Drake Sisters 05 - Safe Harbor

kept his weapon trained on the shooter, moving up to check for a pulse even as gunfire erupted to his left. He saw Jackson roll and come up firing. The second man was caught in the throat and went over backward, blown off his feet to lie facedown in the dirt.
    "We may have company," Jonas said. "There are still two of them out there."
    "I'll do a quick recon and make a call," Jackson said. "Can you identify either of them?"
    "Definitely Boris Tarasov's soldiers," Jonas replied. "I've seen this one in the mug shots a dozen times. He's all over the war room next to Duncan's office."
    With two of the mobsters and the worst of the bunch, the Gadiyans and Karl, still unaccounted for, Jonas wasn't taking any chances, sinking back into cover while Jackson went up onto the roof tops to try to make the call for backup. Duncan had a lot to answer for. Sending them in blind as if they were a couple of rookies was bull.
    More importantly, someone close to Duncan had betrayed them.
    "I called it in," Jackson said, returning. "Duncan's sending a team to mop up and get us out of here. There's no sign of the other two. He said to stay out of sight."
    "You mean stay away from his team?"
    "That's what I understood."
    Jonas muttered an obscenity and then crouched a distance from the bodies, sending out a silent call. Hannah? You okay ? He knew what it cost her to expend so much energy.
    A soft breeze kept leaves on the trees fluttering, but she didn't answer. His chest tightened. "So do you think she's all right?" Jonas asked. "I've tried connecting with her, but she isn't responding."
    "Hannah?" Jackson was silent for a moment, turning his face up to the sky. "Yeah, she's all right. She's weak, but you knew she would be."
    Hannah, answer me . Jonas despised the desperation he felt when he couldn't reach her.
    His adrenaline overloaded, heart beating too fast, too hard. Even his mouth went dry.
    Hannah had to be all right all the time or he just went to pieces, and for a man in his position, that was a death sentence. He definitely had to resolve this issue.

    The wind swept over the building, this time more of a soft breeze. It rustled leaves on the trees and dropped down into the narrow lane where they crouched to ruffle his hair and touch his face as if soothing him. He heard his name, a soft sigh of a sound, a whisper teasing at the back of his mind. Jonas. Come home to me .
    He glanced over his shoulder at Jackson. "Did you hear that?"
    "Yeah, I heard it." Jackson stared over Jonas's head to the street, watching for their enemy while they waited for the man who had gotten them into so much trouble.
    "How long have you known the Drake family?" he asked.
    "I think I met them when I was around seven. My mother was very sick and I took over the household pretty early. It could get lonely and, when mom was bad, pretty scary for a kid, so I spent a lot of time in their home. The Drakes just let me come and go as I grew up. I used to climb in through a window when the front door was locked because I didn't want to bother going around to the back of the house, but they never said a word about it to me."
    "And now the girls do the same thing," Jackson said.
    Jackson was forcing conversation to keep him on his feet. Jonas knew Jackson rarely talked, not even to him. He didn't like physical contact, yet there he was, one hand on Jonas's sorry shoulder, the way he'd been doing all night, the way he did every time they went into battle together. "Yeah, they're my family and I'm not dragging them down into my world, especially Hannah."
    Jackson flashed a small, humorless smile. "I hate to break it to you, bro, but she's already in your world, they all are."
    Jonas shook his head and reached out again. Hannah, are you alone tonight ? He hadn't felt the presence of any other energy like he normally would have if her sisters had helped provide the storm. Where's Sarah ? Hannah needed someone with her after all the energy she'd used. He felt her touch, a small tentative brush… as if she was too tired to do more. Are you still outside, on the captain's walk ? It was difficult maintaining the connection, the distance too far, and Hannah too weak. She was the stronger psychic and usually kept the bridge open between them.
    Jonas felt anxiety creeping in. "I think she's still on the captain's walk, Jackson. She's alone and cold and weak. No one's there to help her. I've got to get back to her." She'd sacrificed tonight for him—for both men—and he