Page 12 of Tides of Discovery
Cooper braced himself against the top of the desk, fingers splayed as if to anchor himself. He stared down for a long moment, jaw clenched tight enough that I could see the muscles working beneath his skin. His pulse throbbed visibly at his temple. The silence stretched, filled only with our breathing and the muffled sounds of the coffee shop beyond the door. He dropped into his chair.
“You stopped it,” he said finally, voice rough as sandpaper. “That’s what matters.” His eyes, when they lifted to meet mine, held a mixture of gratitude and fear that made my heart twist painfully.
I nodded, but the guilt gnawed at me, sharp-toothed and relentless. “I should’ve stopped them before they got that close.” My hands curled into fists on my knees. “I should have anticipated this escalation.”
“How could you have prevented it? You can’t blame yourself. You’ve done everything you could, and you caught it before they did any damage,” Cooper said fiercely. His eyes held an intensity that pinned me in place. “Jack, you’re the only reason I even know what’s going on. I trust you.” The determination in his voice broke through my defenses.
The raw sincerity made my throat tighten, emotion rising like a tide I couldn’t control. I wanted to reach across the desk and take his hand, to promise him that nothing and no one would ever hurt him while I was around. Instead, I remained still, afraid that if I moved, I might not stop until I’d pulled him into my arms.
He dragged a hand through his hair, making it stick up at odd angles that would have been endearing in any other circumstance. “Why would anyone want to hurt my shop? Me?” His voice cracked slightly on the last word, and it damn near broke me to hear the bewilderment there, the inability to comprehend why anyone would target something he’d built with such care and love.
I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, and closed the distance between us as much as I dared. “That’s what we need to figure out.” The words came out low and resolute.
Cooper was quiet for a moment, staring past me like he could somehow find the answer in the faded paint of the office wall. “Ben wouldn’t want to hurt me, would he?”
“Ben? Why?”
“He came in the day before the POS attack,” he said reluctantly.
My spine stiffened, a bolt of something hot and possessive shooting through me. “Ben?” The name tasted bitter on my tongue. Cooper’s ex. The bastard who’d left him broken.
“Yeah, he came into the shop. Wanted me back.” Cooper’s mouth tightened into a grim line, and the softness vanished from his features. “I told the cheater to fuck off. He was pissed.”
Ben—who had set up Cooper’s entire system and website, who had known all his passwords. I forced myself to breathe evenly and fought the urge to find Ben immediately to make it very clear what would happen if he were behind this. But I couldn’t allow my contempt for him to blind me to other possibilities. “Anyone else?” I kept my voice neutral with effort.
He nodded, eyes darkening. “Martin. The guy who owns the new coffee shop down the street. He came in last week, poked around. Took pictures before I asked him to leave.” His fingers drummed against the desk.
A low growl built in my chest, but I kept it contained. Barely. My protective instincts roared to life and demanded action. Demanded I eliminate any threat to Cooper immediately. I tamped them down. Barely.
I sat back, crossed my arms, and tried to approach this professionally despite the personal fury simmering in my veins. “Both of them have motive. Ben…well, we know how ugly that breakup was. And the jerk expected you to forgive and forget.” I swore under my breath. “And Martin’s been undercutting your prices since the day he opened. Either could have sabotaged you or hired someone to do it.”
Cooper’s expression was carefully neutral, a mask he wore well, but the slight tremor in his fingers betrayed him. He folded his hands in his lap, probably to hide the trembling, unaware that I noticed everything about him, had cataloged every expression, every habit, every tell.
I lowered my voice, needing him to understand the magnitude of what we were facing. “Coop…this wasn’t amateur hour. Whoever’s behind it knows what they’re doing. And they’re serious.” I let the implication hang in the air between us: that this wouldn’t stop, that the attacks would likely escalate further. “And there’s something about the attacks that feels familiar. I just can’t put my finger on it.” I leaned forward again, my voice steady, my resolve even steadier. “I’m going to find out who’s behind this. I promise.” The vow emerged from some deep, fundamental part of me, absolute and unbreakable.
Cooper studied me for a long moment. The vulnerability in his eyes sliced straight through the armor I wore for everyone else. I wondered what he saw—if he could read the depth of my feelings, the reasons behind my determination that went far beyond professional pride.
“Thanks, Jack,” he said quietly, the simple words weighted with emotion. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
You’ll never have to, I wanted to say. Because I wasn’t going anywhere, not as long as he needed me. And even if he didn’t.
Instead, I rose from the chair and squeezed his shoulder, feeling the heat of him through the fabric of his T-shirt, the solid strength beneath my palm. He didn’t move away from the touch. Didn’t tense. Instead, surprisingly, he leaned into it slightly, almost imperceptibly. Something fierce and tender unwound in my chest.
As I stepped back into the hallway, the resolve settled deeper into my bones and hardened into unshakable certainty.
Whoever was trying to hurt Cooper—hurt what he’d built with years of work and hope and sacrifice—would have to go through me first.
And I’d burn my entire career to the ground before I let anyone harm the man I loved.
CHAPTER FIVE
Jack
The pasta sauce simmered on Mason and Caleb’s stovetop and filled their apartment with the aroma of garlic and herbs. I leaned against the kitchen counter and swirled the red wine in my glass as Caleb sliced cucumbers with expert precision. While Mason and I had become friends through my apartment rental above his bookstore, it was his boyfriend, Caleb, who had drawn me into their social circle with regular dinner invitations.
Mason and Caleb were part of a supportive circle of friends—family, really—I’d found since moving to Seacliff Cove, friends I appreciated more than they could know.
“So, Jack.” Caleb scraped the cukes onto the salad and shot me a sly look. “Saved the world from any hackers this week?”
