Page 34 of Echo, the Sniper (Men of PSI #2)

“A lottery question? Oh, boy, I don’t know.

” Though her smile didn’t fully reach her eyes thanks to the tension I could still see was there, she gave it her best shot.

“If I won the lottery and could do anything I wanted, I’d probably open up a nonprofit women’s shelter specializing in the high-risk cases—you know, the ones who have partners like Dane, or worse.

It would take a boatload of security and several kinds of safehouses to get women to safety, not to mention an entire legal team to make sure I wouldn’t be breaking any laws when it came to hiding abused women and their kids away from their partners, but.

.. yeah. If I ever learn any self-defense tricks, it would be because of that. ”

“That’s one helluva dangerous dream.” My chest tightened at the thought of delicate, gentle Rory going into a field where there was more violence than peace.

“You’d need massive amounts of security for something like that.

We’re talking fortress-level security, with seasoned guards who know what the fuck they’re doing, rather than rent-a-cops.

Statistics show that abusers don’t let their women—or their children—go without going nuclear. ”

“Which is why I’m sure I’ll never be able to do something like this,” she drawled, wrinkling her nose at me before glancing back toward Josiah Armstrong’s house.

“But if I did, the first thing I’d do is hire a firm like PSI to do a threat assessment, then get round-the-clock protection. Does PSI do things like that?”

“We do.” What I didn’t tell her was that we already supplied security for a shelter very much like she was describing down in Florida, but only after a man had found where his girlfriend was hiding.

He’d taken his AR-15-style rifle and killed nearly half the people who were there, including his woman before turning the rifle on himself.

“PSI knows how to secure such facilities, but it doesn’t come cheap since there are no days off when it comes to a situation like that. ”

“Evil never sleeps,” she quipped, fully accepting, and for a moment I thought she wasn’t taking it seriously.

Then it occurred to me that of the two people sitting in this car, I was probably the one who didn’t fully understand the kind of evil it took to survive someone like Dane-fucking-Grant.

“Anyway, that’s my lottery dream, but I doubt it’ll ever get realized.

Once all this is over and I have some kind of control back in my life, I think I’d like to volunteer at a woman’s shelter and get involved that way. ”

The memory of the massacre that had happened in Florida chilled my blood, and something deep inside clenched at the thought of Rory lying in a pool of blood, her body shredded by a madman with a gun and an insane sense of entitlement.

The text chime on my phone almost made me jump before I picked it up.

“Green light.”

“They’ve got the security cams on a loop, so it’s safe to approach the house.

” I silenced my phone, tucked it away and looked over at her.

A sudden wave of tension hit like a fist to the chest, because for the first time since I met her in front of her burning house, she wouldn’t be right by my side.

“Remember, I’m just doing a quick recon on this trip to see what else they might have security-wise, and to see if Terwilliger is even in there.

Stay in the car, be as quiet and invisible as possible, and I’ll be back in ten minutes. ”

She was so still she could have been a statue. “And if you’re not?”

“Then you’ll sit here and wait some more, because I will be back, okay? These guys aren’t the type who’d ever best me in hand-to-hand combat and take me prisoner, Rory. I’ll be fine.”

“They could just kill you. Desperate people do desperate things, no matter who they are.”

I felt the corner of my mouth curl, and it felt savage. “Believe me, better men than Armstrong and Terwilliger have tried to punch my ticket. All they got for their troubles was a toe tag and a refrigerated shelf in the morgue.”

“Now you just sound cocky.”

“Truthful,” I corrected with a shrug, because there was no need for me to lie to her.

She had to know who and what I was, and not just because she needed to trust the bodyguard protecting her.

I wanted her to know who I was as a man—the good, and the bad.

“I’ve killed nineteen people in my life, Rory, and not all of them were from behind a sniper’s rifle.

Some were up close and very, very personal.

All those tattoos on my forearm—the hashmarks?

They represent every life I’ve ever taken.

This doesn’t make me a badass, or a war hero, or whatever other kind of label you might want to slap on me.

It makes me what the military trained me to be—deadly. That’s all.”

By degrees, the light seemed to drain from her expression. The sight of it made my stomach sink like a stone, but when she spoke I almost did a double-take.

“Be that as it may, Echo, I don’t want you strolling up to that house thinking these guys are hapless pushovers. They’re not. They’re cornered rats, so underestimating them is a quick way to get yourself hurt or killed.”

“Rory... wait.” Slowly her words, coupled with her expression, finally sank in, and it was like all the sunrises happened at once inside my chest. “Are you...?”

She frowned, clearly baffled. “Am I what?”

“You’re worried about me,” I murmured faintly, because my lungs had decided they no longer knew how to work. I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out to cup her cheek like the treasure she was any more than I could sprout wings and fly. “You’re actually worried I’m going to get hurt, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. This isn’t a game, and Edward Terwilliger is fighting for his life of continued freedom. If he’s in there—”

“I swear to you now that I won’t give him a chance to even see me coming. I’ll keep myself safe, so there’s no reason for you to worry about me.”

Her snort held no humor. “Nice words, but they’re not going to change anything until I know you’re safe.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” I said again, and this time I leaned over the seat divider’s console to capture her lips with mine.

Her mouth was such a miracle to me; softly yielding, yet lively and melding to mine, like she knew instinctively that such a perfect seal of her mouth was the one thing I needed most from her whenever we kissed. It felt like... unity. Completion.

Belonging.

That was what I found in Rory’s kiss.

I found the place where I belonged.

When I finally eased back into my seat, I took heart that her breath was just as disturbed as mine. “No more than ten minutes, okay? Stay hidden until I return.”

When she gave me a reluctant nod, I opened the driver side door and slipped out into the night.