Page 21 of A Captive Situation

He was eyeing me, narrowing his gaze. “Don’t take him back.”

“What?” I was back to being breathless.

“When he realizes how much he messed up, don’t take him back.”

He sounded so sure. He looked so sure, his eyes falling to my mouth and holding there. His face tightened for a second.

I looked away, my insides suddenly feeling empty. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew the full story.” If he knew how pathetic I’d been in the relationship. I may as well have chased Beck off, with all the ways I’d failed myself. Who’d be attracted to that?

“You’re not a woman a guy leaves. I know that much.”

Oh.Oh!

That—yeah. Wow.

He was looking at me, but not in a way he was seeing me. It was like he was seeing inside of me, and that made him ... I couldn’t tell, but he grew suddenly sharp, all the way alert. His gaze wasonlyfocused on me.

That breathless sensation was back.

It wasn’t there because of the idea of Beck coming back to me.

Chapter Seven

Jake

Once we were done, I tossed enough money on the table and we headed outside.

Her eyes were wet with unshed tears, but she was holding them in. She wasn’t letting them fall. Still hugging herself. She’d been holding herself like that most of the time we were in there. It did something to me.

But, fuck.

She was lost and I knew one thing. Lost people didn’t belong in this city. They became more lost and became my problem.

Or theydid.

When I’d been police.

Fuck.

I wasn’t a cop anymore.

It was going to take some time for me to adjust. That’d been my identity for so long. Justin’s brother. Then a cop. Whether I’d been a good or a dirty one, I’d still been a fucking cop. I tuned in that I was glaring at her as we stood on the sidewalk outside of the diner.

I tried to shove my anger down, and reached for her. “Hey.”

“Worthing! You piece of shit.”

I heard someone yelling behind me.

The voice was male, aggressive, and ice rushed down my spine. I acted on instinct, the same reflex that’s kept me alive this far, and whipping around, I shoved Sawyer behind me, my arm up with my gun already extended. I didn’t have time to plant my feet because as I looked, the guy was walking my way. He was on the outside of the sidewalk, a long winter coat open, the ends flopping behind him. He was white, had a dark beard. Grizzled face. Weight at two sixty and not with muscle, and he thought he was a motherfucking gangster.

“You gonna be dead, you pi—”

I shot him.

No hesitation. No thinking.

I had my gun in my hand the second I heard him speak. And I was raising it as I turned to look at him. It was like breathing for me, and as everything slowed down, right as I pulled the trigger, I saw the surprise on his face. He was here to shoot me, but he never thought I’d shoot first.

---