Page 111 of Property of Yak

I let his use of my real name slide.

“I appreciate that. If anything happens to me, you tell her I fought like hell to get back to her,” I say quietly.

“Nothing’s going to happen to you. I’ll make damn sure of it. I plan to be fighting with your ass for years to come.”

I pull up to the meeting spot and turn to him. “Thanksgiving is going to be fun.”

He snorts. “Wait until Christmas.”

With that, he gets out, and I follow him so he doesn’t get his ass shot.

I never imagined Julie’s dad would be walking into war with me, but here we are.

I only hope we both make it out alive.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

Julie

My hands shake as I pace back and forth in my father’s kitchen, my body filled with anxiety.

Where are they? Has whatever Yak’s been working on finally come to a head? Is Aragon…dead?

My eyes dart to the clock, and I groan.

One hour.

They’ve only been gone for an hour. How is that even possible? It feels like they’ve been gone all night.

God, this is horrible. How do people live like this? With all this anxiety. My dad’s been a cop my entire life. He never hid it from me that he might not come home one day when neither of us is expecting it. I’ve always known that his job is dangerous, so I thought I had a strong grasp on this whole patience thing.

Leave it to Yak and my dad teaming up together to take down a bad guy for me to realize I’m not as strong as I thought I was.

A knock on the door makes me jump. I turn and stare at it in suspicion.

I never called Liz, so who could possibly be here? My dad isn’t the type to just have people drop by.

“Julie, it’s Ray. Open up.”

My shoulders relax as I take a deep breath. Moving, I open the door.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I ask as I step to the side, letting him in.

“Your dad told me he was out and needed someone to watch over you. Is everything okay?” he asks as he shoves his hands into his pockets.

“Everything is fine,” I lie.

Everything is so far from fine it’s not even funny. The two men I love could be in the middle of a firefight right now, and I would be none the wiser. Or worse yet. They could be dead.

As soon as the thought enters my mind, I shake it away.

No. I can’t go thinking like that. Dad and Yak need me to be strong right now.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You seem a little tense,” Ray asks, reminding me that I’m not alone.

“I’m fine. Thank you for coming over, though. You really didn’t have to do that.”