Page 11 of Collateral Damage

He snorts. “Thanks.”

“In all seriousness, J, you’ve gotta let this go. You’ve gotta let her go. When it comes to Skyla, you don’t think clearly. You’re impulsive, and it’s fucking dangerous. The colonel updated me while you were getting checked out. Mary is still out there. They can’t find her. All this time, everyone has been underestimating her, but she’s key. She got to Skyla once; she can get to her again. You need to focus on keeping her safe, man, and let her go.”

I give him one more squeeze and head back to my post. I watch Jensen walk away, and my anger dissipates. I feel for the guy. I really do. Being in Jensen’s position has to be fucking torture. He’d let Skyla go when she was the best thing that had ever happened to him and lost her to his brother. Now he has to live with the consequences of that. I can’t fathom what they were going to do, but Skyla’s on life-support and in a coma right now, so I guess her survival is the first worry for the time being.

I think about how Jensen has lived with three years of regret and will probably live with more, and it makes me think of Jess. After spending only a couple of hours with her, I’m finding it difficult to get her out of my mind, and I’m not even in love with her. Maybe tonight was fun because it was a passing fling, and nothing more will come from it, but I’ll never know unless we spend more time together. I don’t want to live my life with more regrets.

I roll my shoulders and drop my eyes to the linoleum floor.

Fuck this noise. Jensen isn’t the only one who needs to get his head back in the game. Reed might be dead and his goons in custody, but Mary’s still on the loose, and I can’t afford any distractions. Knowing I’d need to maintain a single-minded focus for however long they take to catch Mary and secure Skyla’s safety, I realize I have to talk to Jess. I don’t want her to think I’m blowing her off after a really incredible night, so I need to be as honest with her as I can. I look at the clock and decide it’s still too early to call her, but the moment it’s a reasonable hour, I’m giving her a call. Who knows what might happen?

At eight o’clock sharp, nothing has changed except Jensen told me there’s a gag order on what went down with the serum and the warehouse, and everyone is hoping Skyla wakes up. And soon. Apparently, Trent has a medical proxy for Skyla’s health care decisions, and she has a DNR. But they’re gonna have to go through me to get to that machine. As my thoughts go into a downward spiral, the only thing I can think about is talking to Jess. Aside from telling her what the situation is, I just need to hear her voice. 0800 shouldn’t be too early.

I take out my phone and dial.

“Miss me so soon?” Her cheeky voice comes through the line, and I immediately feel some of the tension dissolve. I try to think of a cocky comment or wisecrack, but come up empty.

“Actually, I am. I want to see more of you,” I blurt, even though I’m phoning her to say I’ll be scarce for a while. Life’s too short to not say what you want to say.

“There’s nothing more to see. You’ve literally seen all of me.” The teasing tone in her voice makes me wish I was in her apartment with her.

I bite back a smile. “That’s not what I meant.”

She laughs. “When do I see you again?”

“This is when it gets complicated. I’m on an op now and don’t know when I’ll get away.”

“Are we talking weeks? Months?”

Shit, this is probably where it all goes downhill. “Afraid I can’t say.”

She doesn’t waste a beat. “You know where I am. I had a great night and would like to see where this goes.”

“Me too.” Fuck, it feels good talking to her. The doctors come out of Skyla’s room, and it’s time to get my head in the game. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you when I can.”

“I’ll be here.”

God help me, I fucking hope so.

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