Page 37 of Too Guarded to Love (Project VIPER #3)

“ Y ou’re making it hard to go back.”

Nic slapped his beret on his thigh as he stood in the hall in MedLab and waited for Olivia to finish getting ready for the president’s birthday party. He was such a chickenshit. What his response to her should have been when she’d said those words last night was, “Don’t go. Stay with me forever.”

He hadn’t been joking or charming when he said he couldn’t stop thinking about her while he’d been away. Now he couldn’t stop thinking about how she felt about him beyond wanting to “explore their connection.”

The connection didn’t need exploring. He damn well knew it was there and what it meant. Its power hadn’t lessened at all with distance. Even across an ocean, he’d still felt her hold on him.

He dropped his head and laughed. Fuck if he didn’t love it.

“I’m ready.”

The ability to speak retreated as he lifted his gaze. Was this how sailors who had been at sea for months had felt when they spotted a mermaid on the rocks?

He blinked, the sirena before him didn’t disappear. She wasn’t a myth. She was real, breathtaking in her strapless gown—the color of a clear blue sea, hugging her curves—all his, even if she hadn’t realized it yet.

He took her hand. “If I were in the Navy, I’d say you look like every sailor’s dream. But I’m a soldier, so I’ll have to stick with this.” He brought her palm to his lips. “You look simply stunning.”

She let go of him and spun. “I thought you might like it.”

“Your eyes are the same color as the dress.” He picked up a thick curl of hair that rested on her shoulder and twirled it around his finger. “I can’t wait to dance with you tonight.”

She tucked her little silver purse under her arm. “Ooh, do you think there’ll be dancing? I hope so.”

“I have no idea, but I was talking about a private dance when we got back.”

Chris yelled from down the hall to move their asses.

Nic offered his arm. “Shall we, Doctor Darren?”

“Yes, Captain Romero, we shall.”

A half hour later, he stood next to Kane in the White House ballroom surrounded by his VIPER family, the president and the First Lady, and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In a few hours, once the party was over, they’d demo the wearable weaponry to the folks who funded it.

Anticipation coursed through his veins, but he wasn’t thinking about the presentation.

Kane sidled up next to him. “Stop staring at my sister like that.”

“Sorry, hermano . I can’t.”

He tensed as he waited to face the consequences for speaking the truth.

Kane slapped him on the back of the head. “Dude, watching you look at my twin with those pathetic puppy-dog eyes is gross. If you’re going to date my sister, cut that shit out in front of me.”

Nic jerked his head up. “You’re okay with us dating?”

“You heard me. ”

Nic eyed his brother, waiting for some sort of caveat. “You’re not afraid I’m going to break her heart?”

“Not anymore.” He glanced at Beth. “Based on the way you watch her like she’s your entire world, and the look on your face when you think she’s in trouble, like you’d take on the entire Diablo cartel by yourself to protect her, is how I imagine I look at the woman I love.”

As if she knew they were talking about her, Olivia turned from her conversation with the First Lady and smiled at him from across the empty dance floor.

The connection between them sparked into a flaming tether that snaked through the ballroom. President Bradley was going to be pissed if it burned down the White House.

Olivia half listened to the First Lady and one of the Joint Chiefs debate who was going to win the Army vs. Navy football game this year.

As promised, Nic had danced her breathless, but not as breathless as he’d made her when she first saw him in his dress uniform. If the Army put him on a recruiting poster, females would flock to enlist for the chance of being stationed with his unit.

Her dad would have approved of the spit and polish jacket that spread across his broad shoulders and hugged the delectable V of his torso.

Well, he wouldn’t admire the body underneath like she did, but he would respect the medals and ribbons hanging on Nic’s chest and appreciate the crease in his pants that rivaled the sharp shine of his shoes.

Her mom would have loved him too.

She smiled as he wound through pockets of people and made his way toward where she stood.

Taking her hand, he led her to a loveseat where Beth, Patience, and Tessa sat chatting. “Does that smile on your face mean you’re thinking about me?”

“That’s classified, Captain.” She fanned herself with her hand. “You’ll never torture the truth out of my lips.”

He dipped his head to her ear. “Challenge accepted. I have to meet now with the team and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but I won’t be long. Enjoy your last couple of hours before my inquisition.”

As he walked away, she added Nic in uniform to the top of the list of things she’d miss about the VIPER-verse when it was safe to go back to work. For now, she’d enjoy exploring everything about the super soldier she didn’t want to leave.

“Holy fuck. Can those two act any more like teenagers at a laser tag party?”

Nic laughed at Chris’s statement as Hudson and Gage shot V-Strikes from the wearable weaponry on their arms over the presidential pool table and into targets on the other side.

President Bradley and the Joint Chiefs clapped at the demonstration.

Nic joined in the applause. “Well, we are in the recreation room.”

And damn, were the two adult kids with the cool toys excited.

Even some of the Joint Chiefs seemed juiced up, and why wouldn’t they be?

