“That’s good because I wasn’t talking about her brothers, though just to say, Echo’s more than a tad overprotective and takes the meaning of brother to an extreme. I was talking about her. The woman’s got it all—funny, smart, tough, easy on the eyes. But under all that, she is made of stone. You know what her nickname is around the station?”
“Sunny?”
Ethan pinched his lips together and shook his head. “No. Killer Frost. No one gets close to Sunny Kent. Sweet and warm as long as you keep your distance. You get even a millimeter into her space and she’ll ice you out and do it nastily.”
Yep. That sounded about right.
“She already tried that shit with me. Turned up the bitch and attempted to freeze me out. Problem with that is, even as she was doing it she admitted she was doing it on purpose to keep me clear. Now you tell me; that sound like a bitch out to do damage or a woman who has yet to find a man who can withstand the blast and prove he’s worth going through the pain she knows she’ll endure before she can give the sweet and warm. Now, I suppose she’s got more of Killer Frost bottled up and she can rachet that shit up if need be so I’m prepared for a cold chill when I show up at her place tonight.”
Ethan did a slow blink. Then with a glare that clearly communicated he cared about Shiloh, he asked, “And you think you’re the right man for the job?”
Christ. Now I was explaining myself to Ethan.
“What I know is, I’ve been in her presence three times. I knew after the first I should steer clear of her. Yet I didn’t try too hard, considering my ass was on a barstool next to her less than an hour after she called me. The second time I knew I was in trouble. Yet when I had the chance to cut her out I didn’t. And after the third, I knew I couldn’t walk away.”
“Doesn’t sound like you,” Ethan mumbled.
“No shit? I got no problems givin’ the cold shoulder, especially when I’m doing something nice for someone and they throw that shit in my face and call me an asshole. But I cannot leave her.”
“Leave her?”
Ethan eyed me and I ignored the leading question. Shiloh’s business was hers and I wasn’t going to tell anyone what she’d said to me.
“Leave her,” I repeated.
“Shit, Luke, you’re gonna have your hands full.”
That was the God’s honest truth. Shiloh Kent was going to give me a run for my money. The mere thought of the effort that I was going to have to expend to get past her front door should’ve woke my ass up and made me reconsider. But I’d done what I knew I was going to do and I fell headfirst into Shiloh.
“Yep,” I responded with an understatement.
“I don’t know what to say except if you need something let me know.”
“I’ll take you up on that should the need arise.”
After a quick goodbye, Ethan was out the door and Matt was walking in.
“Yo. Wanna go down to Savanah tonight?” my teammate asked as he plopped himself down in the chair in front of my desk.
“Can’t. I have plans.”
Matt’s brow pulled together and he gave me a look.
“Plans? You never have plans.”
He wasn’t wrong. Since I’d gotten out of the Navy I rarely had plans with anyone other than my crew. Matt, Carter, Logan, Drake, Trey, and now Brady were safe. And after the explosion, my medical hearing, and discharge I wasn’t in the best of places. I needed safe, I needed men around me who knew what I was going through without me having to talk about it. But that was then and after I’d watched Trey struggle thinking I was pissed at him, taking on a mountain of guilt that was not his to carry I realized I needed to get my shit together and stop being a dick with a chip on my shoulder.
I had people around me who would help; all I needed to do was let them. So I reached out first to Lenox, then to Jasper and Levi, and finally, I talked to Clark about my nightmares. The four men who had started Triple Canopy. But before they did, they’d all been in the Army, they’d all seen battle, they all had a heart for service. It was Levi who suggested I talk to his daughter Liberty, Drake’s fiancée. Lieutenant Liberty McCoy was as badass as they came, a Special Forces soldier and part of a black ops team. She’d helped me overcome some serious self-worth issues. I needed to call her and ask if she’d talk to Shiloh. If there was anyone who could relate to Shiloh it was Liberty.
“Earth to Luke,” Matt called and I focused on my friend.
“Sorry. Yeah, I have plans.”
“The way you spaced out, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you had a head full of woman. But since I know you and you’ve developed a weird aversion to the fairer sex, which just sayin’, friend, is A-okay in my book, more for me, but still a man’s gotta get—”
“Enough.” I put my hand up. “Ask Logan to go with you.”
“Already did. He’s onboard. I was just asking you to be nice.”
I flipped Matt a rude gesture that he took no offense to. He also didn’t let me off the hook. That was the problem with friends like Matt—friends you’d fought and bled next to. Men who knew your every move before you made it because at a time it was a matter of life and death. They knew you, straight to your soul, and gave zero fucks about calling you out.
“You met a woman,” he rightly guessed.
“Shiloh Kent.”
“The blonde? Blue eyes? Hot? Killer legs?”
Of course, Matt noticed her legs.
“That’s her,” I confirmed.
“You know she’s highly trained in a variety of weapons, right?”
“Yep. Took her to the range. Know she’s SWAT, has three brothers who will likely be up in my shit as this progresses. I also didn’t miss her legs, but from here on out you’re gonna refrain from staring at them.”
“Damn.” Matt chuckled.
Matt settled back in the chair and stared. The silence stretched until I finally broke it.
“Not sure there’s anything left to say.”
“You go months, lots of months working your shit through. We give you the space you need and only talk about what happened when you bring it up. We all get it. We all respect it. You get yourself straight and in the process, swear to God you get a personality transplant and go from a scowling, standoffish ass to…not friendly per se, but tolerant of other people. I see you smiling and sometimes I even hear you laugh. You become this well-adjusted civvy when I was worried you’d be the next Unabomber. Which brings me to the part about women. You don’t say anything, no one asks, but you turned into Carter—a monk who turns down every hot chick who approaches. Suddenly that’s changed and you have a woman.”
Matt had a flare for drama. Though the part about Carter being a monk was true. When we were on the teams together Carter Lenox had never, not once, touched a woman in all the years we served together. No one got it until he brought Delaney to Virginia Beach and introduced us to her. He’d been in love with her since they were kids and had been in a committed-non-relationship that Carter had refused to commit to, yet secretly had. The situation would’ve been tragic and fucked-up if they hadn’t ended up getting married and started popping out kids.