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It wasn’t perfect, but it was more than they’d been willing to give. And it would have to do for now. Otherwise, they would send Trees into danger alone, because no one else was around to protect his flank.
“Fine.”
Logan leaned in. “But while you’re there? Watch everything Trees says and does. Everyone he communicates with. Everything he focuses on. All. Of. It. Are we clear?”
Fuck you. “Crystal. When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow,” Joaquin put in. “We’ll keep an eye on Tessa while you’re gone.”
They had him twisted up in so many knots, he didn’t see another way out of the situation. But since Cash was still in rehab and Tessa was barely speaking to him, he didn’t think it mattered. Once he figured out how to maneuver the situation here at work and she knew she wouldn’t lose her job, he’d do his best to marry her, give Hallie siblings, and love her for the rest of his life.
“Thank you. Trees and I will get this done fast. Then I want more than lips moving. I want real action. I want Tessa.”
“We know.”
January 25
Zy sat beside Trees in his beat-up truck as they bounced east out of San Antonio. They had spent two fucking weeks in Texas, giving Josiah a hand in breaking up the group of fanatics who had been after Shealyn’s grandparents’ land. It had been some harrowing shit because Enlightenment Fields hadn’t been averse to murder to get it.
At least he and Trees were finally heading back to Louisiana.
While in Comfort, they had also tried to keep Josiah from falling for Shealyn’s gorgeous sister, but they’d failed. Now Josiah and Maggie were engaged, and just as Zy suspected, Grant wasn’t coming back to Louisiana or to the EM team. He would be replaced—starting tomorrow—by Comfort’s former deputy, Kane Preston, who had admittedly done a decent job of helping them shut down the Enlightenment Fields crazies. Still, in a team full of SEALs, Green Berets, and other elite warriors, he didn’t see this Rosco P. Coltrane working out. Yeah, Preston had some military experience and he’d seemed all right, but c’mon… At least the hazing would be fun.
Oh, and along the way, Zy had watched his best friend’s every step while reporting back to the Three Stooges. Or rather, the bosses. But he was fucking done. Tomorrow morning, he would get free of their fucking contract so he could finally make Tessa his.
Well, if she would have him.
Zy refused to accept that they were done. He wished like fuck he could have a do-over on Trees’s Christmas party. But she’d made herself clear. Her job—and her daughter—came first. He was just the asshole who kept pushing her boundaries because he couldn’t fall out of love with her. Hell, he’d never even tried. The way she’d grabbed Hallie and run from him that night before they’d even had dessert had been a stab in the heart. And Madison’s pity during the long, mostly silent drive home had been humiliating.
“You’ve been quiet for a hundred miles,” Trees remarked.
“I’ve been ready to get back to Lafayette since the day we got to Comfort. How tiny was that damn town, anyway?”
Trees laughed. “Around three thousand people.”
Yep. It sounded exactly like it was: a place where excitement was watching tumbleweeds blow.
“What’s really bothering you?” Trees quizzed. “You’ve never cared in the past where assignments sent you. You always got in, ran a clean op, and got the hell out. Why are you like a bear with a sore ass now? Something to do with Tessa?”
“Everything to do with Tessa, but no offense, I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Something obviously changed between you two at my Christmas party.”
He flung a clenched-teeth glare his buddy’s way. “I said I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Fair enough. But I’d like to talk about that night.”
Zy stiffened. “What about it? If I ended the conversation between you and Madison prematurely, I—”
“Stop.” Trees gripped the wheel. “You know what you did that night. Alone, in my bedroom. I know it, too.”
Fuck. “It was a spur-of-the-moment mistake. I was in such a bad place with Tessa and—”
“I fucking put a gun to my temple and offered to die for you.” Trees glared at him.
He had, and the shame of having been a shitty fucking friend that night torched Zy. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want an apology. I want the truth. You finally going to give it to me?”
“Yeah.” Clearing the air with Trees would be a relief. And he could truthfully tell the bosses that he hadn’t blabbed about their suspicions; Trees had merely guessed. “Love to.”
“I assume you videoed yourself searching my room because that trio of assholes we work for think I’m the mole? And that you’ve been on top of me nearly every moment for the past two weeks—except when I wipe my ass—for pretty much the same reason?”
