After her father’s arrest, Kaylee felt battered and worn. She’d spent three days in the hospital in Crystal City to recover. Ella had come to visit her, along with everyone on Ares Team except Mick. She had no idea where he was. The blasted man had said he loved her and then disappeared.

She tried not to mourn the loss of the man she’d thought her father was. All those years hoping that maybe he’d let her go for her own protection and believing…well, fooling herself that she meant something to him had crashed down around her.

She knew that Cory’s drone had gotten footage of Diavolos in the chopper and so she had come to the debriefing at headquarters that day. The director had cleaned house and thought he’d taken care of the moles, but just to be safe, they were in a secure conference room next to the director’s office.

Kaylee walked into the room on crutches and saw the men of Ares Team sitting around the table. Linc was dressed to the nines, in what looked like a custom-made Saville Row suit. Cade was sitting in the chair next to him, leaning back, eyes closed as usual, but he opened his eyes and smiled at her as she stood in the doorway. Frank and Cory had their heads bent together, discussing something in low voices. Finally, she saw Mick seated at the far end of the table.

His face was bruised and his jaw was set in that stubborn line she knew so well. He wore a long-sleeved button-down shirt left open at the collar, the cuffs rolled up his forearms, revealing a battered old watch on his wrist.

Their eyes met and she remembered starkly the moment he’d said he loved her.

Love wasn’t easy for a man like Mick, but loving him was one of the easiest things she’d ever done. And she wanted to tell him so. Now that the intel was delivered and her job was done, she wanted to take Mick and lock him away from the crazy world and have him to herself for a while.

She moved down the room and took a seat in the chair next to him. “Mick?”

He turned away from her, standing and moving through the room like a caged tiger. She’d never seen anyone react the way Mick had to her father—actually, to every threat they’d faced at the house. He’d been like a wild animal, and she finally understood what he meant when he’d said he’d been born to violence.

He glanced at her and she saw pain in his eyes before he masked it. She reached her hand out to him, knowing he needed comfort, but he looked at Linc. “Come get me when the director shows up.”

He turned on his heels and left the room. Kaylee could only watch him leave. He’d rejected her, and it felt like every man she cared for didn’t want her. She huddled in her chair, wrapping her arms around her waist. She was strong, so she knew she’d bounce back, but right now she felt small and exhausted. Too tired to put on her usual tough girl act.

A hand on the back of her chair spun it around, and she glanced up to meet Cade’s steely-blue eyes. He glanced around the room and then squatted down in front of her, so they were at eye level. He leaned in, and when he spoke, his voice carried no further than her ears.

“I’ve never seen the boss act this way before,” he said.

“Okay.” What more did he want from her? She’d reached out to Mick and he’d rejected her.

“Does he matter to you?” Cade’s tone was flat and low, as if her answer didn’t matter to him, but in his eyes she saw something that she hadn’t noticed before. She’d just seen the team as a group of tough, bad-ass guys who could fight their way out of any situation. Now she saw concern in his gaze. These men were brothers. With the bonds that fraternity brought, he wanted to know if Mick mattered to her the way he did to them.

“Yes. But I can only take being shoved away so many times,” Kaylee said at last. “This hasn’t been easy on anyone, including me.”

Cade nodded. “This is for your ears only—you saw the animal in him at the farmhouse, and now he doesn’t know how to go back to being the man you met in Madrid. Got it? He’s not rejecting you, as much as he’s going back to his cave to lick his wounds.”

She did get it. And it broke her heart. “He’s a good man.”

“Damn straight. But he never sees that,” Cade said, standing up and walking away from her.

She sat there for another moment and then pushed herself to her feet. Her body ached from her assorted wounds, but that pain was nothing compared to the emptiness inside her heart. She needed Mick by her side.

“Where did he go?” Kaylee asked, looking at Cade.

“Down the hall, third door on the right.”

She didn’t say anything else, just walked out into the hallway and down the hall, counting the doors to keep from thinking about Mick. What was she going to say? Honestly, if he pushed her away again, she was done trying to reach him.

