Page 25 of The Moments You Were Mine

“I hate that you’ve become him,” Mom said quietly, and my eyes jerked back to her face. “Not the Rafe we see now. You’ve become the reserved person he was before he fell in love with Sadie. All ice and no fire.”

Irritation washed over me, but I bit my cheek rather than snip at her.

Mom threw her hands up. “See. That, right there, is proof you’re turning into him. Where’s the girl who would have stormed at me? Where’s the teen who fought with everything she had to make sure Spencer’s murderer was caught and refused to believe the ranch couldn’t be saved? The girl who made the grown-ups in her life return to the ring after they’d all but given up the fight?”

Pain slashed through my chest. Mom knew better than to bring up the past. We were better off not discussing it. Did shereally want the reminder of how she’d checked out on me? How she’d given up, and I’d been the only one left in the ring? I hadn’t had a choice. We wouldn’t have the ranch today if I hadn’t forced Dad to return to Rivers and help us.

But instead of saying any of that, instead of going down a path I knew would only hurt us both, I simply said, “That girl grew up and realized throwing a tantrum or snipping at people isn’t the only way to get what you want.”

“I’d rather the tantrum than the ice.”

Footsteps clanging over the metal steps leading up to the apartment halted my angry retort. For a split second, my heart whooshed, hoping to see a man in military Whites appear, hoping somehow Parker had made it back in time to celebrate with me.

But it wasn’t a muscled, dark-haired SEAL who appeared. Instead, two men in off-the-rack suits emerged on the landing.

“Ms. Marquess-Harrington?” the older white man asked, his bushy, gray mustache moving like a caterpillar along his upper lip with each syllable.

“Yes?”

He flipped open a badge. “I’m Detective Harris, and this is Detective Lake.” He threw a thumb toward the other man with a shaved head and large stance that made him almost as intimidating as Parker’s SEAL buddies. “We’re with the San Diego Police Department. We need to speak with you and your boyfriend, Jasper Johnson.”

My brows lifted as my stomach fell. “I… We’re in the middle of a graduation party…”

“Yes, we were told,” Detective Harris said. “This can’t wait.”

My eyes found my dad’s just inside the door. He dropped his arm from Sadie’s shoulders to step onto the balcony. “What’s wrong?”

“These two detectives need to talk to JJ and me.”

“What about?” Dad demanded, narrowing his gaze on the two men.

“The drugs they’ve stolen from Walters Veterinarian Clinic.”

Chapter Eight

Parker

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

Performed by The Fray

TEN YEARS AGO

HIM: I’m sorry about Spencer, Ducky. When my grandfather died and people kept saying that, I started to hate those words. But now I know there isn’t really anything else to say. Loss simply sucks.

HER: Spencer swore I was strong enough, smart enough to do anything I wanted. But all I want is him back, and I’m neither smart enough nor strong enough to make that happen.

PRESENT DAY

The sun flashed gold over theedges of the flag-draped coffin as it rolled off the transport plane, and every fiber in my being went taut. Goddamn it. My jaw worked overtime, and I blinked rapidly. I wouldn’t fucking cry. I wouldn’t fucking bend.

The other members of Silver One Squadron stood at attention next to me while our command took up the other side of the narrow lane we’d made to wheel the coffin through. Sounds should have filled the air—seabirds diving and squawking, engines roaring down the runway. Instead, there was only a deep and unforgiving silence.

One of us was dead.

One of us hadn’t come home. While we hadn’t left Will’s body behind, his soul had still disappeared in the middle of a mountaintop village where no one would ever know we’d been.

And it could have been prevented. Itshouldhave beenprevented.