“It still isn’t enough, is it?” Sugar asks quietly. Her question drops like a bomb in the room.
The silence that follows is stifling, making me want to tug at the neckline of my shirt, but I refrain, keeping my hands in my lap.
“It could just be the assignment. Once you’re back home, you’ll forget all about them.” Lollie smiles, but it’s small, and I can see she doesn’t believe the words herself.
Because she knows.
“It’s not this assignment,” I whisper, admitting what I tried to hide from.
Sugar cocks her head. I can almost see her looking at the problem from every angle, analyzing the issues, the cause and effect. When her eyes snap to mine, I see she’s figured it out, or at least part of it.
“It’s that boy.”
“What boy?” Reese asks.
“The one from before. Something Young. Griffen, that’s it. You posed as his girlfriend for the last op down here.”
“Oh, Dulce, why didn’t you say something?” Lollie walks over and sits beside me, squeezing my hand.
“I didn’t know. How could I? I get in, I do the job, and I leave. I don’t look back ever. No exceptions.”
“There are always exceptions,” she muses.
“Not this time. I mean, I was undercover to bring his father down. A father who I was actively fucking on the side.”
Reece winces at that.
“I take it he doesn’t know that part.”
“That’s just it, Reese. He knows everything. He knows I’m Dulce, knows why I was there the first time and why I came back, and he doesn’t care. He doesn’t give a flying fuck. All that matters to him is that I came back.”
“And the others?” Sugar questions.
“I…I don’t know how to explain it. I thought I had it all under control, but once Griff cracked the shell, I just couldn’t figure out how to fix it. And now, instead of feeling nothing, I feel everything.”
“What are you saying? You don’t want to come home?”
“She’s saying she is home.” Griffen’s voice sounds from the hallway.
He steps into the room with Hunter. They both survey the scene before walking towards the sofa that I’m curled up on. Griff stands behind the sofa, his hand on my shoulder, and Hunter sits beside me, his hand sliding over my thigh in a proprietary manner.
Sugar cocks her brow, Reese rolls her eyes, and Lollie straight-up laughs.
“Oh, stand down. I eat boys like you for breakfast,” Lollie teases them.
“Not this boy. You have nothing I’m interested in,” Griff volleys back, making Lollie grasp her chest in mock horror.
“I’ll have you know I paid good money for these boobs.”
“I’m gay,” he tells her, making her frown even harder.
“I don’t think gay means what you think it does.”
“Okay, enough, Lollie. He likes guys, only guys. Well, until me, and if you give me some quip about having a golden snatch, I will play whack-a-mole with those boobs you love so much.”
“Dulce, what do you want?” Sugar asks me, the soft tone of her voice silencing everyone else.
“Time. I have a lot to figure out. We all do. I don’t want to make a decision I might regret later down the line. I love you guys. The thought of being apart from you guts me. But the thought of walking away from these men who have loved me at my worst? It makes me feel like I’m suffocating. Like I can’t breathe without them.”
“Fuck. You fell in love,” Sugar curses before standing up and walking toward me.
When she’s close, she dips and cups my jaw.
“Take your time. You can send me the debrief later remotely. We have to get back since we have other cases. I take it these two know about us?”
“They know about me, not any of you. But they are smart, so I doubt they haven’t figured it out.”
Sugar looks up at Griff. “Keep your mouth shut about us. No good will come from having our identities revealed to the world.”
“Your secret is safe with us.”
“Good.”
She stands and walks away, Reese and Lollie following behind her.
“Call me later, or tomorrow, after you’ve gotten some rest. You look like shit,” she throws out before looking over her shoulder. Her eyes move from mine to Griff and then Hunter.
“Hurt her, and there won’t be a place on earth that you’ll be able to hide. I’ll find you, and when I do, I’ll kill you.”
And that’s how you make a dramatic exit.
The three of them leave as I sink into Hunter’s side.
He pulls me tight to him as Griff leaps over the sofa and joins us. “How you doing?”
“I’m okay. I’m just not big on figuring out this whole feelings thing. Give me a knife, and I’ll show you the best way to kill a man, but give me his heart, and I’m kind of floundering.”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got you. We’ll help you figure it out,” Hunter murmurs.
I take a deep breath and let it out, closing my eyes, letting them surround me while I give in to the exhaustion.
* * *