Page 70 of Nanny for the Single Dad Cowboy
Beck glances up from the table. “He’s right, Tess. The cops had months to find this guy. We’ve got hours before he disappears for good.”
Zane hangs up and walks over. “Ryder says he’s thirty minutes out, so he’ll get there before us and begin recon. If we move fast, we can intercept before the helicopter Richard chartered gets there.”
Recon? Intercept?
It’s like they’re planning a military op, not a manhunt.
I grip the edge of the table until my knuckles go white. “You can’t just go after him like this. You could get hurt.”
Jace exhales slowly, setting down the gun he was checking. “Tess. Look at me.”
I do.
“This is what I was trained for. You hear me? This is what I do.”
His voice is calm, but beneath it I hear the irony. The same quiet authority that makes people listen, follow, and trust him. But I can’t. Not when it’s his life on the line.
“You don’t have to do this for me.”
“I’m not doing it for you,” he says softly, brushing his thumb along my jaw. “I’m doing it because of you. Because I can’t sleep knowing that man’s still breathing out there.”
My throat burns. “Then I’m coming with you.”
Zane and Beck both go still, as if they’re waiting for his reaction.
Jace lets out a quiet laugh, low and humorless. “No, you’re not.”
“You can’t stop me.”
He tilts his head, his expression softening even as the tension in his shoulders stays coiled tight. “Sweetheart, I can. And I will.”
I hate that he can still make me feel safe and furious in the same breath. “Jace—“
He leans in until our foreheads touch. His breath is steady, voice rough. “I need to know you’re safe. I can’t think straight if I’m worrying about you too. You want to help? Stay here. Take care of Daisy. Wait for me.”
I close my eyes, trying to swallow the fear clawing up my chest. He’s already halfway gone—mentally, emotionally, operationally. That soldier part of him has taken over.
And I know, in that moment, there’s no changing his mind.
I shake my head, tears hot in my eyes. “You can’t just tell me to sit here and wait while you go off to God knows where and maybe not come back!”
“Tess,” he says my name like it’s a prayer and a warning at once.
“No. You don’t get to protect me by walking into danger! That’s not protection, that’s suicide.”
He clenches his jaw, clearly frustrated with me. “You think I don’t know danger? You think I don’t know what I’m doing?”
“That’s exactly what scares me,” I whisper. “You know too well. You’ve already lost too much. I can’t—I can’t be the reason you go out there and don’t come back.”
He cups my face in both hands, his palms rough, warm, grounding. “You won’t lose me. Not tonight. I swear it.”
I choke out a laugh that sounds more like a sob. “You can’t promise that.”
“I just did.”
Behind him, Beck clears his throat softly, like he’s giving us space but reminding him that time is running out. Zane is at the doorway, phone in hand, waiting for Ryder’s next update.
Jace looks back at his brothers, then down at me again. There’s something in his eyes—that mix of fire and tenderness that always undoes me.
