Witness in the Dark (Love Under Fire #1)(64)

She watched as he paced the driveway making gestures with his hands, his breath making tiny clouds in the cold morning air. He looked upset or angry. She wondered what was going on. Something about the trial?

She finished her breakfast before it got cold, and eventually he came back inside and sat down to eat.

“Everything okay?” she asked cautiously. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.

“Yeah. Fine,” he answered with a shrug. “My boss.”

She’d kind of forgotten he had a boss. “Would you be in trouble if your boss found out about us?”

He stared down at his plate for a moment. “If he found out about us, he’d most likely shoot me dead.”

She was pretty sure he was joking…except, he didn’t laugh. He picked up a piece of bacon and finished eating, looking deadly serious.

She didn’t know what to make of that.

When the dishes were done, they went out to do some target shooting, but soon they were panting and pulling at each other’s clothes. They made it back to the warmth of the house and ended up on the sofa.

“I don’t know what it is, but watching you shoot a gun turns me on,” he told her as he tugged off his shirt and pressed his body against hers.

The cold bits of flesh touching the warm parts made the experience more enticing.

“I’ll have to remember that.” She began to laugh, but gasped when he showed her exactly how much he was turned on.

When they had hit all the necessary targets, they got dressed and made dinner.

Garrett’s phone rang again afterward. “Sorry.”

“Your boss again?”

With a pained expression, he picked it up and went outside, taking his coat with him.

Now she was really worried.

What the hell was going on?





Chapter Fifty-One


Garrett argued with Thorne for a long time. In the end, he lost. As if there’d ever been a doubt about who would prevail. Reality was a big, heavy freight train heading straight for him, and Garrett was tied to the tracks.

Sam had fallen asleep on the sofa waiting for him to come back inside. She stirred when he picked her up and carried her to his bed, but didn’t wake. Neither of them had gotten much sleep the night before.

“I’m sorry. Please don’t hate me,” he whispered as he brushed his hand over her hair and kissed her forehead.

He’d wanted her for so long. Longer than she realized. He’d thought once they’d been together, once he’d gotten her out of his system, things could go back to normal. He should have known she wasn’t the type of woman he could get out of his system.

“I don’t have a choice,” he told her, hoping someday she might be able to forgive him.

He sat next to her on the bed, trying to come up with a way to get himself out of this mess. He’d never been in this kind of situation before. He’d always taken his job seriously. Not once had he ever fooled around with someone he was extracting or protecting. Most of the time the subjects didn’t even know he was protecting them. He always kept his distance, until it was time for extraction. Even then, contact was minimal.

But in Sam’s case, things were…extremely complicated to begin with.

What he felt for her just complicated things even more. Especially after he’d received his newest orders.

This would not end well for him.

He just prayed Sam would be okay.





Chapter Fifty-Two


In the morning, Sam woke alone. The other side the bed was still made, which could only mean Garrett hadn’t slept in the bed with her.

The silence in the house unnerved her as she sat up. No water was running in the bathroom. No coffee perking in the kitchen. No sounds at all.

She slid out of bed and pulled on her sweatshirt to go search for him.

He wasn’t anywhere.

“Garrett?”

She climbed the steps to the loft where his workout room was. It was dark and empty. She went out onto the front porch, pulling her sweatshirt closer against the cold.

“Garrett?” she yelled louder.

That was when she noticed the truck was gone.

She froze, shock electrifying her body, and then betrayal swept in. “Oh, hell.”

He’d left her.

Since the first day they started this journey together, that had been her single biggest fear. For a multitude of reasons.

Her heart seized up, and she turned to go back in the house.

Just then, Garrett emerged from the door that led to the garage. “Did you call for me?” he asked.

With an effort, she calmed her heartbeat back to a normal pace. “I didn’t know where you were. I thought you’d left me,” she confessed.

He came closer and kissed her forehead before touching her lips with his. “Never.”

His promise was reassuring, but…untrue. Someday he would leave her, and there wasn’t anything either of them could do about that. She watched as he walked back into the garage where he was working on the truck. She tried to imagine what it would feel like to see him walking away that final time.

Her heart would break. That was inevitable.

Something was off when Garrett came in later. He washed his hands quickly and ripped a paper towel from the roll. “Pack up your clothes. We’re going out today.”