Page 80 of Lion’s Den

She woke immediately. Her gaze locked with his, and a second later, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Instead of a soft, light kiss he’d expected, she took his mouth with hers, as if they hadn’t left off from their earlier kisses.

A long minute later, she broke the kiss and smiled at him with swollen lips. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

Sedona studied him for a moment, sobering. “What’s wrong?”

His heart sank. Of course she would pick up on what he felt so deeply. This was yet another clue that this woman was meant for him, and he’d botched this relationship up good.

When he remained silent, she sat up and tugged him to the couch beside her. “Tell me.”

“We missed him by five minutes.”

She moaned. “Oh, no.”

“We tried to follow them, but The Collector has a team large enough to divide into three SUVs. We used a drone to follow them as far as we could, but they split up and went in three different directions. The SUVs parked in tunnels or under bridges. The satellite went out of position, so Fortress lost its visuals of them, and our drone had to stop because it was out of range. Roadblocks netted nothing. I’m sorry. I failed.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SEDONA CUPPED CAM’S cheeks and leaned in to press her lips to his, her touch as gentle and light as butterfly wings. “You didn’t fail.”

“How can you say that?” Pain filled his eyes. “He’s not here with you or with his mother.” He closed his eyes for a beat. “I’m not looking forward to telling Maria that Julio slipped through our fingers. Some Special Forces team we are.”

“Are you giving up?”

His eyelids flew up, anger simmering in the depths. “No. Never. We made a promise to find him and bring him home. The Thunderhawks don’t renege on a promise. Our team will bring him home.” Cam watched her for a moment. “If someone took you from me, I’d burn the world down to find you.”

She stared at his beloved face. “Cam.”

“I mean every word, Sedona. You are everything to me.”

Her eyes widened. “I feel the same about you.”

His grip tightened around her arm. “Don’t say that unless you mean it to your soul.”

“You are the beat of my heart,” she whispered. Did he understand what she was telling him? She knew many people would tell her this was too fast, that she couldn’t know in a few weeks. But she knew. Deep in her soul she’d known the truth of what he was to her the first time she’d seen him.

“Sedona.” Cam’s voice dropped until it was just above a growl. “I’m serious. You can’t say such things unless you mean them. To give me paradise, then take it away would shred my soul.”

She rested two fingers against his lips to stop the flood of words, then took a leap into the unknown. “Cam, I love you.”

He stilled. Every muscle seemed made of stone. But those eyes, his beautiful eyes, glimmered with a million stars in their depths. “Say it again,” he demanded, pulling her into his arms.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too, Sedona.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his chest. “More than I can express. I know the timing is wrong, that I should have waited, but I was afraid I had royally screwed things up between us. I am sorry, Tiger. All of us are heartbroken that we missed Julio.”

“Stop. You got confirmation that he’s still alive. That’s worth its weight in gold to me. I’ve heard rumors about your team.”

“You have?”

“The Montgomery brothers have been talking about you and The Thunderhawks at family dinners. The hot topic of conversation at the dinner table is how to persuade the rest of your team to come on board as Morgan County’s first Search and Rescue team.”

His mouth curved. “Won’t take much. They’re already planning to apply to the sheriff’s department to work as deputies.”

Thank goodness. At least she didn’t have to worry about Cam moving somewhere else if his teammates were here. Then again, every school system needed teachers, and Sedona was sure her principal would give her a good reference. “You’re not planning to move?”

Cam shook his head. “The day I met you, everything changed. I no longer wanted to be temporary. I’m here to stay, Sedona, and so are my teammates. If David doesn’t want us as a search and rescue team, we can volunteer with a SAR organization. We’ll find an opportunity to do what we’re trained to do. We want to find people and bring them home because every family deserves to be whole.”