Dead. His teammate wasdead. And another team member’s girlfriend. The second partner murdered in two days.
His gaze moved back to the window. Callie would be here any second. Did this asshole know about her?
“Lock,” Jesse said in a whispered growl. “We’re going to find the fucker…and we’re going to end him.”
And just like that, Lock’s pain shifted, changing into something else. Something darker and uglier. Something so powerful it consumed him.
Rage. It tangled its claws around his limbs. Squeezing and clenching.
“I know we will.”
Suddenly, a car pulled up outside. He turned from the window. He wasn’t sure what words came out of his mouth before he ended the call. Everything was a blur.
When the click of the door opening sounded, he turned, and the pounding of his heart halted.
Callie.
Her long, dark hair was down and flowing over her shoulders, and her green eyes beamed straight into him.
The sight of her had the anger inside him shifting again, but this time to something far worse than disbelief or rage…
Fear. Fear that he’d lose her. Fear that this asshole who was targeting his team and the people they loved, would targether. Because he did love her. So damn much he’d die for her. And despite how much he loved her, he’d give her up to keep her safe.
Callie Ward tookthree deep breaths before looking through the car window at her house.
She was nervous. Huge, gigantic-butterflies-in-the-belly kind of nervous. She was never nervous seeing Lock, but today she was.
At the slight tremble in her fingers, she fisted her hands.
Stop it, Callie. It’s going to be fine.
This was Lock, the man she loved, and the man who loved her. Over the last year, they’d tackled long-distance dating and only seeing each other for brief moments between missions. Most new couples wouldn’t have survived it, but they’d not only survived, they’d thrived, counting down the days until the next time they saw each other. Making the most of every second together.
It felt longer than a year. Somehow, it felt like she’d loved this man her entire life.
It was crazy. Out-of-this-world, stuff-fairy-tales-were-made-of kind of crazy. But it was true.
What she needed to tell him today would change everything, though.
Oh Jesus.
What if he couldn’t handle it? What if it destroyed any plans they had of him getting out of the military and moving back to Misty Peak?
She pressed a hand to her stomach. No. Lock loved her. They’d make it work.
She climbed from her car and walked to the door.
For over a month, she’d been sitting on this information. Every phone conversation, every Skype call and text message, she’d wanted to break down and tell him. Release the life-changing news into the world. The words had been there on the tip of her tongue each time they spoke.
But she’d held them in because he deserved to hear this in person. And maybe there was also a tiny selfish part of her that wanted to see his expression when she told him. A part of her that wanted to feel his energy and know whether he was as excited about this as she was.
She lifted her key to the door, then stopped, fear trickling through her veins, making the beats of her heart stumble over one another.
Come on, Callie, this is Lock. He’s never given you any reason to doubt him.
She opened the door and stepped into the living room to see him facing away from her.
He didn’t turn toward her right away, and those seconds that passed felt like a lifetime. A thousand seconds to play over a million scenarios of how this could go in her head.
