Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
“Because we can’t think only of the mission. Yeah, I already got that.” He could see what Damon went through. Why he was happier behind a desk now. Because every second he was out in the field he was thinking about what would happen to his boy if he took another bullet, if he was unlucky in a fight. “I think I’ll work corporate cases from now on. Gotta come home to my boy.”
“And if she doesn’t feel the same way?” Ten asked. “What if she’s unwilling to change?”
He wasn’t even going to think about that right now. “I’m taking it a day at a time. Right now all I want is to make sure she doesn’t attempt to sacrifice herself for a woman who might not deserve it.”
“I’ll do some checking and get back to you. I’ll talk to the other nurse. She’s been in the village outside the clinic for days now. I’ll have her walk through and see if she sees anything I don’t. ’Night, brother.”
“’Night.” He flipped the laptop screen shut and sighed.
What would he do? Was he willing to leave London? He might be willing to move back to Australia, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to roam around Africa for the rest of his life, and he wasn’t sure how that would work for Nate. The truth was he had found a second family in London and he loved them. Funny how easy that was to admit now.
Fatherhood was making him soft.
He walked out the door. It was time to start softening her up, too. He was going to show her what he could offer her, and perhaps she would come around to his way of thinking.
The one thing he knew he couldn’t do was let her go.
* * * *
Steph stared through the window, alone now after assuring Adam he could go and enjoy the evening. He was somewhere in the dungeon looking for his wife. Steph couldn’t help but smile as she watched her son. Nate was in a bouncy chair surrounded by little girls. Kenzie and Kala and Carys Taggart all seemed fascinated by the newcomer. One of the twins was gently holding his hand while her sister showed Nate how the toys dangling above him rolled and whistled. Carys bounced and clapped. Nate was grinning like he knew he was the center of the universe.
She’d been all right with dying as long as he was okay. What kind of mother did that make her?
He was so sweet, so perfect. Was she going to be the one who screwed up his life?
“Ah, look at that boy. He’s already surrounded by gorgeous women.” Brody moved in behind her, his hands warm on her shoulders. “That’s Papa’s boy there.”
Brody was already madly in love with their son. He seemed to ease into it with a confidence she couldn’t feel. “I think it’s easy to see he’s not missing us at all.”
“That’s a good thing.” Brody’s hands skimmed down her arms, leaving trails of heat wherever he touched her. “He should be confident enough that we can leave him with people we trust. It means you’ve done a good job and he thinks the world is a place where he’s safe.”
“We both know that’s not true.” Nate simply wasn’t old enough to understand it.
“He doesn’t need to figure that out yet. This is what a childhood is. This is what we can give him, years and years where he’s certain he’s safe and loved. That’s what forms the base of who we are.”
Did it? She’d had two loving parents, a classic picture-perfect childhood with trips to Disney World and Sunday dinners with family. One mistake and it had all fallen apart. Her father had left because he couldn’t handle watching his only child disintegrate and her mother had gone to Avery Charles in desperation.
“Sometimes you can have everything and that base still breaks, Brody.”
“Then we build it all over again,” he said. “We build it stronger than before. Still might get a couple of cracks in it, but we fill those in. We don’t give up. No one gets through life without scars. That’s what we teach our son. No matter what happens, we’ll be there for him.”
Would she? Or would she lead him to a place where she couldn’t save him? Where she thought to let someone else take care of him so she could fulfill some dark destiny?
“I thought we weren’t thinking about the future,” she said quietly.
“We can never not think about his future. Ours can wait, but you have to know I won’t disappear.”
All this talk was making her nervous. “I don’t have to know that. I don’t have to know that at all.”
He turned her, looming over her with that perfectly shaped jaw of his. “I left you. I shouldn’t have. I won’t again. I’m a simple man and I thought that was a problem. But, luv, you’re so bloody complex there’s not room for more than me. I never lied to you. Not once. Might have lied to myself a time or two, but never to you.”