Garrett’s Destiny by Anna Blakely

Chapter 16

Exhausted to his bones, Garrett rode the elevator to his and Colt’s floor, thankful as hell that he was alone.

What a clusterfuck of a day.

Leaning his back on the car’s wall, he closed his eyes and drew in a long, deep breath before letting it out slowly. Just as it had every time he’d so much as blinked these last few hours, Avery’s gorgeous face filled his mind’s eye.

Only she looked different, now. No, that wasn’t right. She looked exactly the same. But she’d looked at him differently.

Like he was a stranger. Someone she barely knew, rather than the man she’d made love to over and over again.

And he couldn’t get that look out of his fucking head.

It was all there, in her eyes. Her beautiful, dark chocolate eyes. Every emotion she’d been feeling since the minute she’d heard Digger call him by his team nickname.

Confusion. Sadness. Betrayal.

He’d promised to explain everything to her but hadn’t wanted an audience for that particular conversation. So he’d waited.

When he and Digger had first found her and Jess in that field, he’d been so fucking relieved he’d damn near bawled like a baby. Hours later and he still hadn’t gotten rid of the fear he’d felt speeding down that road in search of them.

After arriving at the ship, and his brief but emotional reunion with Colt, he’d been debriefed by the head of cruise security, a man Owens knew personally.

Of course, he knows him. Owens knows everyone who’s anyone.

After that, he and his team, along with Owens, used their secured satellite phone to call the president—yep, that’s right, the president of the United States.

It wasn’t the first time Garrett and his team had been on a call with the powerful man. And, given what they did for a living, it wouldn’t be the last.

Once they’d filled him in on what had happened, Garrett gave a written statement to the local police chief. He’d left out the part about the Delta Force team who’d aided in their transport back to the ship. Instead of naming names, he used vague words like ‘additional team members’.

One of the reasons those guys were able to do the things they did was largely because of their anonymity. Garrett and his team wanted to do whatever they could to help them keep it.

As far as the other hostages knew, the Delta guys were part of their team. And there was no reason for them to think otherwise.

The elevator dinged and Garrett stepped out into the large, carpeted space. Turning right, he headed down the hallway—to Colt’s room.

He knew he should go to Avery first. Especially since Colt had met them out on the dock when they’d first arrived.

As lame as it was, Garrett admittedly was using his brother as an excuse to put off having to face her. Because Colt was his blood.

Sure, he’d be pissed about the lies and secrecy. But in the end, the guy would still love him, regardless. Because they were family.

With Avery, Garrett didn’t have that same type of assurance. She could walk away free and clear if she wanted. But God, he prayed she wouldn’t.

Reaching Colt’s room, he lifted his hand and knocked. His brother opened the door, looking tired and worn, but not nearly as green as the last time he’d seen him.

Garrett braced himself. For a punch. A tongue lashing. Whatever Colt wanted to dish out, he’d take it in stride.

Fisting the front of Garrett’s dirty ass shirt, he fully expected his other fist to come flying. Instead, he found himself being pulled in for a brotherly hug.

“So damn glad you’re okay. Even if you are a lying asshole.”

“Love you, too, brother.” Garrett patted him hard on the back before pulling away.

Stepping into the privacy of the room, they let the door close behind them before talking again.

“You call Dad?”

Colt nodded. “Second I got the news that you’d been found, and you were okay.”

“He doing all right?”

“Yeah.” His brother shoved his hands into his short’s pockets. “You know Dad. He’s tougher than the two of us combined.”

“That he is.” Garrett ran a hand down his face and bit the bullet. “Guess I have some explaining to do.”

“Guess so.”

The two sat in the bedroom area—Garrett on the loveseat and Colt on the edge of the bed. And for the next thirty minutes, he told him everything.

How he sold insurance on the side as part of his cover. How he and his team travel the world saving hostages from bastards like the ones who’d taken them.

All of it.

“You could’ve told me, you know. Pops, too.”

“I know. I could’ve asked my boss for permission, and he probably would’ve granted it. But I know how hard losing mom hit you and Dad. Me, too, but you were always her favorite, and Dad, well…Mom was his everything.”

Just like Avery’s mine.

“Owens seems like a cool guy.” Colt smiled. “Bet that accent of his has the ladies pounding down his door.”

“Not sure about that, but yeah. Rafe’s a great guy to work for.”

