he knew the exact second she realised it was him kneeling above her because her eyebrows knit together and she growled at him in a weak and raspy voice. “I hate you.”

Smiling despite her words, because if his girl was telling him that then he knew she was okay, Jacob cupped her cheek in his hand and let his thumb brush across her soft skin. “That’s my girl.”