by Lexi Blake
“He’s staying in his apartment.” The minute the words were out of her mouth she realized how dumb they sounded. Of course he was. As far as she knew, he wasn’t aware she was home. When had she started to think of The Garden that way? It wasn’t truly. Tucker was home and wherever he was—that was her home.
Nina’s bright expression dimmed a bit. “Yes. He didn’t say anything about moving you in. He told me he needed to make sure he had some clean sheets because he’d left so quickly. We all did. I made sure it was comfy for him. I checked on Rob and Ari’s place too. Rob’s being a massive baby about getting shot. It’s surprising since it happens so frequently to him. You would think he would be used to it by now. Men. They should think twice about getting dangerous jobs if they’re going to whine every time someone shoots them. Me? I was up the next day. I had my surgery and then it was back to work.”
Her mom nodded. “Males are always the worst patients. They’re all as soft as their mommas made ’em. And it sounds like Tucker’s being a whiny manbaby. He got his feelings hurt and like all men, he’s extra sensitive.”
Nina looked Roni’s way. “I thought for sure you would have worked it out. Usually watching a loved one be kidnapped does the trick. Is he making you work even harder? Have you pointed out that you were kidnapped and that means everything should bloody well be forgiven?”
She kind of thought Nina had been reading too many romance novels. “I don’t think it works that way.”
There was noise from down below and she watched as a massive ball of fur barreled across The Garden’s floor. Buster barked wildly and his whole body wriggled and squirmed and jumped as Jax Seaborne walked in followed by the rest of the party.
River was right behind her dog, running to her husband and jumping into his arms. She couldn’t hear what they were saying—well, what the humans were saying—but she knew the words.
I love you. I missed you. Let’s never be apart again.
“Pup pup,” Vi said, looking down at the happy reunion.
Her girl was going to be a dog person. No doubt about it. She loved watching Buster’s antics. It wouldn’t be long before she would want a pup pup of her own.
Tucker walked in and smiled at his friends, his brother right behind him. Ariel had a hand on both of them.
Ariel was part of Tucker’s family. She’d been the one he was comfortable with. Roni was the one who’d been left out. He hadn’t wanted her there.
He looked up and their eyes caught. A look of complete shock hit his face. Tucker dropped the bag he’d been carrying and said something to his brother, who looked up, too.
Robert caught her gaze and put a hand over his heart as though touching the place where the bullet had almost killed him. He nodded her way and said something to his brother.
Tucker took off. He jogged to the elevator and pushed it several times as though he could force the thing to come open.
He was coming for her. Her heart was in her throat because he hadn’t looked like a man who was unhappy to see her.
Maybe he’d forgiven her in the days they’d spent apart.
“He doesn’t look like he’s mad at you,” her mom said with a shake of her head.
She felt a smile cross her face as the doors to the elevator opened and Tucker strode out.
“I thought you were in New York,” he said, opening his arms. “I thought it would be weeks before I saw her. Hey, baby girl. God, I missed you.”
She felt like someone had tossed a vat of freezing water her way. He was talking about Vi. All that sweet energy and enthusiasm had been for their daughter. Not for her.
Vi was already reaching out for her dad, and she had to move fast so she didn’t fall. Father and daughter hugged, fitting together like two puzzle pieces. He wrapped her up in his strong arms and she snuggled against him.
His eyes closed like this was what he’d been longing for.
Tears welled hard and fast because it was a beautiful sight and it also made her heart ache.
When his eyes came open he looked her way. “Thank you for bringing her here.”
All she could do was nod. Words completely escaped her.
“Can I take her for a while?”
She nodded again and then watched as he walked back to the elevators.
“You want to go see Buster, Vi? Pup pup?” he was saying as he whisked her away to show her off to his family.
Vi was bouncing happily in her father’s arms as the doors closed.
“That was cold,” Nina said with a frown. “He does remember you got kidnapped, right? I heard he took a blow to the head.”
“He knows.” She wiped away tears. They wouldn’t do her any good. At some point she would have to sit down with him, and they would be adults about the situation. They would calmly and patiently talk about how best to raise their daughter. They would have to decide if they were going to try to live in the same city. Maybe even the same country. Her mom was going back to the States. She’d already accepted a job at McKay-Taggart in Dallas. If she was going to stay a single mom, she would need to be close to her mother. Would Tucker be satisfied seeing his daughter a few times a year?
“Or he’s a dumbass,” her mom pointed out. “Like I said, men are sensitive and sometimes they need to be taken in hand. You just let him walk out. You didn’t even try, baby. That’s not who I raised you to be. I know you want a knight in shining armor to come and sweep you off your feet, but sometimes a woman has to put that armor on herself and fix the situation.”
“Oh, I don’t think she should put on armor,” Nina disagreed. “I think she should take it all off.”
“Boobs can be like armor at the right time,” her mother mused.
Maybe she shouldn’t try to live too close to her mom. “What are you saying?”
Nina moved beside her mom, a united front. “Do you want him?”