During their earlier meeting, Owens had given him the green light to fill Colt in on his job. The only formality mentioned was that Colt would have to sign the same NDA required of all Tac-Ops spouses—should any of them ever got married.

I want to be the first.

Six months ago, the thought of marriage would’ve sent him running. Now it didn’t even make Garrett flinch.

Not anymore. Not since Avery.

“How’s she doing?” Colt asked, as if the guy could read his mind.

“Shaken up.” He leaned back against the seat’s cushion and sighed. Raking a hand through his hair, he growled, “Bruised and scratched all to hell.”

Knowing her perfect skin had been damaged because of those assholes filled him with a rage unlike any he’d ever known.

“I saw that when you guys first came back” Colt blew out a breath. “I’m afraid to ask, but…what happened to her?”

Garrett shared what he knew, which wasn’t much. Mainly the incredible story of how she and Jess jumped from the truck in order to escape. Every time he thought about it, pictured it, his gut filled with so much acid he thought he’d puke.

“Damn.” Colt shook his head.

“Yeah.” It was all Garrett could think to say.

After a stretch of silence, his brother asked, “You two okay?”

“I don’t know.” And that knowledge fucking gutted him. “She’s bound to be pissed at me for not telling her the truth about my job.”

“Yeah, well…I can relate.”

Garrett’s lips curved with a small smile. “I need to go see her. Explain why I couldn’t tell her everything before. Make her see that everything else was the truth. How I feel about her, and all that.”

“Yes.” Colt rose to his feet. “You do.”

“I just hope she understands, so we can…”

“What?”

“Be together.”

“So this thing with her…it’s not just a vacation fling?”

“Not for me.” Garrett’s answer was instant. “And before today, I really felt like it was more for her, too. Now, I don’t know what we are.”

I don’t know if we’re anything, anymore.

“Well, brother. There’s only one way to find out.”

“Yep.” Garrett pushed himself up off the loveseat. “Guess I’d better get to it.”

“Guess so.” Colt smirked as he walked him to the door. “I hear groveling helps with situations such as this.”

Garrett snorted. “You know a lot of people who’ve been in this type of situation?”

“You’d be surprised.” Colt opened the door with a smile.

“All right, man. I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

The walk to Avery’s room seemed to take forever. With every step, Garrett went over what he wanted to say to her, searching for the perfect words to make her understand.

But when she opened her door and those red-rimmed eyes found his, he forgot every damn thing he’d planned to say.

So he settled for, “Hey.”

“Hey.”

The smell of coconuts and vanilla filled his nostrils like a soothing balm. Dressed in a pair of loose, khaki shorts and a white t-shirt, she’d obviously showered the day away. But now that her skin was clean of dirt and grime, that damn bruise on her chin looked even worse.

So did the scrapes and cuts on her arms and legs.

Garrett’s back teeth ground together as he thought of all the ways he could kill the son of a bitch who’d hit her.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” He blinked. “Can I come in?”

Stepping to the side, Avery held the door open for him. Once inside, she shut it behind him and followed him into the room’s main area.

He glanced at the suitcases stacked on top of the bed. “I guess they told you they were flying you and the others out soon.”

She nodded. “Something about ensuring our safety and not wanting to risk us being accosted by the other passengers on board. I guess the cruise line is issuing us all a full refund, though. So that’s something, I guess.”

She sounded as impressed about that as he felt. Like a refund could make up for what any of them had gone through. Not that it was the cruise line’s fault, but it pissed him off knowing the assholes were only offering it to help keep from being sued.

“Listen, Avery.” He shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from grabbing hold of her and keeping her in his arms forever. “I need you to know I never lied to you.”

“Garrett, please don’t—”

“I do sell insurance,” he insisted. “It’s just not my main job.”

“Clearly.”

“I wanted to tell you the truth. I was planning on telling you and then everything went to shit.”

“That’s convenient.”

“I’m serious.” He did go to her then. “As soon as we got back from the excursion, I was going to call my boss and get permission to tell you.”

“You have to ask permission?”

“Yes.” He nodded with sincerity. “We do. Just like a lot of other covert agencies.”

“I’m assuming he knows you’re telling me now?”

“He does. Not that it matters, at this point. I mean, you saw the kinds of things my team and I do.”

“So what are you, exactly? Some sort of mercenary for hire?”

