“Shouldn’t take that long to answer me.” He looked at his watch. “Like I said, I had a lot to talk to you about. This wasn’t how I planned it. My proposing in a parking lot or you fumbling in shock.”

“I’m not—”

Gunfire burst in the distance, and she jumped. Her gaze flew to his. His dark eyes narrowed, assessing. He readjusted his earpiece, and Sugar recapped what she knew. Rocco had just gone inside. Jenny was safe, but Winters was at the back of GUNS. Her throat went dry. Her breaths wouldn’t come.

Jared had transformed to Titan commander without missing a second. “Winters. Roc. Come in, boys.” With a quick flick of his wrist to check the time, he reached out again. “Who’s got eyes on Winters or Roc?”

Someone answered. Not knowing killed her. Winters had a newborn. Rocco had… Who the hell knows about any of these guys? But Rocco’s life was important, too.

“Good deal.” Jared gave her a sharp nod and a thumbs-up. “Just keeping GSI on their toes. Let’s go.”

Jared was out of the truck and to her door before she could jump out. Snagging her hand, he pulled her toward the front door. They whipped inside, and he pounded them down the hall to her office. “Weapons and clothes?”

She placed her palm on the sensory reader of her gun safe, then pulled a change of clothes from her desk as Jared unloaded every gun and ammo box she had stored there. She would feel more in control the second she got out of his oversized clothes and into something that wouldn’t trip her or fall off if she had to run.

Quickly ditching his sweatpants and shirt, she dressed in boots and a bra. Jared, still loading and laying out an artillery, stole a second to watch as she shimmied into her clothes.

He gave her a once-over, from her black baby-tee to her leather boots and the holsters strapped around her waist and to her thigh, then handed her a Glock. “Point the barrel at the door until I come back.”

His thumb stroked her wrist as he placed the gun into her open palm. It was as much as she would get out of him right then. As quickly as they’d come in, he was out her office door, and she was alone. Raising the weapon in one hand, she used the other to switch on a television screen that showed the footage from each security camera stationed around GUNS.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Once Jared had stashed Sugar safely inside her office, he ducked down the hall to go back outside. Each security camera he passed pivoted, following his motions. Sugar had her eyes on him, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. She knew what Titan did. But she didn’t need to see it. He would do whatever it took to eradicate anything dangerous to his world. And Sugar was his world. If that meant tearing apart Buck Baer, bare-knuckled and blood-flying, that’s what he would do.