Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

“ Y ou look frustrated, brother.”

Lock glanced up at Cody, who was working behind the bar. The music was loud and the place was packed, but he barely noticed. “Frustrated is an understatement.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Cody swung a bar towel over his shoulder. “How about at the beginning?”

He could have laughed. “The beginning and the end are the same damn place. Callie.”

“Still not getting through to her?”

“She said it doesn’t matter.” His fingers tightened around his beer. It still hurt to think about. Because how the hell could their past not matter?

Cody frowned. “What doesn’t matter?”

“The reason I broke up with her. The reason we lost each other. The reason we lost two damn years together.” It did matter. Out of everything in their past, that mattered the most. “She called me a memory and a lesson.”

Cody cringed. “Ouch. That must have hurt.”

It didn’t hurt. Hurting was when he slammed his finger in a door or walked into the corner of a coffee table. Callie calling him a memory felt like a hand punching through his chest and pulling out his heart.

“There’s just so much I don’t get,” Lock said almost to himself. “Like why she won’t hear me out, and why she left town and wouldn’t let anyone tell me where she was. And I don’t know why she seems to think we can coexist in this town without even talking.” Because he couldn’t. Seeing her every week, hearing her name, all while she barely looked at him, was torture.

“I didn’t know you guys got so deep.”

Of course he didn’t. Because just like his other brothers, Cody had been away serving their country. Lock had only gotten to spend time with her when he’d made it back to town or when she visited him. But those moments together…shit, they’d been everything. The fresh air he’d so desperately needed to breathe between missions. The calm in the storm that was his job as a Ghost Ops operative.

“I need her back.” Lock wasn’t sure if those words were meant for himself or his brother. Maybe both.

Someone called Cody from the other side of the bar, but he didn’t move right away. Instead, he looked Lock dead in the eye. “Then fight for her. If you love her like I think you do, fight hard.”

Then Cody’s gaze moved across the bar, likely to Harper. He was probably thinking that if situations were reversed, fighting was exactly what he’d do for her.

His brother gripped his shoulder before walking down the bar.

Lock looked at his barely touched beer as someone sat on the stool beside him. “Where the hell have you been?”

Eastern lifted his brows. “Hello to you too.”

“I’ve been calling you for days.”

“And I’ve been calling you back.”

It was true. They kept missing each other. “I need your help with something.”

“Anything.”

He turned away from his beer to face his brother. “Callie has a stalker.”

The easygoing expression disappeared from Eastern’s face. All his brothers were the same. Protectors first. Their father had raised them that way. “What do you mean, a stalker?”

“She got a note from some asshole complimenting her on her eyes.” Fuck, even saying the words out loud made him angry. “And apparently it wasn’t the first. She was getting them before she left Misty Peak, and they started up again when she got back to town.”

“Did she tell anyone?”

“Yeah, she said she went to the sheriff, but he didn’t do shit.”

“I’m guessing there wasn’t much to track the guy. So they stopped when she left.”

“Yeah.” Two goddamn years and the asshole was still interested in her.

“So he’s likely a local if he knows she’s back.” Eastern frowned. “Why are you telling me, and not her?”

“Because I don’t think she will.” Which was stupid. Just because the last sheriff hadn’t done anything didn’t mean Eastern wouldn’t.

“Lock…if she doesn’t want to report it, there’s nothing I can do.”

He knew that. But he also knew he couldn’t sit around and do nothing. “Talk to her.”

“Lock—”

“Please. For me. She may not want anything to do with me right now”—every part of him rebelled against the statement—“but I need her safe.”

Eastern was silent for a moment, hard gaze boring into Lock, before finally sighing. “If I see her, I’ll talk to her.”

“Thank you.”

Lock’s phone vibrated in front of him, and for some reason, he almost thought it would be her. Which was ridiculous. She’d made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him. Hell, he didn’t even know if she’d kept his number after she’d disconnected hers.

But since getting back to town, he’d developed this reckless hope that she’d come to him. Want him. Need him as much as he needed her.

