The Long Way Home (Corps Security #6)(33)

“You both, but yes.”

She hums and slouches down so she is resting on the back of the chair.

“So … you do speak.”

“When I have something to say,”

“Well, that’s a relief. Now I can get this off my chest.” She leans toward him and points toward his chest. “Hurt them and I’ll be your worst nightmare.” She lifts her finger and drags it across her throat.

“Ella!” I gasp.

“Noted,” he says over me, nothing but the unmistakable promise in that one word.

“Good. Just so you know, I’m serious, mister. I know how to bring the hurt.”

Grace snorts a low laugh. “You don’t even kill flies.”

“Flies don’t make my best friend look like that.”

He clears his throat. “I wouldn’t expect less.”

“Good, we understand each other,” she responds after a beat of silence shared between them. “Alrighty, Grace … stop taking up all their time and let’s go.”

I shake my head and smile at my best friend’s crazy antics.

Grace rolls her eyes, but stands and starts moving around the room, collecting their things. Drew’s phone starts ringing and he gives me a little squeeze before letting go and stepping out of the room to take his call. We make small talk as they both help me clean up our lunch mess before I walk them to the elevator to tell them goodbye.

I’ve got the biggest smile on my face when I turn from them and make my way back to the kitchen, just in time to see Drew coming in from the balcony. The expression on his face clears the second he sees me come into the room. I didn’t miss it, though. He looked almost worried.

“I have a meeting tomorrow with the guys at my place. Are you and Riley okay with cutting our plans short a little?”

“Of course,” I tell him, walking over and reaching up to frame his face with my palms on his cheeks. “Would it be easier if Riley and I come back here instead of staying at your place tonight?”

“Absolutely not. Want my girls with me.”

I smile, having had this conversation with him a few times before.

“Well, in that case, why don’t we go get packed up and head over there to drop our stuff off before you take us on this secret outing?”

His mouth presses a light kiss against mine before wrapping me in one of his delicious bear hugs. When he lifts his head back to look down at me, I see something moving in his eyes that I haven’t seen before … hope.





“Mercy” by Shawn Mendes



What the hell am I doing?

This isn’t me.

Or it wasn’t me. Not the man I’ve become. He doesn’t do things for fun. He does things to hunt.

Walking through these doors with these two females at my side, though? They are making me believe this is the me I can be—taking the shadows I’ve been living in and letting the light Olivia and Riley cast onto my days shine brightly with hope.

Not the first time my thoughts have led me down this path.

Not when I pulled up to pick them up earlier, deciding to dust off my Jeep to give them this experience. No damn way I was willing to trust someone else driving them around. Not even one of the men on my team that have always had my back. There isn’t a single person I would trust with them. A thought that I wasn’t willing to put too many questions on. Something was physically pushing me toward her, making my gut scream for me to listen. The biggest tell that this was something special was feeling that hard jerk—almost as if I had something tied to my spine giving a hard tug—pulling me back to the girls.

It started out so simple.

Stay close, watch them, and wait for Ray to make his move. I would never let him hurt them, but there was no other way for us to pull him out of hiding without continuing to watch them as I had originally planned. It wasn’t supposed to get further than keeping them safe.

Now, though?

Now they have me feeling things a dead man like me shouldn’t feel.

Keep the shadows from the brightness.

The thought slams into me as if each word was a physical punch.

Can I do that? Can I keep living in the shadows I’ve been in for two damn decades and keep them away from that light this woman casts?

“Drew! Look!”

Riley’s excited gasp pulls me back to the present. She’s pointing, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Her eyes shine bright with excitement and wonder. The inside of the large tent set up almost identically to the movie they had me watch about circuses, the whole reason I brought them here. Her eyes had brightened when watching that movie. Her happiness got a little bigger with each song until it was a living beast.

I was high on the feeling of giving her this moment. The magic she’s feeling rolls off her tiny body in waves.

Riley starts moving quicker, her legs are pumping so fast, she’s pulling me with a strength a kid this little shouldn’t have with her steady hold on my hand. I hear Olivia giggle behind us, the sound going right to my heart like a jolt of electricity.

Is she the reason I’m having all these thoughts?

Stupid fucking question.

Of course she is.

“Are you okay?” she asks after speed walking to stand next to us.

I grunt a sound I hope sounds like an affirmative, but I’m too busy watching this little girl lead me into a tent and the spell settle over us. Her excitement in seeing a made-up story come to life. Me … well, mine with something real close to hope settling deep in my chest and taking root.