Page 54 of Protection for Nichole

Her lips twisted up a little to the side. “So you’re great with me working?”

“Yes. I mean, I’d miss you if you left for a long assignment. I know this is something you will have to deal with, I will be deployed again. It won’t be in the next two years, but in three years from now, I may end up overseas, spending six to nine months living there. The longest SEAL deployment was a year. Those guys had a huge adjustment when they came back. It’s hard on the guys, on their families, on everyone. Six months is what they aim for. So if you marry me, know that every few years, I will be living on a base overseas, and I may not be able to contact you for days or weeks at a time.”

She held his hands and squeezed. “Yes. I know this. I get it. I know that can be hard on couples. We’ll go to counseling and figure out how to deal with it. We’ll work to make our relationship work.”

“I like that answer.” He grabbed his underwear and tossed her one of his shirts. He liked seeing her in his clothes. She looked so cute in them.

They headed out to the kitchen, and he grabbed two glasses of water for them while she grabbed a box of cereal and two bowls. He liked the idea of eating cereal after sex. It had been a while since he’d bought cereal, but when she bought the box and told him it would be a good snack for after sex, he knew she was right.

After he’d taken a few bites, he set his spoon down. “I’ve been deployed twice as a SEAL. Usually, you wait more than a year between deployments, but things happen and after a team was injured, my team was sent in. The first deployment wasn’t bad. The second, it messed with my mind. It took me a while to get back into living in the States.”

“Anything you can talk about?”

He shrugged. “It was rough. I mean, things happened, of course, but coming home was difficult. I should have gone to more counseling. I eventually regulated. I found some great tools to help me calm my anger. It’s much better now. But I want you to know that it took me a while to get back to normal. The next deployment could be just as bad.”

She reached for his hands. “If that happens, we’ll work through it. You won’t be left alone. We’ll work through everything together.”

“Together. I love that answer. I’ve never had a together before.”

“You do now.”

He was the luckiest man in the world. She could have walked away. He knew military guys could be very scary. He’d seen it firsthand when guys went off. It was frightening to see a guy totally lose his shit and start attacking people. He would never want to scare Nichole that way. He would make sure he had his emotions under control and everything regulated. He could do that for Nicole because she was the most important person in his life, and that wasn’t going to change.

Chapter 44

Devon couldn’t believehe’d missed that woman. Now, he seriously needed to get her. Maybe he would just send her information to the guy who wanted her instead of delivering her. That wouldn’t work. The money was contingent on him bringing her to the guy. He didn’t want to be implicated in her disappearance. He understood. The guy didn’t want to get his hands dirty, and Devon loved getting deep in the weeds of their work.

Back before Nichole ruined everything, he’d loved doing wet work for his father. It was fun to hurt people. He’d been responsible for more than one death, and every time he did a hit, he found a level of satisfaction he’d never thought existed.

He’d expected to feel that in Chicago, but his entire trip had been a fucking waste. Disaster didn’t even come close to how bad it had been. He was lucky he hadn’t been arrested. The dog shit had been enough to make him want to kill someone. Public transportation had been the worst. If that hadn’t been a cop on the train, he might have just punched the jerk in the face.

It would feel good to take someone out. Maybe one of the other organizations needed some work. But those groups tendedto stick to their own guys. No one would trust him to take out one of their enemies. He would just have to find something to do on his own.

His legitimate business was at risk of failing, his father’s contacts didn’t trust him, and finding new contacts was difficult. Times were changing, and criminal activity wasn’t as easy to hide.

Maybe he should pack it in and give up. He didn’t have the resources he needed. His father was useless in prison. The men who his father had helped out over the years had abandoned him. Whatever he’d thought he could build wasn’t there.

He couldn’t give up without one last fight. He wanted to ruin Nichole’s life like she’d ruined his. Selling her to some guy who would spend years breaking her would be enough of a grand slam that he could retire.

Finding her was a top priority. She wasn’t in Chicago, but where had she gone? He would take the next week and search social media for mention of her. If that didn’t work, he didn’t know what he would do, but he would find a way to find her.

She couldn’t hide from him forever. Eventually, she would screw up, and then he would have her. He just hoped the offer for money was still there when he finally had her. Killing her would be satisfying, but it wouldn’t get him the millions he needed to walk away from business. Finding her had to pay off because he didn’t have that many options left.

Chapter 45

Nichole woke the next morning,wondering if they’d really decided to get married. Jesse was already awake, which didn’t surprise her one bit. She found him outside sipping coffee, reading an article on the Middle East.

“Light reading in the morning.”

He glanced up, his face going from anger and worry to happiness. The chuckle that escaped his lips was dark and heavy, not light at all. “War sucks. Just catching up on some stuff before tomorrow.”

“Do you think you’ll be called up to go over there?”

He shrugged. “No clue. But I’m always ready.”

“Speaking of ready, did we really agree to get married next week?”

Now his smile was bright, the love she felt from him shining through. “Absolutely. I mean, we could do it today, but I understand your desire to get a special dress and get your hair done.”

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