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At least she still trusted him at her back—or maybe she didn’t give a damn one way or the other. In this case, he’d take the former over the latter.
“I don’t know,” she repeated.
Shadowing her, he made no pretense of not listening. If Gabriel wanted to intrude on his time, fine. He wasn’t disappearing again to make it easier for any of them. His gut tightened. Understanding her anger, her pain, even her rejection didn’t make swallowing any of it possible.
“Yes.” Another single syllable and she turned, glancing at him. “I don’t know what he wants to say…”
“I want to talk to you.” Grasping her invitation, he narrowed the gap. “I want to make sure you’re all right.”
A small frown tugged her brows together, then she said, “Seriously?” Was that to him or Gabriel? “Fine.” She held the phone out. “He wants to talk to you.”
Rolling his eyes, Brad took the phone. “You’re not the one I want to talk to,” he told the man.
“Maybe so, but I’m about twenty-five meters to your south, and I have a rifle. I also know how to use it.”
Brad shifted his position and turned. Sure enough, the faintest glint of metal appeared in the distance.Huh.“Your point?”
“She needs to hear whatever you have to say. I can accept that. Touch her again without her permission, and I’ll put a hole in your heart.”Calm. Cool. Detached.
“I already have one, but thanks for the offer.” He disconnected the call then turned to face her. Keeping her phone for the time being, he blew out a breath. “Are you ready to listen?”
“I have no idea. He just asked me the same question.” Shaking her head slowly, she sighed, and her expression grew weary. “I don’t get this. How do you play dead for three years? How the fuck do you not only play dead when I’m hell and gone, but keep playing dead while I’m right there…son ofbitch.”There was that temper he remembered so well. Her eyes blazed. “It was you. You really were there—in the hospital bay when I woke up.”
He nodded once.
“Those nights I kept feeling like someone was in my place?”
Another nod.
She strode toward him, and her fist slammed into his chest. He took the blow, not moving even from the punishing, bruising force of the strike. “Asshole. You were stalking me. Watching me. Youknewthe kind of pain I was in.”
“No,” he said slowly. “Suspected. Wanted to make it better. Wanted to tell you.”
“Thenwhydidn’t you?”
“Because the first time I tried, they threw my ass in a cell, left me there for weeks, and I couldn’t do anything to protect you from in there.” Anger thrummed through him every time he remembered staring at the stone walls. Titanium came to visit every day.
“They’d have to have killed me to stop me from telling you.”
“You’re right. I fucked up. But if the whole team sits on you, it’s really fucking hard to get back up. If I didn’t cooperate, they threatened to cut you off and leave you out there—on the off chance you were the leak.” The information rocked her. Her eyebrows rose, and her mouth compressed into a thin line. “They made me a deal, one I had to accept if I wanted to be able to watch your back. We used our resources to vet the teams, to check, to trace information, and we kept tracking it. When your locations were compromised we retrieved all of you…”
The corner of her mouth kicked into a half-grin. “Did I break your nose?”
He rubbed his face. “Yes.”
“Good.” She nodded. “Continue.”
He smirked, humor punching through the blackness. His girl was such a bitch when she wanted to be. The urge to kiss the grin on her lips until she was gasping flooded through him. The fact that her guy had a gun trained on him and would be a witness just made it hotter. Sobering, he slid her phone into his pocket, then folded his arms. “Long story short, I have no idea how Titanium’s people got us out from Operation Phoenix. I woke up in a private hospital about ten weeks after the fact. I’d been in a coma.”
The smile on her pretty mouth faded. “How bad?”
A shrug. “Who knows? I’m a not fucking a doctor. I kill people, I don’t heal them. I could barely open my eyes. Sit up? Not really possible. Thought I was losing my sight. First thing I asked for was you. I faded in and out. Took another month before I could remember a full day. Then they took me to see Titanium. He was a wreck, but the men guarding us had orders. No calls. No leaving. No reaching out. He told me I’d understand.”No.He’d never really fucking understood. But he’d been a Marine—then a dead Marine.
As if reading his mind, she said, “I take it you didn’t?”
“No.” He shook his head. God, he was so fucking tired. Tired of the lies. Tired of the waiting. “Longer story short, we were betrayed with Operation Phoenix. Titanium’s team knew something could be up, we didn’t. They didn’t know if we were the ones who sold them out. First I had to prove I was clean—then I had to prove you were.”
Shock rippled across her expression. “Why the fuck would I sell anyone out?” No outrage, just a cold, angry demand.
