Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 141281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
In the morning, I’m supposed to have a new meeting with Landon Strauss and a few of his right-hand people high on the Enguard chain. With Sexton stepping down due to his injury, I know he’ll recommend me for a promotion to tactical lead.
Hell if I can find the will to care about any of that right now.
I’ve got the woman who kept me alive through the gauntlet at my side as we step into the sunlight.
That endless smile she wears confirms all the love I stirred up before is still there.
No, fuck, it’s grown.
She can barely keep her eyes off me as we sit on a bench, surrounded by greenery. Her dark hair flutters in the cool breeze.
“How’s that thesis coming? I heard how shook up you were over my shit and Evie... Please don’t tell me any of this bullshit stalled you graduating?”
“I’m basically done with the first draft. My absence didn’t last long enough to blow the whole semester,” she tells me shyly. “Pretty sure the professor loves it. He’s already hinted at pitching the final version at some academic conferences and maybe even a few newspapers. I guess people just love heroes who can’t stop heroing.”
“As long as you didn’t use my name. It’s gonna be intense enough for a while with the media up my ass over the bust in Mexico. Enguard will do their damnedest to hold the jackals at bay, but they can’t make me invisible.”
“They shouldn’t dare,” she says, leaning in to kiss me again. “Seriously. I couldn’t have done it without you, Chris, and I don’t just mean the paper. I put a lot of you—a lot of us—into this whole project. And knowing how bad you’d want me to hold it together and finish is what kept me going when everything was up in the air. I was so scared for you.”
The tremor in her voice and the way her fingers shake as they grip mine tell me just how torn up she was.
“I’m home now, woman. No plans on winding up stuffed into an almost-grave again. And I’m a little disappointed you stuck with that SEAL psychology-mercenary project.” I pause as her eyes search mine. “Couldn’t you write a damn good paper on a chick who falls head over heels for her jackass stepbrother?” I grin.
Goddamn it feels good.
She sticks her tongue out.
“You wish. That’s a little too personal, but I promise you there’s plenty of passion in what I wrote.”
“Yeah, whatever, babe. Of course I’m gonna read it.”
She instantly flushes and snaps away from me. “What? No way! That’s for my professor and his stuffy journalist friends. And the university archives, I guess. Not for your amusement.”
“Like hell. We both know it’ll wind up somewhere online. You said he’ll probably shop it around to papers and journals, right?”
Her simmering silence tells me the answer.
“Come the hell on, Miss Reporter. You’re too good to keep your stuff hidden, and we’re done hiding in the shadows.”
We laugh. Then she tells me about her latest misadventures with Marnie.
Apparently, it’s been a part-time job helping her friend navigate the first real relationship she’s ever had with some dude who’s only partly tangerine. Looks like we’re not the only ones getting bit by the love bug.
“Oh yeah,” she says, pursing her lips as she looks at me. “There’s more news—you won’t be my stepbrother much longer.”
“I heard. Already told your old man to do what he can to keep his money away from Ma before she gets serious help. Maybe there’s a custodial account or something to help pay for the treatment,” I say.
“Good call. It was so terrible, Chris, the way everything imploded... Then Evie just ghosted, running off to who knows where until she started siccing her lawyer on him. It sounds like she ponied up the money for a good one. But Dad’s lawyers are better—supposedly the best you can buy. I just wish he didn’t have to pay a dime for so much misery. Can you believe they were only married for five months?”
“He’ll be fine,” I tell her, throwing an arm around her again. “I think the man would pay through the nose to have my mother out of his life, too, and who can blame him?”
She smiles sadly.
Then it really hits me.
With Bruce in my corner, there’s no one left to convince we deserve our forever but the beautiful brown-eyed minx in front of me.
That should be a dream come true—and it is—but it’s also more serious than any other mission I’ve had in my life.
“What’s up? You look like you’ve got something on your mind,” she whispers, laying her head on my shoulder.
“Just thinking about what we’re doing once I’m discharged,” I whisper in her ear, skimming my fingers up her side. “It’s been too long, Delia. If I didn’t have to worry about re-breaking a bone or whatever the fuck, I swear to God...”