Her Rogue Alpha (X-Ops Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

always held her back stopped her this time too. She was afraid he didn’t feel the same. The thought of him rejecting her love hurt so much it made her heart ache.
    So, instead, she gave him another kiss, then busied herself by taking the lasagna over to the table. As they ate, Jayson told her about his day, including his run-in with Powell and Moore.
    Layla gaped. “You pulled your weapon on them?”
    She hadn’t had much in the way of interactions with the two men, but she knew there was a good chance Powell and Moore were working directly for the people on the Committee who were in charge of the DCO as well as behind the hybrid research facilities. She had no doubt that Jayson had been justified in pulling his weapon on them, but she wasn’t sure they were the kind of people you wanted as enemies.
    Jayson must have picked up on her concern because the smile disappeared from his face. “I know I should have found a better way to deal with the situation.” He pushed a big piece of pasta onto his fork with a chunk of bread. “But it’s not in me to stand around and let someone say that kind of crap about my friends.”
    She smiled. “I know, and I appreciate that you were sticking up for Ivy and me and the rest of the shifters. Just watch yourself around those two, okay? I wouldn’t put it past them to try and get back at you somehow.”
    She expected Jayson to disagree and say she was worrying for no reason, but he surprised her by nodding as he helped himself to more lasagna. “Yeah. I think I’ll be watching my six for a while when it comes to Powell and Moore.”
    Layla relaxed. Was it too much to hope Jayson’s good mood was permanent? She was itching to ask him what had happened today, but she was so happy they were having such a good time that she didn’t want to jinx it.
    “Dick mentioned that you’re doing well in your training,” Jayson said as he set his knife and fork on his empty plate. “He said you’d probably be heading out on your first mission soon.”
    Suddenly, the lasagna didn’t taste nearly as good as it had just a few seconds earlier, and she pushed it aside. Of all the subjects Jayson could have brought up, this was the absolute worst.
    Layla hadn’t been looking forward to telling Jayson about the mission because she knew he probably wouldn’t handle it well. It was something they were going to have to talk about soon, considering she was on standby to leave at any moment, but a part of her had been hoping she might put off telling him until tomorrow morning—preferably while they were lying naked in his bed.
    “Do you know where you’ll be going?” Jayson asked softly. “Or who you’ll be going with?”
    She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She’d stopped talking to Jayson about her training because he always got so depressed after their conversations. In some ways, he was like the sick kid stuck at home while all his friends got to go out and have fun. Layla didn’t think of what she was doing as having fun, but as a former Special Forces soldier, Jayson almost certainly did.
    She would have dropped out of the training if she could have, anything to take at least this one burden off Jayson’s shoulders. But she’d made a deal with the DCO director more than two months ago to become a field agent if he would hire Jayson and give him a job at the DCO. John Loughlin had done his part, so she would do hers. Even if things hadn’t gone the way she’d expected.
    None of that mattered now. What was done was done. And whatever she said now would almost certainly ruin this night beyond repair.
    “I’m going with Clayne and Danica,” she told him. “They’ve been chasing an arms dealer for weeks. I’m supposed to provide backup when they finally catch up to him, but I don’t know exactly where that will be or when.”
    She held her breath, waiting for Jayson to flip out because she hadn’t told him about any of this before now, but to her surprise, he