Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
He hadn’t merely been the top-of-his-class type of candidate. He’d pushed the envelope throughout his assessment and selection. He was a reluctant leader who roared at his fellow candidates to go further. He left no man behind—but he could be a goddamn dick before and after.
I’d read every single file about this boy.
Under different circumstances, I would’ve been anything but professional. He had a killer smile and dimples to go with it. Giant ego—but well-earned. Fluent in four languages, had already seen more of the world than most of his peers, and he was easily the best soldier his age I’d come across, excelling in everything they threw at him. Direct action, counterinsurgency, special recon, unconventional warfare… He’d made it through my resistance-to-interrogation training without a moment’s thought of surrender, despite his enraged outbursts.
He’d also been murderous when I’d put them through the SAS Endurance and I’d finished before him.
He wasn’t all skills and perfection, though. Far from it. He was his own worst enemy, and…I was starting to suspect that was why he was here. Trouble had caught up to him, hadn’t it?
It would fit his profile somewhat if he’d found a way to blame me. There were exceptions, because—
“There’s no reason to hide from me, Payne.”
My mouth twitched. Still sharp as a tack. Always on high alert without looking the part. He sat down on the wide log rails that framed the porch, ballsy enough to keep his back to me.
“You don’t have to worry—I’m not gonna kill you,” he said.
Cocky little son of a bitch. Some things never changed.
Having no reason to hide anymore, I stepped out of the woods and adjusted my gun at the base of my spine. Now it was no longer about possibly having to use it, and all about not wanting him to see it. He’d find a way to mock me for it. That was his way.
As I headed up the porch steps, he pointed his blade at the kitchen window.
“I don’t know if it’s Twin One or Twin Two, but I can see their shadow over the stove.”
I suppressed a sigh.
“The other one’s underneath the porch,” he added dismissively. “He might wanna dry his feet. It’s gonna be chilly tonight.”
I clasped my hands behind my back and stepped into his line of sight, keeping the front door behind me. “Danny Rose.”
He grinned and widened his arms. “You remember me.”
Yup, still that killer smile with the dimples. Dangerously gorgeous blue eyes too.
I nodded with a dip of my chin, then eyed the floorboards. “Boys, you can come out. It was less exciting than a prank.”
I heard some shuffling on the other side of the door and a twig or two breaking underneath the porch. Soon after, the Tenley twins joined me on the porch and looked at Danny with shuttered expressions.
Danny finished his apple and jumped to his feet, then extended his hand to Reese. “I guess Payne has forgotten his manners. I’m Danny—and I already know who you are. But which one is which?”
I cleared my throat and kept quiet. No reason to tell Danny I was making Reese wear a dark tee every day and River a light. There was seriously no other way to tell them apart. They were carbon copies, with copper-brown hair, sharp features, and striking green eyes. They had some height on Danny, but they shared his swimmer’s build. Or runner’s, maybe.
“Reese.” Reese shook Danny’s hand. “How do you know who we are?”
Good question.
I folded my arms over my chest.
“How about we trade?” Danny suggested. “I ask a question, and you answer. Then you can ask me something.”
Technically, that’d already happened. He’d asked who was Reese and who was River.
Not that it mattered. “No,” I replied. “I ask the questions—you answer. Or you get off my property.”
He stared at me.
This was one of the fields in which Danny didn’t belong. He wasn’t a gray man. He didn’t necessarily stand out, but there was nothing ordinary about him either. His expression often revealed his mood, his stubbornness, and how much left he had on his fuse.
I showed fuck-all.
“I feel like I have a lot to bargain with,” he hedged, returning his knife to its sheath. “Don’t you wanna know how I got all that info on you?”
Yes, but not at any cost. Not enough to give him leverage. And to be honest, I had my guesses. Considering he’d dug out my history and probably knew the names of my siblings, chances were he’d gone through my sister somehow. She was a sociable woman who would share her life story with the person standing behind her in the line at the grocery store.
If that were the case, I’d have a whole other bone to pick with Danny.
He wasn’t the type to break eye contact. Instead, he flashed his palms in surrender and switched tactics. “Fine. I heard through the grapevine that you were training a pair of twin brothers who’d recently quit the Army.”