Rafe (Wounded Sons #4) - Leah Sharelle Page 0,3
I stopped Gabe from saying anything more.
“Don’t mate, please. Logically I know that, but I have a responsibility, Tank. I know you guys don’t get it, but I do, and while I can’t explain it, it is what it is,” I insisted, hating to have this conversation with one of my best mates. My team supported the decision I’d made three years ago without so much of a bad word, but recently they had gotten a little more vocal, a little more … forceful that it was time to pack it in and get on with my life.
If only I could. Seeing Peyton head in the direction of the back garden, I stood up from the picnic table.
“I’m staying tonight, Tank, good enough?” I asked, hoping that he would accept my decision and give the topic a rest.
“Righto Rafe, I accept that.”
Picking up my beer from the table, I nodded at him.
“Gonna go see how she is doing, her last letter to me didn’t give the impression she was in a good place,” I said with a nod in Peyton’s direction.
“Yeah, Dad told me the club went out to her place a few weeks ago and installed more locks. Ford and Lucky upgraded her security camera system,” Gabe told me, his face worried.
“She isn’t doing any better, is she, Rafe?”
“She is and isn’t. With Justin still on the loose, I can’t blame her for being wary. I can’t believe he disappeared virtually without a trace. The club and Jason have a big reach, and still, Justin is like a ghost.” My back teeth ground against each other just thinking about that prick Justin. His attempt to kill Peyton and Addy might have failed, but he succeeded in turning Peyton into a shell of the woman she used to be. She is scared of being away from her house and scared to be there. My heart fucking aches for the sweet woman that had managed to become somewhat of an obsession to me. I had no fucking right, but my feelings for the vet nurse grew more and more every day.
“Go find her mate, my guess she has gone down to the garden where it is quiet.”
“And where she can see anyone coming,” I added grimly, hating that Peyton had learned such techniques such as staying where she could see someone coming at her, never sitting with her back to an entry and worst of all, learning to use a gun.
It didn’t escape me the irony; I hated that I was teaching Peyton to shoot, yet I was a sniper in the army. My job was all about guns, but I would give anything for that to be the opposite for Peyton.
“Fuck if only—” I stopped myself from voicing the rest because it didn’t matter how much I wanted things to be different. Unfortunately, Gabe heard me, and being the man he was, he wasn’t going to let an opportunity pass by him.
“You can mate, you are the only one holding yourself back from something with her,” he muttered, shaking his head.
Lifting my beer to my lips, I took a gulp, not tasting the hops or the cold liquid as it trickled down my throat.
“If only that were true,” I muttered back, walking off, leaving my captain standing there staring at me. I knew this because I could feel his grey eyes boring into my back until I turned the corner of the main building and out of his sight.
It sucked being a sniper sometimes, that sixth sense of being watched wasn’t always a good thing to have.
Neither was being responsible for someone losing their life.
CHAPTER TWO
PEYTON
He’s home.
For the first time in six weeks, I felt like I could take a breath and relax.
This was only the second deployment for Rafe since the fire at the vet clinic, and it was no easier on me than the first one had been.
Six months ago, the worst day of my life was replaced in my memory when Justin Johnston decided that Addy’s vet clinic needed to be burnt down, with her and me in it.
Thankfully Addy’s man Grill realised she was missing from the compound and rushed to the clinic with Rafe, the Souls and a bunch of firefighters. They came crashing into the back room where my boss and I were trapped and saved us.
Well, they saved me from the flames, but not from the nightmares and deathly fright that Justin will be back to finish the job. That night I truly