Alpha One (Shadow Agents 1)

I hate the way she’s looking at me. “We were too young. It wasn’t love. Wasn’t meant to be forever.”

She just kept staring at him, as if she could see through his lies. “No, it wasn’t.” Her breath rushed out. “I counted the minutes on that stupid clock in the bus station. That stupid, huge clock that hangs over the counter. I counted until midnight, when I had to give up.” Her stare was burning him alive. “At midnight, I promised myself I’d never let you betray me again. But...I guess I was wrong about that, too.”

The woman was carving his heart out of his chest with every word she uttered.

“Forget it.” Then she shoved away from him with more force than he’d expected. “So I get an implant, huh? That’s the next big deal? Someone to slice me open, whether I want it or not.”

He wanted the tracker on her, just as a precaution. After the way things had gone down at the cabin, he wanted to make sure he’d have a way of finding her. “Hostages, witnesses—they’ve been taken before. They’re stripped, their bags are tossed. We realized a few years ago that we needed technology that wouldn’t be ditched so easily.” The tracker was tiny, barely noticeable at all, and easily inserted under the skin. A little piece of tech that Uncle Sam hadn’t shared with many others.

“A few hours after the insertion, you’ll barely even notice it’s there.”

She finally glanced away from him. “I’ll notice.” Her words were clipped. So unlike her usual voice. “But I’ll do it anyway because if Guerrero does get to me, the EOD had better haul butt to save my life.”

He would.

Juliana had already turned from him and headed for the door. He should let her go but he had to speak. “I really am...sorry.” The apology came out sounding rusty and broken.

She pulled open the door. “For what?” Juliana didn’t bother looking back at him. “Leaving me before...or setting me up now?”

Both. “I wanted you to be happy. You wouldn’t—you wouldn’t have been happy with me.” The line he’d told himself for years. She deserved better. She’d have better. It was only a matter of time until some Prince Charming took her away.

His hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles ached.

“Don’t tell me what I’d be,” she said, her spine stiff and too straight. “I’m the only one who understands how I feel and what I want.”

Then she walked through the door, calm and poised. So what if she was barefoot and her cute little toenails were flashing bright red? The woman had held court too long in her life not to walk with that easy grace.

“Come on, Doctor,” she called out and he knew that Liz Donaldson had to be close by. “Let’s get this over with.”

Logan exhaled slowly. He looked up and stared straight into the mirror that was less than five feet from him. His reflection stared back. His jaw was lined with stubble, eyes and face worn.

She wouldn’t have been happy. The words were stubborn, but they weren’t his, not really. Her father had been the one to first speak them.

You can’t make her happy. When she finds out what you did, how do you think she’ll ever be able to look at you again?

His teeth ground together, but he managed to say, “Come on out, Jasper. I know you’re in there.”

After a moment, he heard the slow approach of Jasper’s booted feet. Then the Ranger was there, filling the doorway, shaking his head even as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You are one dumb SOB,” Jasper said.

“Don’t push me now,” Logan ordered. Jasper was always pushing. In the field, in the office—everywhere. Death wish? Yeah, he had one.

Jasper’s mouth lifted in his usual sardonic smile. “Left her there all alone, huh? Didn’t even go to see the pretty girl at the bus station. That’s cold.”

He stared at Jasper but didn’t see him. “A blue dress that fell to her knees. A ponytail pulled to the side. A small black bag at her feet.” He forced his hands to unclench. “She was sitting five feet from the front desk, turned so that she could see the entrance.”

But he’d been there long before she’d arrived, hidden in the shadows, watching what he couldn’t have.

A furrow pulled up Jasper’s brows. “You were there, but you didn’t say anything? Man, what are you—crazy? Why’d you let a woman like that walk?”

“You know what I am.” Jasper had seen him at his worst, covered in blood, fighting for his life. More animal than man. He’d seen Logan when his control broke and the beast inside broke free.

Born to kill.

He’d been told that for so long.

“No, man, I know what you think you are,” Jasper said with a sigh. “But I tell you this...if a woman like her ever gave me the look—the kind of look I saw her give you—I’d do anything for her.”

He had done anything. He’d given her up. That had been everything. “Don’t push me on this,” Logan warned. He’d hate to have to kick his friend’s butt again.