Page 27 of The Coffee Shop

She isn’t wearinganythingunder that T-shirt.

Chapter Thirteen

LUKE

It’s day three at the safehouse and Leena and I are standing on the porch watching Sebastian leave.

“Why can’t he just use the burner phone to check in? Why can’t we go with him?” She asks.

“You know we can’t risk anyone tracing the call and we definitely can’t risk someone seeing you. He’ll be alright,” I say, wrapping my arm around her to pull her into my side.

“How long will he be gone?”

I look down at her quizzically, surprised by her concern. I know that we’ve had a good time over the last few days, areallygood time, but that’s all it is. Just a good time. And as much as I wish it could be more, I know as well as she does that as soon as we leave this place, what we have will be over.

My heart sinks when I realize this could be our last day with her. As much as I want her to be safe enough to go home, selfishly, I want her here with us more.

But seeing Leena this worried, this afraid for Sebastian leaving? It’s starting to make me question what this all means forher.

“It’s about an hour and a half to town. So after hechecks in, makes a few stops, he’ll be back, in under four hours if I had to guess. And we have his number, we can text him whenever you like,” I say, kissing the top of her head, leading her back into the house.

“So what’s the story with you two?” Leena asks as we settle into the couch. My arm is still around her and she curls into me as I kick my feet up onto the coffee table. It strikes me how comfortable we’ve become over the past three days. I just have this constant need to be touching her, and it seems she feels the same.

“What do you mean?” I ask, hoping that she’s not bringing upthatconversation again.

She tilts her chin up to grin at me.God,she’s adorable. But it’s not really in a cute way, it’s more in a she’s fucking hot, sort of way.

I have to catch my goddamn breath everytime I look at her.

“You and Seb. You said you’ve known him since you were kids?” she asks.

“Yeah, we met our first year of high school. Some guys were beating up on this really nerdy kid after school and I went over to stop them, which was stupid, because they outnumbered me three to one. They had me on the ground in less than a second and were beating the fucking shit out of me too. That’s when Seb came over, pulled them off me. He was a tank of a man, even back then,” I say and Leena chuckles. “Anyway, the two of us kicked the crap out of those guys. They never touched that kid, or us, again. We’ve been inseparable ever since.”

“So is that why you decided to become cops? Because you like saving people?”

I let out a little chuckle.

“We’re not that chivalrous, not really. I guess wewanted to help people, sure, but mostly we just wanted to stay out of the kind of shit that…” I pause, wondering how to word this.

“The kind of shit my father does,” she says quietly.

“Yeah. We were starting to get mixed up in it and we wanted out. A recruiter came by the school and we both signed up. Joined the academy right out of high school, then we were in the force for nearly eleven years. I was twenty nine when we left, not much older than you,” I smile down at her. “Then everything went down with my brother, and well, it was probably time to get out anyway.”

“Why?” She asks curiously.

“It was changing us, you know? Seeing what humanity is capable of, it weighs on you. Sure, it was great at first, feeling like you are helping people, but that’s all it was. A feeling. It seemed like nothing we ever did really made that much of a difference and that’s a hard thing to come to grips with. We did our best and some days were great. We worked with a lot of great men and women who did a lot of good, so maybe we could have moved up someday. But Seb and I, we just weren’t happy. And after the things we saw, we realized that life’s too short to waste on doing something you don’t love, you know?” I stare at her, realizing that I have never told anyone that. Never. Not even my family knows the extent of why I left the force. And they certainly don’t know the role my brother played in it.

“I’m sorry,” Leena says, her tone understanding and genuine. “Working customer service gives you special insight into how shitty people can be on some level, but I can’t even imagine what you went through. But you can talk to me about it whenever you want, if you need to. I’ma pretty good listener,” she smiles.

“Yes, you are.” Our eyes lock and I stifle what I actually want to say to her.

To tell her how fucking in love with her I am.

Of how I want her. In our life, my bed.Hell,I want her interrupting our fucking workouts every morning. I want her laughter, her humor, the way she subconsciously touches my arm when she’s concerned about something. I want to kiss her. I want it to be her and me and Sebastian every single goddamn day for the rest of our lives.

I want all of her. Always.

And not just until the end of this assignment.

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