“They said we can leave. You should ride with Bruno,” Connor said, glancing up to get a single nod from Bruno. Julie didn’t budge an inch or argue. She didn’t look like she had even planned to move back to his truck. “We’re about forty minutes from my place.”
“I’ll follow you,” Bruno said.
His focus returned to Julie. She’d always been so vibrant and bold, but now she looked small and shell-shocked. Her being so quiet freaked him out a little more. He reached up, moved his palm across her cheek in a gentle caress and turned her face toward his. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know.”
Her hand lifted, wrapping around his wrist. He thought she planned to move his palm from her cheek, instead her fingers tightened, digging into his skin as her expressive eyes turned serious, searching his. “You seem so calm and you just killed two men.”
“They were going to hurt you,” he explained quietly. Civilians never understood how he could do what he did. His decisions and reactions tonight were very clear in his head; he would never risk Julie’s safety. Instead of the anger he thought was coming his way, Julie had tears welling in her eyes.
“Too many people are standing around. Let’s get her home. You can talk there,” Bruno said, starting the rental.
He ran a thumb across her lower lip before he stood. Something wasn’t right in her. She didn’t respond like her normal self, and his gut said it was more than just the attempted carjacking. Reluctantly, he forced himself to close the door and go to his truck. He drove the distance home, watching the rearview mirror more than the road in front of him. Only when he saw the vehicles waiting at his house did he change his focus and scan each car. Cole’s dually was there, along with another vehicle. On the porch, it looked like Ty and Kenzie sitting on the top steps. Julie must have called Kenzie because he hadn’t called anyone.
He pulled up to the front circle with Bruno following behind. Kenzie was up off the porch, heading to Julie, before he ever got the truck in park. He watched the two women meet, hug, and then, arm and arm, head into the house. Julie never looked back at him. More than anything, he wanted to follow her, make her explain her thoughts, help her process everything.
“You okay?” Cole asked, pulling open his truck door.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Connor said. He climbed out of the cab and looked at Bruno, who moved slower toward the house. Ty came around the hood as Connor turned toward Bruno, calling out to him. “Get anything you need in the house, don’t wait to ask.”
Bruno nodded, lifted a hand and climbed the front porch steps.
“What happened?” Ty asked. Connor pushed the keys inside his pocket and started to walk around them. His whole focus centered on Julie.
“We got carjacked.”
“Is that what happened to the window?” Cole asked.
Damn…the window. He should cover that tonight. Instead of going for the house like he wanted most in the world, he started for his dad’s workshop.
“Yeah. How long are y’all gonna be here?” he called out, looking over at Ty.
“As long as you want,” he responded. Connor turned back to the guys, taking a couple of steps backward, really wanting to get this done as quickly as possible. He just didn’t want her alone until he finished.
“I need to fix the window, but I don’t want her alone. She’d didn’t handle it well.” A helplessness stopped him in his tracks as he stared at Ty. It just occurred to him, out of them all, Ty knew Julie better than any of them.
“I’ll take care of the window,” Cole offered, coming toward him. His buddy knew where his parents kept everything, and he passed Connor, heading toward the shop with a slap on the shoulder. “You go take care of your woman.”
Normally, he would never shrug off responsibility to anyone else, and he hesitated, turning back to Cole, moving toward the shop where Cole was reaching over the doorframe for the key. “Seriously, man, go in there with her. I got this.”
“Thanks. I owe you.”
Ty motioned him toward the porch and started in that direction as he called out to Cole, “I’ll be back, Willis, to help with that.”
“I got it.” The shop door slammed closed as the lights came on.
“Buddy, who was there tonight?” Ty asked carefully as Connor met him at the base of the steps.
“Officers, us, Bruno.” Connor slowly took the steps up, looking at Ty, trying to understand.
“Did you see anyone else or notice any of them taking her picture,” he asked, coming to a stop at the top of the steps.
“No, but I was pretty focused on her. I didn’t really think to look for that,” Connor said, coming to stand directly across from Ty. “When I called my commander, I told him someone famous was with me.”
“She’s better at handling the press than I am, but if any of those officers leak that she was involved, it’ll come down hard on y’all. If you’re going to truly be with her, it’s something you have to look out for all the time,” Ty said.
Connor crossed his arms over his chest, and Ty matched his stance. He was the only one of the five that came close to his height and build. He stared at Ty, thinking that over. Another obstacle for him and Julie to figure out and get past. They were mounting at an enormous rate, weighing heavily on his shoulders.
“Okay, I’ll call the supervisor in the morning,” Connor finally said.
“It might be too late by then. It’s already three o’clock in the morning, what can I do to help?” Ty asked.
“You’ve known her a long time. What’s she thinking, because she’s not saying it to me?” he asked, hoping for anything that would help him understand.
“Regardless of anything you’ve seen from her, Julia’s not into guns. It’s why it took so long for her to hire OverWatch. She sees life as reasonable and manageable,” Ty explained, and Connor just stared at him, trying to digest that bit of information. “She’s a really good person, Con. One of the best I know. She does PSAs and gives millions to protect against animal cruelty, to feed hungry children, and to establish gun control.”
