“The physical stuff is easy.It always was for me.But any socializing and pretending to fit in I ever did on the job was with bad guys.I rarely had to interact with normal civilians.”
“I’d be hard pressed to call Mitzy and Mikenormal,”Hadley said.“Unless you grew up with access to a polo pony and/or a yacht.”
“I did not,” he said dryly.
“Me neither.”
“I’ve also damn near been a hermit for the past year.Talking toanyoneis hard.”
Her lip twitched, but she somehow managed to keep from smirking at him becauseduh.“I can see the appeal of hermit-ing.”
His gaze softened a little before he added, “Socializing seems pretty easy for you, though.”
She shrugged.“I mostly like people.Even potential sleeper agents.What can I say?”
He scoffed.“Those two aren’t sleeper agents.They liked you, though.We wouldn’t have gotten that invite otherwise.”
Her inner teenage girl wanted to ask if that meantheliked her.Like,likedher, liked her.Not justlikedher.“Well, maybe it’s a good thing you got stuck with me on this mission after all.”
He stepped closer.Not much.Just enough that she had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact.His hand lifted, fingers hovering for a moment, before gently brushing a loose strand of hair off her cheek and tucking it behind her ear.
His fingertip barely grazed her skin.It was enough to charge the air and make her long to close the distance between them.
“I can’t imagine doing this with anyone else,” he said on a ragged whisper.
Chapter16
Cole wished he could say that wandering a quiet house in the middle of the night, staring out at an equally quiet neighborhood, assuming every tree and shadow hid a deadly threat, was new to him.
But that’d be a giant fucking lie.
He did this every night.Eyes on the world outside, ears open for the purr of an unfamiliar engine, listening for footsteps crunching on gravel or the telltalesnickof a latch that shouldn’t have been opened…it was kind of his thing.
The new element to his evening, however, was his damn near choking need to watch a closed bedroom door.
Hadley had handled everything so far like a champ, but she’d been attacked, dragged out of her house, stuffed into a van, black-bagged, interrogated, and coerced into a mission she had no business being part of in the first place.She was strong and adept at using humor to mask her trauma, but she wasn’t superhuman.At some point, she was going to crack.Cole knew that.
What he didn’t know was just how deep that crack was going to go.
So, here he was, hovering outside the bedroom door, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, waiting for…something.He had no idea what.But whatever it was, he was going to be ready for it.
There wasn’t shit going on in the neighborhood, anyway.If he didn’t know better, he’d swear Franklin had dumped them in the wrong place.Or that this was a twisted test of some kind.
That’s when he heard it.A tiny, strangled sound.Half whimper, half gasp.It was a sound he waswaytoo familiar with.He’d probably made it himself on more than one occasion.
Nightmare.
Fuck.
He was opening the door before he had time to think better of it.It wasn’t completely dark.She’d left the bathroom light on, and it cast the bed in an eerie glow.Hadley was a tangle of limbs and sheets in the middle of the mattress, white T-shirt rucked up around her waist, sweat-dampened hair plastered to her forehead.Her hands were at her throat like she was trying to rip invisible fingers away.
His heart clenched.
He was at her side in two strides.But he knew better than to wake her too quickly.That would only shove her fight or flight instincts into overdrive.He sat on the edge of the bed and laid his hand gently on her shoulder.“Hadley,” he whispered.
She jerked away, making a desperate, choked sound that clawed at his gut.
Time to switch tactics.He brought his hand up and let it hover near her cheek, close enough that she’d feel the heat without the weight of it.“Hadley, baby, it’s Cole.Please wake up.”
