was undisputed the rebels had demolished the village and orphanage.
But the question remained—did someone set the rebels on that path or was it a coincidence? And since none of us believed in coincidences of that magnitude we were going with the working theory someone had paid the rebels to hit the village, orphanage, and possibly take out Kalee.
Phantom was pissed. Ace wasn’t too far behind Phantom and both men had enlisted their team to watch over the women. No harm would come to Kalee or Piper even if there was a viable current threat.
But there wasn’t.
The current threat was centered around Evette.
Garrett had been monitoring the cameras around Z Corps and the safehouse. So far, whoever had held Evette at gunpoint hadn’t followed her to Maryland—or if they had they were playing it smart.
“How long has she been in there?” I asked.
“The phone rang about the time the shower went on.” Coop paused and an irritating smile formed. “Thought you SEAL types were in and out. Didn’t take you for the type of man who lingers.”
Ass.
“We’re multifaceted, that’s what makes us so dangerous. We know when to take our time and linger and when to get the fuck out.”
“And that applies to alone time in the shower?”
My bark of laughter took me by surprise. I wasn’t feeling particularly happy but I had to hand it to Coop—he was funny.
“Walked right into that one.”
A seriousness crept into Coop’s stare and I wished he’d go back to breaking my balls.
No such luck.
“You doing okay?”
Fuck no, I wasn’t okay. I was lusting after a woman who I could never have and dreaming about her talking to me. And the fuck of it was, lust had very little to do with my present feelings.
I decided on a little honesty.
“I just need to stay away from her.”
“Why?”
It would take me a year to list all of the reasons why. But the biggest was I wasn’t cut out for a serious relationship. Those tended to lead to marriage and families, places I wasn’t capable of going. I’d known from an early age how life could turn and leave you destitute despite your best efforts. I would never put a wife and child through that. As a single man, life was easy to navigate but the responsibility of a family would be crippling. I’d witnessed the devastation firsthand. I’d been the child in that scenario and fear and hunger were two things I vowed never to feel again.
“Because it wouldn’t be right. For starters, she’s Anaya’s friend. She’s close to Kyle. And one look at the woman and you cannot miss she doesn’t do meaningless.”
“But meaningless is all you’re after,” Coop surmised.
“Yep.”
“Good to know.”
Coop was back to smiling and my gut twisted at the sight.
He wouldn’t dare…would he?
“What’s good to know?”
“That you’re not interested. Garrett was going on and on about how smart she was. I guess they bonded over some geek tech shit that went over my head but Evette understood and started drilling Garrett for more information.”
Evette, drilling, and Garrett used in the same sentence made my blood pressure skyrocket.
What the fuck?
“Garrett needs to keep his goddamn hands to himself.”
And his dick but thankfully I managed to keep that tidbit to myself.
“I don’t get it. You’re not interested, Garrett is. And he doesn’t strike me as a man who would fuck her and not call.”
Oh, Garrett would call all right—for seconds and thirds. But that was all Evette would get from him. That was all any woman got from Garrett. It was common knowledge that Garrett was hung up on a woman from his past and he was still in love with her. Many a woman had tried to sway Garrett and they were always shown the door.
Evette wouldn’t be one of those women.
That was why I was feeling murderous. I was simply protecting her. It had nothing to do with jealousy or the sick churning in my gut at the thought of another man touching her.
Nope.
Couldn’t be.
“You’re wrong about Garrett.”
“No, Gabe. The only person who’s wrong is you.”
Before I could school my new teammate on all the reasons I was one hundred percent correct a red-faced Evette came out of her bedroom.
Forcing myself not to rush to her side I stayed rooted in the kitchen and asked, “Everything okay?”
Sad eyes met mine and the need to get to Evette grew.
“At least she doesn’t hate me but she’s super pissed.”
Evette’s voice cracking was my undoing and I could no longer keep my distance.