It wasn’t Callie. It was a local, texting to book a job.

Lock had just texted back when Cody returned, setting a beer in front of Eastern. “You guys still coming to my party next Monday night?”

Lock lifted a brow. “What are we celebrating again?”

Cody’s eyes searched for Harper, then his voice lowered. “Well, if you ask Harper, it’s a housewarming.”

“A little late for that—you’ve been there for ages.” Eastern lifted the beer to his mouth.

Cody nodded. “Correct. Which is why I’m surprised she went for the idea. But it’s actually a chance to ask her to marry me in front of our family and friends.”

Eastern choked on his beer, and Lock leaned forward. “You’re proposing?”

“Got a ring and everything.”

Lock’s mouth spread into a smile. The first good fucking thing to happen since getting back to this town. “Hell yeah, you did. Congratulations, brother!”

“If Harper wasn’t in the bar, I’d be all over you, man,” Eastern said, the same smile on his face.

Cody dipped his head. “Thanks. Now I just need her to say yes.”

Lock scoffed. “The way she looks at you? She’ll say yes.”

“I’m counting on it. Don’t be late.” Cody tapped the bar before moving over to serve a customer.

“Shit, I’m happy for him,” Eastern said.

“Me too.” And maybe there was also a tiny part of Lock that was envious that the woman Cody loved adored him back. But then, he hadn’t royally fucked up like Lock had.

“You gonna tell me where you’re living now?” Eastern asked.

“Nope.”

He still hadn’t told his brothers about the house. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe because he wanted Callie to be the first to know. Maybe because a part of him was afraid that every carefully laid plan for his future with her wouldn’t eventuate.

His phone rang, Antwan, a former teammate’s name, appearing on the screen. “I’ve got to take this.”

Eastern nodded as Lock rose and moved to a quieter corner of the bar.

“Antwan. How’re you doing?”

“Hey, Lock, sorry I missed your call a few days ago. Life’s been busy.”

All his former teammates were like brothers to him, Antwan included. And he’d been affected the most by what had happened two years ago. First, his girlfriend had been murdered in the apartment they’d shared. Then, soon after, he’d been the one to find Winnie and Remi’s bodies. He’d never been the same.

“How are you doing?” Lock asked.

“I don’t know what to do with all my spare time. I thought taking time off before I started working would be a good thing, but now I’m not so sure.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Tell me you’re doing great?”

Could he lie?

No. He never lied to his team. “Not sure I can do that. Coming back here’s been harder than I thought.”

He knew part of that was because he was used to living on the edge of danger on a daily basis, with his team at his back to support him. Slotting into civilian life was harder than he’d anticipated.

The larger part was because he wasn’t living the life he’d thought he would, with the woman he loved.

“But I’m gonna get there.” Lock paused. “Wanna talk options of what you can do to fill your time?” Antwan had no family, and by also not working, he’d of course have way too much time on his hands to overthink everything.

“Not really.”

Just like him, Antwan had never been good at opening up. “I was talking to Jesse the other day. He mentioned he might come down to Misty Peak and visit. You should come too.”

“To your hometown?”

“Yeah, why not?”

A deep chuckle sounded over the line. “I guess you’ve missed my sorry ass.”

“Damn straight.”

There was a small pause. “You sort things out with Callie yet?”

The same question Jesse had asked. “Things are…complicated.”

Not that it seemed that way to Callie. She seemed perfectly okay with them remaining broken.

“So you want us down there to help you get back on her good side?” Antwan asked.

“You think I need your help?”

“I know you do.”

Lock chuckled. “You’re right. I could use all the help I can get.”

Whatever Antwan said next was missed, because the door to the bar opened and Aspen walked in, closely followed by a woman wearing the sexiest skintight jeans and low-cut top he’d ever seen. Her hair was down and flowing over her shoulders like a waterfall. And those green eyes…fuck, they gutted him.

Callie.

