Page 52 of Cameron's Contract

“How?”

“Emotional.”

Fuck it.

“Break the door down,” I snapped.

Damn the consequences.

CHAPTER 15

THE CLAY DISK shattered, and the sound of another bullet hitting its mark echoed.

Shay had defied my order and found what he needed to pick the bathroom door. I found him sitting beside Henry. I’d watched a torn up Shay leave and knew that Mia, who waited outside, would comfort him. This was hard on Shay too, having witnessed firsthand what Henry had gone through after serving right beside him. Shay had his own scars.

But they were nothing like Henry’s.

He sat on the floor in the corner with his arms wrapped around his legs.

I slid down the wall and sat beside him. “Blackwood’s wife has too much free time. She’s taking a break from shopping in Niemen Marcus to shoot clay pigeons in the garden.”

He stared at his hands as though all answers were waiting to be realized.

“Imagine how the koi in their pond feel?” I squeezed his arm.

Following his gaze, I too studied the red damask wallpaper. Farther up hung a print of a watercolor. In any other circumstances, those blue and green pastels would have been comforting.

“Talk to me,” I said.

Another shot rang out.

Henry patted his jacket down and I wondered if he was feeling for a pistol he didn’t have.

“Lost something?” I said.

“Phone.” He gestured. “In my pocket.”

His coms—a good soldier was never without communication.

I’d sent Shay and Mia to go find Mrs. Blackwood and get her and her weekend buddies to stop. I didn’t care what it took. They could grab the gun out of her hands for all I cared.

“I’m okay,” he whispered.

“Yes, yes you are.”

Beads of perspiration spotted his brow, his upper lip. His hands fisted into balls. “You were there,” he stuttered. “You saw what it was like.”

But I’d never served in uniform. The circumstances of my week in the Middle East were the result of being part of the team rescuing him.

Seeing Henry like this was tearing me apart.

He smiled weakly. “I think that was my first flashback.”

I reasoned this was good. A clarity I could work with.

“It’s over now,” I said.

“I’m okay.” He threw me a reassuring smile.