Deploy by Jamie Magee Read Free Book Online Page B

girl—and this one to top it off—that he had any fear was not something he was ready to do. Ever.
    “Where did that question come from?”
    She moved her gaze from him, “I don’t know. I guess I was wondering if once you made a choice if the fear left or if it was still there, just different. A fear you were ready to face, something like that.”
    Justice hit nail on the head, but he wasn’t going to say so. He did give her a short, quick nod. “You got a choice to make?”
    She re-crossed her outstretched legs as she answered, “Who doesn’t?”
    “Choices like getting away from your asshole father? You’re ‘bout to vanish because of that fuck, aren’t you?”
    She flinched with the thunder that seemed to punctuate his ire.
    Declan couldn’t help it that time. His hand reached for hers as he drew his other knee up and pulled her to lean toward him. “Tell me the storm is making you shake,” he said quietly once the rumble had lessened.
    No. It was him, all but pulling her into his lap like it was the most natural thing in the world.
    Her gaze moved from their hands that were laced together, up his chest, past his broad shoulders, then somehow made it to the storm clouds of his eyes. “Yes.” But it was the storm of him, not the one outside, or the one waiting on her at home.

Four
    S he’d dropped her gaze again and relaxed against him, which was a lot easier than she’d assumed it would be. Touching him made it easier to talk to him, to absorb him. He felt right against her. Always had.
    “I’m not leaving Bradyville,” she said to answer his question that was still lingering in the air. 
    “Ever?”
    She breathed a grin. “You make it sound horrible. It’s my home. I’m the last Everly.”
    “You’re a Rose.”
    “Well, I’m the last of my grandfather’s blood and he loved this town and his land, the people.”
    Declan remembered the back-story now. Her mother went off to school and came back with Brent Rose. The asshole had no roots here, yet he had managed to get his hands in everything.
    Justice was already in Declan’s head—a worry he didn’t want. He wasn’t thrilled to know for sure there were issues with her dad, and she wasn’t bailing. And he’d be too far away to do anything about it if it ever got really bad.
    His mind started flipping through people he could ask on the sly to watch her. It would have to be Atticus. He was just as stout as the other Rawlings’ boys, and he knew how to be cunning.
    “Might be good to get some space between you and your dad for a little bit, though.” What he wanted to say was if it gets bad you go to my brother, he’ll get you to my dad, my grandparents.
    She squeezed his hand. If she left, gave up, her grandfather’s land would turn into booze. She’d never go far until it was hers and protected.
    “What about you? Is it the Marines forever?”
    Way to deflect that there, Justice , he thought. His thumb grazed over her hand. “I signed for four. We’ll see where we are then.”
    “We?” she asked, feeling sick all at once when the idea of him planning a future with someone registered in her imagination.
    “I don’t know who I’m going to be then. Dad said after four I’d know more.”
    “I thought you said you’d never come back here?”
    Again, not being able to help it, he pulled her a bit closer. Now her shoulder was leaned against his chest. “You remember that?” he asked, his words whispered down her neck.
    Years back, when they ended up close and personal around a campfire the conversation started a lot like this, them wishing on a star, saying where they’d go.
    “At fifteen, you were sure you’d never come back. You were going to circle the globe, save the world.”
    “Well,” he said at length, “for all I know that will not take a lifetime to do. Dad’s got the bar. Gramps has the garage. Tobias wants to come up with something on his own or take over one of the two. There’s no telling...” He