Chapter 13
My boots kick up dust as I pace outside like a caged animal.
Anger still running hot under my skin, my fists clench and unclench at my sides.
Damn it. I never should’ve touched her. The second she shoved me—with fury in her eyes and fire in her voice—I couldn’t help myself.
Instinct took over, and I pulled her close, every fiber of my being needing to correct her.
Needing to show her that I still fucking care.
But I couldn’t…
And now I’m out here like a goddamn fool, with far too much adrenaline coursing through my veins and not enough air filling my lungs. My throat is knotted so tight, I can barely breathe through the regret.
“That went well, I see.” Jagger’s voice cuts through my thoughts.
I glare at him, grinding my teeth and shaking my head. “I’m not in the mood for your bullshit.”
“Yeah, clearly.” He laughs. “As your colleague—hell, as your business partner—we can’t protect her like this. Not with all this shit between the two of you.”
“You don’t think I know that?” My words snap out harder than I mean, the anger I feel toward myself getting the better of me.
“I know you do.” He crosses his arms, his posture calm but unrelenting.
“And I also know you don’t want to hear this…
because it’s not the first time I’ve said it.
” I roll my eyes, knowing exactly what is coming next.
“But as your friend, you need to talk to her, man. Really talk to her. Not order. Not bark. Not make excuses. Talk.”
I stare at the ground, gravel crunching under my boots as I start to pace again.
I planned to talk to her. Fuck… I always planned to.
When I left, it wasn’t supposed to be permanent.
I told myself I needed time. Space. I needed to clean up the mess inside my own head before I dragged her into it. I thought I was doing the right thing.
But days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. And then it got easier to stay away. Easier to convince myself she was better off without me. That she’d move on. Find someone steady. Someone good. Someone not like me. Someone not capable of doing what I did.
“Got any more?” I no more than ask the question before I find a condom slapped into my awaiting palm.
He shakes the box, taking a look at the contents. “Enough left that you can each take a turn, and we can all go another round before letting this little slut go home.”
Dropping the condom to the cot between her cum-splattered thighs, I wrap my belt around my fists. “You really plan on just letting her go?”
“She’ll keep her mouth shut.” The man silencing her darkly laughs. “Unless she wants to find it full of cock aga–”
Jagger sucker-punches him in the jaw, silencing him before he can finish.
The impact topples him from the bed, and he lands on the floor with a thud.
Before his friend has a chance to react, I wrap my belt around his throat, cinching it tight.
He claws at my fingers, desperately fighting to take a breath.
Heavy breaths and heavier sobs fill the otherwise silent tent. “You’re okay, Abby,” Jagger soothes, wrapping a clean sheet from a nearby cot around her. She grips it with her hands, pulling it tight around her bruise-mottled body as she painfully pushes herself upright. “I’ll call the MPs.”
“No,” I bark at Jagger as the man in my belt-noose crumples to his knees. As he teeters on the brink of death, I drag him toward the head of the cot where Abby is wiping away her tears with the back of her palms.
With his near-lifeless head lifted over the thin mattress, I hold him up to Abby like an offering. “This is your decision. Do you want Jagger to call the MPs?”
She stares at me for a moment, her eyes flicking toward the man, who is silently pleading for his life, and then over to Jagger. He gives a slight tip of his chin. “Your call.”
“No,” she answers so softly I almost don’t hear it. Her eyes fall to the man slumped against the side of the cot as she cinches the sheet around her chest. She takes a deep breath and straightens her spine. “Make him suffer.”
That night, we granted her wish seven times.
The two men in our tent and five more we pulled from theirs as they were sleeping.
All of them were buried in unmarked graves in the middle of the desert.
I rub my fingers together, practically feeling the fresh blood dripping from them again.
My brothers-in-arms bound to me—and Abby—by something so much darker than the spoils of war.
A man who could do the things we did that night wasn’t worthy of a woman as amazing as Reese. She deserved better than me.
At least, so I thought.
But being around her again, everything is coming crashing back so hard, the wounds all feel fresh. I don’t just feel guilty about leaving her. I regret missing out on the life we didn’t get to enjoy.
“Tell her,” Jagger insists again.
I take a breath, then push open the tent flap.
“Reese—” My voice dies in my throat when I see that the tent is empty. I storm through it, knowing it’s far too small for her to be hiding. The back flap flutters slightly in the wind, freshly torn where I just stitched it.
“Goddamn it, Reese.” The words rip from my chest in a growl as my gut twists with fear. I rush out of the tent, practically tackling Jagger when I slam into him.
He takes a step back. “What the hell?”
“She’s not in there.” I spin around in the middle of the dirt, desperately hoping to see her. My blood is boiling, and my heart thuds with fear and fury in equal parts. “Get the others. Search everywhere! Tent to fence line. Now.”
“Where are you going?” he calls after me as I jog away from him.
Not seeing any signs of Reese, I run faster. My legs pound the earth as I sprint past supply crates, tents, and startled soldiers toward the main gate. I know her, know exactly how that beautiful, stubborn, reckless brain of hers works. And I know exactly where she’s headed.
The village. Alone. Or she might as well be.
A caravan of Humvees with softly rumbling engines waits in a short line at the gate.
My already racing heart catches in my throat.
I run past them, anxiously looking into each, searching desperately for her.
Every heartbeat thunders with fear. Fear that I’m too late and she’s already driving into the desert.
I spot her through the windshield of the Humvee two cars away, and the thudding in my chest stops dead. She’s in the passenger seat, her eyes blazing with that reckless fire that has always drawn me in and infuriated me beyond belief.
Acting without thought, I tear open the door, ignoring the driver’s confusion.
Startled, Reese gasps, “What are you do—”
“Get out of the car,” I bark. Reese glares at me, lips curling with that stubborn, fiery defiance, not making the slightest effort to follow my demand. “Get out. Now.”
The driver looks at Reese, nervous. “Ma’am, is he a problem?”
I level a glare sharp enough to slice through steel. “I’m going to be your fucking problem if you don’t shut the fuck up and mind your business.”
“Christopher!” she snaps, lifting her hand and gesturing for the driver to stand down. “I’m going.”
I step closer, planting my hands on the doorframe and leaning into the Humvee. Lowering my voice and speaking with deliberate calmness, I repeat my command, “Reese, get out of the fucking car.”
She stiffens. “No.”
Without hesitation, I reach into the SUV, swoop my arm around her waist, and yank her from the front seat. Her body twists as she fights, but I’m stronger and faster. Before she can react, I hoist her over my left shoulder. She thrashes, screaming and cursing, as I slam the door shut behind me.
She writhes in my grip, her voice growing sharp and venomous. “Put me down!”
I keep walking toward the camp, glaring at every soldier who dares so much as glance in our direction as we pass.
“You never listen,” I growl, my voice full of a decade’s worth of emotion. With my left hand tightening around her thighs, my right hand settles on her ass to still her. “You never have, though.”
“Chris…” she gasps when my hand squeezes her round cheek.
“Even when you were mine, you needed constant reminding.” My hand connects with her ass, and she lets out a surprised yelp.
I give another sharp spank, but instead of protest, a low grumble comes from her lips.
“Yeah…” I murmur, pressing on and pacing across the camp.
“I remember exactly what kind of Daddy you need.”
My hand comes down hard—again and again—the sting blooming across my palm and heat radiating from her skin. All the fire drains from her mouth with every spank, venomous curses fading into breathless silence until she stops struggling.
“And I remember exactly how red this little ass needed to be before you’d apologize for misbehaving.”