Page 24 of Broken Trust
“We’ll have him transferred into our custody. They’ll send him to us with an escort. Steele, Sinner.” Both men snapped to attention. “Meet him at JFK.”
The men nodded that they understood the order, but to Elin, those words felt like an asteroid striking the earth, hewing a trail of destruction.
The feed zoomed out to show the suspect being led outside. Somewhere, the dog barked again, scared but alive.
Liam’s voice cut through the static of her thoughts. “It’s over for tonight.”
But it wasn’t. Not for her.
Her body shook with emotion and her brain refused to let go of the questions screaming louder with every heartbeat. What if she was wrong? What if she had just handed them the wrong man while the real terrorist still had his finger on a button, prepared to detonate a bomb?
A rough cry bottled in her throat. She pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes, trying to stop the world from spinning.
“Elin.”
Before she could respond, Liam’s fingers wrapped around her arm and he was pulling her out of her seat, guiding her to the door. The mission chatter faded as they left the war room.
He took one look at her and knew she was losing it.
“Fuck, Elin. Come here.” He didn’t ask permission. Didn’t wait.
He wrapped his arms around her and pressed her head against his chest. She gulped back her tears, thinking of the owner. His wife and kids. The dog.
She had no memory of Liam whisking her away, but next thing she knew, she was inside her dim bedroom, worlds away from the chaos erupting in other people’s lives because of her.
He released her long enough to shut the door with a soft click. She stood in the middle of the room, arms wrapped around her middle, trying to hold herself together. “Liam, what if that man was innocent?”
“Then he’ll be released. What you need to ask yourself is what if you were right?”
She searched his face for the truth, hysteria rising inside her. “If I was…and he was armed…those officers could have been killed! It would have been on me!”
“It’s the risk they take in the name of duty.”
She dropped her face into her hands, a cry bursting past her clamped lips. The room felt too small, her chest too tight.
His arms locked around her again and he settled on the bed with her in his lap. His hard body curled around her. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you. You made the right call. You did your job.”
“I did a terrible thing!”
“You did a brave thing.” His lips grazed her hair, and she gulped at the memory of other times when he held her for other reasons than to comfort her.
His arms tightened, and he buried his nose in her hair, inhaling.
She froze. “No. Not like this.”
His fingers sank into her hair, cradling her head to him. “Stay right here. Just let me hold you while your mind processes what just happened.”
Her mind warred between wanting to escape his all-too-familiar arms and burrowing closer to the safe steel of his chest.
Remorse was a raw rasp in his voice. “You made a hard decision. Believe me…I know the feeling.”
SIX
Mason didn’t know if he’d survive this. Touching Elin felt so right, so perfect. Like those two years apart never existed.
She shook against him until the worst of it burned out, leaving small tremors he recognized—the aftershocks that came when a warrior finally stopped bracing for impact.
He held on anyway because letting go too fast felt like dropping her. When her breathing evened out, he eased away enough to study her face.
