Page 139 of Protective Heroes

He glared at Liberty. “Find someone else to make Ren jealous, dammit. I’m not your toy.”

Angelina was running toward the exit. The table where she’d been sitting was tipped over along with her chair. A tall man ran after her. “Angelina, wait,” he called.

Fury struck Ford. In two steps he had the man by the shirtfront and was shaking him. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Who the fuck are you? Let go of me.” Sam wrenched away and shot out the door after Angelina.

Ford stormed out too. She hadn’t made it far. She leaned against the building, arms wrapped around her middle and tears running down her face.

The man-made it to her first and drew her into his embrace. She didn’t move to put her arms around him, but the entire view sliced Ford in two. He’d been gone for a fucking week and she hadn’t hesitated to find male attention. She’d come to Walker’s on a goddamn date, and all he’d been doing was stopping to have a drink with his buddies after a long week of abusing their bodies in preparation for war.

But Liberty had kissed him and Angelina had witnessed it.

Dammit.

“I suggest you let go of my girlfriend,” Ford said in a hard voice.

She gasped, and the man loosened his hold. “Look, buddy, I don’t know anything about a boyfriend. Angelina and I are old friends.”

Before the words were out of his mouth, Ford gripped him by the shirt and cast him aside.

“Stop it! Sam is my friend,” she cried, her tears drying up as anger flushed her face and sparked in her eyes. She stepped up to Sam and hugged him. Ford growled low in his throat, but they didn’t break apart for a long minute.

Sam said something low to Angelina.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ll come find you tomorrow to talk, all right?” She gave him a parting squeeze. The man glared at Ford before walking away.

Angelina stabbed a finger into Ford’s face. “What the hell are you doing with a bartender?”

“I could ask what the hell you’re doing with him!”

She waved a furious hand. “Sam is an old friend who used to teach in my department. We were catching up after I hadn’t heard from my so-called boyfriend in a week, believing he was training. Instead, he’s in there kissing bartenders!”

“Liberty is an old friend too.”

Angelina spun on her sexy-as-sin heels and strode off. He caught her in two long steps and held her prisoner. “You aren’t walking away from me. You’ve got the wrong impression about me and Liberty.”

“Oh yeah? Well you have the wrong impression of me and Sam.”

He stared down into her face, his heart drumming wildly at the thought of losing her to a misunderstanding. “Look, I missed the fuck out of you.”

“Looked like it!”

He kissed the angry twist right off her lips. When he pulled back, she gasped but he kissed her again, softer this time, showing her the promise behind his action. He was going to make her understand—and get information about this Sam guy—and then he was going to take her back to her place and make her scream his name all night long.

“I missed you, baby. All I could think about was getting back to you, but the guys insisted I stop at Walker’s. It’s a tradition with us after a long exercise like this, and I hadn’t been there two minutes before you saw...”

“You kiss that woman,” she huffed.

He brushed aside a loose tendril of her hair that had caught on her tear-wet face. He ached at the thought she’d been hurt.

“No, she kissed me. Liberty is the owner and she’s been in love with my buddy Ren for a year. Neither of them will admit it, and they play games. He was in there semi-ignoring her, and she didn’t like it so she tried to make him jealous.”

Angelina snorted. “You have all the right words, don’t you?”

“Because it’s the truth. Your turn. Why were you cheating on me with that stuffy prick?”

“Sam’s a great guy—he isn’t at all stuffy.” The spark was back in her eyes and had brought reinforcements. She looked ready to storm away again, so he held her by the upper arms, refusing to let her go.

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