“In the end we were holed up in a shelled out dump at the edge of the town. The intel was bad, the journalists were nowhere near us, and we were trapped by extremists. Then this kid appears out of nowhere. I had my weapon on him and he looked at me. I remember thinking that he reminded me of Tucker when we were that age.”
Horror flashed across Sabrina’s face and she squeezed his hand even harder. “My job was to watch the exit. To take out anyone who crossed it. I hesitated. Didn’t take the shot and the kid fired a weapon from underneath his clothes. He got Dallas and all hell broke loose. I didn’t hesitate after that. I took out the threat, but it was too late.”
“Teague,” she whispered, leaning forward. “I’m so sorry.”
“That kid haunts me. That kid and the fact that we never saw Dallas again. We were held in a hole in the ground for days and when our guys came and got us out, we left Dallas back there. We left Dallas back there,” he repeated hoarsely.
He saw the question in her eyes and he didn’t hesitate to answer.
“A couple weeks ago Richard Bowen, a journalist I’ve worked with in the past, got a tip that Dallas might still be alive and being held somewhere in Syria.”
“Why wouldn’t your government act on that?”
“The government works on numbers. Cause and effect. Win and loss. They can’t act until they have proof.” He paused because this was the important part. “You understand why I have to go, don’t you Sabrina?”
She hesitated and his spirits slumped.
“I think that you need closure and I think that you need the danger. That it’s part of who you are. I think that adrenaline is the diet that feeds your soul and that one day you hope that piece inside you stops spinning.”
She got it. He felt as if the monkey on his back was finally on the run. She got it.
Her eyes were full of tears and one slowly wove its way down her face. He wiped it away with his thumb.
“And you’ll keep doing what you do even if it costs you your life.”
He had nothing to say to that because it was probably true, so he took a moment and gathered his thoughts and asked the one question that had been haunting him all day.
“Can I come and see you when I get back?”
The pulse at her throat beat crazily as a fresh wave of tears filled her eyes. “When do you leave?” she asked quietly.
“Five days,” he replied.
A heartbeat passed.
“Okay then,” she said, sliding over to him and nestling into his arms. He closed his eyes and inhaled her scent, holding it deep inside him for as long as he could.
“Let’s make the most of them.”
Much later, Teague would realize that Sabrina had never answered his question and by then, it would be too late.
Chapter Twenty-two
The next four days passed in a blur. Sabrina spent every moment that she could with Teague—lazy days on the beach, afternoons out on the boat, and they made love under the cover of darkness, when her children were asleep.
Teague never stayed the night and when he left her alone, she would wrap herself in a blanket that still carried his scent. She would sit on the deck and watch the night stars and think about small things.
She would think about how his eyes darkened when he was inside her. And how cute the dimple was on his right cheek. She’d remember how tender his touch was when he held her in the dark. And how his last kiss before he left her each night was as light as a butterfly kiss.
It was a heavy thing to know that she’d fallen in love with a man who was leaving her, and it had taken everything she had to carry on through the days and nights without breaking down.
And here it was. Teague’s last night in Gravenhurst, and she’d been on the verge of tears all day. They were celebrating the twins birthday even though it wasn’t for two more days.
“Mommy, Tigger picked some flowers for the table.”
Sabrina wiped at her eyes and winced. Shit. Her fingers were covered in onion juice. Morgan’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when Sabrina swore.
“That’s at least a fiver in the swear jar.”