Page 108 of Cross & Crown

Ty’s voice stopped him.

“Hey Nick?”

Nick took a steadying breath and closed his eyes, putting

the phone to his ear again. “What?”

“I just . . . be careful, okay?”

Nick nodded, rol ing his eyes. “Got it.”

108

Nick hung up the phone before Ty could say more. He

was tired of dealing with that heartache for tonight. He slid

the phone into his pocket and glanced down the stairs with

a frown. JD had obviously come up here for something, and

Nick wasn’t buying the “I need air” excuse. He looked over

the railing into the lower deck of his boat. He knew Julian

was in one of the bunks, with Hagan keeping an eye on things

from up top until it was Nick’s watch.

He headed down the steps, listening intently, expecting

JD to have returned to the VIP cabin to sleep. He came up

short when he reached the bottom of the stairs and almost

bowled JD over.

“Sorry!” he whispered as he grabbed the man’s arm to

steady him. “What are you doing? Are you okay?”

JD nodded. “Yeah, I . . . I was just looking at your pictures.”

Nick glanced at the frames that lined the wal .

“How long were you a Marine?”

“Ten years,” Nick answered. JD was staring at the pictures,

his sharp eyes taking them in, studying them. Nick knew

every photo on the wal , but he rarely slowed to look at them

anymore. Most were of him in uniform, and almost every one

had Ty Grady in it. They had been best friends for so long, it

was almost impossible to find a shot of Nick without him.

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