Love Another Day

by Lexi Blake

  There was a click as the message changed again. This time she sounded guttural and in pain.

  “Brody, I promised myself I wouldn’t do this. God, it hurts. No one can tell you how damn much this hurts. I hate you. I fucking hate you for doing this to me. I wish you were the one trying to push a baby out of the tip of your dick. I hate you.” There was a moment of heavy breathing. She’d called him while she’d been in labor? He knew why she’d done it. Against everything she’d said to him, she’d had hope. She’d tried. She’d reached out across the miles that separated them and she’d given him one last chance to be there with her.

  Yes, she was saying she hated him, but he understood that. In that terrible pain, when she was alone, she’d needed him, wanted him there with her.

  She groaned again. “Please call me back. I know you don’t want to have anything to do with me, but I need you. I hate this. Oh, god. I miss you. I wish you were here to hold my hand because I think I’m going to pass out. I wish I had your strength.” Another low groan. “I’m going to find Anya. It’s time. I pray it’s time because I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

  He didn’t cry, hadn’t cried in years, and yet he couldn’t stop the way his eyes watered. She’d been alone and she’d needed him and he’d looked down at the name on the screen and turned his mobile off.

  She’d tried. How could he not do everything he could to make it up to her? How could he even consider leaving her side?

  There was a click and one last message. “Hello, Brody. This is the last time I’m going to call. I’ve decided to keep my son. I named him Nathan in case you’re interested. He’s…” She laughed over the line. “He’s so big. He’s big and he’s beautiful and he’s mine. I’m going to make this work, so don’t worry about us. When he asks about you I’ll only tell him that he was created in love because no matter what I said at the time, I loved you very much. Sometimes I think I loved you from the minute you walked into my clinic. Thank you for my son. I hope you have a good life ahead of you, Brody Carter. Good-bye.”

  It took everything he had not to hit his knees.

  What had he done? He’d understood it in a logical sense, but now it truly struck him. He’d left her behind. He’d loved her and he’d let his fear rule. He’d done everything he accused her of and now he was threatening to do it again, though this time he’d said he’d take Nate. She needed someone to hold her hand and stand by her. Yes, she’d done some crazy stuff, but only because she didn’t understand how valuable she was, how precious she was to him. He’d done a crap job of letting her know.

  “Brody?”

  He looked up, unashamed of the tears running down his face.

  She was standing there, her shirt soaked in blood, and yet she was more radiant than he’d ever seen her. She was petite and fragile, and yet she’d never once wavered when the time had come.

  If he could convince her to be that way in real life, could show her how strong she was, they could move mountains together.

  “I just told everyone that Li is well on the road to recovery. He’s not talking yet, but the doctors said my tracheotomy was perfectly done and he’ll suffer no ill effects.”

  “Of course not. You’re the most amazing doctor I’ve ever seen.”

  She moved closer, her hands coming up to touch his face. She wiped away the tears. “Brody, I’m sorry I hurt you and seeing you like this makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry, but I’m not going to do that. I’m well aware that I wrecked everything, but you should know that I’m not giving up on us. I will not. I’m going to move to London and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  Her shoulders were straight, her head held high. Something had happened to the woman he loved in those moments when she’d saved her friend’s life. Something that had changed her, brushing away the insecurities that had marked her up until that moment. They would come back, the war far from over, but this battle had been won and it was a turning point. He could feel it. “All right. I can’t stop you but why do you want to live in London?”

  “Because you’re there and I want to be close to you,” she said.

  “Because you think Nate needs a father?” He would convince her that he could be more. He would show her he was the man for her, that if she gave him a second chance he would be stalwart this time, the unwavering center of her universe. He would ground her, allowing her to fly because she’d been born to see how high she could go.

  “Of course Nate needs a father, but I need you too. I need you more than you’ll ever know. I understand that I screwed up and you need time. I’m going to give it to you. I’ll find a flat somewhere close and when you’re ready, you should know I’m going to be all over you, Mr. Carter. I won’t pretend and try to steal one night from you. I’m going to be greedy. I want all the nights. I want all the days. I want everything you have to give.”

  The woman standing in front of him knew what she wanted and she wanted him. This woman wouldn’t be turned away without a fight.

  Not that he intended to give her one. “Yes.”

  “Hear me out, Brody. I understand that I can’t take back...” She stopped. “Did you say yes?”

  “He said yes,” Adam called out before leaning over to Serena and Jake. “I think something’s wrong with Doc’s hearing because I could hear him from here.”

  Yeah, he’d forgotten they had an audience.

  He tried to ignore them. “I said yes, Steph. Forgive me for ever saying anything else to you. I need you to understand that when it comes to being with you my answer is always going to be yes.”

  “But you were mad at me.”

  “And I will be in the future, but I love you and that beats everything else. You come first, before everyone else, before my own fears and insecurities,” he pledged. “You and our son are everything to me. Come to London but you won’t live anywhere but with me.”

