“My brother’s different. He’ll care.”
“Just give it back.”
“Not until you promise you’re going to tell Eastern.”
Nowshefelt angry. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. You broke up with me, remember? Now give it back.”
“This asshole’s been obsessed with you for over two goddamn years, and you want me to, what? Pretend I didn’t see this? Pretend I don’t care?”
“What Iwantis for you to let me live my life. This person is creepy, but they’ve never hurt me. I’ll watch my back. Now give it to me, Lock.”
“Callie—”
“Now.”
The muscles in his arms flexed, and finally he handed it back. But as he did, he leaned down, his mouth almost touching her ear as he whispered, “Fine. But this isn’t over. If you thought I wouldn’t leave you alone before, that’snothingcompared to what’s going to happen now.”
Her throat dried, and before she could utter a word, he turned and was gone, the door of the studio slamming behind him.
CHAPTER 6
“You look frustrated, brother.”
Lock glanced up at Cody, who was working behind the bar. The music was loud and the place was packed, but he barely noticed. “Frustrated is an understatement.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Cody swung a bar towel over his shoulder. “How about at the beginning?”
He could have laughed. “The beginning and the end are the same damn place. Callie.”
“Still not getting through to her?”
“She said it doesn’t matter.” His fingers tightened around his beer. It still hurt to think about. Because how the hell could their past not matter?
Cody frowned. “What doesn’t matter?”
“The reason I broke up with her. The reason welosteach other. The reason we lost two damn years together.” Itdidmatter. Out of everything in their past,thatmattered the most. “She called me a memory and a lesson.”
Cody cringed. “Ouch. That must have hurt.”
It didn’t hurt. Hurting was when he slammed his finger in a door or walked into the corner of a coffee table. Callie calling him a memory felt like a hand punching through his chest and pulling out his heart.
“There’s just so much I don’t get,” Lock said almost to himself. “Like why she won’t hear me out, and why she left town and wouldn’t let anyone tell me where she was. And I don’t know why she seems to think we can coexist in this town without even talking.” Becausehecouldn’t. Seeing her every week, hearing her name, all while she barely looked at him, was torture.
“I didn’t know you guys got so deep.”
Of course he didn’t. Because just like his other brothers, Cody had been away serving their country. Lock had only gotten to spend time with her when he’d made it back to town or when she visited him. But those moments together…shit, they’d been everything. The fresh air he’d so desperately needed to breathe between missions. The calm in the storm that was his job as a Ghost Ops operative.
“I need her back.” Lock wasn’t sure if those words were meant for himself or his brother. Maybe both.
Someone called Cody from the other side of the bar, but he didn’t move right away. Instead, he looked Lock dead in the eye. “Then fight for her. If you love her like I think you do, fight hard.”
Then Cody’s gaze moved across the bar, likely to Harper. He was probably thinking that if situations were reversed, fighting was exactly what he’d do for her.
His brother gripped his shoulder before walking down the bar.
