I keep my gun loaded and my head on a swivel. More focused on the Bratva instead of the bears around here, lately.
“And Sheremetev is in the wind, isn’t he?” I ask the agent.
Silence.
“And that’s why I finally got an update. Cuz’ he may blow my way.”
Again, silence.
“Well, thank you for the update, Agent. It only took a year.”
I’m not disrespecting her with my sarcasm. I’m flipping my middle finger to every little dick in DC. For all their “big beautiful” laws, they sure don’t give a fuck about breaking them over the backs of women.
“Thank you, Ranger Allen,” she hedges. “And I should add that… Sasha Sheremetev has your bracelet.”
My heart skips. “What?”
“When I released her to the custody of her husband, she was wearingyourbracelet.”
Covertly, the agent reveals what I was desperate to know.Sasha hasn’t forgotten me. She knows there’s at least one woman who’ll die to protect her.
“Thank you, Agent.”
“Hey, Jesse!”
I raise my hand as the bell chimes over the glass doors to the convenience store. It’s been a week since I spoke to the agent and updated my boss with the intel. He’ll tell the other rangers to be on the hunt for Sheremetev.
God knows, I am.
And I always need my fix at the end of a long day’s hunt.
“Hey… uh… Ranger!AlenaAllen!” He shouts like Paul Revere to the empty store. “You’re early today! You’re early today!”
“Uh, yeah.” My eyes narrow, reading his nervous reaction. “I switched shifts with Morris so he could go to his daughter’s soccer game.”
Jesse dances like a bee is in his britches. “I hear you. RangerALLEN!”
Something’s off with him again. And when I round the end cap, loaded with cheese crackers and jerky snacks, I see the source of his anxiety.
It’s mine too.
“Hey,” Loch greets me, neon green Slurpee in hand.
“Hey.”
My heart clenches. The handsome sight of him in uniform mocks my deepest pain. How he can’t hide that massive, muscular, inked body or the love in his eyes.
“I… uh,” he stammers, explaining, “I usually come in around three. To… uh…”
I blink. “To avoid me?”
“Never.” His face falls. “To respect you, Alena. Always.”
When a man Loch’s size says it, you feel it.
Hehasrespected me. I asked for time and space, and he’s given it. He gave me Mutt. He gave me the first shift. He’s given me everything but the one thing only I can’t find yet: my forgiveness.
I nod, reaching for a cup. “How was Charleston?”
