The Long Way Home (Corps Security #6)(39)

“Might have been a good change of pace from the old me they knew.”

“You’re still that man, Drew.”

His body jolts. “Coop. Don’t … just, please. I can’t right now.”

I lift a brow. “You aren’t naked, honey. Pretty sure the rule was ‘only while your cock is out,’ or something like that.”

My heavens I love the heat that takes over his handsome face when I talk like that. There is no doubt in my mind that he loves getting me to talk dirty. A welcomed reprieve from the hard conversation we’re having. His lip quirks at the corner and he leans down to press his forehead against mine.

“When my cock is out, I plan on doing my best to make you forget your name as well as mine long enough for you to call my name when you give me your sweetness.”

“Coop,” I breathe, leaning my weight into him.

“Yeah, baby. Your Coop.”

We don’t break eye contact, so much unspoken between us. He lowers his head to take my mouth in a deep kiss, and starts walking up toward his bedroom. I know the moment to continue this conversation is over. There’s only so much pain from the past someone can handle at once.

One thing’s for sure, I’m going to work my tail off to remove that pain from his heart.





“Broken” by Seether



“You’re being fucking reckless. Are you even watching out for Ray’s slimy ass anymore? Because there hasn’t been a single sighting of him in weeks.”

“You think I don’t know what I’m doing?”

Saint leans in, his tan skin in stark contrast to the bright marble countertops he’s resting his hands against. Then again, everything is a stark contrast in my condo. There is no color. The only time that I see color in this place is when Olivia and Riley are here.

I glance away from Saint to where Riley left her American Girl Doll. Complete with a mini fucking suitcase that had exploded all over the corner of the room. I haven’t moved it in over a week, not since their last time here after I surprised them with our night out at the circus. There hasn’t been much time for my two worlds to learn how to coexist lately. The one where I’m a ghost not sure how to tangle with the one that makes me feel as if I have a reason to breathe again. I’ve been struggling on how to handle my feelings for Olivia for a while now. The only thing I know with certainty is that this is something I’m not willing to give up. Which is what brought this conversation to a head when the guys got here for a briefing on our targets.

“I think that you’re using your cock and not being logical about what’ll happen here. You think it’ll end well when you tell her that you got close to make sure you had the best chances to kill the kid’s father? I bet she’ll love that. She let that kid into your home and you’re using her to kill her father.”

“Hey, man. You know he’s not using her. That’s not fair,” Evan, always the fucking peacekeeper, disagrees.

I groan in my throat a sound of pure threat. “Fucking watch it, Saint.”

“I’m not going to fucking watch it, Drew. We all gave up a lot to be in the shoes we’re in. You’re jeopardizing it all just to get some pussy.”

It takes every ounce of calm I can muster not to come over the island between us and strangle this fuck.

“You think this is about getting my dick wet?”

“What else is it? You get close to her, helps she’s a hot piece and all, and you just happen to be where you need to be in order to take out Ray. You get the target and you get off the whole time. Doing that makes you reckless.”

I cross my arms and level Saint with a cold glare.

He matches me and leans back in the barstool he’s been sitting at for the past hour, in my kitchen, and throws that shit back at me.

I see Evan and Hunt shift uncomfortably, both of them silent after Saint said his peace.

“You got anything else to say, brother?” I grunt, not entirely in control of my anger.

“Said it all.”

“Said too fucking much,” I snap back.

He tosses his arms in the air and stands from the island and I hear the barstool crash on to the floor behind him. The sound echoing around the silent condo like a gunshot.

“What the fuck do you think will happen here? You going to let her know that you’re a dead man who spent over twenty years killing people? How about, you going to give her a chance to freak the fuck out after she finds out and leads the very people you died to protect your family from right to your doorstep—or worse, theirs. You know damn well what happens when they find out that you aren’t dead. That family you’ve spent all these years being dead for will become pawns. Oh, never mind, that’ll make good bedtime stories for the little one while you’re fucking her aunt, won’t it?”

“Out of line,” Hunt adds, sounding bored.

“Damn well not out of line and you know it,” Saint shoots back. “You aren’t the only one that has a stake in this game. I have people I ‘died’ to protect, too.”

“There isn’t a single chance of that happening and you fucking know it.”

“Do I?”

“Every one of those people who could have hurt my family has been dead a long time. I made sure of it when the man I had sitting on my family told me he hadn’t seen anyone in years. I stay gone because they’re better off without me. And you fucking know nothing I do would jeopardize the people you left behind.”