Page 14 of Broken Trust
She tilted her head, forcing composure she didn’t feel. “Couldn’t I have done that from the hot tub?”
His jaw flexed again. This time she heard it pop. “No. Elin, I know you came to the base because you found me.”
For years she’d lived with her insides knotted tight, trying to convince herself she’d moved on. But the invisible rope between them—one she thought she’d finally cut—snapped taut again, making it hard for her to breathe.
She tried to smile, but it came out a grimace. “I’m here to stop the attack on a power grid. To make sure thousands of people can still reach emergency services and patients in hospitals don’t die. To protect innocent lives.”
His eyes, that impossible smoky blue, burned into her. “You wouldn’t be here if not for me.”
Something inside her broke. “Quite the feat then,” she bit out, “since you’d ratherdiethan date me.”
He flinched. “It wasn’t like that.”
“You ghosted me for real, Liam.” Her voice cracked before she could stop it. “Not metaphorically. Not emotionally. You literally vanished. A folded flag, a coffin with nothing inside. Imournedyou.”
“I can explain.”
Her laugh was sharp, brittle. “Oh, I bet you can.”
Liam straightened, military training snapping back into place, and he slammed the door on any emotions that ever existed between them.
“We’re going to have to work together. Be professional.”
That fury inside her shifted to something more wounded—and more dangerous. She felt as if she’d guzzled gasoline and Liam held the lit match.
He held her stare. “You should go inside. We don’t have much time, and Cipher’s shifting patterns.”
Her throat closed around a hundred things she wanted to say. None of them mattered. She reached for the armor she wore best—work.
She issued a throaty laugh. “If anyone can find a dead man, I can.”
Their gazes locked for another long beat, then two.
“I’ll get right on it.” Voice clipped, she tipped her jaw.
Liam took a step toward her, the harsh glint in his eyes softer. “Elin—”
She focused on the steam rippling across the patio. “Whatever was once between us died along with you.”
The words struck harder than she intended. From the corner of her eye, she saw his expression slip. Pain and regret flickered over his rugged features.
Before she broke and threw herself at him, she rushed to the door. She was surprised that her legs were steady and her breathing didn’t give away how upset she was because inside she was trembling.
She told herself she’d regained control of herself, the situation, her feelings.
The hollow ache in her chest promised otherwise.
Far from it.
FOUR
When Mason reminded Elin she had work to do, he’d only meant to get her inside—dressed. Not to watch her bury herself in code until she forgot to breathe.
In the last hour, he’d passed the computer lab five times. Every time, she was still there—motionless except for her fingers flying over the keys. Though she hid behind the monitors, he knew how riveted she got when she was working, how the monitors threw sharp light across her face and carved shadows under her eyes.
The base had gone quiet. And through it all, Mason couldn’t stop tracking the steady hum of Elin’s workspace, like her heartbeat was wired to the building itself.
He really fucked things up earlier. All the things he meant to say flew out his brain the minute she climbed out of the hot tub, practically naked with water streaming off her sleek skin.
