Catching Teardrops (MAC Security 5)

We talked about everything for hours in Evan’s safe room but not one conclusion was drawn. Why the hell did Dean come here pretending to be Dean. Although he is Dean; but he’s also Darrell. Did he know about us before Kitty was here? Or after?

It’s all so confusing but none of it makes sense. The only person who can shine a light on it all is the one person we’ve been after for years even though he was right under our noses. How could we all be so stupid as to not see it? The signs were there, the suspicion clear, and yet we failed.

“Go home,” Kay says as she walks into the kitchen. “You need her.”

I shake my head, not willing to let Lily see me like this. I always have the answers, and even when I don’t, I at least have an idea of the answer, but right now I don’t know which way is up and which way is down.

“I can’t,” I choke out, feeling like I somehow failed.

Kay stops in front of me and her eyes search mine before she says, “This is what you’re meant to do. You’re meant to go to her when you don’t know what else is going on around you because she’s your constant.” She takes a breath. “She’s the one thing that’ll always be there, no matter what. Lean on her, tell her what you won’t tell anyone else. It doesn’t make you weak… it makes you stronger than you ever thought possible.”

I stare at her as the tiredness takes over my body, knowing what she’s saying makes sense. I push up out of the chair and wrap my arms around her in silence before stepping back and walking out of their house.

She’s right. I know she is. But I don’t want Lily to see this side of me. She needs to see me as nothing but strong, and right now I feel anything but. My chest hurts, my ear still ringing, and I don’t know what’s gonna happen from here on out.

As I walk across the compound, I look up at the house—our home—and realize I need to let her see me like this. The bad, the good, and everything in between. If I hide this part of me, we’ll never make it, and I want to. I want to still be holding her against my chest in twenty years’ time without a single secret between us.

My pulse quickens as I move faster and ignore the ringing of my cell, my only focus on getting to Lily and holding her against me.

Pushing the front door open, I don’t bother to take my boots off as I stomp up the stairs and into our bedroom. The bed is empty, so I turn and walk into the bathroom, but she’s not there either and my cell is still ringing.

Yanking it out of my pocket, I answer it, not looking to see who it is. “Yeah?”

“And the king finally answers!”

Goose bumps spread along my skin, my back straightening at the sound of Dean’s voice.

“We know who you are now, asshole. Why don’t you come show your face instead of running?” I growl, standing at the top of the stairs.

He laughs, the sound manic and completely unlike the Dean we all got to know.

“Because that would defeat the point of my game,” he screeches. “Do you wanna play?”

Frowning, I sneer, “I don’t play fuckin’ games.” I stomp down the stairs and head into the kitchen, still not seeing Lily anywhere, the line silent.

“Did you find it yet?” he asks, his tone way too light for my liking.

“The fuck you talkin’ about?”

“Look at yourself,” he says cryptically, and my gaze darts to the mirror. “You see it?”

I step closer to the mirror and narrow my eyes on the numbers written on the mirror in black Sharpie.

“Luke!”

My head whips around at the sound of Lily’s voice, and it takes me a second for it to click that it’s coming from my cell. As soon as I realize what’s going on, I dart out of the house, ready to grab the guys.

“Tut, tut. You’re not playing by the rules.” I stop halfway across the compound. “Break the rules and people get hurt.” People?

“You’ve got my attention, fucker. Now tell me what the hell is going on.”

“I’m gonna hazard a guess that you were good at hide-and-seek as a kid. So, come find me.”

The line goes dead and I look down at the cell and back to the house, my eyes narrowing before I run to my SUV, not caring about the pain shooting through my chest. Nothing matters because he has her—Darrell, Dean, whatever the hell his name is.

As soon as I’ve reversed out of my spot, my hand slaps against the button on my dash to let me through the gates and I fly through them just in time for them to be fully open.

I punch the numbers that were on the mirror in the navigation system as I drive down the private road and grip the steering wheel harder before pulling the belt around me. There’s no way I’m gonna get there in an hour… I’ll