Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“You said ‘would have.’ What changed?”
When I found him, he was already dead. The Carlottis must have finally had enough of him.”
Ghost laid his hand over mine. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes held only sympathy, not anger or revulsion.
“You aren’t horrified?”
“Hell no. The man hurt you and your brothers. For all you know, he would have eventually killed you or sent you on a suicide mission for the fucking Russos, which amounts to the same thing.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.”
Ghost held my gaze. “Are you horrified?”
“No. I mean… maybe sometimes, but he deserved to die.”
“He did. I don’t take lives as easily as you might think I do, but some people need to be eliminated.”
“My brothers respect you, so I never thought you killed indiscriminately. They wouldn’t approve of that.”
Ghost raised his brows. “Your brother was thinking about killing me when I showed up here.”
“Not really. He’s angry about you putting us in danger and about you leaving the marines without telling him. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t respect your abilities.”
“I disappointed a lot of people when I left, but I had my reasons.”
“Reasons you won’t tell me?”
“Reasons I can’t tell you.”
I sighed. “Fine.”
“What I can tell you is that if I’d been there and seen your father mistreat you, I would have killed him for you.”
My chest tightened. I could barely draw in a breath. Ghost’s statement shouldn’t make me love him more, but it did. “Thank you.”
We lay there for several minutes before I pointed at the sky. “I see a frog there.”
Ghost squinted and stared where I was pointing. “Oh, yeah. I see it too, and there’s a cottage right beside it.”
I smiled and squeezed his hand. “I see it.”
We pointed out more cloud pictures to each other, and the longer we lay there, the more certain I became that we would find a way to make this work. More than anything else, even the earth-shattering orgasm he’d dragged out of me, the fact he was willing to lie there and look at the clouds with me gave me hope.
25
GHOST
If I hadn’t had to keep working with the assholes on my team, the next two days would have been absolute bliss. I spent as much time as I could with Rogue. We both wondered how long we could keep our relationship—damn, that was a scary word—secret. Rhys was getting suspicious about Rogue disappearing for long stretches, but we wanted to keep things as they were as long as we could. It turned out not to be very long at all.
TJ got word that his youngest brother was in the hands of Franco, a cousin who wanted to take control of his family’s empire. That alone would have kept Rogue busy helping in the search, but X called and told me to head to the ranch and help them however I could.
Later that morning, when I walked into the ranch’s command center just behind Rhys and TJ, I did everything I could to avoid making eye contact with Rogue.
The sideways glances I allowed myself told me Rogue was wound so tight he might explode at any second. Once this rescue mission was over, it was time for us to let his family in on our secret.
I did the best I could to ignore my intense awareness of Rogue and focus on the conversation. X was counting on me to be his representative, and no matter how much I wanted to comfort Rogue, protecting TJ’s brother, Arturo, had to be my focus.
“Our number one priority is to make sure Arturo isn’t hurt,” TJ said. “The next priority is capturing Franco alive so he can be interrogated. Whoever gets to my brother first needs to be gentle with him. He’s probably going to act like he doesn’t want any help, but I know he’s terrified.”
“We’re going to take care of him,” Grant said.
Rhys nodded. “Our job is to protect people, remember? We were hired to protect you, and we’re extending that to your brother.”
TJ frowned. “I don’t need—”
“You sure as fuck do, so let us all do our jobs.”
Whoa. I looked between the two of them. Rogue said things had heated up there, and he wasn’t kidding.
I couldn’t resist looking at Rogue anymore. He gave me a knowing smile, which I returned, but I looked away as soon as I sensed Grant’s eyes on me.
“How the hell did you get here so fast?” Grant asked. “Weren’t you in DC?”
“No, I was closer than that, and I don’t have to worry about speeding tickets.” Please don’t ask exactly how close.
Rhys scowled at me. “Just because you’re Mr. FBI doesn’t—”
TJ interrupted before he could finish. “Can we please make a fucking plan? My brother is out there, and his life is in danger.”
Rhys moved closer to TJ. “What’s the best way for us to cover all possible approaches?”