Page 67 of Run

Harvard smiled. “I hear Brazil is nice. Lots of criminals hiding out there. Would be easy to make everyone think Elle had joined them.”

“Yeah, once we’ve dealt with Tommy.”

Harvard slapped a hand on David’s shoulder. “Julia’s busy going through all the info everybody collected. Lake’s got his Scottish team scouring news reports and social media for intel. Even Harry’s come out of semi-retirement to trawl the dark web for any mention of Tommy’s whereabouts. With this many heads working on the problem, something’s gotta give. In the meantime, get some rest. You’re gonna need it.” He buttoned his jacket. “I’m going to take my own advice and go to bed. After I hug my woman tight. If you’ve got any sense, you’ll do the same.”

With a casual salute, Harvard sauntered from the kitchen. David grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and a bag of cookies from the cupboard—in case Elle needed sugar when she woke—and took his friend’s advice.

He went to bed and curled up beside his woman.

26

Once Elle opened her eyes, it took her a second to figure out that she was in one of the safe house bedrooms. It was night. The room barely lit by a soft, muted glow. Slowly, her environment began to register. The quiet stillness of the house. The muffled sound of traffic. And…breathing.

She turned her head to find David lying beside her, his eyes open, his gaze on her face.

“How you doing, Ellie Blue?” he whispered.

With his gentle question came a rush of memory and awareness. Marcus had been brutally murdered. She would never talk to her brother again. He’d never hug her and tell her he loved her. She wouldn’t get the chance to show him how much his protection had meant to her. And he would never get the chance to change his life, to find redemption.

The knowledge was a dull ache in her chest. A steady weight, pressing her into the bed, making it hard to breathe. Her eyes felt puffy and tender, her throat bruised. But there was also a sense of acceptance within her. Marcus was gone. And there was nothing anyone could do to change that.

“I hurt,” she whispered to David, answering his question as honestly as she was able.

“I wish I could fix it for you.” The faint but warm light from a small lamp in the corner of the room, which someone had thrown a T-shirt over, cast shadows over his beautifully masculine face.

“It feels like someone’s reached inside of me and ripped out a piece. From here.” She took his hand and pressed his palm to her upper chest, right in the middle, feeling its warmth through the thin fabric of her T-shirt. “I can feel the jagged edges of the space they left behind. It’s raw in there.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time while he lay there watching her. His warm hand against her chest. Her hand covering his. As though his touch could take away her pain.

“I was married.” David’s whispered words weren’t what she’d expected.

Elle didn’t move, didn’t talk, didn’t press. This was his story to tell. His confidence to share. Not hers.

“Long time ago,” he said. “I’d grown up in foster care and used fake ID to get into the military when I turned sixteen. I met Celeste at the bar near my base. She was a waitress. I was nineteen when we married, and she was a couple of years older. Celeste was the first person who ever loved me, the only person. Not long after we married, I was recruited for a black ops team. I had…unusualskills that I’d acquired during my childhood. They made me attractive to them. From there, I slid right into the CIA. My first mission, I screwed up somehow, and the enemy followed me home. Only, I wasn’t there at the time, so they killed my wife to teach me a lesson.”

When he said nothing more, Elle put her hand on his chest, placing her palm in the exact same spot as his was on hers, feeling the warm cotton of his T-shirt underneath her fingers. “Do you still feel that jagged place?”

Dark eyes captured hers. “It’s still there. I’ve just become more accustomed to it. It’s a part of me now.”

“Is she the reason you didn’t want to be with me?”

“Yeah.”

Elle licked her lips. “Will you tell me about her someday? What she was like? It’d be nice to get to know the woman who loved you. I bet we would have totally hit it off.”

“One day. I’ll tell you one day.”

“I’d like that.” Her smile was sincere, if a little subdued.

“I’ll tell you this part now, though,” he said. “When Celeste died, it ripped a hole in me. If you’re ever taken from me, it will cleave me in two. There wouldn’t be a hole, Ellie Blue, because there wouldn’t be a me.”

She couldn’t tear her eyes from his as her hand curled into a fist in his shirt. “I’d very much like you to kiss me now,” she whispered.

With a slow, sensual smile that made her melt, he whispered, “As you wish.”

* * *

As soon asDavid told Elle about his wife, he knew their situation wasn’t the same. In fact, it was as different as you could get. He was much more experienced now, more skilled, had more connections he could use to protect Elle. And Harvard was right: she was in the thick of it, whether he removed himself or not. You couldn’t bring danger to someone’s door when it was already in the house.