“Then how the fuck is she interested in me?” Connor asked, a little shocked. She’d never said a word to him about any of that, and there was no question she’d known from the beginning that he was career military.
“Does she know what you really do for a living?”
“Basically,” Connor said. Besides that, he and Bruno had spent the afternoon shooting just a couple of days ago. She had sat on his tailgate, watching it all. She had gone through all those trophies. She knew he was special teams.
Connor ducked his head, studying his boots, pushing his defense mechanisms aside to look at the picture a little more clearly. “I haven’t been real specific with her.”
“Then you need to be in there with her, explaining it to her, because none of tonight was okay with her. Trust me.”
Connor blinked several times before lifting his head and doing the same, just blinking at Ty. This was why he kept to himself and never discussed his job. It wasn’t his top-secret clearance. It wasn’t the fear of losing his job. Civilians never liked what it took to keep them safe.
Finally, he turned away, leaving Ty standing there as he went inside the house. Bruno was in the kitchen. All the lights in the house were on. He headed straight to his bedroom. He started to open the closed door, then hesitated. He chose to knock instead, then forced himself to wait for a response. When no one answered, he barely opened the door, and stuck his head inside. He could hear Kenzie and Julie talking in the bathroom. He went to the door, started to knock, but it opened before his fist ever made contact. Kenzie’s startled face greeted him. He looked past her to Julie who stood behind her. Cleaned face, hair back in a ponytail, her eyes not quite as lost anymore. She was wearing her pajamas.
“Can we talk?” Connor asked.
Kenzie looked back at Julie who nodded and bit at her lip. Still inside the bathroom, Kenzie turned around and gave Julie a big hug. “Call me.”
He waited to speak until Kenzie left the bedroom and shut the door behind her. Julie came out of the bathroom and sat on the bed, scooting back enough to tuck her legs underneath her. He paced the small room, waiting for her to speak. When she didn’t, he rolled the tense muscles in his shoulders, remembering why the military had always been so much easier for him. They didn’t worry about all these emotions and feelings. Right was right and wrong was wrong. No gray mattered.
He couldn’t let those men hurt Julie tonight, and no question in his mind, they would have hurt her had they gotten a chance. Protecting her didn’t make him a bad guy.
“I can’t read you,” he finally blurted out and dropped down on the bed, his back to her as he rested elbows on his thighs and kept his eyes on the carpet as he waited for her to answer.
“I’ve never been around anything like that tonight,” she said, not expanding.
“Right. I know that. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize about that,” she said.
Then what was wrong? Connor stayed silent, just turned his head to look over at her, trying to understand.
“Connor, you killed two men tonight.”
“I know.” He nodded, confirming that he totally got that.
“Please, say something about that. Please. They were human beings.” Her voice turned a little frantic with a desperate edge as her gaze pleaded with him.
“Julie, they threatened you. They were armed. One had a weapon pointed at you. I couldn’t let them hurt you,” he said, bringing a knee to the bed, barely resisting the urge to take her hands even though he wanted to touch her so badly. “I have no doubt they would have hurt you. I could see it in his eyes. I’ll never let that happen.”
The silence between them lasted until Julie reached out and took his hands. She lifted each one to her lips and kissed his knuckles. “Thank you for putting me first.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, shifting again, scooting closer.
“But you clearly had no problem disarming them,” she said, moving out of his grasp as he circled her waist with his arms, attempting to pull her down with him as he stretched out across the bed. He gave a solid sigh and landed on his back, staring at the ceiling when she looked down at him, denying him while waiting for his answer.
“True.” He could unarm anyone, anytime. He’d lived from moment to moment of exactly that type behavior, but the one across the truck, in theory, could have gotten to Julie before he could have gotten to the guy. The risk was too great to take.
They stared at one another until she rolled her eyes and moved off the bed. He watched her pull back the covers and crawl under them, staying right at the edge of the bed. She turned her back to him. He pushed up on an elbow, laid a hand on her hip, and slowly began to caress up her side, encouraged when she didn’t jerk away. When he got as far as her shoulders, he began a gentle massage of her tight muscles.
“What do you want me to say?” he asked quietly.
“Nothing. I don’t want to seem ungrateful. Let’s go to bed.”
Somehow, he didn’t think she truly meant those words, but he was still completely unsure what she wanted from him. He rose, sitting close to her as he pushed at her shoulder until she lay on her stomach. He moved her hair out of the way, placing his palms on her shoulders, using his thumbs strategically to slide across her skin, wanting to relieve all the knots and tension he felt inside her muscles. Several minutes passed before he decided to just lay it all out to her.
“I’m a sniper, or I was,” he said quietly.
“So you’ve killed lots of people,” she said, not necessarily accusing him, which encouraged Connor to continue.
“I don’t look at it like that. I protect my soldiers and my country, like I protected you tonight,” he explained. It was exactly how he saw it, and she didn’t move a muscle. “When I’m on watch, not too much passes me by.”
