The way the deep rumble of his voice caressed syllables wassinful.Like, there should be jail time attached to sounding that sexy.
It should also be illegal to save her from becoming a dating cautionary tale and nottalkto her.Any other man would’ve been going on and on about how heroic he was after what had happened.But Cole?Crickets.
And for some reason, all her conversation starters at the moment were vaguely (or not too vaguely in some cases) inappropriate.Much like the grey sweatpants he was wearing.Howdarehe wear those pants and not be out here professing that she was his fated mate?
Maybe it was time to lay off the supernatural romances for a bit.Ahem.
She was still trying to puzzle out how to get more conversation going when he abruptly said, “Go inside.Get some sleep.Lock your doors.”
Then, he vanished like a thief in the night, taking her hope for all penis-havers with him.
Seriously, would thereeverbe a time when hope didn’t fuck her over?
There had been a time not that long ago when Cole could single-handedly topple corrupt foreign regimes.
Now, he couldn’t talk to a pretty girl without embarrassing himself.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Cole muttered as he made his way back to his house.
He’d spent the past year hiding from polite society.Avoiding people, entanglements, and conflicts, because those were all things that brought attention—attention someone in his situation didnotneed.And in one night, he’d managed to throw himself into a conflict with the potential to bring a world of shit down on his head.
Andhe’d made a complete ass of himself in front of Hadley.
She probably thought he was a rude, non-communicative asshole.Which, he was.But havingherthink that felt…shit.Whatwasthis feeling?Regret?Did heregretnot being a better, more social person so he could get to know her better?
Yep.That’s exactly what this stupid feeling was.If he’d had a normal life and a normal job—like, say, an accountant or some shit—he would’ve shown up on this woman’s doorstep upon arriving in the neighborhood and asked her out.Fuck, they might have been engaged by now if that was the case.But instead, his childhood had sucked, he’d gone into the military the second he was old enough to pay for college, and was recruited for dark ops five years later, where he was certain to never have anormallife with a woman like Hadley.
Simple conversations were apparently beyond him, too.
He did his best to shake off his regrets.He didn’t have time for that shit.Especially not now that his feeling about Hadley’s date had proven right.
So, he did what he should’ve done the first time he’d laid eyes on the dude.He pulled out his phone, and dialed Ren Solace, the only contact he had left with access to the dark web and all things shady and morally grey.
“If you want me to hack into the CIA’s network again, I’m going to charge you triple,” Ren said in lieu of a proper greeting.
Cole sighed.One time.He’d asked Ren to hack into the CIA’s networkonetime to see if they really intended to let him retire free and clear and Ren had yet to ever let him live it down.
Around eight—no, nine—years ago, Cole had been part of an op in Somalia that went horribly off the rails.He needed an escape route, a plausible reason for being there, a non-US passport, and a cover identity.The CIA, of course, had written him off and were more than willing to leave him there to rot.He’d called in every favor he’d garnered over his illustrious spy career and had been put in touch with Ren, who got him everything he needed so fast it made Cole nervous.
Ren Solace wasnota man you wanted as an enemy.
So, Cole always paid him on time and never told a soul that a freelance hacker withverydubious connections and skills had saved his ass and, yes, had even hacked the CIA’s systems once—only once!—to make sure Cole’s retirement agreement was 100% legit and well documented.
“No.Not the CIA this time,” Cole said.“I need you to do a full background check on a guy my neighbor was seeing.”
He rattled off the abbreviated story of what happened, the guy’s first name, description, and license plate number.It wasn’t a ton to go on—especially if the car wasn’t registered to the asshole—but he’d seen Ren do more with less info.“Oh, wait,” he added, “the guy might also be showing up in the ER soon with a broken distal radius.”
Ren snorted.“Nice.Should I look into your neighbor too, or just the boyfriend?”
Hereallywanted to have Ren look into Hadley.Cole would savor every little detail he learned like a starving man would savor a juicy steak dinner.But for some reason, it didn’t feel right.He’d already invaded her privacy enough.
“No,” he said with no small amount of regret.“Just the guy.”
“On it.”
Ren disconnected the call without another word, which was fine with Cole.They weren’t friends.Why waste time on heartfelt goodbyes?
He should’ve said goodbye to Hadley, though.Just walking off like that…
