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“Shit. I think one of them was just here.”
“What happened?”
I gave X a brief description of TJ and Rogue’s experience.
“Secure the ranch. Blade should almost be there.”
“Do you want to talk to anyone else?”
“Later.”
“Keeping all of you safe is the priority for now. When you’ve made a full sweep, let me know, and we’ll make more plans.”
“Will do.”
“I assume that was X,” Grant said as soon as I was off the phone.
“Yes. The enemy has been located in Houston. That means the chance that there was someone out there is high. He wants us to focus on locking the place down, then he’ll want to meet with us. As soon as possible, some of us will be heading to Houston.”
Darren met my gaze. “I won’t stay here. I will be part of this.”
As much as I wanted to leave him at the ranch with guards on him, I knew that wasn’t fair. He needed to see this through just like I did. “I swear to you. You will be there every step of the way.”
“Damn,” Grant said. “This is worse than I thought.”
I turned toward him and scowled. “Leave it.”
“It’s cute,” Jacob said.
“Ugh.” Fox made a disgusted sound. “I do not want to be called cute, and there is nothing cute about what’s between me and Darren.”
“No,” Rogue said, “there’s not. It’s pretty hot, though.”
“Seriously. Drop it,” Ghost said.
“Do you need me to take you upstairs and prove you’re the only one I want?”
“Focus,” Grant said. “We’ve got to check out the perimeter. We’ve got to make sure there’s no one else out there and be prepared if they return.”
Rogue huffed. “I was just joking.”
“This is serious,” Ghost said.
“But do we have to act so depressed? We’re going to kick their asses.”
I nodded. “We’re going to put them in the ground where they belong.”
“What happened between you and these men, Fox?” Grant asked.
“I really can’t talk about it. You’re just going to have to trust me.”
I was glad to see Grant nod in acceptance. “You should talk to someone as soon as you can.” Grant glanced toward Darren, then back at me. “Remember how much good it did for Blade.”
I sighed. “Let me handle this. I’m not like Blade. His situation was different from mine and so much worse.”
“He went through hell out there, but we don’t need to compare it. You may show it differently, but you’re just as fucked up as he was.”
I shook my head as I felt the color drained from my face. “That’s not true. I’m fine. I just need to put an end to this whole situation.”
Darren laid a hand on his arm. “Let’s get this place secured.”
I looked down at his hand, then up at him. “Okay.”
I might be badly shaken, but I was strong, and I knew we would conquer the men who were after me. The thing I wasn’t so sure I could defeat was all the pain I’d pushed down for so long.
22
DARREN
“Fox!” Grant called. He shook his head as if to clear it and turned to his former commander. “Are you with us?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“I didn’t know how badly… I thought… I thought I was over it all.”
“You’ve been running from it, and now it’s caught up to you.”
He nodded.
I was shocked when I felt Fox reach for my hand. I laced our fingers together. How had I started this mission determined to have as little contact with him as possible and ended up here?
“All right. You two head down the driveway and check the road coming in.”
Fox and I both nodded. Grant reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He tossed them to Fox who caught them out of the air. “Take my truck.”
“Thanks,” Fox said.
Grant gave him a gentle smile. “You’re welcome. I would have done a hell of a lot more a lot sooner if you had let me.”
“I didn’t think it would come to this, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“It’s what I signed up for, just like you.”
After that moment, I was sure I didn’t hate Grant. I wasn’t going to tell him that yet, but he’d obviously been the perfect leader for Fox.
Fox insisted on driving, assuming wrongly that I’d never driven a truck. I’d done a hell of a lot of things to get where I was. I didn’t always have other people I trusted, at least not with the most important jobs. “I can drive any vehicle I need to.”
Fox gave me an assessing glance. “There’s so much more to you than anyone would think.”
“I could say the same about you.”
We didn’t say anything else for a while. We were busy studying the pastures on either side of the drive, watching for movement. Fox drove slowly, giving us a chance to survey every inch of the road. The truck had a row of lights on top, and we used those to illuminate the path in front of us.