“By too much, you mean any?” she asked. He watched her profile; she kept her eyes closed, and seemed to relax, so he answered honestly as he continued rubbing.
“No, none.”
“I wasn’t in danger with you there, was I?” she asked and finally pushed up, turning on her side to face him.
“They had weapons, Julie. There was extreme danger,” he tried to explain, wanting her to completely understand the risk he’d assessed. He would never have done what he had if it hadn’t been to keep her safe.
“I meant more that you being there kept me out of danger. I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life. Technically, I didn’t see it well. I was staring at you through the rearview mirror, but you performed what could have been a choreographed scene. You never lost control and kept your head the whole time. It was really truly remarkable,” Julie said, patting his thigh. “It scared me, though. I’m not good with that kind of violence. I heard the shot and just ducked my head. I didn’t want to see him get shot.”
He stayed silent, not sure what to say or what that really even meant. When she lay back down, Connor said, “I came in to check on you. I need to go lock up, make sure the guys are gone. Do you need anything?”
“No. I’m good,” she said, resting on her stomach, tucking a pillow under her head.
Connor scooted off the bed and left the room. Cole and Ty were gone. His truck looked secure, and he reached inside his pocket for his key fob and then engaged the deadbolt. When he heard the horn, he shut and bolted the front door and walked the house, hearing Bruno’s muted voice talking on the phone behind the shut bedroom door.
Back inside the bedroom, Julie hadn’t budged and didn’t move when he entered the room. Still on her belly, her eyes were staring up at his trophy shelf.
On so many levels, this day truly sucked. He wished they hadn’t left the house, stayed in their happy place where the only thing that mattered were the declarations of love they’d shared last night. How had things gone so far south so quickly?
Connor unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off before tossing it across the desk chair. Once he removed his belt, he sat on the edge of the bed and began working his boots off. His heart required he do whatever it took to make this right and get them happy again.
“I’m sorry I scared you.”
He tossed the boots toward the closet, and rose to finish undressing while watching Julie. He turned off the lights. She wore pajamas so he left his underwear on and climbed in on his side of the bed. He lay there, staring up at the ceiling, having no idea what to do to make this right.
Unexpectedly, Julie gave a sigh and turned to her side, facing him. “I don’t really like guns.”
“Ty just told me that. They’re very much a part of my life. I can’t tell you that I can give that up,” Connor said, turning to face her.
“You saved me tonight,” she said quietly, tucking her hands under her face.
“I don’t know if you mean that in a good way or bad,” Connor said and somewhat mimicked her position to keep from reaching out to touch her. She smiled a small smile and scooted toward him. He easily shifted toward her, closing the gap. His hand went to her waist, and even as he told himself to go slow, he wrapped it around her, moving her fully against his body. Her palm reached out, touching his chest. The move was unreasonably welcomed and eased the worry of what she might be thinking.
“I’m not so strong against gun control since hiring Bruno, but it’s still hard on me.” His palm traveled the length of her body.
“I respect that. Ty’s worried about this getting out,” Connor said honestly.
“Me too. I saw some phones coming out tonight,” Julie said.
“I told my commander tonight. I’ll reinforce the need for privacy tomorrow.”
When she nodded and lifted her hand to cover a yawn, Connor knew she’d been through too much today.
“It would be nice to hear how you feel about me,” she said, lifting to better tuck her pillow under her head.
He grinned, lifting his h
and to the back of her head, pulling her forward, kissing her forehead. She wrapped her arms around him, pushing him to his back as her head came to his shoulder. How did something so small mean so much? As her breath ghosted over his skin, he held her tight against him.
“I love you.”
“Still?” she asked, looking up at him as her fingertips skimmed back and forth over his chest.
“Absolutely. I don’t see that ever changing. I’m pretty sure you’re it for me. Now, go to sleep, you’re tired.” His fingers dislodged the ponytail holder until he slid her hair free, running his fingers through the silky strands.
“I love you, too.” Her lips pressed against his chest before she burrowed into him.
She fell asleep pretty quickly, her soft snores making him smile. When he was sure she was sound asleep, he wrapped his arms tighter around her as he turned them to his side, tucking her in the crook of his arm. He honestly didn’t know what he’d said that made her change her mind and come to his side, but since he never wanted to let her go, he guessed it truly didn’t matter.
Chapter 13
Julia sat on the sofa, legs crossed underneath her with a laptop in her lap. She was still in her pj’s with her hair piled haphazardly on her head and her teeth barely brushed while her entire team had been on conference call with her since early that morning.
Well, by early, she meant about nine thirty. The local sheriff had just left the house after dropping the bomb that one of the victims’ parents was the police chief in a neighboring town and had already obtained the incident report. They knew Connor, understood his reputation, and had the information that he’d single-handedly brought down the men. They also knew Julia Holly had been at the scene during the incident.
For most of her career, Julia’s entire strategy with the media had been to get the story out first and control it from there. That had always worked in letting her drive the direction of the craziness associated with entertainment news. Now, she had more at stake. She had Connor to consider, and since he didn’t have people or experience, it was up to her to protect him as he had protected her last night.
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