Page 56 of Abducted

He’d informed Nate the minute they’d gotten in, and he had called in the murder. Someone had killed Will to keep him quiet. Tanner was the only plausible suspect. Nate had assured him that the FBI was investigating the man, but they hadn’t brought him in for questioning yet. Cal wanted to talk to him first. He trusted Nate more than anyone, but Tanner had avoided conviction before. One thing was for sure, the law couldn’t keep Cal from beating the truth out of him.

Tomorrow, he and Ethan would pay Tanner a visit.

“This feels like it’s never going to end.” She spoke slowly, her voice distant. He tightened his hold on her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her hair, inhaling her scent. Fuck, he hated that she was scared. Hated even more that she was hurting.

“It will. Very soon.”

Her leg slid over his knee and up his bare thigh. Her silky satin skin was chilled.

“I feel so terrible.” Her hand opened and closed on his chest, and a tear hit his shoulder and rolled down. She was crying. His throat constricted. He covered her hand with his.

“Please don’t cry, baby. Everything’s going to be okay. I promise.”

“I’m not crying.” Her voice hardened. Then she sniffled, completely undoing him.

His heart expanded. He rested his cheek against her forehead. “I love that you trust me with your body, babe. But you can trust me with your heart too.”

A delicate shoulder rose and fell. His jaw worked. She was hurting, but she couldn’t let go with him. He loved her strength and her ferocious independence, but why couldn’t she let her guard down with him?

A pit formed in his stomach like a toxic black hole. It wasn’t her fault. It was his. He’d kept her at arm’s length, then turned around and had sex with her against the wall. How confusing was that?

He’d warned her that he couldn’t offer commitment, and he was now affronted that she’d only shared her body and not her heart. He shifted under her, then lifted her to lie across his chest. She pushed up on her arms to look down at him. Big, blue tear-rimmed eyes stared at him. The ends of her damp hair tickled his side. He scooped her hair back and over her shoulder. Her small pink tongue jutted out to wet her lips, still rosy from his kisses.

She shifted on him so her knees straddled either side of his hips. “What are you thinking, babe?”

Her teeth pierced her bottom lip, and her gaze dropped to his chest, giving him an expansive view of her dark eyelashes against her porcelain skin.

“Can I ask you something?” Her voice was soft, tentative, her eyes still downcast.

“Of course.”

Her finger smoothed over the shiny scar on his chest, beneath his shoulder. The one he’d seen her spot at the cabin.

“How did you get this?”

This was the ugly reality of his life. The danger. The shaky fear that rattled her voice was something that she’d always have if she was a part of his life. He couldn’t lie to her.

“It’s a bullet wound.” His finger came up to touch the uneven skin, remembering the day. Had the bullet hit the opposite side of his chest, he’d have died instantly.

Her eyes met his, round and doubtful. “From the military?” He shook his head.

“What happened?”

He tucked her hair behind her ear, then pinned his arm beneath his head so he could see her better. “Nate and I had been on a mission in Mexico. There was this organized ring of sex traffickers—a huge one. We went undercover and busted the operation.”

He took a deep breath, remembering the horrible day. “When the shit hit the fan and the FBI came charging in, the leader of the sex traffic ring and his group started firing. I was undercover, and one of the bastards shot me in the chest when they realized they’d been set up. We didn’t get all the girls out in time, three died.”

Her eyes widened, and her face fell. She covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s terrible.”

He nodded. “It was terrible. That was one of the hardest moments of my career.” He pushed the sordid memory from his mind. “We saved one hundred twenty-four young women and teens that day.”

“That’s incredible.”

“It was. But that’s one of the reasons I continue to do what I do. There are always situations like that, that I could prevent.”

“You’re a hero.”

He smirked. “Hardly.” He wouldn’t tell her about the men he’d shot that night. How his anger had been so hot and violent that Nate had had to pull him back. Maybe another day he would share that with her.

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