Chapter 18

Panic clutched her airway, giving her the answer. She no more wanted him to leave than he seemed to want to. "Go where?"

He shook his head, jaw ticking. "It won't matter."

"Of course, it matters." He had no one. She'd suspected it before, but the notion gelled the more she got to know him.

"I don't" He closed his eyes and sighed.

"You don't what? Don't matter?" Lord, her stomach rioted. The longer he stood not answering, the hotter her eyes burned. Her heart cracked for the troubled, scared kid he used to be and the broken, misguided man he'd become.

Justin must've known. The realization slapped her in the face like the brisk wind off the mountains. Maybe her brother hadn't had the whole story, but enough to know sending Nate to her was the last gift Justin could give his fellow soldier before dying. Tears clung to her lashes and she closed her eyes.

"I'll do whatever you want, baby. Just tell me."

"Stay." Lunging, she wrapped her arms around his waist and gripped his shirt. "I