She read every text again. He’d never once said he was out of town. But in her last text, she’d told him she would be in Killeen. Since then, nothing.
Destiny shoved back from the table and paced the small kitchen.
“Hon, I’m sure he’s working.”
“Yeah.” He’s also ghosting me. Dammit. Why would he do this? Why string her along if he didn’t really want to see her again? Had she pushed him last Saturday? She’d thought he was trying to back out when he told her he had to leave, but then he’d seemed so sincere when he insisted it had nothing to do with her.
But this made no sense. She couldn’t think of a single reason why he would need to make her believe he was off fighting some unknown enemy when he was right here in town. Did he have no balls? Fuck.
As if on cue, her phone pinged on the kitchen table and she stomped over to pick it up.
Did you make it to Killeen okay? How is your grandmother?
Shit. Dammit. Fuck.
There weren’t enough swear words in the English language for how pissed she was right now.
Destiny spun around and rushed from the room. She had to grasp the doorframe of her childhood bedroom to stop her momentum as she entered. She grabbed the first pair of shoes she could find and put them on. White Keds.
Not caring that her hair was in a messy ponytail today and that she had on very little makeup, a plain white T-shirt, and jeans, she grabbed her purse and keys and rushed back out to the main room.
Stella was standing in the living room, wringing her hands together. “Hon, do you think this is the best idea? He must have a reason why he hasn’t told you where he is.”
“I’m sure he does, and I want to hear it. In person. Now. Today.”
“Okay, but be careful. You’re angry. I don’t want you to drive carelessly.”
Destiny paused and gave her grandmother a quick hug. “I’ll be fine. I promise.” Can’t say the same for Trent. But I’ll be perfectly peachy.
Chapter 14
Trent was just dropping the empty container from his TV dinner in the trash when a knock sounded at his door. He glanced at his watch. It was two in the afternoon. He rolled his eyes as he padded toward the door, wondering why his team members were off-schedule. After all, Jangles had been there that morning, and he wasn’t expecting Merlin for another few hours.
He looked through the peephole as usual and then gasped. Shit.
Destiny stood right outside his door. Her hands were on her hips and she was glaring at him as if she knew he would look before opening the door.
His heart pounded as he yanked the door open. “Des…” He glanced both ways down the hallway and then stepped back and ushered her inside with a hand motion.
Destiny entered his apartment, stomped right past him, dropped her purse on his coffee table, and spun around. “Surprise.”
He shut the door, praying no one had seen her arrive.
“Des…” He had no idea what to say. She was clearly pissed and rightfully so. He felt like the biggest fuck alive, hating the way she was glaring at him.
She set her hands on her hips again. “Did you think I could come to town, stay with my grandmother for the weekend—the grandmother who lives next door to your parents—and not accidentally find out you were also in Killeen?”
He rubbed his hands on his jeans, trying to come up with an explanation. He should’ve known his mom couldn’t keep from telling Stella he was in town, even after swearing her to secrecy. Dammit. What a fucking mess.
“Des, I’m not hiding from you. I’m working.”
She rolled her eyes dramatically and groaned. “That is the lamest thing I’ve ever heard.” She glanced around his living room and kitchen. “Working on what? Looks to me like you’re having a lovely Saturday afternoon hanging out waiting for some game to come on TV. You’re in jeans and a T-shirt. You don’t even have shoes on. You led me to believe you were in Afghanistan or Alaska or something.”
He inched closer, hating his life right about now. He’d hurt her. Badly. Possibly irreparably. Because the reality was he still couldn’t tell her a thing about his current situation. And, to make matters worse, he needed to get rid of her before she became a target for some revenge-seeking member of the Demir family.
“I never said I was out of town,” he murmured, foolishly trying to defend himself.
“Oh please. Give me a break. How stupid do you think I am? Why in the hell didn’t you just tell me to my face last week that you weren’t feeling it and you didn’t want to see me again? What a coward.”
He took another step closer. He was so fucked right now, but there was no way in hell he was going to allow her to believe he wasn’t into her. It was so far from the truth. He’d done nothing but think about her for a week all cooped up in this damn apartment while sending her short cryptic texts that kept her at arm’s length and obviously left her feeling empty and confused.
Meanwhile, they’d made very little progress locating Farid Demir. The fucker was in the wind. He’d rented a car in his real name, and that’s about all anyone knew. Trent was no closer to finishing this mission than he had been a week ago. Things were worse because by now there was every possibility Farid had driven to Texas and was even right this moment staked out somewhere waiting for Trent to walk outside so he could put a bullet in Trent’s head.
Destiny held out a hand. “Don’t. Stay where you are. I don’t need you to coddle me. I’m a grown woman. Big enough to handle this rejection. I’ll leave and you won’t have to hear from me again. Hell, we managed to avoid each other for twelve years without much trouble. We can just go back to doing that again. This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell anyone about us. I didn’t want to give anyone in town reason to gossip unnecessarily, nor hurt your mother and give her false hope. See? Don’t you feel relieved we don’t have to explain our breakup since we never told anyone we were dating in the first place?”
