Page 13 of Shattered

“Love you too.” He slid a hand into her curls, hating to go so soon. “You’ll be okay?” A ridiculous question, but he couldn’t help asking.

She shook her head at him slightly, amusement brimming in her eyes. “Really?”

He grinned. “Yeah, that was stupid. Pretend I never said it.”

Cupping her chin in his hand, he kissed her once more, then pulled the covers aside, somehow mustered up the willpower to merely graze his lips over the curves of her breasts and pass by her hardening nipples on his way to her abdomen. He nuzzled her velvety soft skin there, pressed a kiss to the spot just below her belly button where their child slept, and tucked her back in to avoid the sweet temptation her naked body presented. “See you soon.”

She nodded. “Be safe.”

“I will.”

He went to the closet to put on his tactical uniform and grab his gear. When he looked back from the bathroom a few minutes later, where he’d paused to shut the light off, Taya was fast asleep again. Nate smiled, drinking in the sight of her for one moment longer before hitting the switch. In the darkness, he hesitated, the image of her curled up in their bed burned into his mind.

He always hated leaving her, but this time the urge to stay was so strong he had to force himself to walk away and out the door.

Chapter Five

Agent Brad Tucker was in the master bedroom closet packing the last of his gear when the call came in. The text prior to it had woken him from a dead sleep five minutes ago in his bed. His empty bed. Even at two in the morning the other side of it was still undisturbed, the covers all neatly in place, telling him Celida hadn’t come to bed yet. Burning the midnight oil and then some on the case she was currently working on.

Tuck checked his phone. No surprise, his commander’s number showed on the screen. Never a good sign when DeLuca called at this time of night. “Tuck here,” he answered, grabbing a second tactical shirt from the shelf.

“Got an update,” DeLuca said over the rumble of voices in the background. “You and the boys will be heading to Atlanta as soon as we can get you on a flight down there. I’m about to hop a transport. I’ll meet you all at the head office there with more detailed intel.”

“Sounds good.” He walked to the bathroom, his mind clear but his body protesting being hauled out of bed during a night he was supposed to be able to sleep in. Nights at home were precious, and he savored them all. Just sucked that he hadn’t spent it tangled up in bed with his wife. “Any details I can pass to the guys?” Although he had a pretty good idea what this was about.

“You heard about the hostage situation with a barricaded subject in a rural area outside Atlanta?”

“Yeah.” It had been on the news last night, he and Celida had heard about it on the way home from the team barbecue. A Bureau SWAT team had been deployed along with the rest of the usual taskforce for that kind of situation. Things must have escalated substantially overnight if Tuck’s team was being called in. The HRT was the U.S.’s premier civilian unit for responding to hostage crises and other high-risk situations. They only got deployed when the stakes were high.

“Well, things started to go to hell a couple hours ago. Just got confirmation that negotiations have failed. Suspect has cut off contact with agents and is threatening to kill anyone who approaches the cabin. He’s former MARSOC and heavily armed, so we got the call.”

“I’ll let the guys know. Call you once I get to base.”

After getting ready and grabbing his gear, he headed out of the bedroom. He found Celida at the kitchen table, her cheek propped in one hand as she stared at her glowing laptop screen. She glanced over at him when he entered, her eyes bleary.

“Still up?”

She gave a tired smile and rubbed at the back of her neck. “Unfortunately. That DeLuca?”

Tuck nodded and closed the distance between them. He pushed her hand away and took over massaging the back of her neck, earning a grateful groan that ended in a sensual purr. Damn shame he didn’t have time to pick her up, carry her back into their room and make her feel even better. “Team’s being deployed to Atlanta.”

Her shoulders stiffened. “Is it the barricaded Marine?”

“Yeah.”

She blew out a breath. “Thought so. DeLuca say what’s going on?”

“Just that the suspect cut all contact with negotiators.”

“Yeah, I would too if an FBI sniper shot my daughter.”

Tuck’s insides went cold, his hands stilling on her shoulders. “What?”

Celida turned her laptop screen toward him. He stepped to the side and gripped the edge of the circular table as he bent forward to read the message from one of her FBI contacts. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered. One of their SWAT snipers had shot the suspect’s teenage daughter by mistake when she’d stepped out onto the back porch. “How bad is she?” he asked, scanning the rest of the email. Information was sketchy.

“According to my source it was a center mass shot, so she’s probably critical. The father is providing medical assistance, but won’t let anyone approach the residence to help.”

Any trust the man might have had in the federal officers and first responders had been destroyed with the bullet that had struck his daughter, and like Celida, Tuck couldn’t say he blamed him.Hell…

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