  A gorgeous smile crossed her lips, lighting up her face. “Well, if you’re in a mood to say yes, then I can fulfill my other promise. I promised Tucker I would ask you to marry me if we got out of that warehouse. Here we are. I figured something out. I figured out that it’s all worth it, all the pain and doubt. It brought me here, to you. Brody Carter, will you marry me?”

  He moved in before she could do something silly like go down on one knee. There was only one knee he wanted her over and that was his when they were playing. Which they would do for the rest of their lives. Play and love and laugh and hold on when the times got tough.

  “Yes.” He hauled her up into his arms, kissing her for all he was worth.

  She threw her arms around him and he could feel her smiling.

  “See,” Taggart was saying, “weirdest day ever. Now we have to go to England for another damn wedding. Hey, Carter, do us all a favor and glom on to Nicky’s wedding. It’s a long fucking trip.”

  He ignored the hell out of Taggart—though it was a good idea—and got on to kissing his bride-to-be.

  Chapter Seventeen

  London, England

  3 weeks later

  “You look very much the gentleman,” Nick Markovic said as he strode into the groom’s room.

  It was actually the locker room at The Garden, but it served its purpose for today. “Thanks. I was worried I looked a bit like an overstuffed penguin. And might I add, you’re looking spiffy yourself.”

  Nick grinned and pulled the cork out of the god-only-knew-how-old bottle of Scotch that Damon had presented them with when they’d started dressing for the wedding.

  The double wedding.

  Nick was marrying the girl of his dreams, Hayley Dalton, and they’d been excited to share the day with close friends. Brody hadn’t even brought it up. He’d been ready to elope since waiting even the three weeks they had seemed like too long. Nick and Hayley had convinced them that the more family and friends, the better.

  “I was talking to Nathan,” Nick said with a wink. “He’s looking resplendent in his tux. You are only so-so,
my friend.”

  He couldn’t help but laugh. He did that a lot these days. He looked down at Nate, who did indeed look gentlemanly in the tiny tux they’d found for him. He was busy batting at the toys on his bouncy seat, completely ignoring all the male bonding going on around him. “That he does.”

  The Taggart brothers were sitting in the front of the locker room, jackets off until the moment they would be forced to put them on. Most of the crew had come over for the wedding and The Garden was filled with visitors. It had been a fun week to hang out with his friends and family. His mum had made the long trip along with his stepdad, and they’d even brought Alfi along.

  He hadn’t killed Alfi. Something about being happy made him more forgiving.

  He just wished he could do something about Tucker.

  Walt and Damon stepped into the circle. Damon brought over four crystal glasses.

  “I’ll take some of that,” Walt said. “Now that I’m off pain meds from the gunshot wound, I can get back to my experiments with grain alcohol.”

  Walt had a very sheltered childhood.

  Damon slapped him on the back. “It’s a single malt, mate, and this is the best.”

  “Yes, well, where I came from it was merely something that destroyed brain cells,” Walt shot back. “My parents believed in studying, not partying, which is precisely why I like it way better here.”

  They were an odd group. Damon Knight, practically a member of the gentry. He’d been born into English wealth and privilege. Nick Markovic, a former Russian spy. Walt, the genius who always seemed to find trouble.

  And him. A rough-and-tumble bloke from the Outback who was about to marry the most brilliant woman he’d ever met.

  Sometimes life took twists and turns that led a man to his future.

  “Hey, the Americans are going to want a taste of that.” Taggart led his brothers into the room.

  “Don’t leave the Irishman out.” Li O’Donnell straightened his tie. “Never let it be said any Irishman walked down an aisle without a little fortification.”

  Taggart put a hand out, stopping Damon from passing the Scotch to Li. “Are we sure no bees were involved in the making of this Scotch?”

  Li shot Big Tag the finger. “I’m never living it down. Give me that.” He drained the glass in one shot before turning to Brody. “Heard Steph and Faith decided to team up.”

  It had turned out to be a match made in heaven. Steph had a stable clinic and Faith had a ton of contacts. Anya was running the place now and taking charge of the different doctors who came through, each doing their part to help. He and Steph would be back there in a few months, taking her turn as doctor.

  The best of both worlds.

  “The clinic is open for business,” he said with a smile. “If by business you mean making absolutely no money at all.”

  “That’s how charity works,” Li said with a smile before he stepped back. “Now, I’ve got a girl to walk down the aisle. You better be there, Carter, or I’ll find ya.”

  He wouldn’t be anywhere else. “Hey, O’Donnell, since you’re the one giving the bride away, does that mean I should call you Pops now?”

  “Not on yer life.” O’Donnell shuddered. “Though the wee one can certainly call me Uncle Li. You be good to her, Carter.”

  “I will.” He shook Li’s hand and the Irishman walked out to prepare for his part of the wedding.

  “We will see you outside, brother.” Taggart slapped him on the shoulder and then extended a hand to Nick. “I’m happy for both of you, and more than happy to have more lovely women in our family. Now I’m going to go help Charlie wrangle the girls because I overheard them planning to climb a couple of the trees in the garden.”

  The American crew left to find their places and he was alone with the men who had become his closest family. All except one.

