Page 43 of Tormented Hearts

“That was the day I realized I wasn’t protecting people anymore. I was protecting someone’s bottom line. So I quit.”

Sinead’s full lips parted as he spoke, her eyes filled with an expression that sent a hot spark straight through his chest. She didn’t speak for a moment, and only gave a shake of her head. “And then?” she asked at last.

“I came home. I needed to regroup.”

“Where’s home?”

“Here. Wyoming.”

“No wonder you know the land so well. And you know what’s safe to eat.” She turned her attention to the mushrooms he set on the ground next to her.

He couldn’t keep the smile from tugging at his lips. He reached for his pack and dragged it closer. When he pulled out the small package on the top, he read the label before handing it to her.

She straightened and took the offering. The light and shadows played over her face, making the moment she saw what was in the package that much more of a reward.

She let out a gasp. “Cheese tortellini! In tomato sauce!” She flipped it over in her hands to read the ingredients. “No meat!”

A grin spread across his face. “I had two of them stowed in the side pocket of my pack. I like to keep a few MREs on hand, but the tortellini’s not my favorite so I forgot they were in there.”

“What do I do?”

Her excitement was contagious as she opened the MRE—meal, ready-to-eat—and he gave her instructions on how to warm it using the flameless heater included.

She tucked into the food immediately, grinning around the bite.

Hawk watched her…and his heart gave a hard thump.

It wasn’t just her beauty or the way she felt in his arms.

There was something about Sinead that drew people in. A quiet confidence that couldn’t be taught or borrowed. The light inside her wasn’t a candle flickering in the dark.

It was a torch.

She was the kind of woman that people found themselves following before they ever realized they made the choice.

She kept quiet for a while, and he already knew better than to believe her mind was focused completely on tortellini and a side of wild hazelnuts. He ate his own rations, and though the food left a lot to be desired, the company did not.

The realization struck out of the blue, an ambush he never saw coming.

He’d only spent a few days protecting Sinead. But for the first time since he could remember, he was enjoying himself.

When they finished, he stretched out one leg and looped his arm around his raised knee, senses on alert and scanning their surroundings even as his mind worked through tomorrow’s route through the wilderness.

He felt Sinead’s stare on him and looked up to find her studying him. He hoped like hell her serious expression meant she was calculating how to jump him. But he felt more coming like a storm cloud blowing in.

“You went from being an Army Ranger to a college grad to an FBI agent to a mercenary in a little over a decade.”

He nodded, suspicious of what she was getting at.

She tilted her head, making her ponytail fall over one shoulder. “Now you’re a bodyguard with Black Heart Security.”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I was just wondering how long you’re planning to stay with them.”

He hadn’t felt that coming, but her observation hit him like a second attack.

Yet…it was a fair question. One he didn’t have an answer for.