Free Jamie's Heart [Amazon Warriors 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Ellie Wilson Page A

a liability. Besides, I do not want the tribe to see me or remember me like that.”
    Crimson nodded in understanding and watched with a heavy heart as Jamie rose from her seat and made her way to the door.
    Before she left, Jamie turned back and looked Crimson dead in the eye with fierce determination.
    “You shouldn’t discount people’s strength or ability based on their age. From what I hear, you won’t let cadets attempt to prove they shot the arrow to kill the Cyclops. I think that’s a mistake. Some of them might surprise you.” With that, Jamie left her office, leaving Crimson stunned.
    She’d learned a lot in the last hour, and none of it had been good.

Chapter 6
     
    Jamie.
    Conrad hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her the whole time he’d been gone. It had been almost five months now, and during that time he’d had to make do with hearing secondhand information about Jamie from his parents and Jordon.
    He’d missed Jamie’s beauty, her sense of humor, her take-no-shit attitude, and even though they only had sex once, he found himself craving more of her.
    The bite mark she had left on him had faded a long time ago, before he left the estate. He had hated watching it slowly disappear and often found himself touching that very spot when he thought of her.
    He was doing it now.
    Conrad was dying to see her and dreading it at the same time. What if she still hated him? What if she still refused to see him?
    It was thoughts of Jamie that got him through the long, hard days of soldiering. When he’d lost his friend and spotter to enemy fire, she was who he had wanted to call, who he wanted comfort from. The last few months had made him realize that she had been right. There was and always had been more than just friendship between them.
    Conrad had let his sense of duty and honor toward someone he had grown up with cloud his judgment and his feelings, worried what others may think.
    Well, fuck what other people think.
    He pulled up outside his family home and took a deep breath before he walked inside.
    Hearing his sisters squabbling in the kitchen brought a smile to his face when nothing else had been able to in months.
    Some things never change.
    Shaking his head, he walked into the kitchen to see his whole family gathered around the table, eating breakfast.
    Conrad froze in place.
    It wasn’t the fact that both of his brothers were sitting at the table talking to his parents and sisters that had him frozen in place. It wasn’t even the two unknown, sexy women giving each other a brief but heated kiss over by the stove. He wasn’t surprised to see Jordon sitting at the table either, but seeing Jamie sitting there looking pale and lethargic had shocked him into imitating a statue.
    She was the first one to notice his presence. They gazed at each other as one by one all of his family started to notice him standing stock-still in the doorway, and silence fell across the room.
    Everyone looked between Conrad and Jamie as if expecting one of them to spontaneously combust. They must all know by now that something had happened between them.
    They just stared at each other. The woman he could once read like a book looked closed off to him, and he couldn’t think of a thing to say to change that.
    It was Cole, his eldest brother, who finally stood and walked over to him. He squared up to him, dragging his attention away from Jamie. When he knew he had Conrad’s attention, Cole smiled his Cheshire cat grin at him and threw his arms around him in a bear hug.
    “What’s up, bro? It’s good to see you, man,” Cole said with enthusiasm.
    Even though he was still struck dumb and concerned by Jamie’s appearance, he smiled and hugged his brother in return. It seemed to break some of the tension in the room as the rest of his family burst into action and stood to welcome him home.
    The two women he hadn’t recognized introduced themselves. It turned out he did know one of them. She was a few years older