“Tell me again why you’re making me come out tonight?” Callie tugged at the top of her shirt. It was too low and too tight, but maybe it only felt that way because she wanted to be at home, in a baggy, oversized tee and sweats, watching Bridgerton .

“Because…” Aspen said slowly as they neared the bar. “You need to get out of the house. You’ve been hiding since Lock returned to town.”

“I have not.”

“Really?” They stopped in front of the door. “So you didn’t decline my dinner invitation last week because it was one of your favorite places to go with Lock? And you didn’t make me and your dad eat at home on Sunday instead of your favorite Chinese restaurant because you and Lock used to get takeout there and you didn’t want him to pop in while you were there?”

Jeez, she was pathetic. “I’m being cautious.”

Except for tonight…because letting her best friend drag her to Lock’s brother’s bar was as far from cautious as she could get. But when Aspen decided something, it was impossible to say no.

“You need to live .” Aspen frowned. “You’re not going to run if he’s in there, are you?”

“Run? No. I’ll be way more composed than that. I’ll turn and walk out with my head held high.”

“Callie! You guys live in the same town. You need to learn to coexist.”

She was right. Dammit. Served her right for having such a smart best friend. “Fine. I won’t leave the bar. I’ll stay for one drink.”

One. Then she might run.

Aspen let out an exaggerated sigh before stepping into the bar and leading her toward a tall table.

“I’m going to get us a cocktail and a shot,” Aspen said.

Callie lifted a brow. “A cocktail and a shot?”

“We’re celebrating.”

“What are we celebrating?”

“You not living like a hermit tonight.” Aspen winked before heading toward the bar.

She wasn’t living like a hermit. And even if she was, it was only because he was everywhere . On the street when she’d gone out to get a coffee. In the grocery store when she’d run in to grab some eggs. And maybe there’d been one time that she’d seen him on the street and turned, basically running the other way. At the time, the reaction had felt completely out of her control.

God, she was a lunatic. She just needed to be brave. She could do that. She was brave in most other aspects of her life.

“Hey.”

Her head shot up at the sight of Harper, Cody’s partner. She sometimes did classes at the studio. Callie liked her. “Hey. You’re busy tonight.”

“We are. And there have been no bar fights yet, so it’s been a good kind of busy.”

Callie laughed, not sure if the lack of bar fights was out of the norm. Who would be stupid enough to start a fight in a bar owned by a former special forces operative like Cody?

Harper cocked her head. “How are you?”

“I’m good. The studio’s been busy, and I’ve been settling back into Misty Peak.”

Good was probably an overstatement. Fine might have been more accurate, and by Harper’s knowing smile, it almost seemed she knew. Or knew part of it, at least.

“Well, Cody and I are having a housewarming party next Monday, and we’d love for you to come. Bring your friend as well.”

Callie opened her mouth to politely decline, when Aspen returned to the table and set the shots and cocktails down. “Bring me where? I assume I’m the friend.”

Harper laughed. “Hi, I’m Harper.”

“Aspen.”

“I was just inviting you both to mine and Cody’s housewarming party.”

“We’ll be there.”

Callie’s jaw dropped at Aspen’s quick response. What the heck? Lock would definitely be there, and she knew it.

Harper’s smile widened. “Great. I’ll text the time and address.”

The second Harper left the table, Callie glared at her friend. “Aspen! You know I would have declined.”

“Exactly why I said yes. No hiding, remember?”

“But—”

“No buts. You are strong and brave, and I don’t want to see you hiding those qualities from the world.” Aspen gripped her shoulders. “You deserve all the happiness, but you won’t find that sitting at home eating leftover Chinese takeout.”

“It’s been pizza more than Chinese lately.”

“Same difference.” Aspen cocked her head. “Speaking of being strong and brave…you know how you said you wouldn’t run if you saw a certain someone?”

Callie’s pulse picked up, her back straightening. “He’s not.”

“He’s at the bar.”

Her head swung around so fast she almost gave herself whiplash. At first, her view was blocked by other people. Then the crowd cleared—and there he was, standing beside the bar, looking straight at her.