She paused outside the third door and heard the sounds of a loud bass guitar and drums and nothing else. She didn’t knock, as she was pretty sure he’d didn’t want company. She opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind her and leaning back against it.

The music was even louder in here, and Mick stood in front of a teardrop-shaped punching bag, dancing around as he pounded on it. He’d taken off his shirt, and his muscles flexed with each upward jab he threw. Sweat ran down his chest and back. The knife wound he’d gotten at the train station in Madrid had opened again and was bleeding through the bandage, but Mick didn’t seem to notice.

She almost felt like she was intruding and should leave, but she was transfixed by him. She was physically drained and the thought of working out like this was far from anything she could do. But he clearly needed it.

Her heart ached.

She watched him and she knew that he was broken even more than she was. And God knew, she was probably the last person he needed in his life, but she couldn’t walk away. Instead she slowly moved a little bit closer until he stopped punching and turned just his head toward her.

“What are you doing here? I assumed Cade would come and get me,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.

“It’s not time yet. I came for me,” she admitted. She needed something from Mick, she realized. Comfort that would only feel right if it came from him. And that was why the rejection in the boardroom had felt like another cut on her already bruised body.

“What could I possibly offer you?” he asked, as he held his arms out to his sides. “You see what I am. Sweat and blood. An animal that isn’t much better than his instincts.”

“I do see what you are,” she said, moving even closer to him. “And that’s exactly the man I need.”

“You need me?” he asked, and she saw the naked vulnerability in his eyes, and knew that he’d taken as many hits as she had and, like her, was close to breaking and giving up on humanity all together.

“Yes,” she said, finally moving close enough to smell the earthy scents of his sweat and blood and cologne. She closed her eyes, hoping that he wouldn’t snap at her, and then opened them, reaching for his fists wrapped with tape. He wasn’t wearing gloves, and she could see that his knuckles had bruised, as she slowly unwound the tape from his hands.

She lifted them up and brushed a kiss over his knuckles, and he cursed under his breath before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in close. He held her too tightly, but it wasn’t tight enough. She wrapped her arms around him and held on.

* * *

Mick’s adrenaline was still pumping. He had come dangerously close to killing Dirk Thomas, and he regretted that he’d stopped before he’d finished the job. The man had taunted Kaylee. He’d used her, and had been willing to give her over to his boss, who was the vilest criminal that Mick had ever encountered.

And every time he closed his eyes he imagined the moment she’d been taken and he’d been inside, totally unaware. There it was, he thought. The real source of his anger wasn’t Dirk Thomas, but himself. He’d allowed this woman…the only woman he’d ever loved to be put in harm’s away.

What kind of man did that?

He knew what kind. The kind that beat his wife to death and then turned on his sons, blaming them for his actions. The type of man that Mick had vowed he’d never be. Yet he’d failed to prevent her kidnapping.

He pushed her away and moved back from her. “How can you even stand to be close to me?”

She looked at him, those crystal-gray eyes of hers wide and wet. “In your arms is the only place I feel safe. I hope some of your power leaches into me and then maybe I won’t feel small and worthless…but maybe now that you’ve seen how little value my own father has for me, I look different to you.”

“Never. You’re stronger than you realize, Kaylee. I should never have let you get into that situation,” he said. “You know I love you. I should have protected you.”

“I love you too,” she said, needing to say the words out loud.

“You shouldn’t. I’m an animal. I almost beat Al and Dirk to death. You deserve a better man.”

She threw herself into his arms, clinging to his shoulders, and he wrapped his arms around her. He buried his head in her hair and just held her.

“I want you. You’re the only one who makes all the broken pieces in me make sense. You don’t see the emotional scars I have as something ugly. You don’t blame me,” she said.

He rocked her in his arms, holding her gently. “There is nothing ugly about you.”

She tipped her head back, smiling up at him. “You’re the only one who seems to think so.”

He knew that wasn’t true, but he realized what she meant. They saw the truth in each other. That left each of them vulnerable to the other, and Mick realized that there was no one he felt safer knowing his weaknesses than Kaylee.

“I’ve always got your back, Kaylee,” he said.

“I know.”