Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries #11)(101)

Riley picked up her old phone again. “Listen to him. I had tech reprogram the phone so your mailbox wouldn’t get full. It’s a lot. It’s pretty much his life for the last six months. I think he needed to share it with you.”

“He left messages for me?” She stared at the phone in his hand.

Riley stepped toward the door to her room. “So many. I know way too much about that man. The good news? Everything I know made me like him more. And don’t ever tell him I listened to those messages. He can punch hard. I should have told you sooner, but every time I’ve mentioned him you kind of growl and look ready to kill someone. I thought you needed some time or you might have deleted them. But you have to listen now, Mia. I’m begging you to listen to them now.”

Had Case really called? Had he left a bunch of messages?

She had to know. Mia picked up the phone and pressed the button she needed.

“Hey, sweetheart…”

Mia sat and listened to what Case had to say.




An hour later, Mia stood up, completely panicked. Case had left the last message early this morning. He was leaving tomorrow. He was heading to Sierra Leone and he was going into danger. Her heart constricted. He wanted her by his side.

She was damn straight going to be by that man’s side.

He’d left messages for her at least once a week since they’d been apart. He’d talked about how he’d gone into therapy so he never spoke that way to her again. He’d told her about his daily life as though nothing had meaning until he’d told her about it.

Dear god, he’d told her he loved her.

Mia wiped the tears from her eyes because she was getting her ass to Dallas. She had mere hours before he would be on a plane for the most important mission of his life. She wouldn’t let him go into it alone.

He hadn’t ignored her. He’d changed for her. He’d made himself better for her. She could barely see as she grabbed her suitcase. It didn’t matter what went in. She needed clothes. Some clothes. Who cared? She could buy clothes.

Mia tossed the suitcase. All she needed was her passport, her purse, and her phone.

What if they left early?

Why was Austin so far from Dallas?

She opened her door and strode down the hall. Luckily Ezra was standing right there. He stayed in the guesthouse when they were in Austin, but now he was standing in the living room talking to Riley.

“I need to go to Dallas. Right now. Tonight,” she announced.

A brilliant smile crossed her brother’s face. “Good because the plane’s waiting on you and I might have had the housekeeper pack for you. It’s waiting at the airport and the car is outside.”

Ezra looked between herself and Riley, obviously trying to figure out what was going on. “I don’t think this is a good idea. Why are we turning around and going back to Dallas? We just got home.”

“It’s worse than that, but I think you can sit this one out. I’m not just heading to Dallas. I’m going with Case to Africa. He’s found Theo and we’re going to bring him home.”

“I’ll be ready to go in five minutes.” Ezra turned and started out toward the back door.

She wondered if she could run. She didn’t need Ezra in Sierra Leone. She would be surrounded by ex-military men. And she would be good. When the time came to actually hunt Theo down, she would stay in the hotel with Erin and Avery and whoever was protecting them.

If Erin could do it, she definitely could. Erin couldn’t risk her life because TJ needed a parent. It would be hard for her. Mia would support her.

Having Ezra around might complicate things.

Riley stepped in front of her, his eyes narrowing as though he knew exactly what she was thinking. “No. You take him with you. Case gets to decide whether he follows you into something insanely dangerous, but you’re going to take a bodyguard with you until Case says it’s all right. This is his operation. And don’t think I’m saying that because anyone thinks you’re incompetent. I want you to consider how hard it was for Case to give you all those leads on stories. Some of them were dangerous, but he knew you would want to go.”

“He sent me the leads.” She’d known Ian had something to do with the Knight book, but why would he have talked his friend into allowing her to interview him when it had been obvious he hadn’t wanted to in the beginning? It had only been his wife who had been able to convince him that telling the story would be good for him, that their baby son would one day want to read about what his father had done for their country.

Case had been the one to send her those stories. Not flowers or candy. Those were easy. He’d given her adventures and he’d done it knowing he wouldn’t be there to protect her, to gain anything from it. It had been a purely selfless act of love.

“All right. I’ll wait. But you should know that I’m not going to be a good girl when I get to Dallas.”

She intended to show that man just how bad she could be. After all, the man did give a really good spanking.

She just prayed she wasn’t too late.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN





Case shut the door to his truck and looked down at his bag from Top. Once upon a time it would have contained Sean’s unbelievably delicious Angus burger with weird cheese and hand-cut fries. Tonight he had a chef salad with grilled salmon because his cholesterol was up and it would worry Mia.