Twist My Heart by Brooke Taylor (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

“A woman was asking if anyone stayed here with a dog? What did she look like?”

“Dark hair pulled back in a tight bun. Awesome widow’s peak. Kinda reminded me of one of those Alaskan dogs—evil-looking but with pretty ice-blue eyes. Tattoo on her forearm of a phoenix.” Dylan caught the look of sudden recognition as Nik’s memory flashed to the DOA under Tigger’s truck and incorrectly surmised, “Let me guess, your girlfriend or wife?”

“Did you see which way she went?”

“I suggested she check the motels east of here and, poof, off she flew.”

Nik held his hand out to shake Dylan’s, gripping it firmly. “Thanks, dude.”

“My advice…” Dylan leaned in close to whisper, despite there being no one around. “Dump the witch and marry the bitch.”

From the flirtatious way Dylan kept hold of Nik’s hand, Nik figured the bitch in question was the brash, no-shits-given homosexual kind. “Appreciate the proposal, man, but I’m not marriage material.”

Dylan pursed his lips, shot his eyes up to their corners, and huffed. “What would I do with a hetero? The blonde. She has fierce written all over her. Witch better watch her back.”

Nik chuckled before turning to stride out the back door. “Catch you on the dark side, brother.”

Halfway down the hall, he heard Dylan call out, “Don’t forget to leave an online review!”

Nik flashed him a thumbs-up. Don’t worry, buddy, you’ll be getting all the stars. Anyone who could make “broomstick up her butt” sound polite and professional deserved a promotion.

Outside, the waning night cast the world in a spell of indigo blue. Oranges and ambers edged up from the east as the sun started peeking over the horizon. Nik filled his lungs. The crisp morning air was already tinged in exhaust from truckers getting an early start along the busy interstate.

This was crazy. Turning Thea in was the right thing to do. Yet every time he played the sequence of events through his mind, he couldn’t see himself driving away and leaving her alone with no memory, no defenses.

Never leave a man behind. How hard had it been drilled into him over the years? How often did the singular, simple rule come into play? No matter the cost or the danger, you never abandoned your team. As irrational as it was, Thea and Titan were now part of his team.

Maybe holding Thea in the diner had done it. Shit, other than the back-slapping variety he’d regularly given other SEALs or mission personnel, the last time he’d so much as hugged anyone had to have been right before leaving on his first tour of duty over eight years ago. His family had each taken a turn tightly embracing him, so worried he’d get hurt or worse, not come home to them alive. Talk about irony.

Maybe it was how crazy hot he got every time he looked her way.

Maybe it was her thank-you smile—the one she tilted her head for as those whiskey eyes drug him into the deep end of an ocean he’d never swam before. And here he’d been so sure he’d swum them all.

Nik closed the distance to his Jeep, sensing immediately Thea wasn’t in the vehicle. His stomach dropped.

“Son of a…” he cursed harshly under his breath.

Of course Tigger had bounced.

Chapter Eleven

How far did she think she’d make it in those stupid bedazzled flip-flops? Alone? Titan sure as hell wasn’t subtle either. The woman Dylan had brushed off might still be close. Nik grabbed his keys out of his pocket and quickened his pace, hoping he’d catch Thea before anyone else did.

As he headed for the driver’s side door, a flash of Thea’s white dress caught his eyes and relief washed through his veins. She was sitting on the curb behind his Jeep, her face buried into the scruff at Titan’s neck.

“You scared the shit out of me. I thought you had run or someone had gotten to you. You shouldn’t be out of the car.”

“Please take Titan with you, Nik.” Her tear-filled eyes pleaded him. “They’ll put him down. I know it. I don’t care what happens to me, but they’ll kill Titan. Please, don’t let anyone hurt him.”

“No one’s going to hurt Titan.”

“Promise me. Promise me you’ll make sure he’s taken care of.”

“I promise.” Nik held his hand out. “We gotta go. Wheels up. Now.”

She was still ugly crying in the backseat with Titan as he pulled onto I-70 and headed back west. “You can’t do this,” she wailed.

Nik gnashed his teeth, biting the words out. “Don’t worry, Tigger, I’m not turning you in.” He sure as hell wanted to. Lord knows, he should. But fuck if he could make himself actually do it.

“I know you’re not.”

“Then why the hell are you still crying?”

“You have to take me to the police.”

Nik nearly yanked the Jeep into a ditch as he whipped his head around to glare at her. “All night long you refused to let me take you to a hospital or the police and now you want me to?”

“You can’t run away with me.”

“We’re not running away.”

“You’re sure as hell driving like we are!”

Nik shifted his foot, easing up on the accelerator. She was right. He was driving like he was on an op—way too aggressively to stay under anyone’s radar. But damn it, fast was the only speed he knew how to go right now. “And it’s not running away. It’s called a tactical withdrawal, if you want to get technical. Look, what’s the big deal? You illegally rescued your own dog from a shelter. I’m sure we can get it sorted out properly with the cops. But that won’t happen if I dump you off at a police station with no memory.”

“Since we’re getting technical…it was armed robbery and I shot someone, Nik. A kid!”

“No, you didn’t.” At least not the kid she was talking about. There was still the mystery of the blood on her hoodie.

“The video… He said—”

“That little punk is a liar. Gunshot wound.” He snorted. “I can show