Callie saw the whole thing as senseless—her father’s murder, Charlotte’s slaughter. For DNA research? Logically, she could connect the dots. Emotionally, she just couldn’t understand anyone capable of pulling the trigger. “Whoever killed my family and the Aslanovs . . . what can they do with this research?”

“Piecing together the puzzle from what your father wrote? I’d say someone wanted to build a faster, better soldier. Maybe even a whole army.”

Super-soldiers? The implications of that were astonishing. Possibly world altering. She’d already known they weren’t dealing with amateurs or people likely to give up. But this information terrified her beyond anything she’d ever felt.

Suddenly, Thorpe’s arms were around her, fitting her back against his broad chest. Warmth, comfort, protection.

Sean cupped her face in his big hands. “You’re trembling, lovely. Deep breath. You’ll never be alone in this.”

“We’re by your side,” Thorpe promised. “Until you’re safe, we always will be.”

Callie wanted to burrow deeper between them and pray that the danger went away. Or shove out of their embrace and rail at the world until something changed. “Safe? There is no safe. We have to start being realistic here. Given who and what I’m up against, it’s a miracle I’ve escaped them for this long. But can I really do this for the rest of my life? Like you said once, I’m alive, but I’m not living. I’ve already done this for nearly a decade. How much longer—”

“We’re going to get this information into the right hands at the FBI.” Sean stared down into her eyes, determination stamped all over his face. “I’ll figure out who we can trust. We’re going to work until we make you safe. I put a collar around your neck. Someday, I’m going to put a ring on your finger. Don’t for one instant think I’m going to let anyone harm you.”

His vows were staunch and so lovely that they made her heart sing. They were also most likely hopeless.

Behind her, Thorpe tensed—and remained utterly silent. He made no such promise for the future. He cared, but he didn’t love her. And he’d probably never tell her why.

Hell, she might not even be alive long enough to miss him.

“If whoever this is finds out that you two have been secluded with me, I won’t be the only one they kill,” she pointed out.

“Stop that speech there,” Thorpe growled. “We’re not leaving you to handle this alone and we’ve already amply covered that point. Don’t bring it up again.”

“Precisely,” Sean added. “You may not see the way to safety now, but there must be one. We’re going to find it, and it starts with getting this information into the right person’s hands. I’ll figure out who that is. But without Internet, we’ll have to deliver it in person.”

That made sense, though it scared her half to death.

“I think we start by leaving here at first light. As soon as I can see well enough to dock the boat, we’ll sneak back onto land. I’ll find a secure cell signal then and I’ll start making phone calls. At that point, we’ll arrange something, whether they send reinforcements to us or direct us to a safe house—something. We’ll prove you weren’t involved in the murders. They’ll protect you while we figure out who killed your family and the Aslanovs, then—”

“That’s a lot ‘ifs’ and ‘thens.’ How do we know we can trust everyone at the FBI? How do we know that we’ll ever have enough information to figure out who was willing to kill so many innocent people for that research?”

“Leave all that to me,” Sean insisted.

Callie stared out the galley window to see the sun setting. She had no idea what the actual time was, but she wished she could stay here forever with these two amazing men who held her heart. She wished she could give them a lifetime of love, kneel and obey . . . and get into trouble now and then just for the fun of it. She wished she could pour out her heart to Sean every day and be the best wife and submissive possible. She yearned to heal Thorpe so that he could be whole again, so he might stay with her and fill that other missing part of her. None of that looked likely now.

But they were right about one thing; running wasn’t the answer, not anymore. Whether she had eight hours or eight decades left, she wanted to spend as much of them with people she loved. These murderers had taken away her family and her past. By damned, she wasn’t giving them her future, too.

She nodded at them. “All right. What’s next?”

* * *

BY that evening, they’d packed up everything they needed to take when they debarked, secured the egg and the SD card, and eaten a light dinner. They sat around the galley’s little table in near silence, drinking a bottle of red wine.

Thorpe couldn’t help but fear that tonight would be their last together.

