Page 65 of Broken Trust
Focus. Mission first. Get the job done.
Keep her alive.
Somewhere between then and now, the answer had come to him.
She needed his words. He kept giving her actions.
He knew better than to bring emotions into an op, though. He’d tell her after.
He just had to hope therewasan after.
* * * * *
The dining room hummed with conversation, the large space bigger than most of the apartments she’d had. Big enough to hold an enormous family dinner—if you considered a SEAL team and their significant others a family.
Elin sat halfway down the table, a band of tension stretched between her shoulder blades. She pushed around the food on her plate in an attempt to camouflage her jangling nerves.
While they’d all gathered for what the ladies told her was “dinner,” no one mistookthisfor just a meal. What she was witnessing was obviously a ritual to the team—a last chance tobreathe, to remember what they were fighting for before they rushed headfirst into a storm of danger.
Con sat at the head of the table, his untouched plate pushed back. When he cleared his throat, the conversation silenced, every eye on him. “We’re heading to DC soon. You’ve all been briefed. Elin—”
Her heart stuttered.
“—you’re the lead. You wipe the computer, then as soon as you’re out, you make first contact with Kent.”
She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat.
Con’s gaze moved down the table, steady as a laser. “Team for the op is as follows: myself, Dante, Steele, Henner and Ash. Sophie and May, be on standby. We may need your expertise.”
Both women nodded.
Elin’s looked at each and every person Con called. These people were going with her, and she prayed that they all returned safe and whole.
But what about Liam? He’d made demands about watching over her, yet his name wasn’t called.
Her gaze drifted to him, eyes blurring for a moment as she fixated on his broad chest where she’d rested her head oh so many nights. Then she dropped her attention to his hands, fisted on the table.
“Mason.”
Her gaze snapped to his…and Liam was already staring back. She was hurled back to days before, when she walked into the war room and locked eyes with him. The connection had lasted only a beat, but it was enough for her to know, without any doubt, that she wouldneverquit loving him.
Con lifted his jaw toward Liam. “You’re with Elin. You’ll go in as her protection detail, not a SEAL. Civilian look. No gunsshowing, no hero plays. You stay out of sight unless you need to move. I want calm, clear and alive, copy?”
“Copy. I’ll be calm.” Liam didn’t look away from her when he promised to hold it together. But she read something entirely different in his smoky blue eyes.
That dark gleam told her that if Kent so much as breathed wrong in her direction, Liam would be there to make him sorry for it.
Con went on giving orders. Every word left her feeling more worried than the last, until she couldn’t stop the tremble in her hands and hid them in her lap.
Each command he gave the others felt like a weight onhershoulders, like she was somehow responsible for the men getting home in one piece.
“That’s it for now.” Con drew his plate toward him and lifted his fork.
After that, some of the tension seemed to ebb. Dinner unfolded in a soft clink of forks and small conversations she guessed were probably quieter than usual. She pushed food around her plate, creating small walls like they would hold off the coming storm.
And Liam…he didn’t bother pretending to eat. His thumb tapped a slow beat on the table, reminding her of the stroke of those callused fingers on her body when he made her come undone.
She ducked her head to hide the warmth in her cheeks.
