Page 57 of Critical Strike
“I know you do.”
Her shoulders squared and her jawline hardened. When she spoke, her voice was firm. “I can’t be afraid of what might happen. I only need to be prepared for it.”
He couldn’t have loved her more. “Exactly.” He kissed the backs of her hands before standing. “I know you can do it. You have what it takes. And once you’ve dug up all that information, you can give it to me and the boys. We’ll know what to do from that point.”
His brothers needed to know about this. He padded down to the kitchen to fix coffee—if ever there was a morning when he’d needed it—and once the aroma began to fill the air, he pulled out the burner phone he’d been using to keep in touch with them.
“I was just going to call you.” Brax’s voice was like a snarl. That, paired with the early time of the day, made Luke’s palms go slick with nervous sweat.
“What’s up?” He looked up the stairs, wondering if he should let Claire overhear this.
“We’re not sure... Keep that in mind. We don’t have proof.”
“Talk to me,” Luke barked as quietly as he could. “Stop dancing around it.”
A heavy sigh. “Dad called. Mom had trouble with her brakes.”
Luke gripped the counter as hard as he could, forcing himself to process this without giving in to emotion. Emotion was the enemy at a time like this. “And what happened? How is she?”
“She’s fine. She was smart enough to pull off the road and call for help the second she felt something was wrong.”
Luke exhaled. “But no proof.”
“No proof. Still, it seems—”
“A little too convenient? Yeah, it does.” He muttered a string of profanity under his breath. If he had Ballard in front of him just then, what he wouldn’t do to that snake.
“Chance is going to stay with them for the time being, just as a precaution.”
“Good,” Luke agreed. “I know it’ll make me feel better knowing they have protection. And Mom will love the opportunity to stuff Chance full of her cooking, so it’s sort of a win-win.”
Brax chuckled. “Yeah, it’s just a shame about the circumstances. What are we going do about this guy? He’s smart. He knows there has to be a connection between us and Claire, even if he can’t find it. He’s starting to get desperate with these so-called accidents.”
“It just so happens that’s why I was calling you. I have an idea that has the possibility of becoming a plan.”
“I’m all ears.”
Claire started down the stairs, locking eyes with him. She must have seen his troubled look for what it was, because her smile faded.
“I have a better idea,” he offered. “Why don’t I catch you up on it in person?”
Her chin trembled only once, enough to remind him how scared she was in spite of everything. Then she nodded. Stronger. The way he needed them to be for both their sakes.
It was time to go home.
Chapter Nineteen
Luke Patterson had done a lot of difficult things in his life.
His time in the service hadn’t exactly been a cakewalk.
Even before then, when he was a kid, he’d survived a lot of situations that might have broken somebody without his strength or determination. He hadn’t exactly seen it that way at the time—adulthood had a way of casting things in a different light. All he’d known back then was survival.
Yet as he drove away from the safe house where he’d stashed Claire with Weston keeping watch, he was sure he’d never done anything harder. Not even close.
“You know she’s in safe hands with me,” Weston had reminded him, only partly kidding around. He understood what Claire meant, how Luke felt, and what it did to him to leave her behind. Safe hands or not.
None of them would ever be satisfied with letting others protect the ones they loved, no matter who those others were.