With a chuckle, he finishes the energy drink, crumples the can, and chucks it into the recycle bin from thirty feet away. “‘Bout damn time. What’s his name?”
“Quinton.” Running a hand through my hair, I follow West to the couches and sink down across from him. “But it’s new.Reallynew.”
“That’s not all you’re worried about.”
How does hedothat? Always know when there’s more to the story?
“He’s been through some shit.” I kick myself when that one eyebrow arches yet again. “I know, I know. But, West, he’s actively afraid of something—no, scratch that. He’s fucking terrified. The man has one of Cam’s security systems for his townhouse.”
“Overkill much? And expensive.”
“One of the sensors went haywire last night, and Quinton called me to help him fix it. When I got there…he was seconds away from a panic attack, but every time I asked him what was wrong—I mean really wrong—he clammed up on me.” I close my eyes and let my head fall against the back of the couch.
“You don’t reason with a panic attack.” Ripper’s voice, tinged with a hint of a Texas drawl startles me, and I jerk, my eyes flying open to see him standing just behind West.
“When the fuck did you get here?”
“Maybe ten minutes ago? You said your guy’s scared of something?” Rip sets down his small duffel bag and takes a seat next to West. Charlie, his German Shephard and constant companion, lies at his feet. “You can’t fix it for him, Graham. Rule number one. It doesn’t matter how many times you tell him he’s safe…if you can’tshowhim, you might as well be talking out your ass.”
The days we spent with Ripper in a safehouse outside of Kabul are burned into my brain. He was so messed up after we got him out of that hole, he didn’t know which end was up. More than once, Ry or Dax or Trevor had to calm him down, convince him he was truly free and not imagining the whole fucking thing.
And the hours I spent with him? Watching over him when the others slept? They gave me a front row seat to just how broken a man can be and still survive.
“I don’t want to make anything worse for him.” Defeat makes my shoulders slump, and I’m not even sure if Ishouldpursue anything with Q.
“I got this,” Rip says with a nod to West. “Cara told me you and Cam had somewhere to be tonight. Go on. The kid and I need to have a talk.”
* * *
The warehouse doorcloses with a quietsnick, and Ripper leans down and ruffles the fur on top of Charlie’s head. The German Shephard’s tail thumps on the carpet, and I swear the dog looks like he’s grinning.
“So…?” Rip asks.
“He texted me last night. His security system went haywire.” I dig into my pocket for the faulty door sensor and drop it on the table between us. “I was working the bar, so I couldn’t get there for almost twenty minutes. He was about to lose his shit.”
Ripper’s blue eyes darken, and he swallows hard enough I can hear it. Picking up the sensor, he turns it over in his hands, then pulls out his pocket knife and pries the case open. “That’s some serious corrosion.”
“Right? Can you tell if someone tampered with it?”
He squints, then brings the sensor to his nose. “I’m not sure. But you should have Cam take a look at it. It almost smells like vinegar, and that would definitely damage the wires, but not the shielding.”
“That’s what I thought too. And the wires were so hot they were almost smoking.” Tucking the sensor away for later, I sink back against the cushions and stare up at the ceiling thirty feet above me. At the metal struts, the corrugated roof, the lights. “I stayed the night.”
Ripper snorts. “Then what’s the problem?”
Whatisthe problem? That a guy I like needed me? Or that a guy I like didn’twantto need me?
“The whole time, it was like he was fighting this war inside his head. Either he expected me to pull a Jekyll and Hyde and turn into a monster or he couldn’t fathom why anyone would care about him.”
If I didn’t know Ripper so well, I would have missed his flinch. The hint of darkness clouding his blue eyes. Charlie sits up and lays his head on Rip’s knee with a low, inquisitive sound.
“It’s okay, buddy,” Ripper says quietly and rests his hand on the back of Charlie’s neck. He doesn’t meet my gaze, staring somewhere over my shoulder instead. “I kicked Ry and Dax out of the hospital room in Boston a dozen times.”
“I know.”
Ripper’s eyes cut to mine. “What?”
“I’m the one they called to stand watch while they went to Dax’s gym and beat the shit out of one another.”