The cool as fuck V-Strike sleeves that covered Hudson and Gage’s arms from wrist to shoulders looked identical to Nic and Chris’s steel, right down to the hexagonal pattern.

And like the super limbs, the V-Strikes that streamed from the hundreds of minuscule points with just a thought left scorched marks in the targets on the other side of the room.

A mind comms alert pulled Nic’s attention away from the show.

“We have a development,” Ryan said. “Meet in the hall.”

Rising, Nic excused himself and followed his brothers out the door. “What’s going on?”

“Your buddy Joe just contacted us. He was called to investigate shots fired at a horse stable not too far from where Olivia was shot. Harlee Slater was found in the indoor riding arena unconscious with fractures in both of her legs and Jonathan Garitty was found dead. Multiple gunshot wounds to the chest.”

Kane’s blood froze in his veins. “What happened?”

“A witness says the shot startled the horse Harlee was on and it threw her across the arena. Joe’s with her in the ER. She needs major surgery and is refusing to let anyone other than Olivia do it.”

Panic raced up Nic’s spine as he ran toward the sitting room. “ Does Olivia know?”

“Edgar had the Secret Service vacate the area and is telling her now. She’s arguing to go to the hospital.”

Nic ran for the sitting room where he’d left her. “Like hell she will.”

As he barreled through the door, Edgar looked over her head and held up his hands. “Glad you’re here. I’m tagging out.”

Olivia turned to Nic. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Take me to Harlee.”

Nic opened his mouth to say, fuck no, but she tripped on the carpet as she stepped toward him. Catching her by the arms, he held her steady.

“Please, Nic. I need to get to the hospital. Harlee’s paying the consequences for my involvement in this Jonathan and Diablo mess, and I can’t let her do that. ”

The protector inside him raged at the guilt she shouldn’t have to carry. “Olivia, it’s too dangerous. Jonathan is dead, but the Diablos?—”

“Please, Nic. I know you understand how I’m feeling. You can stand outside the operating room, or be in there if you want, but I need to go.”

He picked her up and set her on the loveseat, not caring who watched. Dropping to his knees, he wiped tears from her eyes with his thumb as his heart broke from the burden he understood down to his soul. “Breathe, Olivia.”

“I can’t, not until you…” She looked at Linc.

“Not until he or someone else agrees to fly me to Harlee. I swear if you tell me no, I’ll commandeer Air Force One and fly it myself.

” She looked back at Nic. “Please, Harlee fell into a deep depression when she lost her husband and contemplated taking her life. He was her everything, and she didn’t want to live without him.

I helped her through that, and not just the surgeries.

We talked, and cried, and shared—no doubt beyond what was ethical between a patient and her doctor—but she got stronger and got back on her horse. ”

Kane sat next to his twin and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Livvie. I had no idea.”

Olivia looked at her brother and sniffed. “Now do you understand?”

Kane dropped a kiss to the top of her head. “Yeah. I do.”

So did Nic. He knew that Kane and Olivia’s mother had fallen into a deep depression after their father died. Just when she’d gotten strong enough to fight the darkness, she’d been killed by a drunk driver.

“Please, Nic.” Olivia gripped his hands and held them in her lap.

“Get someone to take me to Harlee. Fighting to get back on the competitive circuit and honoring her husband’s memory by doing what they loved is what motivates her to get out of bed every day.

Nobody knows her history like I do, and I’m the only person she trusts. Please, I can’t let her down.”

“Okay.” He looked over her head at Kane. His nod of approval felt as resigned as Nic’s, but hell, his heart broke at her motivation. It swelled even more at her commitment and wept at the similarities between this situation and his past.

In a heartbeat, he was standing by the bonfire watching his baseball passion burn as he pleaded with his foster father.

“Please call my coach back and tell him I’m not quitting. Please, I’ll do extra chores. I’ll get a job to buy new equipment. Anything.”

No matter how hard he’d tried to make his foster father understand that baseball wasn’t just a game, but a ticket to a better life, the fucker ignored his pleas.

Even when Nic fell to his knees and explained between sobs that baseball was the only connection he had left to his mother, his stepfather had laughed and said, “She was a shitty mom anyway.”

The fucker had been right, but she’d bought him his first bat and glove and taken him to practice long before he ever showed any skills she could benefit from.

And even though most of the time he hated having her at his games, she always showed up.

He needed to show up, right here, right now, for Olivia, because Harlee wasn’t just a patient.

She was another loved one Olivia feared losing to the darkness.

Nic squeezed her hand as he cataloged the risks of taking her to the hospital.

Whoever killed Jonathan—likely the Diablos because nothing good came out of a contract with them—was still out there.

So was Natalie and her network of snipers and other nefarious professionals, and they still hadn’t figured out how all the players in this fucked-up game were connected.

His gut told him Olivia was next on the hit list, but he’d fight everything the Diablos and the blue-haired avenger threw at them to keep her safe .

His superpowers couldn’t turn back time or bring back the dead. Nor could they relieve her guilt, but he could damn well make sure Harlee’s accident didn’t turn into Olivia’s bonfire.