He swallowed, his finger rimming the top of the glass. Hearing that Sean intended to save Callie, no matter the personal risk, wasn’t a blow. Thorpe felt the same. But the other man’s declaration to marry her had been like a wrecking ball to his solar plexus. Once they left here and the FBI got involved, Callie wouldn’t need him anymore. Oh, Thorpe knew he might give her more boundaries than Sean, but the fed would catch on. He was a smart guy. He wasn’t going to let her flounder or need for long. Sharing a road trip with Sean had convinced him of that much.

Downing the rest of his vino, Thorpe thought about fighting for Callie or at least trying to stay with them both. But he knew his limitations. A woman like her deserved to be with someone who could be by her side step for step. As the years went past, he’d become less able. But long before then, she’d want someone who could show her in every way how much he adored her. With his body, yes. Every day, every night, every chance she gave him. With his words? This fucking hang-up of his was so frustrating. He needed to get over his shit. Callie wasn’t Melissa; she wouldn’t leave him over three little words. Even more important, she wasn’t like—damn it, he even hated to think her name.

Suddenly, Callie stood, her chair scraping the floor. “I can’t stand the elephant in the room. Whatever happens next is going to be dangerous.”

Thorpe turned to Sean, who nodded. “Likely. We don’t know if we were followed to the lake. I don’t think so or they’d already be all over us. But they aren’t going to give up. When we step on shore tomorrow . . . anything could happen.”

Wishing like hell he could refute those words, Thorpe only nodded.

Callie looked nervous, stricken, scared. But resolute. “Then I need to say a few things.”

Her voice shook, and she looked like she was trying to hold it together. The belief that she might not live through the end of this was written all over her face.

Thorpe’s heart lurched in his chest. “Pet . . .”

“Please let me.” She shook her head. “I need to get this out. I won’t break.”

“Go ahead.” Sean took her hand, his thumb making soothing circles across her knuckles.

“The two of you stuck with me when sane people wouldn’t. You came for me, despite the hell I put you through. You didn’t sell me out when you could have. After Holden, I didn’t want to trust anyone—ever. But you kept proving yourselves over and over.” Tears flowed and fell down her cheeks, and damn if that didn’t break his heart. “I’m sorry if I was difficult and stubborn. But you two reminded me what it was like for someone to care, and I hadn’t had that in so, so long. Thank you. I will always be incredibly grateful. And I will always love you.”

“Callie.” Sean reached for her.

She stepped aside. “There’s nothing more we can do tonight, right? No docking in the dark?”

“No. I’m not expert enough with a boat this size.”

“No making phone calls now?”

The fed shook his head. “Not until I can figure a few things out, like exactly who to trust.”

“Then I want tonight to be about the three of us. I want to give you both what I’ve never been able to give anyone.” She drew in another trembling breath, her nervous gaze bouncing between him and Sean. “All of myself.”

His cock stood up and partied. The idea of having Callie in ways he’d only fantasized about made his blood rush south, his head swim with dizzy anticipation, and his veins sizzle. It also made him ache. As she’d done before, she was leaving a chunk of her soul with them as good-bye.

The thought that he might lose her to a bullet tied his guts up into an army of painful knots. The thought that, if the danger passed, he’d have to give her over exclusively to Sean made him want to scream and spit nails and beat himself up for not being the right man for her.

“Are you sure, lovely?” Sean cupped her cheek.

“Yes. I trust you. I want to do one thing right. I want to take one really good memory with me tomorrow in case it’s my last. Please.”

How the fuck were they supposed to say no to that?

Sean cast a concerned glance his way. Thorpe sent it back, then stood. If this was the last time he got to touch Callie, he wanted to experience her in every way she’d let him.

And to give her all the love he couldn’t with his words.

“To the bedroom, then.” Thorpe heard the rough note in his voice. He was trying to hold it together.

“Off with you, lovely. Once you get there, kneel and wait. We’ll be along.”

Those big blue eyes of hers looked Sean’s way, her stare a caress, before settling on him. Her expression told him that underneath her determination to experience what might be her final night to the fullest, her heart was breaking.

Fuck, so was his.

He grabbed her shoulders and stared hard. If he kissed her now, he’d take her here in the galley. He’d ravish her over the little table and bang away at her like there was no tomorrow. Because there really wasn’t.