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

hand from my face so Leo could get the full force of my incredulous stare.

“He doesn’t bite.”

I made wide eyes at Leo. “And neither does Titan, but he sure had you up a tree.”

“Yeah, well, don’t make my mistake of showing fear.”

“I’m not scared of Coop. I just don’t trust him.”

“He and Nik go way back. They were in the same platoon together for years, but the two of them were so close it was like they were their own team. They’re more like brothers than he and I have ever been.”

I noted the wistfulness in his tone, but his expression had been so matter of fact it didn’t warrant questioning. Besides which, there had been the whole thing about Coop having Steele blood in his veins. “Nik told me about saving Coop’s life.”

“That was all he said about it?” At my nod, he elaborated. “A mission they were on was compromised. They were stranded for a couple of weeks in the mountains of Afghanistan—officially declared missing in action. Candlelight vigils back home, the whole nine yards. They were unbelievably outnumbered, outgunned, and both sustained major injuries. Coop especially. Thank God Nik was there and could keep him alive. After a couple of days hunkered down in a cave licking their wounds and waiting for extraction, they went on the offensive, stalking and killing the entire cell of terrorists they’d originally been tasked to eliminate. It wasn’t until communications experts intercepted chatter about certain men going missing night after night that Joint Special Ops Command figured out where they were holed up and sent a team in to extract them. After that, the Team Guys started calling them The Ghost and The Darkness, after the movie about the legendary pair of man-eating lions who worked together to pick off railroad workers in Africa each night.”

“Man-eating lions? You do realize you aren’t exactly helping your ‘he doesn’t bite’ claim, right?”

“I’m just saying they’re a package deal. If you trust Nik, you can trust Coop. And if you don’t go talk to my charming brother, I won’t give you any potato skins.”

I narrowed my eyes at his cocky smirk. “And I thought you were the nice one.”

“Oh, honey, none of us are nice boys.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Coop ended his phone call abruptly as I opened the door to the deck. Titan followed me out, bounding down the stairs and trotting toward the trees. I propped my forearms alongside of Coop’s and leaned heavily on the rail, mimicking his stance, but he didn’t bother to tear his gaze away from the mountain valley. In fact, his only acknowledgment of my presence was holding out a stubby cigarette in offering.

The scent wasn’t familiar or enticing. In fact, the sweet aroma sitting heavy in the piney air confused me. Even though I’d yet to smell a cigarette, it didn’t mesh with what my mind told me one should smell like.

“I don’t think I’m a smoker.”

He took another drag in response, this time exhaling out of the corner of his mouth, away from me. I watched him take another hit before it clicked. “That’s marijuana, isn’t it?”

“Last I checked, it was legal here.”

His clipped, curt response wasn’t warranted. I didn’t have an opinion on his smoking habits, legal or not. It wasn’t why I’d come out to talk to him.

“Nik tells me we’re going to an island.”

“Nik tells me the same thing.”

“Leo said you work for the guy who owns it?”

“Yep.”

“Is there anything I should know about it?”

“Nope.”

He might not bite, but he used to be a much better barker. Not letting his obvious annoyance derail me, I continued, “For a guy who always has so much to say, you suddenly seem like you’re not interested in talking.”

“And what does Goddess Thea wish to talk to little ol’ me about?”

Well, he doesn’t sound patronizing or anything. I pushed out a breath. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk about the island. The more I focused on Coop, the less convinced I was he had any intention of taking me there. I didn’t blame him. The island belonged to his boss and Coop knew exactly what I knew—Thea Gale was a huge liability.

“I’m sorry I messed up your plans. You don’t need to take me anywhere.”

“Oh, but I do,” he lamented to the trees in front of him, not to me. It reminded me of the way Nik had also tried to block me out. Nik had been sheltering his heart, while Coop was protecting something far different. But what?

“It was never my intention to cause any of you trouble.”

“What are your intentions, anyway?”

“To survive.”

With a huff, he dropped his chin and gave a brief shake of his head, like he suspected my answer had been a pathetic attempt at emotional manipulation. “How exactly do you see this playing out?”

“You mean with Nik?”

Cocking his head, Coop eyed me with a new level of annoyance.

“Look, I’m not trying to be evasive or obtuse. When you ask me how I see anything playing out, please realize I don’t have a past to draw on. I don’t have an expectation of a future. I have today, this hour—right now is my only true concept of time.”

And right now, Titan happily loped through the impossibly tall trees. The late afternoon wind held an invigorating chill as it trilled the Aspen leaves. The full sun heated my skin and made the Ponderosa bark smell exactly the same as when I had first stepped out of Nik’s Jeep. There was something perfect about this place—my bare feet cool on the wood deck, my face warm in the sunlight, and my heart full knowing Nik was inside the door, sleeping in the bed we’d made love in. I wanted to stay here and in this moment, where I could still feel him wrapped around me. Inside of me. Smell him on my skin. I wanted to feel like this every day. For this to be my home. But I knew it wasn’t.

“The future is way too big