I rubbed the back of my neck. The idea of having enough money to take care of my family was too hard to pass up. I’d gotten us back on track with the mortgage by sending my mom every spare dime. As much as I wanted to get back to Hunt, to my family and friends, to Kynslee, I wanted to give my mother peace of mind, and this money would do it. Even if it meant I’d risk losing the one person I wanted most of all, even if it caused her to move on without me. I’d go home and explain everything to Kynslee. Maybe she would understand the reasons why I’d had to sign on for five more years. If she loved me, she’d realize I had no choice and she’d wait for me.
“I’ll do it. But I need to make one thing happen every year, no matter where I am.”
Doug looked intrigued.
He nodded. “Okay. What’s the one thing you need done?”
“I need to be able to call a friend on September 29.”
Doug lifted a brow, not sure whether to agree to this or not. The logistics of this request could put the entire group in danger depending on where we were and what we were doing. He was probably thinking their background check on me had missed something, or someone, very important.
“Girlfriend?”
“No. Just someone very special to me.”
He smiled. “You’ll still be able to go home, son, on leave.”
“I need this one thing, sir. It’s important.”
He nodded. “I can make that happen.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
Both men smiled as they each reached their hands out to shake mine. I had just landed on a small fortune, now I needed to make sure I stayed alive for the next five years to reap the rewards of signing my life away for those I love.
Present day – Hunt, Texas
I leaned against the fence and smiled when Kynslee rounded the corner on her horse. She stopped and looked at me, a shocked expression on her beautiful face. Hell, she hadn’t changed a bit in the five years since I’d last seen her.
Correction, she had changed. She was even more beautiful now. Her eyes raked a slow gaze over my entire body. When my mother told me Kynslee and Jack had broken up after he asked her to marry him, and Kynslee said no, I hadn’t admitted to myself how fucking relieved I had been. Knowing she was with Jack had been the hardest thing I had ever had to endure.
I had planned on telling her about the CIA the last time we’d been together. My new mission with the Marines. The five more years I had to give them. I had planned on telling her why I had to stay and prayed she would understand. I was going to do the most selfish thing imaginable…I was going to ask her to wait for me. Then I’d gotten the phone call for my first assignment: in Columbia, going after a drug lord who was one of the most dangerous men in South America. My heart dropped listening to my assignment on that call. How could I ask Kynslee to commit to a man who put his life on the line, and ask her to do it all over again, every day, for five years?
I couldn’t. So, when I hung up, I did the one thing I thought was right for her. I made her feel like our night together hadn’t meant anything and basically pushed her into Jack’s arms. Little did I know she’d date the fucker for two years.
Pulling my thoughts back to the present, my gaze raked over her every feature.
Her blonde hair was pulled up in a ponytail with a hat that read “Hey Y’all” covering the rest of her hair, and those meadow green eyes narrowed. Jesus, the way she was looking at me made my cock stir to life.
She pulled in a slow, deep breath, then said my name. The same way she’d said it when we were eighteen years old, and I told her I was leaving for the Marines.
“Miles.”
“Surprise.”
It was all I could think to say right then. But I knew she expected more from me.
“Hey, Kynslee. Happy birthday! Long time no see.”
Her mouth dropped open and then the air around us changed. It went from being charged with sexual attraction to absolute anger. Kynslee was pissed, and rightfully so.
“Long time no see?” she repeated.
I held up the box for her. “I thought I’d personally deliver this year’s present, so I could get to watch you open it in real time.”
Kynslee swung her legs over Trigger and jumped off the horse. She wore a blank expression as she walked toward me. My Marines training kicked in and a part of me knew I should be worried by that look. I pushed off the fence, heading in her direction and went to say something when she pulled her arm back and punched me right in the jaw.