31. Reese
Reese
Sitting here beside Weston, on the bed of his truck, is a dream come true. Countless times over the years we were apart, I reminisced about this exact thing. Sitting with him on a tailgate, beneath a blanket of stars.
Now, we’ve traded the stars for a barn roof, but it’s still perfect.
More than.
“So tell me something about you that I don’t know. Something from the time we were apart.”
He laughs softly. “I don’t know that I have anything interesting to tell.”
“You were a Navy SEAL who went on off-books missions for a secret government agency. I’d say you have a story or two to tell.”
He chuckles softly and eats a fry. “Okay, there was this one time we were in a little village in the Middle East. Sawyer and I were trying to gather intel on some US players there who shouldn’t have been, but neither one of us spoke more than a handful of words in their language.
Anyway, I told him that the map wasn’t in our packs, then sat back and watched him try to ask directions using only charades.
It was only after he ended up getting yelled at that I told him I had the map the entire time. ”
“You did not!”
I laugh, recalling the memory of Sawyer trying to mime his way through asking how to get across town. “I did. He got me back pretty good a few weeks later, though.”
“How so?”
“He rigged my room with a microphone and spent two nights waking me up every hour with a creepy voice calling my name.”
“You fell for it?”
“I was sleep deprived,” he defends. “That’s the only reason he got me.”
“Sure it is.” I bump his shoulder with mine.
“What about you? How is Charleston?”
“Eh. It’s okay. Veterinary school was fun. Hard, but fulfilling. I never really had any friends until I met Ash, though.” I swallow hard, that betrayal hurting far worse than it probably should.
“I’m sorry, Reese.”
“She pretended pretty well.”
“I know how that feels.”
I smile up at him. “I know you do.” We remain like that, just staring into each other’s eyes for a while.
“My first day on the job, though, this little girl brought in her pet cat who had been hit by a car. It didn’t look good at first, and the other vet on staff wanted to just put it down.
I refused, though, and stayed up with that cat for forty-eight straight hours. ”
“And?”
“He went home with that little girl three days later and has been living a happy life ever since.”
He beams at me. “That’s my girl.”
My girl. Oh how that makes my heart flutter. “I never stopped, you know.”
“What?” he asks, then eats another fry.
I swallow hard. Is this going to be a mistake? But then I recall everything we’ve been through together. Not just the near-death experiences of the last week, but everything before.
Late nights sitting under the stars together as teens.
Getting pregnant.
Getting married.
Losing the baby.
The annulment of a marriage that had barely begun.
Yet here we sit. Side-by-side. Because no matter what life throws our way, I have to believe that this is where we belong.
Together.
So, with that in mind, I meet his gaze. “Loving you. I know that things might not go our way, and Brenda might win, but I just need you to know. That, no matter what happens, I love you with everything that I am, Weston Hayes. And I’ve loved you even before I was old enough to know what love was.”
Weston’s expression shifts, the amusement fading as something else slips into place. For a brief moment, I worry that I’ve pushed too far too fast. But then he reaches up and cups my cheek.
“I never stopped loving you either, Reese. Living without you these past years has been little more than half a life. But I see now that I was just buying time until you were where you belonged. With me.”
I smile as he leans in, then close my eyes when he takes my lips with his. The soft scraping of his beard against my skin is a welcome reminder of the man he’s become. I sink into the kiss, into this moment with him, reveling in the silence before the storm.
An explosion outside shakes the barn, and the horses go haywire. They stomp their feet, calling out and spinning around in their stalls.
Weston is on his feet in an instant, taking me with him and tugging me to the ground beneath the shelter of his truck.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.” He starts to inch forward, around the truck, but I grip his hand.
“Where are you going?” Panicked, I stare up at him. She’s here.
“I’m not going anywhere, okay?”
Swallowing hard, I reluctantly release his hand and watch as he peers through two boards to the outside. His phone rings, but he doesn’t say a word when he answers and presses it to his ear.
“We’re coming out. Cover us.” He shoves his phone into his pocket and reaches out for me. “Stay low. Move fast. No matter what you hear or see, do not stop running until you reach the house, okay?”
I nod, hoping that my legs will carry me that far. Though I know that, if they don’t, Weston will be right there to make sure I make it. I just hope he does, too.
Instead of pulling me toward the doors, though, Weston tugs me toward the back of the barn.
