even more beautiful than her flawless skin, her long, wavy, rich brown hair, those tawny eyes that held nothing but promise, and her stunning figure.
Promise?
Seriously, what the fuck was wrong with me? I didn’t wax poetic about eyes. Hell, I didn’t wax poetic about anything.
I wanted nothing.
I cared about little.
I loved few. Those being my teammates, and I loved them with brotherly love born from loyalty and battle.
Again, what in the Sam fuck was going on?
“It’s nice to meet you all. I’m sorry for barging in this way.” Evette’s voice was shaky but her tone was firm. “I didn’t know who else to turn to.”
“The police,” Kyle offered.
“I’m sorry, Kyle,” she whispered.
“If not the police,” Zane started. “It’s my understanding you live in Riverton, why didn’t you reach out to Rocco and his team? Are they not in country?”
That was a good question. Rocco, Gumby, Bubba, Rex, Ace, and Phantom were all active-duty SEALs. Ace had married Evette’s friend Piper and Phantom was with another one of her friends, Kalee. Any of those men would’ve offered her protection especially Ace and Phantom. Actually, Phantom would’ve gone beyond offering his protection and would’ve neutralized any threat to Evette. The SEAL wasn’t big on playing by the rules and he was less of a fan of anything worrying Kalee. And if the rumors were true Kalee was deeply loyal and one of her friends in danger would’ve sent her over the edge.
“No, they’re home,” Evette admitted.
“Then why didn’t you call Ace or Phantom?” Kyle voiced my question.
I watched as Evette glanced around the room, she did this slowly, thoroughly taking in each person as if she were weighing her options—how much she was going to say.
So the woman did have a plan. She was going to follow through with that plan no matter what—that much was obvious—but she was measuring the weight of her response.
Interesting.
Smart.
Evette’s gaze finally landed on me and she let it linger longer than she had with the others. This was disconcerting. As was the way she seemed to be imploring me to give her the answers she needed without me knowing the questions. That line of thinking was ridiculous but it didn’t negate the fact I knew what she was looking for.
I dipped my chin in nonverbal encouragement and her eyes flared.
Yeah, fuck yeah.
There it was—recognition.
Evette straightened and once again looked at Kyle.
“Don’t you think Ace, Piper, Phantom, and most especially Kalee have been through enough?” Evette’s voice was not shaky, the tone was firm. It held contempt and intention.
Unfortunately, I was unclear what her intentions were and that would prove to be a tactical error on my part. I might not have given her the go-ahead to continue had I known Kyle would lose his shit.
“It goes without saying they all have,” Kyle returned.
“Right. So then you’ll understand why I didn’t go to any of them. Why I couldn’t go to them. Besides, this involves Anaya and I thought you’d want to know.”
Kyle stiffened at the mention of his wife’s name.
“How is Anaya involved?”
Evette closed her eyes and that was when she exposed the crack in her armor. She couldn’t hide it and seeing it made me want to scoop her up and take her away from Kyle’s anger.
“Kyle,” I called and waited for my friend to transfer his glare from Evette to me. Cold. Hard. Deadly. “Let’s start at the beginning.”
“I need to—”
I cut Kyle off and reminded him, “You’ll get the full scope if Evette starts at the beginning.”
“Fine,” Kyle snapped and took the empty seat next to Linc.
Evette opened her eyes, clenched her jaw, and leveled Kyle with a guilty stare before she cleared the look and fortitude infused her face.
Yeah, I liked this woman’s grit.
I’d heard Anaya call her friend Evie instead of Evette countless times. But she didn’t look like an Evie to me. The nickname was too soft, too sweet for the woman I’d met. No, Evette reminded me of a cute little koala—soft and cuddly but if they felt threatened they’d bare their fangs and slice you to shreds.
“You’re a reporter, right?” Linc asked.
“Yeah, I work for the nonpartisan media group, The Wire.”
Silence fell and Evette shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
“This isn’t an interrogation,” I started.
But before I could continue Evette cut me off.
“It isn’t? It sure feels like one.”
“Well, it’s not. You came here for a reason. Instead of us cross-examining you, why don’t you tell us what happened?”
Evette licked her lips and I found myself watching the way