His arms tightened around her as he pulled her head against his chest. "Don't," he said roughly. "Don't blame yourself for anything you did to survive. Being afraid in that situation is normal. I'm not a counselor, but even I know that when you're a survivor, you do what you have to do. I fucking hate it that you ever had to be afraid, that the bastard ever laid a hand on you. If he wasn't already dead, I'd kill him myself for what he did to you and to Chloe."
Ellie took deep breaths, helping her heartbeat to calm and her panic begin to recede. She'd lived through James's captivity. Everything else was just hard work. "He was a sadistic bastard. Sociopathic. He would have eventually hurt Chloe even worse. Once I knew what he was, I was petrified that he'd actually kill her to get her money. I was so relieved to find out she didn't marry him, and that he was dead."
"He didn't just hurt her physically. He also crushed her pride and self-esteem. But she's dealing with it. I like Walker. I think he's good for her."
"I'm glad she's happy," Ellie shared.
"You'll be happy again someday, too," Zane insisted, rubbing a comforting hand down her back. "It will take time."
"You said you didn't see my car. I wonder what happened to it. He had to have hidden it or destroyed it."
"Don't worry about your car, your job, or anything else right now. You need time to heal," Zane grumbled. "We'll go to town tomorrow and get you some of the things you need. You know the police are going to want to talk to you. The asshole might be dead, but they're going to want your statement so they can close the case."
"I know," she said stoically. "I hate talking about it, but I will."
"Don't worry about anything except getting stronger. Pretty soon you'll have Chloe back, and right now you have me." His voice was stubbornly adamant.
She relaxed, leaning against his strength. There was never really a time she'd depended on anyone. She was used to being the organizer, the caretaker, even from a very young age.
For once, it was nice to have somebody to lean on.
He shifted onto his back and pulled her partially across his body, keeping her head on his chest. Threading one hand through her hair, he rubbed her back with the other in a soothing, circular motion.
"I'm tired," she admitted, feeling so emotionally and physically drained that her eyes flickered closed.
"Then sleep."
"I don't want you to leave me," she admitted, her tremulous tone vulnerable.
She didn't want to be alone with her thoughts and away from his comforting presence right now. Tomorrow, she would start growing stronger. But for right now, she needed him.
"I'm not going anywhere, Ellie. I'll be right here."
She sighed with relief and snuggled into the heat radiating from his body. "Thank you."
"Do you trust me?" Zane asked hoarsely.
"Yes."
"Then sleep. Nobody will ever hurt you again," he vowed.
He sounded so serious that she smiled, feeling safe in his powerful embrace. When she finally drifted off a few minutes later, she fell almost immediately into a deep and dreamless slumber.
When she woke up the next morning, feeling rested, Zane was gone. Ellie might have thought she'd imagined him or dreamed about him ever being there, comforting her in a tender way she'd never thought possible for Zane, but she knew she hadn't dreamed up his presence.
One deep whiff of her pillow filled her senses with his scent, proving that he'd been there in her bed, but had quietly left her to sleep.
Rolling over on her back, she tried to clear his tantalizing essence from her lungs, stop her body from reacting to the fact that he'd been in her bed, that she'd wallowed in the security of having him close.
I can't start needing him this much!
Her body and brain warred against each other as her core clenched with a primal need for the one man she'd ever really wanted.
Sitting up in bed, she swiped the hair from her face and admitted that waking up without him there beside her made her miss him, and it scared the hell out of a woman who was used to being just fine alone.
Several days later, Zane was working in his underground lab, trying to figure out when Ellie Winters had become so damn stubborn. She'd been a sweet teenager, but somewhere along the way, the woman had developed an ornery, independent streak that seemed never-ending.
So I replaced some of her belongings: a cell phone, a laptop, new clothing with some help from Lara, and a few other things that she needs for everyday life. They're just essentials.
