Page 19 of The Moments You Were Mine

“Fallon okay?” he asked.

My jaw worked overtime. I’d nearly been too late. The cops had gotten to her before me. Even though it was eating away at my insides that I hadn’t been the one to save her yet again, that wasn’t what had me longing to pound my fists into the wall—or into fucking Jasper Johnson’s face.

“She will be. She’s one of the strongest people I know.”

She’d faced so much in her short life. Murder. Mayhem. And tonight, she’d protected someone who didn’t deserve it.

I headed for the garage with my fury and Will following me. I taped my hands, tearing off the edge with my teeth, and then started in on the bag hanging from the ceiling in the corner. I envisioned Ace’s face on it. Then JJ’s. I hit the leather with a ferocity that had the ceiling groaning.

Coming home after our mission, my house had felt even more silent and staler than usual.

The relief I’d felt seeing her name pop up after she’d ghosted me for months had wiped it away, until I’d heard the fear in her voice. That brief moment of relief hadn’t returned, even once I’dknown she was safe. It had actually grown while I’d watched her walk away with JJ.

The loser who would never be good enough for her.

But it explained why I hadn’t come back to my normal flurry of Fallon texts catching me up on her life.

Damn, I’d missed her. The smell of her. Her smile. Her snark.

And it had been my fucking fault. We could have avoided months of drama if I’d simply taken her back to her apartment that night instead of to my place. We could have played off her kiss as a drunken mistake, if she even remembered doing it. She wouldn’t have been humiliated like she had been by my second rejection. By my words.

I’ll never say yes to you…

Fuck. What had I been thinking?

My hands shook at the memory of how she’d looked that night, desire and vulnerability in her eyes, rosy tips peeking through the magenta lace.

My fists picked up their pace.

That image of her spread out on my bed hadn’t faded. It had tortured me ever since. I’d wanted so desperately to give in that night. To take her. To claim what was mine.

Except, she wasn’t mine.

She’d never be mine.

The torment of wanting her had been nothing compared to what I’d felt when I’d heard the terror in her voice, heard the banging of metal on metal over the phone line. And when I’d pulled into the parking lot tonight and seen her, pale and scared, in the stark light of the streetlamps, I’d have done just about anything to turn back the clock, make her mine, and keep her safe. And that had scared the shit out of me. The idea of just what I was willing to give up. The oaths I’d sworn that I was suddenly willing to walk away from.

It had been a good thing the cops hadn’t let me through at first, or I might have said something I couldn’t have returned from. Waiting that handful of minutes had allowed me to rein in my emotions. Get my head on fucking straight.

At least until I’d had her in my arms.

Then, everything had slipped again. I’d nearly demanded—

No. I wouldn’t let myself even think it.

Instead, I emptied my head and concentrated on the jolt of my fist against the bag. The slam, slam, slam. The vibrations up my arms and shoulders.

“Want to tell me what’s got you beating the hell out of a bag at midnight?” Will asked. I glanced over at my best friend. His hair was longer than usual, sticking up all over the place because he’d been running his hands through it while fighting with his ex over his son.

“She’s back with the loser,” I growled. “He was right there, on the fucking beach, partying it up while she was locked in a bathroom, terrified for her life.”

“What the hell happened?” Will was instantly on the defensive. “And why the fuck didn’t you take me with you when you stormed out?”

I took a moment to explain what I gathered about Ace attacking his wife and Fallon stepping in. My gut turned nastily. She’d put herself in danger to save someone else. And that right there was the essence of her. Standing up for the things she believed in.

She may have been an heiress who owned a five-thousand-acre ranch and the daughter of a billionaire bar magnate, but those things weren’t what defined Fallon. In fact, she’d done her best over the last few years to make sure no one knew those things about her.

What hadn’t changed was the fact our fathers had tasked me with looking out for her while she was here. But between my deployments and training, I’d been away almost as much as I’d been here. Silver One Squadron was in demand, and after this latest assignment, my team would be in even more. The intel and connections we’d made would ensure they called us back for a new mission sooner than the four months we should have had off.