“Yes.” She wanted him more than anything. And not for his fatherly skills. Not for his hot bod. Not even for the tracker in his buttocks that came in handy. She wanted him because no one in her life had ever had a stronger heart, a more open and loving soul. She wanted him because she’d never loved anyone the way she did him.
“Then fight for your man,” Nina said. “And by fight I mean let’s tempt him until he can’t see straight. You see everyone will tell you the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
Her mom shook her head. “It’s his penis. It’s always his penis.”
Yep, her mom was a bad influence.
Was she brave enough to try it?
“What are you thinking?”
Nina got the brightest smile on her face. She leaned in and they began to plot.
* * * *
Hours later Tucker looked around his brother’s apartment and realized he would have to go to his own soon.
“That woman is incredibly intimidating,” Robert said, closing the door on Sandra and Vi.
She’d been the one to come down to take Violet to bed. She’d been the one earlier in the evening who’d dropped off Violet’s bag with a smirk and told him not to let her explode. He hadn’t been sure what that meant until about thirty minutes after he’d fed her dinner. Robert and Ariel were definitely putting off the baby making for a while.
Sandra had facilitated his evening with Violet. She’d also facilitated Roni not having to see him. They hadn’t spoken at all. She’d nodded twice and then he’d walked away.
He’d been shocked to see Roni. He truly hadn’t believed that she would be waiting here for him. Seeing her standing there with Violet had made his heart threaten to stop.
And then he’d remembered all the accusations, all the suspicion. Every reason he’d sent her away had come back to slap him in the face and he’d forced himself to focus on Violet.
“She is,” Tucker agreed. “That’s probably why Tag hired her. She’s going to work at McKay-Taggart. I’m not sure what she’s going to do there.”
“Amuse Big Tag, I suspect,” Robert said, easi
ng into the chair across from him. “You sure you didn’t want to go with her and help put Violet to bed?”
“She was already asleep.” She’d drifted off while he’d rocked her and talked to Robert.
“I think you were trying to avoid Roni.”
Ariel walked out from the kitchen and put a mug of tea in front of them both. “He was definitely trying to avoid Veronica. He hasn’t even walked into his flat because he would have to walk past hers and he’s afraid he’ll knock on the door. Or maybe that she’ll be there, waiting for him. She’s not, by the way.”
Of course she wasn’t. “I’m not afraid of Roni. I’m giving her space.”
“You’re giving yourself space,” Robert argued.
Maybe he was. “I thought she would be in New York. Someone should have told me she was here.”
Ariel sighed and leaned over to kiss her husband’s forehead. “I think they were worried you wouldn’t come home. Or maybe they thought it wasn’t a terrible thing to have your daughter waiting here for you. You can’t ignore Veronica forever.”
“I’m not going to.” But a few days wouldn’t hurt. “I’ll talk to her in my own time.”
“Fine. I know when I’m not wanted,” Ariel said. “I’ll be in the bedroom reading. You take it easy. I don’t want you to overdo it. The docs are going to look you over tomorrow. You should know I told them to be very pessimistic about your outlook.”
Rob smiled up at his wife. “I’m sure you did. Love you.”
Ariel winked and walked away.
“What did that mean? Why would they be pessimistic?” Had his brother been holding back on him?
“Because Ariel wants me to take a couple of weeks off,” he replied. “She thinks I need the excuse to relax, but she’s wrong. I’m seriously thinking about heading to Loa Mali for a nice long vacation before we decide what to do with the rest of our lives. We’re done. I’m still having a hard time believing it. I mean, I know we still have work to do, but we’re all free.”
“Nothing’s been decided yet. They’re still analyzing the data. Solo hasn’t even seen it yet,” Tucker pointed out. “With all the chaos, we weren’t able to make that copy I was planning on.”
“The Agency has a copy and so do the Germans, MI6, and the French,” Robert said. “Connor Sparks said he’s going to make sure we get to see that data, too. He’s also assured us the president will do everything Solo promised. He’s working on getting you a proper passport.”
With his real name. He still wasn’t used to Tim. Tucker might be his nickname for life. But it was damn good to be a Seeger again. “I believe that.”
“You and Jax are going to get your lives back and we have some decisions to make.”
“I want to find Mom.” It was distressing that he’d remembered so much, but he couldn’t remember her name. He couldn’t remember the name of the town they’d grown up in.
“I do, too,” Robert said. “And I suspect now that Green is back in custody, he won’t be giving us any more information. I don’t know. I’m hoping Solo will find something. She’s supposed to be back here in a couple of days to update us. If Green won’t tell us, then we’ll go to Wyoming. We both seem to remember best when we’re in the actual places the events took place. We’ll rent a car and go to every single small town we can.”
“About remembering things,” he began. “I didn’t tell you what happened that day because I don’t blame you.”
Robert picked up the tea Ariel had left. “I wish this was a beer but I’m on tons of meds and that means no alcohol.” He took a quick sip and grimaced. “And it’s herbal. That day has been haunting me ever since I got a hint of what happened in that cemetery. I remember you begging me.”
Tucker shook his head. “You didn’t know who I was.”
