close the distance to press my lips to his.
Cole stands stock still and doesn’t return my kiss. He doesn’t put his arms around me, nor does he reach for my bum.
I fist his shirt and pull him to me. “I have to look him in the eyes. I have to know why. If I don’t do this, I’ll never forgive myself.”
His head falls back and he studies the ceiling. All I see is a clenched, stubbled jaw.
“Cole.” I wait until he finally sighs and looks at me. He knows I don’t need his permission. But I also know he loves me and had to say goodbye to his father today. It’s asking a lot but I throw back the question he’s pinned me with so many times. “Do you trust me?”
He shakes his head. “You know I do, but I have enough scars on my heart, baby. Don’t give me another one.”
I give him a small smile. “Never.”
His face transforms into something I saw earlier—intense and probably downright scary to anyone besides me. “I know that fucker is your brother but he took you away from me. If he makes one move on you, I’ll take him out myself.”
The thought of that slays me but I understand. “I know you will.”
He takes my face in his hands and pulls me to him. Kissing me long and hard and like no one is watching. His fears dance with mine but his strength also fills me, giving me courage and, most importantly, the need to return to him above all else.
Even beyond my own blood.
He lets me go and takes a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Cole
We’re in the woods outside the church. They had surveillance all over this place. Ozzy picked up their signals with Crew’s technology and killed it with a tap of his powerful mouse and some quick keystrokes.
Something I learned tonight about Ozzy—he might be a computer-engineering genius, but he likes staying behind about as much as he likes hearing about other people’s sexcapades. He was green with envy as the rest of us left the compound in black tactical gear and armed into next week.
We all have our lane and mine is right beside Bella’s. There’s no way I’m letting her out of my sight until a shitload of people are under arrest or dead. At this point, I’m not particular how they end their night.
Grady’s voice sounds in my ear. “They’re lighting up Peterson three miles out.”
I put a finger to my comm and press the button. “He’s alone?”
“Yeah. We’re still waiting on Wendy.”
I exhale. Step one is underway.
Asa called in a favor who called in another and someone called another to have Peterson and Sisson stopped for driving with no license plates, which happen to be in the back of Jarvis’s Explorer.
Grady laughs. “He’s not happy.”
“Let us know when you find her. They need to keep him for at least thirty minutes, maybe more. We’ll keep you informed.” I glance at the church and grit my teeth. “You’re up, Bella.”
Asa and Crew’s recruits are situated around the building. I’m with Crew and he hasn’t said a word since he set up. He’s three feet from me, chest to the ground, laser focused with Devon in the sights of his rifle. He was a sharpshooter assigned to the White House when he worked for the Secret Service Uniformed Division. If Devon lifts an aggressive finger toward Bella, he’s done.
She doesn’t answer but the supersonic device she’s wearing tells the tale. Every twig and leaf she steps on as she approaches the building breaks and cracks.
The door opens.
Her footsteps might as well be bricks dropping in my gut.
“Come back to me, sweetness.”
Bella
I worked for a couple years as an operative before someone framed me for the terrorist attack. Those years are a blip compared to the career I was looking forward to. Nothing made me feel more alive than when I was working as a spy, pretending to be someone I wasn’t, knowing the lies I lived were for good and not evil.
It was my high—a rush of adrenaline—and the more I did it, the better I got. Cole might’ve had something to do with that.
Okay. A lot to do with that.
His cocky, all-knowing and self-assured persona rubbed off on me. It didn’t take me long to know when I made the decision my first year at uni, I chose correctly.
I was good at what I did.
But now I’m a new me—a woman who’s been betrayed in