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

of responding to Coop, I rifled through the additional files in the folder. My heartbeat hammered and my focus blurred as I stared down at my life story in black and white. I closed the folder. This wasn’t how I wanted to confront my past or who I wanted next to me when I did. “How were you able to get all of this?”

“I have the right resources. A powerful person.”

I huffed. “And this person trusts you?”

There was the slightest pause before he answered. “With almost everything. Why? Don’t I look trustworthy, Goddess Thea?”

I spared a glance at his scruffy, hardened appearance, but it wasn’t really his looks I was noticing. It was his eyes. With blue so dark and rich a girl should want to stare at them. But there was no light in his irises and getting lost in them must be like drowning in the nearly black depths of the seas Nik had described to me. In fact, my throat was closing as I sat next to him, hurtling down the mountain away from Nik.

“No, you look like a bad guy.” I couldn’t believe I’d ever trusted him. He probably had no intentions of taking me to the island. Question was, was he committing me to a life on the run? Or worse?

“Looks can be deceiving. Besides, the bad guys usually have the best intel. The supposed good guys can be bought, and if not, they can be hacked, which is how my source got most of this information.”

“And you trust this source?”

A look flashed over his face—chagrin? amusement? disbelief? “Yeah. With almost everything,” he said, his tone heavy and pensive.

“It’s the ‘almost’ part that scares me.”

Below his breath, he muttered, “Yeah, that part scares me, too.”

It was the first one hundred percent honest thing Coop had said to me. And I wasn’t sure I welcomed it. Tough, rugged, ripped Coop was scared of something? As much as I’d wanted to break down his barriers, I didn’t relish learning he had vulnerabilities. Especially given how my life was now entirely in his hands.

Realizing I had little to say in how this was all going to go down, I pushed out a calming breath. “So, when are you going to share this grand plan of yours?”

“Thought you’d never ask. I’ve arranged to meet with your fiancé and hand you over to him.”

* * * *

Nik had done everything he could think of—packed up clothes and supplies, readied the cabin for being gone for a couple of weeks, and finally made good use of the tracking device from Titan’s collar.

“Maybe you should sit down and try to relax,” Leo suggested. “The two of you are going to wear a rut in your wood floors.”

Nik glanced back at the panting dog hot on his heels, nearly tripping him at every turn. Titan didn’t like Thea being gone any more than Nik did. But for Nik it was not only being apart from Thea eating at his sanity, it was also the look in her eyes when she’d left.

He’d hurt her. She’d misunderstood when he’d broken away from her kiss. But the last time he’d said goodbye to someone he loved, they’d died.

“How close are they now?”

“Almost to Boulder,” Leo responded from his position on the bar stool.

They still had awhile before they’d get the go ahead from Coop. But at least they could head to the park to pick up Aimee soon. Thea would be pissed if she knew. She hated how involved in her problems he already was, but she’d understand when it was all said and done and she no longer had anyone to run from.

God, waiting to hear from her was killing him. He needed to keep moving. If he stopped to sit down, he wouldn’t be able to breathe. Sharking, the Team Guys called it. But as with sharks, SEALs didn’t always survive captivity.

“You always act like this on an op?”

Jerking his head, Nik caught Leo’s grin and grumbled. “No.”

In fact, he’d never felt this restless…useless, except during leave and usually he’d take a long run or hike or climb until he was too exhausted to do more than recover.

“So why is this different?”

Nik glared at his buddy’s shit-eating smirk. “You know why, asshole.”

“You really do care about her, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do,” Nik bit off. Did he need to spell it out for him? Realizing he’d been clenching his hands in fists, he shook them out.

“You okay?” Leo asked.

“No.” Of course, he wasn’t okay. He was in love. He grunted at Leo’s snicker. “I hate this.”

“The waiting?”

“The feeling. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t care about the people I’ve rescued, but it’s more abstract, distant. Getting the job done is the goal and protecting the people is merely a part of it. But protecting Thea is all I can think about. At first I tried viewing this whole thing with her as a job, you know—keep her in a box—but she keeps hopping out. Did I tell you she took my knife?”

“Seriously? Coop better watch out now that kitty’s got a claw.”

“It was on my dresser. She left me an IOU,” he huffed. “I’m glad she has it since her Glock is still locked in the gun room, but fuck, I don’t like her thinking she needed it. She better not fucking need it.” Nik rubbed at his chest, annoyed with the tension. He clenched his hands. He’d put a fist through his wall if they weren’t all made of log. Pressing his knuckles into his eyes, he let out a groan. “Damn it. I should’ve gone with her.”

“She’s safe with Coop. You’ll be back with her soon.”

“I don’t want her with Coop. I want her with me.” He closed his eyes, picturing her sweet body tangled around his. But it wasn’t just her body he wanted again. It was everything about the woman. All the smiles. All the soft. All the sweet. All the sass. All the sexy. He wanted…