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

excessive round of sparks scattering high above the logs. Talking about Will’s death was not at the top of his list of things he wanted to do, much less at this exact moment. He’d much prefer distracting himself with Thea’s sweet smiles and heavenly body, leaving thoughts of Will entombed along with his friend.

Bury it was the common philosophy of men like Nik on how to handle pain, fear, worry, and sometimes even love. But Coop wasn’t like the other Team Guys in that regard. He didn’t bury things on the battlefield. Nor did he barricade or compartmentalize his pain. He felt everything full-on. To Coop, the death of a teammate was the deepest kind of wound—too dangerous to heal over from the top. Bullets and shrapnel needed to be removed in order for the body to heal, and the same applied to emotional wounds. Extract the pain from the heart so it can heal from the inside out.

The medic inside Nik understood this, but the son, brother, and teammate who’d known only loss couldn’t bring himself to put it into practice. For Nik, healing was one more form of letting go, saying goodbye.

He forced himself to focus on Coop’s stories about Will from better days. On boring days in remote outposts waiting for action, with Will coming up with his craziest antics. On tense days, when Will came through, fighting until the bitter end.

“Foxy. Fuck, man. He was one tough son of a bitch.” Coop unabashedly whisked a tear from his eye.

“He was a damn good soldier,” Nik agreed. But really all he could remember right then was the surfer-boy’s easy smile and his laid-back, California confidence.

Coop tilted his beer bottle at Nik and narrowed his eyes. “That’s all you got? Nothing about how it went down?”

Coop wanted more. Not because he was curious. He’d seen every possible way a man could die, same as Nik. What Coop wanted was for Nik to get everything from the field out. Replaying his friend’s life was hard enough. Reliving his death was too much.

“The whole deployment was a shitshow.” Each mission more suicidal than the next thanks to ridiculous rules of engagement favoring those who never played by the rules. Not to mention the cresting wave of politics and the resulting crushing roll into the coral of media backlash. The days of playing on-call pit bull for the CIA and oval office had worn thin and ultimately led to his decision to leave the Teams. “Typical government whack-a-mole mission gone bad.”

“That’s it?” Accusation clipped Coop’s words. “Really?”

Nik had had enough of his alpha dog routine for one night. “Yes. Fucking. Really. The rest is classified.”

“Classified.” A scoffing, pissed-off grunt pierced the air. “Tell me the bastard who took him out is rotting in hell right now.”

Nik leveled him with a hard stare. “Fucking ask me again. Or, better yet, tell me why you weren’t at his funeral.”

“Whoa. Someone’s cranky,” he grumbled. Then, perhaps sensing it would be good for his health to change the subject, Coop added, “And needs to get laid. So why haven’t you gotten the job done with this girl?”

Coop was an ass, but at least he wasn’t going to push for more on Will. Nik gladly took the change of subject. “You turning up here didn’t exactly help. Besides, I told you, it’s not like that.”

“Cracks me up every time you say it. You sure shuffled her into your room awfully quick, for not being like that.”

“Because I thought she’d be more comfortable having her own bathroom.” The image of her in his bathroom flickered through his mind.

“Didn’t even ask Leo if he’d sleep on the couch.”

Leo flipped his brother the bird.

“I’m taking the couch,” Nik explained curtly.

“The couch? What’s the hold-up?”

“Hold-up? I just met her. It’s only been like three days.”

“Three days longer than you usually take.”

Leo smirked. “I’ve never seen you all moony over someone. Even the supermodel I gave your number to didn’t last three hours.”

Two hours longer than she should’ve, but who was counting? And moony? “Please.”

“It’s not like that,” Coop mocked in his best girly voice. Sounded more like a chain-smoking prostitute.

“I like her.” All they needed to know.

“We have eyes. So call the hottie when you get back from the island in a couple of weeks.”

The island. Coop had been pushing to get the trip back on track all day. Continuously texting about it despite knowing Nik had been lying about the car repairs.

“I told you, it’s complicated.”

“Let’s leave him alone, Coop.” Leo tossed his brother another bottle of Coors. “He’s clearly falling in love.”

“Falling…” Coop grunted, popping the cap off.

“Feels like flying till you hit the ground,” Nik finished. “I know.”

It was Coop’s favorite quote whenever they had to insert via HALO entry. High-altitude, low-opening skydives always required a little levity to break the tension.

“Pull your fucking chute before it’s too late. I don’t want to scrape what’s left of your sorry, dirt-poisoned ass if you don’t.”

He didn’t have to elaborate. Nik understood all too well. Coop had been the one to scrape him up after his family had died. He didn’t want to go there again over some woman Nik had met a few days ago. Neither did Nik. It should’ve been enough to pry his deepening attachment off Thea, but it wasn’t. Then again, Thea wasn’t just some woman, either.

 

Chapter Twenty-Six

Clayton Kenyon’s irritation grew as the new tracking signal continued to transmit in Boulder. From the original device, he knew Thea was back in Estes Park, and from his own eyes he’d verified that the Jeep was as well. “I asked you to do one thing. One.”

Aimee flopped down on the king-sized bed, sending dust motes up around her. “And I did it.”

“Yeah, on the wrong car,” Clay muttered as he unboxed the drone he’d purchased while Aimee had kept eyes on Thea at the mall.

The cabin he’d rented outside of the tourist town was so far off the beaten path he suspected it’d been vacant since