was just about to join them in the living room when someone knocked on her front door. She stopped dead, but before she could turn around, Sawyer moved the cat to the spot on the couch next to him, rose, and grabbed his wallet from his back pocket, moving to the door.
By the time Chloe realized he had ordered dinner for them, he’d paid the deliveryman and taken the Chinese food into the small kitchen. Famished, Chloe followed him and grabbed two plates from the cupboard and a couple of Cokes from the fridge, while Sawyer opened the small white boxes.
Once they’d filled their plates, Chloe led the way back to the living room, where she sat on the floor, placing her glass of Coke and her plate on the coffee table.
Amusement richened Sawyer’s voice. “You eat on the floor?”
“University habit, especially when it comes to Chinese.”
“If you say so.” He chuckled and sat on the couch, placing his plate in front of him on the coffee table.
Crossing her legs, Chloe dug in, her stomach rumbling at the smell of spicy noodles and sweet-and-sour chicken. Sawyer must’ve been hungry, too, since they ate in complete silence.
It wasn’t until Chloe reached for her Coke that Sawyer addressed her. “So tell me—what would you normally do on a case when you got to this point?” He scooped up some beef and vegetables.
Chloe finished off a mushroom bursting with flavor. “I’d wait. That’s all we can do. The police haven’t gotten much else, and Shane will uncover something soon that we can use. But it’s been a long day, so I say we get a good night’s rest and start again tomorrow with fresh eyes.”
Sawyer watched her a long moment while he chewed his food, then nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Just like that?” Chloe retorted. “You have no opinion on the matter?”
He shrugged. “You’re the expert on hunting people, not me. When I go after someone, I already know where they are. I don’t hunt people. I capture them. Like I said before at Shane’s: we’re doing this your way.”
That one statement seemed to define Sawyer, Chloe realized. He was such an alpha guy, and a confident one at that. Most men possessing those traits thought their way was always the right way. But Sawyer never treated her as though her ideas didn’t matter, the way some alpha types could. She decided that was one of the things that made him so sexy. He was powerful and arrogant, but he didn’t need to make her feel small to be that way.
She smiled on the inside and lowered her head, focusing on her dinner. Many minutes went by, and the longer the comfortable silence settled in, the more she realized that Sawyer’s silence wasn’t as comfortable as hers was. In fact, he seemed almost detached. His brows were drawn together, signaling that his thoughts were off in the distance. She sipped her Coke, then asked, “Still thinking about Travis?”
“Nope.” Sawyer grabbed an egg roll off his plate and devoured half of it in a single chomp.
She twirled a noodle around her fork and took a bite. Five minutes later, he was still quiet, not looking at her, though Mr. Magoo continued to rub against his arm.
She couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “Is something else wrong?”
He finished off the last bite of his beef and pushed away his plate. “I’m thinking I know a lot about you and you know nothing about me.” After wiping his mouth with his napkin and dropping it onto his plate, he continued, “Seems a bit one-sided. It made me wonder if you want to even things out.”
“Sounds serious.” She smiled. When his expression remained hard, her smile faded. “Wait. It is serious?” Was she about to realize that this great, sexy guy who’d walked into her world and changed it was actually a giant douchebag with a girlfriend in another city?
He nodded. “I need to tell you something, but let me talk a bit about my past first so you understand more about me. Okay?”
She put her empty plate on top of his, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. “I’m listening.”
“Did you know that I was in the military?”
“No. Porter never told me that.”
“I’m not surprised he hasn’t.” Sawyer’s voice grew softer, his eyes equally so. “It’s not something I talk about much, because honestly, it seems like it was another life. Another time.”
She wondered why he felt it was so important to talk about it now. More curious than before, she asked, “When did you join?”
“The day I finished high school.” He leaned against the couch and began petting her cat again as he climbed onto Sawyer’s lap. “My father was a military man, and ever since I was a child he trained me to follow in his footsteps.”
“Training you to do what?”
“To become a sniper.”
Chloe swallowed the sudden emotion that hit her in the chest. She couldn’t help noticing the darkness that had flashed across Sawyer’s expression when he’d admitted to killing people.
He’d been protecting his country; that’s how she saw it. “So, you joined at eighteen?”