Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“You’re the one who told me not to get involved with Rogue.”
“No, I told you to be careful and to make sure you knew what you were doing.”
“I thought I did, but I was wrong. I need to leave the area. I need another assignment.”
“No, you need to stay and finish what you started.”
“I won’t go back to the ranch. I won’t put Rogue in danger again.”
“Unless Grant’s version of events is way the hell off, you didn’t put Rogue in danger. Some asshole wanting vengeance for TJ’s cousin did.”
“Rogue took a bullet for me.”
“Would you have done the same for him?”
“That’s irrelevant.”
“No, it’s not.”
It was a good thing X was far away. I really wanted to take my anger out on him. “Would you let your boyfriend put himself in danger like that?”
“Not easily.” I could tell he was speaking through gritted teeth.
“I never expected… We… I knew he cared, but… it’s too much.”
“And that’s why you won’t go back? Because you’re afraid?”
“Of Rogue dying because of me? Yes.”
“No, you’re afraid of him loving you.”
I realized I was walking so fast now I was practically running like I could outdistance X’s criticism. “Because that’s dangerous for him.”
“I’m not getting you a new assignment. Finish your operation with the Russos and then talk to me.”
“Damn it, X.”
“Your ride will be there in a moment.”
He ended the call before I could say anything else.
A few moments later, a black sedan pulled up beside me. The window came down, and the driver said, “X sent me to take you back to your hotel.”
“Thank you.” I got into the car, not knowing what else to do.
“Let me off at the side entrance,” I requested when the driver pulled into the hotel parking lot. I needed to avoid anyone on my team seeing me until I’d had a shower and some more time.
Would there ever be a time when I stopped feeling so empty? I doubted it.
The next day, after a whole meeting focused on how I’d fucked everyone over, I suffered through my special agent in charge telling me he was doing everything he could to override X’s wishes and have me fired.
“I wish you would,” was all I said.
“You could quit,” he suggested.
“I could”—theoretically, but I knew X would prevent it somehow–“but then I wouldn’t be able to piss you off every day, and life would be so empty.” I wasn’t about to tell him it already was.
X called me a few minutes later.
“I’ve already been bitched at by everyone here plus people in DC. Could you not join the party right now.”
“I have a message for you.”
I sighed. “What is it?”
“Rogue says he’ll be there whenever you want to come home.”
I stood there, unable to move or speak. Home. He wanted the ranch to be my home?
“I… Why would he say that?”
“If you don’t know, then you’re not ready to go to him.” X ended the call.
I thought Rogue would hate me, and thinking that helped keep me from running back.
Every morning, I woke to a single text from Rogue, telling me something about his day or the horses. My fingers itched to type out a response, but I didn’t. X was right. I wasn’t ready. If I was going to go back, then I was only going to do it fully committed to never leaving again, no matter how scary things got. Even if the scariest things of all were Grant and Rhys.
My operation was almost finished, but we needed to identify the Russos’ weapons supplier. We had rumors but nothing concrete, so I struck out on my own to a rat-infested warehouse, waiting for someone to show up to a meeting one of our contacts had overheard the Russos planning. There was no guarantee anything would go down, but there I was, sitting in the dark with several of the Russos’ men working below me, stacking up crates likely filled with automatic weapons.
Time crept by, and I got tired of listening to their bullshit posturing, each one trying to act tougher than the other when I could take them all out by myself. These men weren’t anyone important, and they sure as hell weren’t well trained. The Russos were sloppy as hell to involve them in this line of business. Weapons dealers had a reputation for short tempers and high kill counts. If someone was in their way, they eliminated them.
I slowly and carefully pulled out my phone so I could read through all my texts from Rogue. Almost without conscious thought, I started typing. I miss you.
32
ROGUE
I stared at the words, unable to believe they were real. I’d been texting Ghost for weeks with no response and vacillating between anger, depression, and telling myself I’d give it one more day, then give up.
Rhys hadn’t outright told me to stop. My emotional roller coaster was taking a toll on my twin. Grant only kept his mouth shut because Jacob was so insistent that Ghost and I were meant to be, and interestingly, TJ was in full agreement with him