“Fuck off.” Mason shook Doc’s hand away.
Doc laughed and then his eyes landed on something beyond Mason’s shoulder. “Baby Bear.”
Mason stiffened, not wanting to turn but unable to help himself.
Alex headed toward them, her short legs eating up the distance, her eyes firmly—and frightfully—fixed on his. He looked around for an escape route. She’d been trying to corner him all day. And he knew damned well why.
She wanted to pick up the conversation they’d been having in his bedroom before the shit went down. Which was the deadlastthing in the worldhewanted to do.
He already hated himself for who he was, the sort of man who’d never be what she needed or deserved. But if he saw that hurt look in her eyes one more time, he might just be tempted to eat his own M4 for dinner.
“Doc, if he tries to run,” Alex called, having accurately read Mason’s expression, “tackle him to the ground.”
Doc obediently placed a restraining hand on Mason’s shoulder and leaned over to whisper close to his ear, “Despite your willful pursuit of ignorance on the matter, I think you know, deep down, that the pain we suffer for love is always worth it.”
Bitter cold washed down Mason’s length.
Doc knew.
Well, ofcourseDoc knew. Because they’d been friends and teammates and partners for the better part of a decade. And because they’d been through countless battles together, which had a tendency to suck all the gray out of anyone’s personality and leave only the black and white behind.
For instance, Mason knew when Doc got that faraway look in his eye, he was thinking about his dead wife. And when Doc said heneeded to go see a woman about a horse, he wasn’t really looking for sexual gratification, but instead seeking a little comfort in the arms of a stranger.
So, yeah. It wasn’t a surprise that Doc could read Mason as easily as Mason could read Doc.
“It’s notmypain I’m worried about,” he hissed from the side of his mouth, and then straightened because Alex now stood in front of him, flame hair wild around her face, hands planted firmly on her hips. She looked like a little tyrant.
Since they’d arrived in Key West in swim trunks or, in Alex’s case, a sexy-without-trying-too-hard set of sleep shorts, yesterday Romeo had made a round trip to Wayfarer Island to pack a bag for each of them. Typical of Romeo, he’d managed to find the hottest outfit Alex owned. A little sundress that molded to her pert breasts and hugged the nip of her waist.
Fucking Romeo, Mason thought uncharitably as a million and one images of Alex naked and writhing beneath him assaulted his brain. As if he wasn’t tortured enough already.
“Have I told you how much I love that dress on you, Baby Bear?” Doc crooned at Alex while covertly digging an elbow into Mason’s side.
She blinked down at her dress. When she glanced up, her expression was one of genuine confusion. “Really?” Her green eyes were guileless behind the lenses of her glasses.
On any other woman, Mason might have thought it an act. But Alex truly had no idea how beautiful she was.
And oh! How he loved her for that. Well, that and about a million other things.
“You look hot, little momma.” Doc waggled his eyebrows.
Before Mason realized his own intent, he slammed a retaliatory elbow into Doc’s side. “Fuck on out of here, why dontcha?” he growled.
Doc smirked and tipped an imaginary hat. “That’s my cue.”
A little line appeared between Alex’s eyebrows as she watched Doc saunter down the hall and disappear into Wolf’s hospital room. When she turned back, there were shadows in her eyes.
That M4 is looking tastier and tastier.
“You’re going after Rory Gellman,” she said, and Mason released the breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding. At least this subject wouldn’t break his damned heart.
He nodded. “Gellman has to be stopped.”
She didn’t argue, simply continued to frown. “When will you leave?”
“Today.” He wanted so much to smooth the line from between her eyebrows. And then smooth her eyebrows so he could feel once again how silky soft those arches were.
“So soon?” If he wasn’t mistaken, there was a hitch in her voice.
