"On purpose?"
Stefan nodded again. "Yeah, I was trying to kill him."
Sawyer's jaw dropped. "You were trying to kill Roark?" Considering Roark had been all "we're a team," that statement seemed a little odd to him.
"Yeah." Stefan sighed. His shoulders slumped. "I was convinced he had let you die that day out on the tarmac. I wanted to make him pay, to make him feel my pain."
"So, you shot him?"
Stefan shrugged. "I waited until he found Frankie."
Sawyer snorted. "Oh, that's even better."
"Frankie said you knew each other from before."
"We did." Sawyer had worked in the same police precinct as Roark before the world went to hell.
"He said you'd be pissed when you learned I shot Roark."
"Well, I'm not thrilled about it."
Duh.
"Frankie convinced me that you might not have died that day, and then Roark promised to send out a search team for you. In fact, that's where we were supposed to be headed tomorrow. We were going to head down to Colorado Springs and have a look around."
"You wouldn't have found me down there. The mechs tend to avoid that area. I think they've taken everything they can from there, and since there are no settlements in the area, they just don't go there very often."
Stefan moved closer. "So, where have you been then?"
"All over really. I don't tend to stay in one place very long."
"Hunting mechs or avoiding them?"
"Hunting mostly." There had been some avoiding, but only when others had been in the area. Sawyer avoided ADF units as much as possible. He didn't want one of them reporting back to base that he was alive.
He had no idea what he was going to do now.
"I missed you, Sawyer."
Sawyer glanced at Stefan again. "I missed you, too." More than the man could possibly understand. "I stayed away because I had to. Not because I wanted to."
"No more staying away."
Sawyer drew in a shaky breath when Stefan walked right up to him. Breathing didn't get any easier when Stefan's chest pressed against his. "Stef—"
"We belong together, not apart." Stefan's fingers curled into Sawyer's shirt. "Do you get that?"
"Stef—"
"Do you get that?" Stefan asked again, giving Sawyer a shake. His lower lip trembled. "It nearly destroyed me when I thought you were dead."
Guilt swamped Sawyer. "I'm sorry, Stef. I didn't mean for that to happen. I just…" He raised his glove-covered hand. "I couldn't come to you like this. I still don't know half of the stuff they did to me." He was kind of learning as he went along. "I couldn't take the chance that they had done something to me that would make me hurt you."
"I was hurt when I thought you'd died."
Sawyer pulled Stefan to him then buried his face in the crook of the man's neck. Tears sprang to his eyes when the man's sweet scent wafted over him. No one on the planet smelled as good as Stefan Andres.
"I'm sorry, Stef. I never meant to hurt you. I was trying to save you."
