Page 357 of The Protector’s Daughter

“Does he always say that?”

“Yes.”

“I’m standing right here.”

Hayley kisses my cheek.

“Come back anyway.”

I catch her waist before she steps away.

For one second, I kiss her.

Not her forehead.

Not her cheek.

Her mouth.

Eighteen years disappear.

We are nineteen and sixteen again.

Standing beneath the old oak tree.

Believing nothing can separate us.

Then the present returns.

I release her.

“I’m coming back.”

She nods.

“You better.”

We secure the prisoners and leave them with Taylor.

Hayley and Sage take cover behind the abandoned pickup.

The six of us move south toward the freight terminal.

The sun drops lower.

Shadows stretch across the road.

Taylor guides us through the dry field.

“Four heat sources outside the warehouse,” he says. “At least three inside.”

“Navarro?”

“Black SUV still parked near the office.”

“We take the service entrance,” Kane says.

Holt and Trent move west.