The Long Way Home (Corps Security #6)(60)

“Stone” by Whiskey Myers



No one speaks.

We’ve been in the car for five minutes now, and the energy grows more and more electric as the time ticks along with the miles. You can taste it, it’s that wild.

Zeke’s been holding my hand so tightly, I lost feeling in my fingers a few miles back. I don’t dare let go, though, or ask him to release the tightness some. I give him what he needs. I let him cling to me as if he’s afraid he’ll blow right out the window.

If I’m honest, I need it too. I need to feel like I was helping him somehow. Knowing how hard this was likely going to be for him. Who am I kidding, there’s no way I could know what he’s feeling. I’m just going to hold on as long as he needs me.

I can’t imagine what’s going through his mind right now. When he asked Sway to make the call, he tracked that man’s every movement while Sway had paced the room, not looking away once. I couldn’t hear whomever was on the other end of his call, but there was a small hum of their voice coming from the gap between his ear and the phone. That small space allowing the murmur of their voice into the room was all it took for me to feel the pain coming off him in waves. I don’t know how I knew for sure, but when his brother’s voice was on the line, there was a small jolt that rocked his tall frame ever so slightly. My goodness, I pray with all that I have his brother doesn’t make him fight for forgiveness.

When I glance over at him, I see the hard lines of his jaw as he clenches and unclenches. His dimple popping out with each flex he makes. I had no idea I had this big weakness for dimples before now. Maybe it’s just because they’re his dimples, but nevertheless … he’s heart stopping with or without them. Even with so much trepidation radiating off him, he’s breathtaking. I knew he was handsome, but I didn’t know he was stop-your-heart-and-swoon kind of handsome.

I squeeze his hand and gain his eyes. “Are you okay?”

He glances down at our hands, lifting them up from where we had been resting them on the seat between us, turning them over with a flip before repeating the action a few times. His eyes study our connection silently. I wait, my heart picking up speed as the silence continues, but I give him what he needs and wait for him to answer me.

“I think …” He pauses and clears his throat. “I think I am,” he responds a little lower the second time, for just me. “Thank you for being here.”

“There’s nowhere else I would rather be. It’s going to be okay, honey. If you want to get out of there, just say the word and I’ll make it happen.”

“You gonna steal a car and take off with me?”

I hold his gaze for a beat. “If that’s what you need? You bet your tail I will.”

I get his smile. His real smile. Not the one full of worry and fear for what is about to come, faking it for me. I open my mouth, ready to say something to keep that smile on his face, but I don’t get the chance before Sway clears his throat.

I had almost forgotten we weren’t alone.

Almost.

“We’re about to pull in, honey buns,” Sway announces from the front.

When I glance out the window, I realize we’re in a neighborhood. A big one, with tons of space between the homes. Houses that were meant to be the showcase of the land around them. As the car pulls us farther into the neighborhood, I realize that the space between each house gets larger and larger. Wouldn’t it be something to have this much land? If I didn’t love living in Boston so much, this is what I would want.

Sway pulls the car into a driveway, and I marvel at the beauty around us. Heck, no matter how much I love Boston, something as magnificent as this would be a huge temptation.

“They’re likely out back at this time of the evening. When the sun starts going down and the grandbabies start getting tired, never fails to pull them around the backyard. We do monthly family dinners out here in their backyard. Older kids stay on the lake most of the time, but those grandbabies of theirs are passed around like hot potatoes for the adults that soak up the time with them.”

“Been gone a long time,” he murmurs, loud enough for Sway to hear him, pain thick in his words. “Somehow, it still looks the same.”

“You’re home now,” he responds softly. “You’ve been gone, yes, but not sure it matters the why of it when you’re back from the dead, honey child. Remember that.”

“You’ve got nothing but faith this will work out, Sway.”

Sway smiles at me before looking back at Zeke. “And you, my dear, apparently don’t live only once. Why don’t we squash that doubt now and yolt.”

“What the hell is yolt?”

“You only live … twice.” Sway laughs maniacally.

I watch some of the worry wash off Zeke. I have no idea what that meant, but it clearly means something to him. Enough to ease some of his worries and fears, at least.

“You’ve got all the time you need. Your brother is meeting me … well, us … in the home office Ax has. It’s away from everyone. They’re still out back. You and Asher talk first and then you decide what to do after. It will give you two the privacy you need. I should warn you, they know something big is happening, just unsure what.”

“Cameras?”

“I texted Axel on the way,” Davey starts. “He’s reluctantly turned them off until you’re inside, and I let him know it’s clear to monitor the house again.”