Yeah, he felt like cow shit.
She gave a sharp laugh that sent a chill down his spine. Her hands went out to her sides. “What the fuck am I even talking about? We were never dating at all. We went on one date. One. Whatever is happening right now can’t really be considered breaking up after such a brief encounter. I’m a damn fool.”
He opened his mouth, but she cut him off with another hand in the air, palm out in front of him. “Please, don’t say some stupid shit that will just make you look like a bigger asshole than you already are. But let me give you some advice—the next time you go out with a woman and realize you don’t want to see her again, just fucking tell her to her face. We aren’t weak, you know. We’re stronger than you give us credit for. We’d much rather be told straight up that you’re just not that into us than be ghosted and dragged along on some sort of ride because you feel guilty, or because you’re too much of a coward to look us in the eye.”
After that rushed speech, Destiny grabbed her purse and headed toward the door.
Trent finally had a fire under him. He moved past her, flattened himself to the door, and stopped her. “Are you done?”
She glared at him. “Trent, this is over. Let me go.”
“Des, this is so far from over, you have no idea.” He kept speaking, not giving her a chance to continue. “How about you let me respond? You at least owe me that much.” He lifted a brow.
She sighed, looking bored, one hip cocked out to the side in defiance.
“I know you’re pissed, and you have every right to be. I can’t fault you for your assumptions because everything you’ve presumed makes perfect sense with what information you have. But I need you to understand something. Contrary to appearances, I am working. My case is local, and it’s serious. I knew I would be busy around the clock while I handled this matter, so I didn’t bother telling you where I would be.”
She glanced around. “Trent, you don’t even have a fucking computer open.”
He closed his eyes and blew out a breath. She was right, and he was still lying
to her. The truth was, he’d done very little besides lie low in hiding. He had spent hours online working every angle he could to ascertain where Farid Demir was. He was losing his mind and going stir-crazy. If his commander would let him, he’d rather just walk right out in broad daylight and ferret the asshole out directly.
But that would put the general public at risk, so it wasn’t an option. Roe would never agree to that. He wanted Delta Force to hunt Demir down and take him out directly. Sneak up on him. So far, none of Trent’s team had a single lead to follow.
“Des, I’m begging you to trust me.” He met and held her gaze as his heart pounded. “Please. I can’t tell you a single detail about what I’m working on. That’s the nature of my job. What I can tell you is that I hate the timing. I hate that our first date got interrupted and cut short because of this case. I hate that I didn’t get to spend the entire weekend with you.”
Her shoulders dropped enough that he thought he was getting in there.
He softened his voice. “That was the single best night of my life, Des. Would I bother to say that if it weren’t true?”
She pursed her lips, not willing to admit defeat yet.
He couldn’t blame her. He had a lot of apologizing to do. “I haven’t slept well since I got back here. I know we really only had fifteen hours together, but I thought we skipped through about half of the dating steps and entered into a pretty solid relationship in that time. I know I did.”
She licked her lips.
“Des, you mean the world to me. You have for half my life. Nothing has changed. I’m still yours. But I belong to the Army first. I made an oath to put my country first, and that means any relationships I have, including with my own parents, sometimes have to take a back burner. It’s a lot to ask of another human being, and half the reason I never dated anyone seriously was because I’m fully aware of that.”
She swallowed, her body relaxing further.
“If I could ignore my feelings for you, I would. If I were a stronger man, I’d let you believe everything you surmised and walk away from me. Your life would be much less complicated and stressful without me in it.” He reached out a hand, praying she would take it.
She met him halfway, touching the tips of his fingers.
He lurched forward, grabbed her palm, and tugged her against him so that her body fell into his.
She gasped as their torsos lined up.
He flattened one hand on her lower back and slid the other up into her loose ponytail. “Des, if you want an easy life without complications and a man who comes home every night at six o’clock, you need to walk out this door and never look back.”
“Trent…”
“If you’re willing to give up a lot of nights and weekends in a relationship with a man who can’t tell you when he’ll be working, how long, or where, then stay and jump on this moving train because I don’t have the strength to let you walk away from me a second time. I already let you go once. I won’t do it again.”
She didn’t say anything, but a tear slid down her face.
Trent wiped it away with his thumb. “I’m a smart guy. I know I should tell you that I’ve decided this isn’t going to work out. I should tell you I’m not into you. Not feeling it. I should stand here and convince you I don’t want to go out with you again. But I won’t because I want this chance with you more than anything in the world.” Enough that I’m selfishly putting your life at risk.
She smoothed her hands up his chest and wrapped them around the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I jumped to conclusions.”
“Don’t be. I knew this might happen. I just didn’t know how to manage it.”
“I don’t quite understand why you couldn’t tell me where you were. You could have said you had a local job and wouldn’t be available.”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t tell you that any more than I could have told you I was in the Middle East, Des. I don’t have that authority. Everything I do is classified.”
