Mine to Keep (Mine 2)

“You need to know.”

She shook her head, hard, and the last of her hair broke free from the knot, tumbling around her shoulders. “First I get that crazy phone call. I-I thought it had to be Reese, wanting me to help you, and then—”

He zeroed right in on that. “What phone call?”

“I race to that alley. I find him—”

“What phone call?” Trace snarled.

She stumbled back a step.

“Skye.” He tried to soften the harshness of his tone. He failed. “Please. What phone call?”

“Your number. It was your ring. Your number on the caller ID. But the voice didn’t sound like you.”

Fear was a living monster inside of Trace.

“He told me to go to that alley. That you needed me. That I had to help.”

“And you went?” Claws ripped at his insides.

“I tried to call you back first. But I couldn’t get you, and I was so afraid something had happened. I knew Parker was out—”

I knew I’d do anything for you.

“So I ran to the alley.” A sad shrug of her shoulders. “And I stole evidence.”

“Give me your phone.”

She blinked at him.

Trace didn’t wait for her to comply. He rushed to her discarded bag. He searched fast and yanked out the phone.

He scanned through her received calls list. Saw his name. His number. “I didn’t call you then.”

“Reese—”

“Reese was visiting his girlfriend earlier today. They have a standing lunch date each week.”

She blinked. “I didn’t—”

“He hacked into my account.” Smart SOB. “And he called you.” She could have walked straight into a slaughter. Her own. Trace wouldn’t have been able to do damn thing to save her.

“Who?” Skye was beside him now. “Who did this?”

Tell her everything.

There would be no going back now. “After a while, after we’d served our tours, the team knew we were good at what we did. Very damn good. We started our own rescue service. That’s what Weston Securities was, in the beginning.” And it still was, when the situation demanded it. “I tried to get Reese to join me back then, because he’d served with us, but he wanted to come home. He’d said that he’d had his fill of blood and death.”

Smart bastard. Reese hadn’t joined them, but later Trace had told his friend all about the nightmare that had destroyed the team.

Trace continued, because there was no stopping now. “So when the team started, there were five of us. Noah, Drake, Ben, Tucker, and me.”

Her shoulder brushed against his. “Tucker?”

“Tucker Hawk.” Tucker had always seemed to be the most easy-going of the group. The one who’d laughed the easiest. Loved the easiest. “Tucker had a girl. Anna Jean. She’d just finished a tour with the Air Force, and she wanted to join our team. She could fly like a dream, so I knew she’d be useful.” Back then, he’d always thought in terms of usefulness. “But Anna had other plans. On our last run together, she decided she could get more money by playing both sides. She set us up, telling the enemy our extraction plans. Telling them our weaknesses. Telling them everything.”

“But you made it out. You survived.”

“Ben was hit hard. Drake…Drake was captured. Tortured. I carried Ben out and left him at the chopper with Noah. Then Tucker and I fought like hell to get Drake out.” The gunfire had blasted. A continuous thunder that shook his world.

“We killed every man between us and Drake.” He couldn’t look at her as he revealed this. “Blood soaked me, and I just wanted to get out of there. I wanted to get home again.” His eyes closed. “I wanted you.”

She twined her fingers with him.

“We got to Drake. Pulled him out. We were almost home free, then Anna Jean appeared. She’d slipped up behind Drake, and she was about to shoot him.” There’d been a knife in Drake’s hands. His only weapon.

“Drake spun to attack. He stabbed her, and she fell back.” But they just hadn’t counted on one thing… “You can know some people are evil. You can know that they’ve betrayed you, but if you love them, if you really fucking love them beyond reason, then, sometimes, I don’t think you care about what they’ve done. You only see them. Nothing else.”