Uh-oh.
“All right, Sweet Pea, Commando Woman Lesson One, you get a text like you got, you call it into base and you do it immediately.”
I was right except uh-oh didn’t quite cover it.
“Hawk –”
“You do not go visit your local, friendly motorcycle club to recruit assistance.”
“Ha –”
“You do not drag your dispatch cosmo girlfriend into your man’s shit firstly, because it might get her ass fired but especially because it might get her ass hurt.”
“Cabe –”
“You do not set your banker friend on a data search that’ll get his ass hauled to the local FBI offices for an interrogation that will be really, f**kin’ uncomfortable.”
Uh-oh!
“Ca –”
“You do not,” he leaned into me, his serious face turning hard, “ever, offer yourself up for exchange.”
“Baby –”
“And you do not go on the lam with your protective custody witness sister.”
“I –”
“Confirm you get me, babe.”
“But –”
He leaned in so he was an inch from my face. “Confirm…you… get… me.”
I stared at him.
Then my day surged through my brain which sent acid through my system and I lost my mind.
“I will do,” I planted my hands on my h*ps and stared in his black eyes, “what I have to do first, to make sure you’re safe and second, to make sure I get to make more memories with you so, okay, I’ll call base but then I will do whatever the f**k I have to do to make that happen so, no, Hawk, I do not get you!”
“Gwen –”
“I’ve been panicked all day!” I shouted, throwing up my hands and taking a step back from him. “You didn’t give me Commando Woman Lesson One this morning. No, you kissed me good-bye and said you’d see me tonight and I went about my business of the day to make sure you’d see me tonight!”
“Gwen –”
“You were bleeding from your ear!” I shrieked.
He reached out with both hands, caught me and hauled me into his body, whispering, “Baby.”
My hands clenched in his tee as his arms slid around me. “It was you or my sister. Do you know what that kind of decision does to your head?”
“All right, Sweet Pea, I get it,” he said gently.
“Yes, Cabe,” I stared him in the eyes, “of anyone, you do. You know what I was facing today. You know.” I watched his eyes close, my hands released his shirt, slid up to wrap around the sides of his neck, his eyes opened and he showed me he not only got it, he really, really got it. So my voice was quiet when I went on. “I can get why you’re angry, honey, but cut me some slack. I was doing the best I could do so you didn’t become a picture on my f**king refrigerator.”
His neck bent and his forehead touched mine then slid to the side, his cheek hit mine and that slid down too and then his face was in my neck and his arms got tight.