Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Her eyebrow arches. “That sounded like an order.”
“It was.”
“You’re bossy after sex.”
“I was bossy before sex.”
She smiles, and my heart aches like it never has. She settles against me, and her breathing evens out after a couple of minutes, but I lie awake thinking, because having Wren asleep in my arms gives me clarity like nothing else.
I don’t know what the next few days will bring, but I know what I’m fighting for. It’s not an operation, business, pride, or even territory.
It’s her. And my brothers. And what the four of us are together.
It’s Boone asleep with a pistol within reach because he trusts me to wake him if I need him.
It’s Cade outside in the dark, guarding all of us without needing thanks.
It’s Wren, here beside me, her hand over my heart.
When the time comes, I know I’ll be exactly what they need me to be. Leader, weapon, shield, man.
And when I carry the weight, I won’t be carrying it alone.
CHAPTER 33
WREN
The gunshot rips me hard out of sleep, but for a couple of disorienting seconds, I don’t know where I am.
Before it fully registers that I’m in the mountains at the Wilders’ cabin, I’m already scrambling out of bed and reaching for my sidearm on the nightstand.
Another shot cracks outside, louder than the first, and I’m fully awake, everything in me cold with fear.
The room is still dark, but there’s light coming in from the hall. The bedroom door opens before I reach it, and Rhett is there in dark sweats and a black T-shirt, a rifle in his hands.
“Let’s go,” he says as his eyes scan me.
It’s an order, and for once, I don’t question it. I’m not wearing anything except underwear and one of Boone’s shirts, but Rhett doesn’t care.
He moves back into the hall far enough to glance toward the front of the cabin, then he gestures for me to follow. “Cade has contact on the west slope,” he says. “Boone’s on the north side.”
My stomach drops. Contact.
A third shot sounds, farther away this time, and my entire body flinches.
“Safe room,” Rhett says, reaching for my arm and leading me to the end of the hall and into the small storage room. “Stay in here until we come for you.”
He starts to close the door, but I reach for him. “Is Cade hit?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he just told me to tell you to stay put before he called out their movement. There are two men. Cade’s handling it.”
I can only imagine what my face looks like, but whatever it’s doing, it compels Rhett to take pity on me. He steps closer, and slides a hand around the back of my neck, this thumb pressing just beneath my ear, grounding me. “He’s doing his job. Let him.”
I nod once, because I don’t trust my voice. His eyes hold me for one more second, then he releases me.
Rhett looks down at where I’m gripping my gun. “Keep your safety on. Set it on the shelf.”
Before he can say anything else, a voice comes through the radio. “Clear on north.”
It sounds like Cade’s voice, but Rhett answers, “Hold, Mouth,” and I realize it’s Boone.
Instead of closing me into the small space, Rhett leaves the door open and moves down the hall to where he can see the cabin’s front door.
Each second that passes feels like a day, until a voice comes again, and this time I’m certain it’s Cade. “Two retreating west.” His voice is calm and alive, and a breath I didn’t realize I was holding whooshes out of me.
“Any injuries?” Rhett asks him.
“Not mine.”
My eyes widen as I imagine what might be happening out there, and what will happen next. Before my mind can get too carried away, the back door opens, and Boone calls out to us.
As I take in the sight of him, his hair rumpled as if from sleep and his eyes free of their usual easy charm, Rhett demands more information from Cade.
“Clipped one,” Cade says through the crackle of the radio. “They’re moving fast. Not coming back without more men.”
“Hold position until I reach you,” Rhett answers.
“Negative,” Cade says. “Stay with the cabin.”
Rhett’s mouth flattens into a silent argument as he grips the radio in his fist.
Boone makes his way toward me, his eyes sweeping over my face, then down to my bare legs below his shirt. “Sweetheart.”
“I’m okay,” I say, but his face tells me he either doesn’t believe me or doesn’t care, because he’s going to put his hands on me anyway. When he reaches me, he wraps one arm around me hard enough to lift my feet off the floor.
Rhett’s gaze passes over us, then away, as he continues to scan windows and doors, converting fear into action, because that’s what he does.
It takes nineteen minutes for Cade to come back, and I know because I count every one.