Page 31 of How Much For A Broken Heart?

Chapter Twelve

AUGUST

I stared out of the window, the vents open so I could hear the crashing of the waves on the stony shore. I felt better today, my mind sharper, the meds eased off, the pain honest and there, but not crippling, and the surgery site looking good. I was still weak and couldn’t get out of bed, but I had a long time to think about things.

Amos.

How had I allowed myself to be deceived by Amos for so long? I’d thought he was a pawn in a larger game, just this insignificant and fearful man, yet it turned out it had been him pulling the strings all along.

I couldn’t shake the vivid memory of that moment when Amos had shot me, the agony searing through my gut, and the ice-cold expression as he’d pulled the trigger.

He’d abducted Annie, or somehow inherited her, or bought her—I didn’t know—he’d masterminded orders to eliminate targets, manipulating events from behind the scenes. Though I lacked real evidence, I was convinced he was the one responsible for James’s death, and that Annie had been nothing but a lucky mistake for him. The pieces of the puzzle weren’t falling into place fast enough for me, and I was frustrated beyond belief.

The knock was enough of a surprise to shake me out of my mood, and I snapped upright. Fuck.

“Come in,” I said and tried to shift in the bed to sit upright. Whoever was coming through that door, they weren’t going to see pathetic August; they would be seeing a Navy SEAL who was capable of anything.

Fuck it hurts.

“Hi, August.”

Ethan—the one who knew more about how much of a killer I was than the others. He’d been right there when I’d put a bullet through the brain of his old FBI boss. Former Army Ranger, then FBI, quick with a gun, he crossed to the bed, another man close behind him frowning at me.

“Maybe you should wait some more,” the other man said. I recognized him—he’d been in my room before, fussing around me, making sure I was okay—Josh.

“We can’t wait,” Ethan said to Josh, as we gripped hands. “August.”

Josh huffed behind him, “Come on Ethan?—"

“What can’t wait?” I asked Ethan, even as Josh huffed at being interrupted. “Is this something about Amos? I’m ready to get out there,” I said and cursed when my body still wouldn’t freaking move.

“Worse than kids,” Josh muttered.

Josh didn’t have a military look to him. Yes, he was determined, and he’d come barreling in after Ethan, but he seemed more concerned than anything else.

Ethan gripped the other man’s arms, then tugged him in for a soft kiss and a longer hug. “I promise, we won’t hurt him.”

Ah, so Josh and Ethan were a thing. A very sexy kissing thing.

Josh disentangled himself. “Don’t think that kissing me will stop me worrying,” he snapped, although there was a hint of a smile on the part of his face I could see. “You have a call button, these idiots make you worse, you use it, okay?”

I blinked at the man. “Sure.” I still wasn’t sure who Josh meant by these idiots when it was him and Ethan.

Then, someone else knocked on the doorjamb, and when I inclined my head that he could come in, he was only one of six other people headed into the room, the last of whom—Ryder—shut the door.

Ethan cleared his throat as I took in the sheer amount of badass in this room with me.

“So, short introduction. Zach, SEAL.” I glanced at him, didn’t know him, but just because we’d both been Navy, both SEALs, didn’t mean we were buddies. He looked kind of familiar, but he didn’t give any indication he recognized me. We just exchanged nods because in the heart of us, we might not know each other, but we were brothers by the teams we’d been on.

“Yaz, Aria, Special Operations.” I wasn’t close enough to anyone to shake hands, but we exchanged nods. “Kai, 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron. You know Ryder, and this is Luca, he’s the one who got Annie out.”

I wanted to shake Luca’s hand, and he seemed to get the message, leaning toward me. I gripped his hand hard. Ryder might well have gone back inside with me to clear the compound, but Luca had saved Annie.

“I owe you. Same as I owe Ryder.”

“It was nothing,” Luca said with a nod, his blond hair falling over his left eye, and offered me a wide grin.

“So, introductions over, August,” Ethan said in a calm, but businesslike, tone. “I’ve got some updates on the case. You feeling up to it?” He didn’t add that if I wasn’t up to it, they’d all leave. It was a moot point—I wanted to talk about this case, and this crew of Ethan’s were the team that would take me to Amos. I was sure of it. Everyone settled in—Zach and Kai leaned against the wall; Ryder dragged over the chair, and when he sat, Aria perched on the arm. Yaz sat at the end of my bed, and Ethan paced.

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