I was alone in my apartment. Usually, being alone was dangerous for me, because it let me think back onto the bad shit.

Instead, I was thinking about Piper. About the way she looked at me, her body, her smile. It was all enough to drive me fucking crazy, and I was almost glad that she had a boyfriend.

Not really, though. What I really wanted was to pull her into my apartment and fuck her until she screamed my name. I wanted to fuck her until she forgot she ever dated another man.

I cracked open a beer and turned on the television, trying to drown out my thoughts. I flipped through the channels, taking long pulls, until I found some football game that I didn’t care about. It was perfect for distracting me, though, and I stared at the screen.

Until my phone started ringing. I glanced over at it, but didn’t recognize the number. I decided to let it go to voicemail.

A minute later, my phone buzzed. The person left a message. Frowning, I listened.

“Gates, I know this is weird.” It was Piper. I sat up straight, sensing the fear in her voice, the anxiety. “Listen, I need your help. I don’t know who to turn to. I got your number from Lauren. Can you, uh, can you please call me back? Okay. I know this is weird. Thanks.”

And then the message ended.

I stared at the phone. What the fuck had happened that she needed to call me? Clearly something bad, but she didn’t say. Either way, I could hear the fear. I could sense it in her voice just like I could sense when the men under my command were stressed.

I called her number back. She picked up on the first ring.

“Gates,” she said. She sounded like she’d been running.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” she said. “I mean, I think I am.”

“Where are you?”

Short pause. “Brooklyn.”

“I’m coming to get you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Stay where you are. If you have to move, call me. Text me the address.”

Short pause. “Thank you so much, Gates.”

“Okay. Just stay there.”

I hung up and walked quickly into my room. I grabbed my Sig Sauer pistol, checked the clip, and slipped it until my jeans. I grabbed my jacket, slipped it on, and headed outside.

My car roared to life as I tore down the streets. This was what it was meant for as I headed toward her location. She was in a decent part of Brooklyn, so I didn’t think it was a robbery issue. I doubted it was something too dire, or else she’d go to the police.

It had to do with her boyfriend. There was no other reason she’d call me instead of him. Unless he was working, but still, she could call any number of her other friends.

I was the only one unaffiliated. We both knew Greg and Lauren, but that was it. I was on the edge of her friend group.

That idea scared me, and I pushed the pedal down further.

It took me ten minutes to get to the address she sent me. Ten agonizing minutes, but finally I arrived.

And she was nowhere in sight.

I double-parked, threw on my flashers, and jumped out of my car. I wanted to draw my weapon so fucking badly, but I knew that would be a very bad idea. I was in a pretty populous neighborhood in Brooklyn, and there were people walking their fucking dogs. Some guy with a gun would just start a panic.

But I couldn’t find her. I swept the area, assessing every corner for threats, but there was nothing.

“Gates.”

I turned and felt a tension drain from my chest. Piper waved as she hurried toward me.

“I told you not to move,” I said to her.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“What’s going on?”

“I can’t say.” She looked around like she was expecting someone to appear at any second. “I had to, uh, get some more money out.”

“Money?”

“Yeah. Can we go?”

I cocked my head at her. “Tell me what’s happening.”

“You won’t believe me. Can I tell you in the car?”

“Fine. Come on.”

We got into my car and I pulled out into traffic. She was safe, and so I didn’t drive like a maniac. I could sense the fear and anxiety rolling off of her in waves, and I wanted to pull over and try to calm her down.

I sensed that was the wrong move, though. I could tell that she wanted to be moving, almost like she was running from someone. She mentioned getting money out, which confused me.

“Okay, Pipes,” I said. “Tell me.”

“I saw Tony do something . . . horrible,” she said slowly.

“What did he do?”

“You won’t believe me.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No,” she said quickly. “No. But I’m afraid he will.”

“Tell me what happened, Pipes.”

“After you dropped me off, I made him some dinner. I wanted to surprise him, give him something to eat. I don’t know, I wanted to see him. So I went to his club and Thomas told me that he was upstairs.”

I nodded, listening carefully. She was telling her story in a single rush, just like any other trauma victim. She was clearly still afraid. I could fell myself analyzing the moment from a distance, even though this was Piper beside me, the girl I’d been thinking about for two years. I couldn’t stop that part of my brain, the part of me that had been trained so intensely.

“I went upstairs, but his office door was open,” she continued. “They were talking about drugs, I think. Tony was trying to sell them. I didn’t know who they were. But then they argued about the price, I think. That was when it happened.”

“What happened?” I pressed gently.

“Gunshots. Lots of them. And a man with blood all over him.” She was crying and I wanted to comfort her, but I had to hear the rest of the story. I had to know what I was up against.

“And then?” I asked.

“The man fell down the stairs. He was dead, or at least I think he was. I looked back and saw Tony and two other men holding guns. That was when Tony spoke to me, said he didn’t expect me. But it was his tone of voice, you know? Like it was empty and flat, as if there weren’t dead bodies all around him.”

“How many bodies?”

“Two more, I think. I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

“What next?”

“I turned and ran.”

“Good. What did he do?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t look back. I just kept running.”

I nodded, frowning to myself.

So Tony was a gangster for real, and Piper had walked in on a drug deal gone wrong. She saw Tony and his associates murder some men, and if I knew one thing about the mob, it was that they fucking hated when people saw them murder people.

Which was why it was smart that Piper ran. If she hadn’t, she’d probably be dead.

“I’m glad you called me,” I said.

“I’m so scared,” she whispered. “I took all my money out. Checking and savings. I didn’t know what else to do.”

I nodded. “That’s good. Cash is good. They can’t track cash.”

“I didn’t know who to call. I knew the police would never believe me, and as soon as Tony knew where I was I’d be dead.”

“That was smart. The cops might even be bought by his people.”

“His people? What do you mean?”

“He’s a mobster. I mean, I assume he is.” I shrugged. “Makes sense.”

“Oh my god,” she said softly. “A mobster. I never saw it.”

“Of course not. Men like him are good at hiding what they really are. Fucking snakes.”

“I lived with him.”

“You’re safe now,” I said. “He doesn’t know me. We’ll be safe.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” She began to sob again, breaking down into tears.

I put my hand on her leg to comfort her as I drove, but my mind was moving in a million different directions.

I couldn’t help myself. This was a tactical situation, and it was the sort of thing that I was trained for. Maybe not this situation exactly, but situations just like it. We had a hostile enemy, a larger, stronger enemy, chasing after us. We had to evade that enemy until it moved past us, or until we destroyed it.

I was already planning what we were going to do. Planning and war and death. That was who I was.

And that was exactly who she needed me to be.

Maybe in normal civilian life, my skills as a SEAL weren’t desirable. Maybe they got in the way when I was trying to live as a normal person. But this wasn’t normal.

This was far from normal.

I needed more information, but I knew better than to press at this point. She needed a second to grieve for whatever it is she just lost. Whether she lost her life or something else, I couldn’t be sure, but she just went through a trauma.

I was there for her. I wasn’t going to let this mafia fucking shit prick hurt her.

I had a mission, and I always completed my missions.