“Because you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” I said, even though my voice came out lower, rougher. Even though my body betrayed me.
“Enough,” Jay said, his tone low but firm as he stepped between us, calm as ice. “We’re not doing this here.”
Rhett’s jaw worked. He was breathing fast, too fast. I recognized that look. He was on the edge of a fight he’d regret. I’d make him regret it.
Gaze flickering between us, Jay maintained his neutrality. Though it was also peppered with his own tight anger and need. “You both need to remember who she is. What she means to this team. You think this helps her?”
That cut through. Barely.
Rhett looked away first, swore under his breath, then chucked his keys against his own car hood. “Fine. Whatever. You’re the captain, right? So lead.”
I exhaled slow, steady. My heart hadn’t slowed at all.
Jay looked at me a long second before he said quietly, “You believe him?”
I didn’t answer.
I didn’t have to. Because now that I’d tasted that idea, reallyfeltit, I knew the truth. The truth I’d let her conceal with—whatever she’d used—and respected her boundaries. If she was in heat, and she’d taken leave for it—no, none ofthatmattered. What mattered was if she needed us.
Needed me.
Chapter
Eleven
JAY
Roan was ice.
Rhett was fire.
I sat there in the passenger seat, just sane enough to hold the line while everything else frayed
None of us spoke as we pulled away from the arena, the engine humming low beneath Roan’s knuckles, white on the steering wheel. Rhett had folded himself into the backseat like a storm cloud, radiating heat and twitchy, fight-me energy. The kind of coiled aggression that begged for a target. Or a reason.
Too bad I wasn’t in the mood to give him one.
Roan had argued the moment I’d said it—We shouldn’t go there. We don’t know what we’re walking into.
Yeah. That was the point.
And maybe Ishould’vebacked off. Maybe if this had been anyone else—any other staff member who dropped off the radar—I would’ve let it go. Waited for a call. Trusted the system.
But this wasWren.
We didn’t have that luxury.
“If we’re wrong,” I told them in the garage, “then I’ll take the heat. I’ll eat every ounce of her fury. But at least I’ll know she’s okay.”
Neither of them could argue with that.
Not out loud.
It was the second half of my sentence that turned Roan’s head—especially with Rylan sniffing around—and after a long, icy pause, he just said,We’re taking my car.
So now, here we were.
Trapped in a car together for the next twenty-two minutes as we crossed town to her townhouse. It was a cute place located in a nice area. She had neighbors on one side and on the other, she sat right next to a greenbelt. I’d been to her place all of once before, but Roan didn’t even need GPS.
