EDGE OF SHADOWS: The Shadow Ops Finale (Shadow Ops, Book # 3) by C.J. Lyons, Cynthia Cooke Read Free Book Online Page A

away from him as soon as it was over. Slam the wall of professionalism down between them.
    If only he knew for certain if she felt the same way about him as he did her. First time in his life he ever felt a coward. But how could he say anything without explaining that he knew everything Grigor had done to her in Razgravia? That he’d actually watched the video of her torture? She’d never want to be with him knowing that.
    Yet, how could he not tell her how he felt? Do-or-die time, he told himself.
    She sighed, relaxing even more as he washed dried blood from her hair. The cut wasn’t deep; he could close it with surgical glue from his field kit.
    “Why hasn’t some woman grabbed you up, Billy?” Rose asked, her voice holding a hint of humor. “Is it because you aren’t ready to settle down?”
    It was because he wasn’t ready to settle for anyone other than her. But what he said was, “I am ready to settle down.”
    “Really?” She flicked her eyes open. He shielded them with his palm as he rinsed the soap away. Then he released her, handing her a dishtowel to dry off with.
    Now or never, Price.
    It took all his training to keep his breathing slow and his voice steady. “In fact, I have found someone. The woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
    She was mopping her face with the towel, but he didn’t need to see her expression to read her. Not with the way her hands tightened and her shoulders hunched. Her entire body grew tense. Did she not know he was talking about her?
    “Is that so?” The towel muffled her voice, but that didn’t hide the mix of resentment and longing that colored her words.
    His pulse raced as he waited for her to lower the towel and confirm his suspicions. She took a moment longer than necessary before heaving in a deep breath and handing him the damp towel.
    “I’m happy for you and Senator Payne,” she said. Her words were earnest, truthful, but her smile was weighed down by sadness and didn’t make it to her eyes.
    He knelt beside her, finishing the job of closing the wound, ready to tell her everything when his phone rang again, disrupting the delicate balance between them.
    “That will be Susan Payne,” she said, looking away as he applied the glue, aligning the edges of the cut so she’d have the least amount of scarring possible—something he’d never bothered with when patching up any of his guys in Delta.
    “I expect so,” he answered. “But, Rose, I need to tell you—”
    Before he could say anything, she sprang out of the chair and grabbed her coat. “I’d better leave you to her, then. I have to check on EZ’s progress. Get him and KC searching for the man who escaped from the tunnel last week. Can you keep the investigators off my back for a while? Then we’ll talk later, come up with a plan?”
    He pushed himself to his feet, hiding his disappointment at her return to business as usual. “Let me discuss our options with Susan and I’ll call you.”
    She stopped at the door and looked back. A foreign emotion colored her expression. Envy? Anger? Both? “Tell the senator I’d prefer Leavenworth to Gitmo—food’s better, even if the weather’s worse.”
    As soon as the door closed behind her, he allowed himself a grin. Rose felt the same about him as he did her. Now that he was certain, all he had to do was help her see it for herself. Prove to her that she could trust him with her heart.
    He washed his hands and rolled his shirtsleeves down, snapping the wrinkles from the soft cotton. Ran through his to-do list: save the woman he loved from life in prison for treason, save his team from the traitor in their midst, save the nation from the Preacher’s people and whatever they had planned.
    All in a day’s work.
    His phone rang again. Susan. Again.
    The senator wasn’t going to let Rose off the hook easily. Her committee and the White House needed someone to take the fall for what had happened last week.
    Well, okay, maybe two days’