“Are you going to get in trouble or something because I found you?” She gave him a slight teasing grin. She also gave him the perfect opening. This could work.
“Not if no one finds out you were here.” Granted, he was exaggerating. None of his team nor his commander would reprimand him for Destiny’s appearance. It wasn’t her fault. She was totally innocent. But now that she was in his apartment, he needed to be careful. He didn’t want her to become a target for Farid.
She could stay until the early hours of the morning and then sneak out. He could use her unwillingness to go public with their clandestine affair to his advantage and keep her safe without mentioning a word of his current situation.
It was true that he couldn’t discuss the mission, but more than that, he simply didn’t want her to know how much danger he was in—that she was in, by default.
She sighed and flattened her cheek against his chest. “I overreacted.”
“No. You didn’t. You reacted exactly how anyone would.”
“I’m not some whiney girlfriend who can’t handle your job,” she told his chest before lifting her face again. “I guess evidence would suggest the contrary, but I’m not.”
He smiled and tugged her ponytail. “I know you’re not. You’ve had a lot thrown at you in a short time. I’m not going to sugarcoat things. Maintaining a relationship with me won’t be roses and chocolates, but the last few weeks have been unusually unfair to you.”
“I’m done being a bitch.”
“You’re not a bitch. But you have to trust me, Des. I know that’s asking a lot after one date, but there’s no other options. You have to trust that when I look you in the eye and tell you I’m committed to meandering down this path with you, it’s because I truly want to. I’m not hanging on to you because I’m too cowardly to break things off. Not gonna lie, I did consider putting an end to this last weekend when I got called away, but not because I didn’t want to see you again. I just hate what kind of life you’re stepping into. It’s not fair to you.”
“I’m taking this step with my eyes wide open, Trent.”
“If I don’t call or I’m cryptic, know it’s for a good reason.”
“’K. Do you want me to leave?”
He shook his head. He definitely didn’t want her to leave. What he wanted was to spend the evening with her. Now that she was here, she might as well stay. It would be safer if she left at an odd hour.
“No. I want you to stay. You can sneak out late tonight or early tomorrow morning and no one will be the wiser,” he teased halfheartedly.
She smiled broader. “I’d like that.”
A knock sounded at the door, and Trent snapped his fingers. “Shit. That’ll be Merlin. I was supposed to meet with him this afternoon.”
Her face fell. “I can go.” She reached for the door.
Trent grabbed her arm. “Not a chance.” He looked through the peephole and then opened the door.
Merlin’s brows went up as he glanced from Trent to Destiny.
“Destiny, this is Merlin. Merlin, Destiny.”
Merlin wiped his hand on his thigh and then reached out and shook Destiny’s. “Guess you don’t need me this afternoon.” He smirked.
“Nope.” Trent knew Merlin would understand.
Merlin backed up and waved. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Thanks, man. Appreciate it.”
“You sure this is okay?” Destiny asked as Trent shut the door. “I didn’t mean to interrupt if you have something you need to do.”
Trent shook his head. “Positive. I’ll make you dinner. We can talk. Call it date number two.”
“You cook?” Her smile lit up even further.
“Of course. I’m a bachelor. I’ve been living on my own since I got out of high school. There’s no way I could stay in good physical shape if I ate fast food every day.”
She leaned back and glanced down at his chest. “Good point. And you are for sure in the best physical shape of anyone I’ve ever met.” She
smoothed her hands down his pecs and explored a bit.
God, he loved her touch. Loved the way she looked at him. Loved the feel of her hands roaming over his body. His cock jumped to attention. Now was a good time to put some space between them so he didn’t end up dragging her to his bedroom.
He needed to continue to be a gentleman tonight. It wasn’t fair to take their relationship further under the circumstances. She didn’t have all the information.
He grabbed his phone off the counter and sent a quick text to Merlin. Trent obviously didn’t need babysitting right now, but he did need someone from the team to watch his apartment when Destiny left and follow her back to her grandmother’s to ensure she was safe without her finding out he was being hunted. Woof was under orders to watch Trent, or he would have texted him.
Fuck, this is a mess. He prayed they caught Farid soon. He also prayed doing so would send a message to Onur that no hitman was going to be able to reach Trent.
Chapter 15
Destiny hoisted herself up on Trent’s counter, crossed her legs under her, and accepted the glass of white wine he handed her. “You seriously just want me to sit here and watch you cook? I could help, you know.”
He grinned at her in that silly evil way that made her insides melt a little. “I know you could, but I want to do this.”
“Hmm. Is this some secret thing you do to lure all the women into going out with you again? You show them your very best qualities so that they will remember those when you disappear from town for weeks at a time?” She watched as he pulled out a wok and then set a pan on another burner. He was certainly comfortable in the kitchen, and she realized there were a lot of things she didn’t know about him since she hadn’t given him five seconds of her time in a decade.
He smirked. “Des, if I wanted to show you my best qualities to ensure you wouldn’t forget me when I’m out of town, we wouldn’t have started in my kitchen.”
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