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And if she didn’t get herself together, another would follow. Tears would flow. And once they started, she’d lose her last vestige of control. She’d melt into a weeping, wailing mess. She knew the way down that path. She’d followed it before, dissolving into a crying mess in the bathroom stall on a remote military base in Afghanistan while Noah waited outside determined to escort her safely back to her bunk.
She’d been prepared to fight on those nights too, but instead she’d run up against failure. Just like today. Her eyes filled with tears, but she fought to hold them back.
Don’t cry!
She looked away from the house and fought to control her breathing. Dustin hadn’t been here for six months. But if he wasn’t here, where had he gone?
JOSH WAS PRETTY damn sure closure didn’t lead to a stoic, teary-eyed Marine sitting still as a freaking statue in his passenger seat. And if he didn’t act soon, she would really begin to cry. He’d known her for over a year. He’d rushed to Caroline’s aid after Josie was attacked in Noah’s barn not long after she appeared in Forever. He’d removed a shaken Caroline from the scene when the police showed up. He’d witnessed wild panic in her green eyes but never anguish. And she sure as hell had never shed a tear in front of him before.
“Where to next?” he asked. “Do you have another address for him? Work? Maybe his ex-wife?”
Action. She needed to focus on doing something. Looking forward, taking that next step—it was the only way to fight back when life seemed hell-bent on pressing the ‘overwhelmed’ switch. Hadn’t he learned that the hard way, moving from one damn game to the next hoping he’d be able to reclaim his memory? In the end, he’d recalled only the feelings, the frustration, but never the events or games. Some nights he’d been close to tears too.
Caroline nodded and reached for her pack. Withdrawing a manila folder with worn edges, she flipped through the pages. “His ex-wife lives nearby. That’s the only other address in here.”
“Work?”
She shook her head and drew her lower lip between her teeth. For a second, he thought she’d start crying in earnest.
“No,” she said finally. “When Noah hired the investigator, Dustin wasn’t working. He probably thought he could get the decision reversed and the Marines would take him back.”
“Doesn’t hurt to swing by his ex-wife’s place.” He turned the key, put the truck in gear, and steered onto the two-lane road. “Enter the address into my phone and see if there’s a drive-thru along the way.”
Thirty minutes later, with a bag full of double-bacon cheeseburgers and fries between them, he parked across the street and two doors down from a split-level ranch. An American flag hung beside the front door. Flower beds separated the neatly mowed front lawn from the house. And a man stood in the center of the trimmed grass holding a baseball.
He was a big guy, with a build that suggested he could have played football if he lost the beer belly. A boy of eight or maybe nine waited on the far side with his glove.
“Mom’s going to be mad that you let me play catch when I’m sick,” the child called out.
“Looks like you’re feeling better now,” the man said with a laugh. “And the fresh air is good for you. Ask any doctor.”
“Oh my God.” The faint whisper filled the cab of the truck tearing Josh’s focus from the all-American family scene outside.
“Caroline?”
“That’s him,” she murmured. “That’s Dustin. And he’s . . . he’s playing ball. After everything . . .”
A familiar rage pulsed through him. If he let go, he’d climb out of the truck and attack that bastard. He’d—
“He went back to his family. His wife and kids. He went back as if . . . as if nothing happened,” she murmured.
“Why don’t I go and talk to him?” Josh said. And we’ll have another date after you bail me out of jail.
He knew she couldn’t walk into a police station. But spending a night or two behind bars before his brothers came for him seemed a small price to pay.
“No,” she said firmly. “Just drive. Please.”
And this time it wasn’t a command masquerading as a plea. She was close to begging. With one last look at the bastard who’d stripped away her security, who’d made her feel like she needed to be fucking less—less beautiful, less bold, less brave—he turned the key and revved the engine.
Dustin looked over, his brow furrowed in fucking concern as Josh peeled out of the parking space.
About time you worried about something, Josh thought.
The bastard couldn’t see them. Not with the midday sun high in the sky and the dark tint on Josh’s truck windows. Logic told him that was a damn good thing. He didn’t want her former CO coming after them. But the other part of him wanted to send a message to Dustin.
She hasn’t forgotten, asshole.
And now she had a whole team, or whatever the hell they called it in the Marines, on her side. She had him. She had Noah, Josie, and the rest of the staff at Big Buck’s. And she had his brothers and his sister on her side. Even if they didn’t know her full story, they’d fight for her. She was family. She was his, dammit. Not to possess, but to love and protect with everything he had.
