“The loudmouth outside is Sonny Te Awa. Hot headed, like you,” he said, rising from the bed. He walked into the bathroom and closed the door, taking all his warmth with him.
Sitting up, Lauren reached for her phone. She’d put it on sleep mode but wasn’t expecting to wake up after eleven thirty in the morning. She’d missed over ten phone calls and fifteen text messages.
“Shit!” she shouted, scrambling off the bed.
Santiago opened the bathroom door to see her pacing as she went through her phone.
“Has there been another death?” he asked.
The security alarm trilled.
“Son of a bitch!” Santiago shouted, racing down the stairs in his uniform pants and naked chest. Lauren hopped off thebed, adjusted her tank top, and pulled her pajama shorts from between the sheets and stepped back in to them. Slipping on her Garfields, she headed toward the door. Changing her mind, she went back for her long cardigan and headed downstairs, nosy to see the man crazy enough to break into Santiago’s house.
CHAPTER 17
The backdoor was half open,alarm counting down but no sign of Sonny. Santiago shut the door and disarmed his security system. Turning, he saw Sonny step into the hallway, a large hunk of cake—his cake—in his hand as he stepped out of the kitchen. Sonny stopped chewing and smiled when he saw Santiago.
“Brother, where’d you get this? Outside of seeing Hammerhead, it’s the only good thing I’ve experienced since entering this shithole, time-warped ass town.”
Santiago watched Sonny silently. The old frustration returned, probably because it had never gone.
“Don’t touch my fucking cakes,” he said flatly.
In all his years in the navy, Sonny still seemed to have a problem with impulse control. Ultimately, his inability to maintain control was the reason Sonny opted out of the unit after years of serving together.
Finishing off the cake, Sonny watched Santiago skeptically, then wiped the crumbs from his mouth and hands as he approached, then wrapped his arms around Santiago, pounding him on the back in greeting.
“Thank you, brother, for the opportunity. I need this. I missed the team.”
Santiago returned the hug because on the other side of his anger and disappointment, he’d missed the friend he’d loved like a younger brother. It was one thing for Sonny to allow impulse to kill the men not on their targeted list, but the team could’ve weathered that. When Sonny chose to walk away from the navy and the team, rather than acknowledge wrongdoing and accept the consequences, Santiago had to shut Sonny out of his heart and mind and keep going.
He stepped back.
“It was Roan’s idea to bring you in.”
“You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t know your unforgiving ass would’ve let me continue to float in dark waters just to keep making a point? Have you learned that things aren’t always right and wrong yet, that sometimes control snaps despite how much you demand rigid inflexibility over all emotion.”
“Sounds spot on to me, and I’ve only known the man a couple of weeks,” Lauren said from the stairs. Sonny’s eyebrows rose as he looked from Santiago to Lauren.
He exercised his hard-fought control as Sonny stepped around him and moved to the foot of the stairs.
“Beauty, he is not worthy. This man doesn’t even deserve to breathe on you sideways. Come, come down, I’ll undo this bad choice you are attempting to make.”
Lauren laughed. “I like you.”
“Get out of my house.”
“I’m going, League. Just sign the papers and me and?—”
“Lauren.”
“Me and Lauren Cakes—you did make the cakes?”
“I did.”
“Me and Lauren Cakes are going to find a nice kitchen and I’m going to get my own cake, and I won’t be a selfish bastard about it.” He extended his hand, waved her to him. “You know the last time I saw him he nearly broke my arm. He’s got a violent streak.”
“He’s always calling me the violent one.”
