He couldn’t, the only thing he wanted was to bring her even closer, to make her reveal everything any way he could, and make her forget about the man he knew nothing about. He couldn’t even beat the elusive man from her past. However, one by one, he opened his fingers and released her.
Satisfied, she took a step back, then another, putting distance, and the kitchen island between them. Gage, who had never helped before, cleaned the table.
“Doctor, what man? Answer me. Please?” Softening his voice almost made Locke want to bite his tongue, but in this specific case, he didn’t have a choice.”
She started gathering the dishes, rinsing them in the sink and staking them in the dishwasher. Patience wearing thin, Locke leaned against the counter and crossed his arms, creating a barrier between her and Gage. He wanted her attention only on him.
It took her a moment to be done and she closed the door with her foot. “When I went to med school, I became friends with another student.”
“Friends?” The question was out before he could help himself. Damn it, what was wrong with him. “And that friend is a cop?”
Crossing her arms, the doctor seemed more annoyed than cooperative. “Nigel became a doctor and still is. He decided to open a small clinic instead of working at the hospital. That’s when he met Tyrone, who was a cop. They’re still together, although he switched careers, and left the force to become a social worker.”
For the smallest instant, Locke felt a flare of hope in his chest, the possible end to a long journey mixing with the strange relief at knowing that her friend wasn’t a rival after all.
“Can this former cop of yours be trusted? Does he have outside connections that can help bring this whole operation down, once and for all?”
When she nodded, her face relaxing into conscious certainty, Locke knew that another step had been taken, and that the doctor may have been the key to it.
All those years of suffering and working undercover in a world he despised, with a foul taste in his mouth…
Could he put his trust in a woman he barely knew, the woman he’d saved from the same fate as his mother?
His internal compass was crooked when he looked at her, his entire being pulled toward her like a magnet. But she was his kryptonite, the one thing that would make him become the man he had once been, letting out the violence he kept underneath like a poison ready to infect those around him. He wouldn’t allow that. He couldn’t allow her to have more of him than his body, and the pleasure it could bring her.
Locke turned to Gage who was looking at both of them, but especially at him. He knew what was in his head, but Locke wasn’t the type of man who jumped into something on a whim. There was too much at stake. However, when an opportunity arose, he’d take it as there might not be another chance.
Uncrossing his arms, he took another step toward the stubborn doctor. Unable to stop himself, he twirled his fingers around one of her stray curls caressing her cheek before looping it around her ear, a decision forming in his mind.
“Make that call, Doctor. It seems that the fate of our mission is in your hands.”