  “Owen didn’t want to come back here?” He asked the question of Nick. Owen had been Nick’s partner for years before he’d become the last of Hope McDonald’s experiments.

  Nick gave him a tight smile. “He told me he wasn’t feeling well. It’s hard for him, these big gatherings. He doesn’t know what to say and often finds himself in a conversation he doesn’t understand because he’s talking to someone who knew him from before. The others are all coming, but they don’t have the same problems as Owen.”

  Owen knew his name, knew all the facts of his life before the drug had taken his memories. Sometimes not knowing seemed to be better.

  It sure as hell had been for Tucker.

  “Has Ezra found anything at all yet?” Brody asked. “I saw you talking to him earlier.”

  Ezra Fain had missed the poker game that served as both his and Nick’s bachelor party, but he’d flown in for the wedding. He’d shown up and immediately gone into a private meeting with Damon and Big Tag.

  “Two of the Belgians he talked to insist that Tucker is this Dr. Razor person.” Damon poured himself another drink. “They said they’d worked for him on two occasions, though the person they were actually in contact with was none other than Dr. Hope McDonald. Ezra’s been working on another case but he’s going to try to figure out Tucker’s real name. I seriously doubt it’s Razor.”

  Nick shook his head. “It’s hard to believe that kid was some kind of monster. He’s the kindest of the bunch. Are you sure we’re doing the right thing keeping this from the rest of them? If he was Hope McDonald’s right-hand man, then he was likely the one who tortured them.”

  “But the drug seems to have destroyed that part of his personality,” Walt explained. “So much of who we are is wrapped up in our memories, our past traumas, but there’s also a chemical and biological component. Think of it like this—Tucker got an evilectomy. I know that sounds stupid, but that part of him, the part with evil impulses, seems to be completely gone. He’s not the same man and I, for one, think that poisoning the others against him would be cruel. Those men are the only family he has.”

  That was Walt in a nutshell. If Hope McDonald had been an evil genius, then Walt had taken all the good genes for himself. Brody put a hand on his shoulder. “So we keep telling him that we can’t corroborate de Vries’s story. Maybe after a while we can convince him it was all complete rubbish.”

  “But I have to look into it.” Damon set the glass down. “I have to find out the truth. If we can find Tucker’s identity, it might lead to the others. But for now, we stay silent. Walt is right. The man we know as Tucker isn’t the same man de Vries described. And on that front, did you see that the stock was down for a certain firm out of Antwerp once Johann’s piece ran in the papers? Remind me to thank Mia for that.”

  Mia Taggart was a journalist. She’d taken the thumb drive and found all of Johann’s notes and pieced together the story the man would have written had he lived. She’d also written a piece on the journalist himself that was making Johann famous for his bravery and compassion.

  And it was also making the world a bit safer since the terrorist group wouldn’t be selling their diamonds so easily again.

  Damon looked down at his watch. “Time’s up, mates. You ready to do this?”

  Brody looked at Nick. “I think we’re both game.”

  “I’ve been waiting for this all my life,” Nick agreed.

  Brody picked up Nate. “You ready to get our girl, son?”

  He followed Nick out, eager to be with his family.

  * * * *

  Later that night

  Kayla Summers sighed and looked out at the dancing couples. The whole garden had been decked out with twinkle lights and flowers and candles. At the end of the wedding, confetti had been dropped from above making it look like it was raining flower petals.

  It was so romantic it made her want to find a man and do what bridesmaids were supposed to do.

  Damn it. She was all dressed up and ready to go. She was wearing heels and a push-up bra and she got nothing because everyone was either married or loony from mind-altering drugs.

  Or Ezra
Fain, who’d said he needed to talk to her earlier. It wasn’t that the CIA agent wasn’t superhot, it was just that he was someone she worked with and she was done sleeping with people she would have to see over and over again. Men were touchy things. When you slept with them for a while they got all needy and clingy.

  Like the one who had his head in her lap, except she certainly hadn’t slept with Tucker. And the truth was she didn’t blame him for needing affection.

  She was sitting on a bench near the tables where dinner had been served. It was odd to see The Garden used for such a normal function. Normally the beautiful indoor garden hosted play spaces where kink couples could get their freak on.

  Except it really was normal since the truth was this ceremony had been about love and commitment and family, and the kink part was just something they did, too.

  There’s no such thing as normal, my darling girl. And if there was, wouldn’t it be a boring thing to be?

  Her dads. She’d been adopted by two men from California. They’d been the best parents she could have asked for. They’d always told her she was destined for great things. How would they feel if he knew her great things had been all about proving how much pain she could take? Her dads had a vision of her saving the country. They knew she’d worked for the Agency. They had no idea all the things she’d done, the terrible things that had been done to her.

  “I think I should tell them.” Tucker was curled up on the bench, his head in her lap. “Robert knows, but he said it was up to me whether or not I say anything. I should tell them.”

  “Tell them what? That some douchebag who had ties to terrorists figured out you were the weak link in the chain and tried to use you to get out of a rough situation?” She was toeing the line on this one. There was no way Tucker was the same man. Even if he was.

  Kay knew that a person could change. She knew it better than anyone.