When It Goes Too Far

Chapter 14

(Later that day, Mac's POV)

I didn't say much to Raelynn after the whole morning incident because I figured it would be better to just have sleeping dogs lie and not bother the situation. I did bring up the whole thing suddenly and I admit, that's my fault. The fact that I was not only hounding her to move in together BUT NOW I just dropped the bombshell of proposing to her. If she had dropped all of that on me like I did to her, I probably would have ran to.

Now I know what all of you are thinking, what's causing me to bring up all of this in a matter of a day? I'll tell you what's causing me to do this, Murdoc. I wasn't sure it was Murdoc after I had gotten off the phone with Jack. I mean tons of people can walk around LA wearing black trench coats! That's why I had someone at the Phoenix check a few things and I'd gotten confirmation 30 minutes after I had dropped Raelynn off at work that one of Murdoc's aliases was flagged coming into LAX.

He's not the only I'm doing this, ok? He's maybe pushed me to do all of this but I wouldn't even be suggesting it if I didn't want any of this in the slightest bit. I just- want Raelynn to be protected. Now I don't know if I can do a decent job of protecting her but I will die trying. I've seen what this man is capable of. He can make the sickest, most psychotic men in the world look like angels. If he ever got a hold of her, it wouldn't end well for her. It just wouldn't end well.

I tried calling her later in the day, seeing if she wanted me to drop her off lunch or something. She gets so sucked into her work that she forgets to do the basic necessities of life like eat. She hadn't responded an hour or so, which wasn't odd for her. It wouldn't surprise me if she had her entire arms covered in plaster, unable to grab the phone. That's why I let it be. I continued on with my day at work, doing some in-house tactical defense tactics training that I'm required to complete every month.

A few more hours had passed and Raelynn still hadn't responded. Wasn't completely unusual again but was still slightly concerning. I would have usually gotten a text from her by now, saying she couldn't talk if that was the case. So on my lunch break from class, I picked up a sandwich for her and drove back up to her shop. She wasn't going to eat on her own accord then I was going to make her.

When I pulled up to the store, there was a sign that hung on the inside of the door. As I got closer, I could see that it was Raelynn's handwriting on a piece of paper that read 'Currently Closed, will be back shortly' I felt the worry leave my stomach as I got back into the car, a smile on my face. She probably went out to go get herself lunch, which that put my mind at ease.

I arrived back at the Phoenix to find out that the other half of the class had been canceled for the day. Man, this just keeps getting better and better!

I made my way into what I liked to call our briefing, which honestly wasn't much. There was a big screen that lined one side of the wall, windows covering the opposite wall. Currently standing in the room was Maddie, who looked like she was chewing Jack's ass off. I figured out a long time ago never to get in the middle of those two. It never ended well.

When Jack's eyes connected with mine, his eyes kit up as he walked over, taking what was supposed to be Raelynn's sandwich.

"Aww, you brought me lunch man. See, this is why I love you." He unwrapped the sandwich and instantly took a bite of it, groaning in pleasure. "Man did this hit the spot."

"That was supposed to my girlfriend's lunch. I'll tell her you ate it."

"Tell her to come fight me, we'll see how she likes that threat." Jack continued to eat the sandwich as I walked further into the room, closer towards Maddie's direction. She seemed to be off in her own little world as she not only juggled things on her phone but scribbled down countless things onto a notepad.