“No.” Garrett shook his head. “I’m a covert hostage rescue specialist. We use Travel Assurance as our cover, but my team and I…our main job is to locate and rescue people who’ve been taken captive by guys like the ones we dealt with today. We do a lot of classified missions the government doesn’t want the public to know about. That’s why we have a cover job. Keeps us hiding in plain sight, so to speak.”

“That’s how you got the gun on board the cruise ship.”

It was a statement, rather than a question.

“Yes. My team and I have special permission from the president to carry concealed weapons aboard aircraft and seacraft of all kinds.”

“The president?” She let out a disbelieving laugh. “This is insane. I mean…I’ve read about things like this. To be honest, I’m a little bit obsessed with stories where the heroine gets kidnapped and taken to some faraway place, and the hero rushes in at the last minute to save her. Part of me even used to wish that would happen to me, because in my mind I’d somehow romanticized it all. But this…this isn’t romantic, Garrett. This is terrifying.”

“I know.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Baby, trust me, I know. When that man ripped you from my arms today, I felt like I was watching my entire world disappear. And when I finally got free and tried to find you, only to be told you’d been taken someplace else…God, Avery. I can’t even describe the terror I felt thinking I’d lost you forever. But then, Digger and I came over that hill, and we saw you and Jessica standing on the side of the road, and I thought…I thought I’ve found my other half again.”

“I felt the same way.” She swiped at a tear that had fallen. “But then I saw you with that other man, Digger, and I…I don’t know.” Clearing her throat, she told him, “My sister was engaged to a man who kept things from her. I saw what the secrets and lies did to her. What they’re still doing to her, and I don’t want things to be like that with us.”

“It won’t.” He vowed. “Baby, what that jerk did to Alex was unforgiveable, but this isn’t even close to the same thing. You have to know that.”

“I do.” She pointed to her head. “In here. But here”—she tapped her chest—“I feel like a fool.”

Christ. “You’re not a fool. And I know this sounds crazy, and my timing is shit. But I promised you the truth, and that’s what I’m giving you. Avery, the truth is I l—”

A loud knock came from the door, making Garrett want to punch whoever was on the other side.

He was a hair’s breadth away from saying the most important words of his entire life, and someone knocks?

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

“I-I’d better get that.”

“I’ll get it.”

After almost losing her today, he wasn’t taking any chances. With his fists white-knuckled, Garrett walked to the door, swinging it open to see which asshole deserved to die.

When he saw the guy’s face, his rising temper began to cool.

“Hey.” Garrett greeted the other man. “Avery, this is Ghost. He and his team helped us at the warehouse today.”

“I remember.” She stepped closer.

“Ma’am.” Ghost, the leader of the Delta team that had helped them with hostage transport stood in the hallway dressed in a crisp, clean Army uniform. “My men and I have been asked to escort you and the other passengers involved in today’s incident to the airplane that’s taking you back to the States.”

Today’s incident. How politically correct.

“I’ll get my bags.” Avery turned to head to the bed, but Garrett needed more time.

“Give us a minute, yeah?” He looked at the other man.

With an understanding tip of his head, Ghost said, “We’re wheels up in twenty. Need to be on the road in ten.”

“Just need a second.”

“I’ll be out here.”

Closing the door, Garrett faced Avery again. With her bags in tow, she rolled them across the smooth carpet toward him.

“I guess this is it.”

He swallowed down his emotion long enough to ask, “Is it?”

Avery’s brown eyes softened. “Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, I can get past the deception. You have rules and procedures to follow, and I get that now. I can even respect the fact that those are important to you, and you don’t break protocol on a whim. But I guess this is all still just…a lot, you know?”

“I do.”

But he also knew, if she’d give them a chance, they could work through it all…together.

“The team and I are flying out today, too,” he told her. “But we’ve got a few things to wrap up here, first, so I’m not sure when we’ll be landing back in Charlotte.” Just ask her. “Can I call you later? Maybe we could meet for dinner tomorrow night, or…”

“Actually, I think…” Avery shifted the strap on her shoulder. “I think I need a little time. To process everything. I hope you understand.”

“I do.” He fucking hated it, but he did. “My number’s in your phone, so…call me when you’re ready. I promise I’ll pick up if I can.”

“Okay.”

After a second’s hesitation, Avery rose to her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “Goodbye, Garrett. And thank you.”

“For what?”

“Everything.”

With no other choice, Garrett opened the door and watched her walk away under Ghost’s protection.