American Made (Against the Tides #2) by Katheryn Kiden Read Free Book Online Page B

fuck her,” I yell, finally snapping. All it took was for her face when he was yelling at her to flash in front of my eyes. “Not that it’s your fuckin’ business, but I didn’t fuck her!”
    “You didn’t?”
    “No! I don’t fuck someone without their permission. The fact that you would even think I did says a lot about you right now.”
    Stepping back, he sweeps his hand over his face. “Gentry, what you want from her won’t work. I won’t let you hurt her. She’s—”
    “Not weak,” I cut him off.
    “I never said she was weak, but right now she’s broken and I plan to protect her from anything that will hurt her more. That includes you.”
    I step away from him because I feel the need to hit him rapidly growing inside of me. “You didn’t have to tell her she was to make her think she was. You didn’t see her after you slammed that door, Knox. She thinks you see her as weak. She feels that way because of you right now. Just because she got hurt doesn’t make her weak, and it damn sure doesn’t make her broken. If you think it does, maybe I should be protectin’ her from you.”
    “Who the fuck do you think you are?” he yells at my back. “You don’t know her, you don’t know what she’s thinking!”
    “You know I’d kick the shit out of you right now if it wouldn’t cost me my job. One night. I’ve known her for one fuckin’ night and I can see through the bullshit layer she wears. I get that you’re scared because you know you could have lost her over there. I understand you want to protect her. But treatin’ her like shit and dictating what she can do and who she can be with is gonna make you lose her faster than any bullet ever could.”
    “I’ve seen the women you leave behind you. I don’t want you with her.”
    I slow down and finally look at him because the tone in his voice is different. He looks like everything is starting to hit him and he isn’t sure how to handle it.
    I guess that’s happening a lot today…
    “You don’t get that choice, man. That’s between us. I know you hate the idea because of the shit I’ve done, but people change. She’s dealin’ with everything at once and I don’t wanna make it worse so I’m not gonna force anything right now. She needs to figure out who she is now that she isn’t a soldier anymore. She’s fuckin’ confused because she can’t shoot anymore. You of all people should know how hard that is.”
    “I do,” he whispers. Knox drops to the curb so I sit down next to him. I send a text to our CO and let him know that I’m outside with Knox and that I’ll be in in a minute so he doesn’t write me up. “I didn’t think about that, though.”
    “Yeah, you failed to think about anything except how much of a horrible person I am with women. You thought the worst and you were wrong.”
    “It’s not that you’re a bad person, Gentry,” he states after thinking for a minute. “But you put your life on the line every day. You never know if you’re gonna make it home at the end of the day or if you’re comin’ back here in a body bag. I don’t wanna see her hurt like Ari is right now and there’s always a chance of that.”
    I want to scream at him for comparing Emerson to Ari. Even though I get his point, there’s a huge difference. From what he’s told me, I know quite a bit. Ari lost her husband and now she won’t let herself heal. She lets the reality of it slap her in the face every day instead of trying to move on with life. She pushes Knox away and that kills him because he’s in love with her and can’t help her because she won’t help herself. Emerson knows what she’d be getting into if she was with someone like me. She knows the risks of not coming home because she lived them. Yes, Knox is scared of losing her too, but I think the overprotectiveness is because Ari won’t let him in. I’m afraid if he doesn’t see what he’s doing soon, he’s going to lose both of them completely.
    “There’s