He drops down to his knees and uses his boot to kick out the bottoms of a few boards.
“I loosened them just in case we needed an extra exit. I hoped we wouldn’t.
” He takes a deep breath, then lets it out.
“I’m going to crawl out first. Wait for my signal; then follow. ”
I nod and wrap both arms around myself while he slips out from beneath the now broken board.
“Okay, Reese, come on out.” Without hesitating, I drop down into the dirt and scoot beneath the free space. Hard dirt and small rocks bite into my skin, but I don’t make a single sound as I climb out and into the darkness.
In the distance, flames climb up into the night sky. They’re a few miles away, in the direction of—“Oh no, your house!”
“It doesn’t matter.” Weston tugs me forward right as the first shot rings out.
A bullet hits the ground beside us, and dirt flies up and hits my ankle. I scream, but Weston shoves me forward toward the house. We sprint, reaching the porch right as the door opens. I’m yanked inside first, and Weston dives in after me.
The door slams shut. Somewhere in the house, Aragorn barks frantically.
“How many hostiles?” Weston questions as he pulls me to my feet.
“Seventeen that we know of,” Sawyer replies.
“We caught two on your proximity cameras before the explosion. The others have been spotted on trail cameras I put up in the trees.”
Weston removes a pistol that had been holstered at his lower back, then checks it and turns to his team. “No one gets to my horses or this house.”
“Understood,” Ryker says.
“I’ve got explosives planted at the entrance to this main area. They only got your place because they came in from the back. If they come here, they’re going up like kindling,” he says.
“Then let’s start eliminating some hostiles,” Weston says as he straps on a bulletproof vest offered to him by Ryker.
“What about the police? Are they coming?” Surely these men aren’t planning on taking on seventeen or more armed men alone, are they?
But then I remember the way Weston exploded off the floor of that storage container.
The way he leveled three-armed men despite being unarmed and seriously injured.
These men were trained for war. No matter what the odds are, they are soldiers.
“Leopold knows what’s going on,” Zane says. “He’s set up roadblocks and is trying to get a SWAT team to come in. Caldwell is not currently answering his phone,” he adds.
“Then it looks like it’s up to us to stop her.” Garrison stands, then holds his hand out. “Forged in combat.”
“Washed by grace,” Zane adds as he puts his hand in the middle.
“Bound by brotherhood,” Sawyer adds.
“Iron Tide,” Ryker adds.
“Brotherhood,” Weston finishes, adding his hand to the middle.
“Yeah, baby. Let’s go show these guys the mistake they made by setting foot in this town.” Dressed all in black, Sawyer rushes over toward the back window, then peers outside. After a brief moment, he slips outside, disappearing into the night.
“Aragorn is in your room,” Ryker says. “I wanted him to be safe just in case they came in.”
“Thank you.” My poor boy has no idea what’s going on, but he senses it. He hasn’t stopped barking since we got into the house.
Weston practically carries me up the stairs while Garrison, Zane, and Ryker remain down. He pulls me into my room, and Aragorn jumps up on me, tail wagging, tongue hanging out.
“Hey, boy. It’s okay. I’m here.”
Weston checks the windows, then turns back to me and reaches behind him to withdraw a second gun.
“You remember how to use this?”
“You mean from that time when we were seventeen and you took me to shoot cans?” Aragorn drops down and sits beside me.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I wasn’t good at it then.”
He shoves the gun into my hand. “You can do this. Anyone but us comes through that door. Anyone you don’t recognize, you put them down, understand? Lights off. Door locked at all times. Stay away from the window, no matter what happens.”
“I—” Tears fill my eyes. Weston gently grips my chin and raises my face.
“I love you, Reese.”
“I love you, too.”
He leans in and kisses me quickly, then leans down and pets Aragorn. “Keep her safe, boy. I’m counting on you.”
“Where are you going to be?”
“Right downstairs,” he says softly.
Knowing he will be so close eases a bit of my nerves. “If someone gets hurt—”
“I know,” he says, then turns to leave the room, pausing right by the door. “We’ll finish our date tomorrow night.”
“I’m free for breakfast first thing in the morning.”
He grins. “Sounds great. Breakfast on the beach. I like it.”
With a final smile in my direction, he turns and races out of the room. With the gun in hand, I lean back against the wall. Aragorn trots over and lies beside me, ears perked.
Outside, I hear nothing.
But I know, without a doubt, a storm is brewing.