Catching Teardrops (MAC Security 5)

The line is silent for several beats, until I tell him, “It’s quiet here without you.”

“Yeah?” His deep chuckle rings across the line. “Because I’m a big talker, right?”

“Tell me about it!” I lean forward. “Sometimes I just wish you’d give your voice a rest. I mean, it can’t be good for your vocal cords to be talking as much as you do.”

“What can I say?” I hear some rustling. “I like to talk, it’s my favorite pastime.”

I snort with laughter, and the snort makes me laugh even more. Most people would feel mortified to do that while on the cell with a guy, but Luke eases a part of me I never thought could be relaxed.

When my laughter dies down, I bite my bottom lip, waiting for him to say something, but when he doesn’t, I ask, “You still there?”

“Yeah, angel. Still here.”

I turn around on the sofa, lying down and putting the cell on speaker. “Can you stay on the line until I fall asleep?”

Closing my eyes, I wait for his reply, and when it finally comes and he says, “I’ll be here,” I let myself drift off to the sounds of the wind and his breath through the line.

LUKE

Leaving my house, I lock the front door, knowing I won’t be back for a few days. Hauling my backpack over my shoulder, I head to my SUV, putting it in the trunk and closing it up, spinning around and catching Dean watching me from outside the warehouse door.

I walk toward him, growling, “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing in particular,” he chirps back. “Just wondering where you’ve been lately.”

“None of your fuckin’ business,” I sneer back, pushing open the warehouse door and walking to the office, slamming the door behind me before throwing myself down on the sofa.

My eyes are sore, not that I’m not used to them being like that. I’m a pro at working on little-to-no sleep, but somehow worrying about Lily is a different type of exhaustion. It drains me, my body calling for me to drop everything and go to her. But I can’t. I’ve got to do what is expected of me, do what everyone else needs me to.

Scrubbing my hands down my face, I try to get the images of her injuries out of my head.

It took me two days to get her to let me check them, and after explaining I’ve seen much worse while on tour, she finally let me.

Bruises marred her stomach and back, scars on her legs from previous—I don’t even want to think what they were from. The finger mark bruises on her neck were starting to fade, and she could open her eye fully by the time I left. But none of it compares to the scars inside. I know they’re there, I can feel them when she looks at me. Maybe she’ll open up about them at some stage, but the thought of having to do the same back has me grimacing.

“Someone doesn’t look happy.”

I turn my head to face Ty where he sits behind his desk, his gaze focused on me. “Just tired,” I tell him, sitting up and clasping my hands on the top of my head, pushing Lily to the back of my brain—at least for a few minutes anyway. “I’m starting the undercover job today and Dean is watching me.”

“Dean is watching you?” Ty stands up before walking over to me, and when I look up at him, his chocolate-brown eyes shine with the same suspicion I feel.

“Yeah, he said he wondered where I’ve been lately.”

“Hmmm.” Ty sits down in the seat to my left, pulling his beanie hat off and running his hand through his hair. “I put a tracker on his car, I was just downloading the information now.”

“Yeah?” I sit up straighter, moving to the edge of my seat. “Where has he been?”

“Fuck knows.” Ty’s gaze pierces mine. “It’s been wiped.”

“He knows we’re onto him.”

“Either that, or…” Ty trails off when the door knocks and Kay steps inside, her gaze flitting from Ty to me and back again before she closes the door behind her.

“Or?” I ask, knowing Kay knows everything that’s going on at the moment.

“Or there’s more than us suspicious of him and he doesn’t know who it is.”

We’re all silent a beat before Kay says, “Then there’s more to him than we originally thought. Do you think we should let Evan and Kitty know—”