Zane didn't think what he'd done was any big deal. But he'd made Ellie emotionally upset, and he wasn't even certain why she'd been weeping when he gave her the everyday stuff. He hadn't asked why she'd cried because it made him feel sick inside that he'd been the cause of her tears. All he wanted was for Ellie to be happy, and apparently she had been making progress despite her previous tearful reaction to his gifts … until today.
Today was the day he'd realized just how obstinate Ellie could really be.
She had literally set her foot down, stomping it in refusal, when he'd brought home the new vehicle he'd acquired for her, flat-out refusing to take something he'd bought for her. She claimed it was too expensive. When he'd mentioned that she'd only had liability insurance on her missing vehicle, and that her insurance company wasn't going to pay anything to replace her piece of junk Blue Turtle, she'd glared at him and walked away.
"It's just a BMW. She acts like I went out and bought something really expensive. The Beemer was a reasonable choice, something solid and dependable. It's not like I went out and blew a bunch of money on an exotic sports car," Zane mumbled under his breath as he recreated some of the findings of one of his lead scientists at the lab, rechecking the results himself. "And it's an SUV. It's practical for Colorado. Plenty of people have one here."
Granted, he wanted to see some of Ellie's old spirit revived. But pissing her off wasn't exactly the way he'd wanted that to happen. Nevertheless, she was angry. But regardless of how stubborn she was going to be, Zane decided she would be driving a dependable car, the one he'd purchased for her.
After finishing his work, he input his verification into the lab computer and put away his supplies, wondering how he could get Ellie to accept the inevitable. She was going to use the SUV. He wanted her using a reliable vehicle. He didn't want her buying another piece of crap like her last car. It had been too small, too old, too unreliable, and all of those things were unacceptable to him.
He took off the disposable covering he was wearing over his clothing and then dumped his mask and gloves into the hazardous materials container he kept near the door.
Zane could admit he was disorganized, but only with anything outside of his lab. Here, he was meticulous. Here, it mattered to him. Working with potentially dangerous organisms didn't leave room for mistakes.
He washed his hands and dried them before he stood in front of the steel doors and used his fingerprint scanner to make the double doors swoosh open. As he walked down the hallway and up the stairs that led to the house, he contemplated his options.
Let Ellie have her way and return the BMW? Nope. Not gonna happen. She needs a safe vehicle.
Convince Ellie to take it? Probably unlikely. Though, Zane admitted she'd looked pretty mulishly insistent over not accepting his gift. He realized that he liked that look on her. It was preferable to seeing her weep, but it wasn't going to stop him from making sure she was driving dependable transportation.
Get Chloe to help him convince her? A possibility, but Chloe isn't home yet, and she doesn't even know Ellie is still alive.
Throw Ellie over his shoulder and toss her into the car? Yep. That idea had merit since he'd been feeling like a damn protective caveman since the minute Ellie disappeared.
Now that he'd found her, the urge to make sure Ellie was safe was almost overwhelming, a compulsive, raw instinct that he was barely managing to control.
Get it together. You'll scare her off. Hell, I'm scaring myself.
Zane considered himself a reasonable, rational, logical guy. He made decisions based on data and realistic facts. Lately, he wasn't reacting with his normal levelheadedness; he was giving in to emotions and compulsions he couldn't seem to control. He'd never experienced those types of feelings before, and it confounded him that with Ellie, he sometimes couldn't control his own words or behavior.
For some reason, Ellie had always been a woman he wanted to know better but ended up avoiding because he'd considered her off-limits in the past. However, it hadn't stopped him from asking about her when he talked to Chloe. He'd almost blown it in the hospital, letting Ellie know that, little by little, he'd gotten to know her preferences by encouraging Chloe to talk about her best friend. Zane knew Ellie's favorite was Asian food because Chloe had mentioned it. She'd also told him that she was sending Ellie her favorite chocolates for a birthday surprise a few years ago. Zane had asked what kind, and he still remembered exactly what company made the confections.