Page 69 of Shielded Hearts

She let out a stuttering sigh in her sleep and drew her knees upward to hold on to the heat where his body had been. For a moment, he stared at her oval face on the pillow and the wayward curl tumbling across her cheek, contemplating getting back into bed with her.

But both of his brothers would be up soon, and they needed to talk.

He took a couple steps away from the bed and located his jeans slung over the footboard. Careful to make no sound, he dressed in discarded clothes from the night before. Barefoot, he crept to the door and slipped out of the bedroom.

The scent of coffee hit his nostrils first. When he reached the kitchen and saw Gray, he let out a grunt.

With a full mug of coffee halfway to his lips, Gray cocked a brow at him. “For once, I beat you. I thought you started your day when the first bird pops an eye open.”

With a crooked smile, he strode to the coffee bar that Willow took such pride in keeping neat and totally ruined the effect by searching for his favorite black mug. It wasn’t there.

Then he saw it in Gray’s grip.

He leveled his brother in his stare but Gray wasn’t giving up that mug. Colt pushed out a sigh. A lot of things were changing for him. Letting go of a fight over something as trivial as a favorite mug seemed like a good first step toward growth.

He pushed the dainty girly mugs Willow preferred out of the way and plucked a different mug off the shelf. After filling it with coffee, he leaned on the bar and eyed Gray.

“When is your leave up?”

“Three days.”

“You feelin’ up to returning to duty with your head injury?”

He scoffed at Colt’s mention of the injury. “Never been better.”

“Still look like hell.”

The bruise around his nose and extending to his eye sockets wasn’t as dark as it had been the previous day, but it was still ugly.

Colt was getting a heavier feeling from his brother, though.

“How much longer you got in the service, man?”

“I’m close to the end of my contract.”

“Going to re-sign?”

He scrubbed a blunt finger over his jaw, creating a scratchy noise on his beard stubble. “Been thinking you guys need me here. After what happened to Layne, and Carson almost losing his damn mind thinking he’d lost her…then Oaks getting in deep shit to save Shiloh…” He waved a hand. “And now you.”

Colt didn’t know whether to grunt in irritation or laugh at being lumped in with his brothers and their significant others.

“You don’t have to pull a hero act to rescue us from the shit we fell into. You know that, right? If being in the military still makes you happy, then you should sign for another tour.”

He lowered his mug from his mouth. “That’s just it—I’m not sure it does anymore.”

He bobbed his head. “It gets to that point for some of us. Carson pushed on for so long, I figured he’d end up a lifer. Oaks lost his friend and that brought him home. The rest of us are bound to fall at some point.”

“Even Denver? He’s fucking black ops.”

He shrugged. “Not sure what path he’ll take, but we’re not talking about Denver. What doyouwant, bro?”

He never got to respond because at that moment, their discussion was cut short by Carson entering the kitchen. He was dressed for a day in the office in jeans and a dark gray Black Heart Security T-shirt.

He locked his gaze on Colt and Gray and then twitched his head. “Meet me in my office.” He pushed past them to get at the coffee, pouring the rest of the pot into a huge mug.

Once they were all crammed in Carson’s small personal office that he preferred over the larger spaces in the house, Colt took immediate control.

“I don’t know what you have planned for this meeting, but I have something to discuss. It’s about Aspen.”

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