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"So it’s not true"

Ada hiht around hian…

At the long pause, Brady laughed again "Good luck And trust me, you’ll need it"

Adam paused "Did you need luck? With Lilah?" The question shocked him If he could have taken it back, he would have, in a heartbeat

There was a beat of silence that told him that Brady was shocked by the unexpected reveal of vulnerability as well, and if he laughed, Adah "Hell, man," he finally said "I needed a lot more than luck I needed divine intervention to land that woman, and I still alhest son of a bitch Adaed to land the sweetest wootten married last month, a beautiful, emotional cere all night long Still, Adaether Lilah would needle Brady, get on his case about so Food, work, his overprotectiveness…She’d keep after hio toe-to-toe with hiainst the lion Adam had never seen anyone do that to Brady before, but Lilah had no fear of Brady She’d throw her arrin down at her like a teenager Even now, to this day, when Adatone, Brady would get that sarin on his face

"Don’t screw it up," Brady said

With nothing else to say, Ada up, with the exception of the two granola bars, apples, and water he’d taken out for their breakfast

Still no Holly

He paced the clearing, stopping every few seconds to peer into the woods where she’d vanished "Holly"

Nothing

Da in, Holly" He did not want to surprise her He’d ar Maced sucked Besides that, he understood wanting privacy for whatever coh out here But if she was out there sulking, trying to punish hiether He’d told her the truth last night, he wasn’t playing gaave her another sixty seconds, which was sixty seconds too long in his book because everything inside hio after her now He did realize that his instincts when it caut feelings were all he’d ever had Even when things had gone FUBAR on his last mission, it hadn’t been his instincts that had failed hiain pointed where Holly had vanished "Seek"

Ada up Holly’s boot prints in the snow Milo had run ahead Ada, but then he heard the "tell," three short, quick barks in a row, signaling Milo had made his find

Ada’s paw prints, co and wo He paused, not sure what the hell to say to her

Holly was sitting, legs bent, arms around her shins, head down on her knees He could see the tension in every line of her body, tension that he was going to hope like hell was temper and not tears

Temper was always infinitely preferable to tears

Milo stood at Holly’s side, alert, eyes on Adam as he approached "Good boy"

Milo happily relaxed and plopped down to the snow

"Holly"

She lifted her head and looked at him And for the first time since he’d last seen his therapist and had been forced to discuss feelings he didn’t want to discuss, he felt that same old familiar lick of panic

Twelve

Holly took one look at Adam’s expression and dropped her head back to her knees Nope, she still wasn’t ready to see him "I told you I needed a minute," she said

"No, you said you’d kill me if I followed you"

He didn’t sound bothered by this, which soer issues First of all, she’d slept in her contacts, which always made her eyes sore and swollen Duood as blind without theoing on last night, but her eyes were definitely suffering the consequences--unlike the rest of her body, which was actually still operating on a low-level hum of excitement She couldn’t help it, everyout of practice

That wasn’t the only thing she’d been out of practice at Having asweet erotic nothings in her ear as he took her places she couldn’t get on solo expeditions…

But he already regretted it, and that really chapped her ass

And hurt her heart

"I illing to give you a er than that"

She juh as he sat next to her The man moved like s her face averted

"Are you crying?" He sounded worried Going to war hadn’t worried hi into the storhed "No"

Not that she’d ad, slow, relieved breath that rind her teeth "Thank Christ," he murmured

With a sound of exasperation aimed at the both of them, she rose to her feet, and then remembered the proble Daentleness Crouching before her, balancing on the balls of his feet, he put his hands on her ar both near and farsighted, all of which added up to being as blind as a bat in daylight, she couldn’t see his expression clearly

Probably not a bad thing

"Just having trouble seeing," she said

"You wearing your contacts?"

For a guy who liked to pretend they barely knew each other--at least until last night--he sure remembered a hell of a lot about her "I had to take thelasses with you?"

"Maybe in my pack"

"Maybe?"

"Hopefully"

"Shit, Holly"

Which translated into Dued him out of her way--ordeal We can still do this" She pulled out her cell and hit Red’s number

"There’s no news," Adam said "I already checked"