Page 16 of Rafe’s Future

Slade was at the hospital. Rafe needed to keep reminding himself of that. Slade was there, and Rafe had no doubt the man would do everything in his power to keep his precious girl safe.

The former SEAL had more than proven himself as a capable protector, and Bones and the others were taking shifts keeping watch outside her door. But knowing those things did little to ease the ache in his worried heart.

He tipped his head back and finished the rest of his beer. He set it on the counter and went for another. One more and he was going to call it a night.

The top popped free. He dropped it onto the steel counter. Rafe lifted the bottle toward his lips, and then⁠—

He froze.

There was a shift in the air. A subtle change that had the tiny hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

Someone’s here.

Every instinct he possessed said he was no longer alone. Rafe didn’t let on, of course. There would be no benefit in giving away his knowledge of the intruder’s presence.

Instead, he moved casually, taking a sip as he’d first intended. After that, he removed a single plate from one of the upper cabinets as if he were preparing to fix himself something to eat.

The drawer directly in front of him came next. The one with a pistol hidden inside.

Rafe grabbed the knob and pulled the drawer open. Moving slowly, he slid his hand inside. A rush of adrenaline punched through his veins a moment later when he heard a familiar female voice coming from behind.

“Don’t worry, Rafe. I didn’t come here to kill you.”

He remained still, keeping the gun within reach while keeping his back to her. “If that’s true, then why did you break into my home when you could have simply knocked on the front door?”

“Now, where is the fun in that?”

After a beat, he slowly turned around to face her. “Hello, Lena.”

Angelina Price sent him an unthreatening smile from a few feet away. “I’d apologize for bypassing your security, but given the situation, I felt it was best to stay as far under the radar as possible. And this way, you know where the weak links are in your system.” She flashed him a grin. “You’re welcome.”

He gave nothing away. “There’s a situation?”

Lena’s hazel eyes held his before glancing around the low-lit kitchen. Rather than answer his question, she asked one of her own. “Is there someplace else we can talk? I’ve had a long day, and no offense, but those stainless-steel bar stools of yours don’t exactly scream ‘comfortable’.”

Rafe held back his demand for an explanation as to why she was here. Agents like Lena didn’t pull this kind of stunt without there being just cause.

Maybe she knows something about the shooting.

Either way, the woman hadn’t gone through the trouble of breaching his virtually unbreachable security system to simply say hi. If Lena was here, she had a good reason.

“My office is just down the hall.”

“Perfect.” She unabashedly took in his bare chest before her gaze landed on the bottle still gripped in his fist. “You have another one of those for me?”

Rafe grabbed another from the fridge, popping off its top for his unexpected guest. He handed her the bottle. “My office is the first door on the right. I’ll meet you in there.”

He didn’t wait for a response before turning away and taking the set of stairs leading to the second floor from the back of the kitchen. Minutes later, he was crossing the threshold of his home office in a pair of jeans and a plain gray t-shirt.

Lena was waiting for him, just as he’d asked. Rafe found her standing in front of one of three walls of shelves. Most were filled with books, but there was also the occasional snapshot or other personal memento. Windows offering whoever looked inside tiny glimpses into his guarded past.

“This place is great, by the way.” She picked up one of the three-by-five frames, bringing it in for a closer look. A smile that warmed his heart spread across her pretty face. “I can’t believe you kept this after all this time.”

Rafe crossed the room, coming to a stop next to where she stood. Neither said a word for the next few seconds as they became lost in their memories from the captured moment.

In the picture, he, Lena, and the other three members of the unit they’d worked with in Syria were smiling back at the camera. They’d gone to a local café for lunch that day while posing as a group of American humanitarian missionaries.

“Do you remember the server who took this for us?” A breathy chuckle escaped from her dusty pink bow-shaped lips. “Man, that girl seriously had the hots for you.”