“I didn’t even listen.” Guilt flavored every word that came out of his brother’s mouth. “Maybe if I had I could have saved all of us.”
“You were trained not to listen.” He’d been thinking for days about how to handle this particular conversation. Luckily, he had history on his side. “Hey, you remember what happened after you got out?”
A wary look came into his brother’s eyes. “I went to Dallas.”
“Yes, you went to Dallas with Theo and you both worked with that team for a while. You used to go grab lunch with him. Do you remember? You and Theo were grabbing lunch at a park and what happened?”
“McDonald tried to get us back,” Robert replied, his jaw tightening with the memory.
McDonald had given her B-team a mission. They were to recapture the A-team at all cost. And it had cost them much. He’d lost two of the men on his team that day. “I was there. I was one of the men who tried to drag you back to hell and I did it because I genuinely believed it was my job. Jax was there.”
Robert sat back, shaking his head. “God, I hadn’t even thought about that.”
“If it hadn’t been for the guys from MT, you and Theo would have gone back into the program and it would have been me taking you there.” He needed to press this point home because he didn’t want this guilt to come between him and his brother. “I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to be honest with yourself and with me. Would you have blamed me?”
“Absolutely not,” Robert said as quickly as he could. “That was not your fault.”
“And it wasn’t yours either,” he replied, making his point. “But saving me in the cemetery was, and we need to make sure we never do that again. I don’t think your wife can handle you getting shot a third time.”
“Oh, I’ve been shot way more than that. But I guess it has been a bad run lately.” Robert sighed, a relieved sound. “Okay. I promise to try to never get shot again. I’ve got too much to live for. And so do you. What are you going to do about Roni? Did she ask you to stay away?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. She tried to stay with me in Paris. I asked her to leave.”
A brow rose over his brother’s eyes. “Really? Why would you do that? I thought you wanted to get back together with her. Did you change your mind?”
“No, but think about it. She doesn’t mean it. She went through something traumatic and I look safe to her. When things calm down she’s going to still have all those questions.” He didn’t think he could handle living with her and being a family only to have this all come back up again a few months down the line.
Robert shook his head. “She won’t have questions because now we have answers. She knows you didn’t sleep with her sister. She knows Green was the reason Katie was still sitting there when Kronberg decided to take her out. If he’d given her a heads-up, she would likely have taken Roni and run.”
He would love to pay Green back for that bit of business. He hoped the asshole was getting tortured again but feared turning that data over meant Green might get out free and clear. “Yeah, but I was still working with her. I still got Katie into a situation that ended up getting her killed. Roni will always remember that.”
“Do you honestly believe Sandra doesn’t know what happened?” Robert asked. “Because I happen to know she talks to Big Tag on a daily basis. She didn’t kill you when she saw you. She took Vi, said you looked like hell, and told you to come by for breakfast in the morning if you found your balls. That was practically a declaration of love from one of the toughest women I’ve ever met. She doesn’t blame you and that means neither does Roni.”
“I don’t know. She didn’t talk about it back in Paris. We didn’t talk about anything really. She told me about Violet and what she’s been doing,” he admitted. “And we talked about you and your recovery. We pretty much avoided anything personal.”
“We or you?”
“I don’t know.” But he did. Roni wasn’t good at hiding her feelings. She wore them all over her face. He’d seen the hurt in her eyes when he’d explained he thought she should go to New York to be with Violet. “Okay, yeah, it was me. I avoided it because I didn’t want to hear her say she wanted me again. I
know she knows now. She knows she was wrong about me betraying her with her sister. She might even be okay with me lying about knowing her sister. But she didn’t believe me. Shouldn’t she have had faith in me?”
That was what gnawed at him. He could still remember how she’d looked at him, like she hadn’t known him at all. He’d felt so small, and coming from her it had been awful.
“You know relationships are rough, and they’re especially rough in the beginning. What Roni’s been through…I can’t imagine that it’s easy for her to trust anyone. I know you’re the weirdo who can go through all the pain in the world and still not expect to get kicked again, but the rest of us aren’t like that. I held Ari off forever because I didn’t think I deserved her.”
“It’s not the same,” Tucker argued.
“But it is. I know you had a good reason, but you lied to her. It might have been a good thing at the time, but it impacted her and she needed time to process it. You think she shouldn’t have a single doubt about a relationship that’s already devastated her once?”
Put that way, it did seem like he was being sensitive. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“And it sounds like she was trying to forgive you. I don’t think Sandra is that kind to you if she believes her daughter wants to cut you out of her life.”
Kind? What conversation had his brother overheard? “She asked if I needed a cream for my vagina.”
Robert snorted. “Yeah, she’s not the most politic of mother-in-laws. She’s going to be a blast at Thanksgivings. Mom will think she’s funny.”
His family life would be interesting. And yet he wanted it. Turning Vi over for the night had been rough. He’d wanted to take her back to her mother himself and lay down the law. They were going to be a family. They were going to be together, and he would spend the rest of his life showing her how much he loved her.
“You should go to her,” Robert said.
“He really should.” Ariel popped out from behind the bedroom door. “I think he’ll find she’s downstairs.”
