Watching From The Shadows: Trident Security Book 5

by Samantha A. Cole

  “And now you have an opportunity to have a family again. With your daughter. And with Harper. Or maybe without her, but from what I saw at the funeral, there was something between you that I don’t think either of you were aware of at the time.”

  “You were at the funeral?” Marco hadn’t seen him, but that didn’t mean anything. He could be a ghost when he didn’t want to be spotted.

  “At the gravesite. I only had a short window of time, but I wanted to pay my respects.” He leaned back in his chair, leaving only a few stray French fries in the takeout container. “But I’m getting away from the subject. Anyway, it’s obvious to me you have abandonment issues, my friend.” He held up his hand when Marco opened his mouth to argue with him. “Deny it all you want, but coming from a similar background, I see it in you. But I also see a man who’s overcome every obstacle life threw at him since birth to become someone on a very short list of people who I admire and I’m honored to call a friend.”

  Dropping his gaze to the last of his hamburger which he no longer wanted, Marco swallowed a lump in his throat, but remained quiet. Carter and he had had many meaningful conversations over the years, but never anything this deep and personal. Well, as they say, there’s a first time for everything.

  “You turned into someone the subs adore. Not just for the orgasms you give them, but for the part of you they find comfort and guidance in. I don’t know where you got it from, maybe from raising Nina, but it’s there.” He jabbed his finger on the table a few times, emphasizing his point. “Take that part of you and give it to Mara. You did a damn good job of making sure your sister became an adult who would have conquered the world if cancer hadn’t taken her. She was an amazing woman and the turnout for her funeral is a testament to that. Dude, give Mara the tools she needs to become an amazing woman like Nina. Don’t ever let her feel like you abandoned her in any way, because I know that’s not the man you are.”

  * * *

  Standing outside Harper’s hospital room, Marco took a deep breath, ignoring the inquisitive looks McCabe and Foster were giving him. He was trying to psych himself up for the coming conversation. Her mother and the baby had left an hour ago, under the watchful eyes of Boomer and Devon. The overnight shifts had been contracted out to Chase Dixon’s Blackhawk Security, where Trident got their backup personnel and transportation when needed. Even with the new Omega guys, they were using six guys per shift—three on Mrs. Williams and the baby, and two here outside Harper’s room. The sixth man had been assigned to the security office downstairs on the first floor. Ian had called in a favor to the hospital’s CEO, so they had eyes on everywhere the cameras were within the facility. The police department still had a man outside Harper’s house guarding the crime scene.

  “You going to stand there all night, just staring at the door?”

  Not turning his head toward the man, Marco held up his middle finger. “Fuck off, Foster, or your next training session is going to be a twenty mile run with a fifty-pound pack.”

  The former Secret Service agent snorted, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

  Come on, DeAngelis, get a fucking grip. You can do this. Just walk in there and propose. How hard can it be? “Shit.”

  Pushing the door open, he entered and made sure it was completely shut again before directing his gaze toward Harper’s bed. If she was surprised to see he’d returned, she didn’t show it as she waited in silence for him to say something. He cleared his throat, but didn’t move away from the door. “Are you feeling any better?”

  “I’m done puking,” she answered in a matter of fact tone he didn’t care for, “if that’s what you’re asking, but my head still feels like I got hit with a baseball bat. By the way, what did I get hit with? I forgot to ask the police.”

  “A bookend. One of those wooden elephants you have on your bookcase. You’re lucky he didn’t grab the cast iron or marble ones.” Harper kept an extensive book collection in her home office and had been collecting elephant bookends from around the world since she was young. The police figured her assailant was in that room when she pulled up the drive and he grabbed the nearest thing he could find. She had only gotten a few steps into the foyer when he struck her from his hiding spot behind the front door. Her office and bedroom had been trashed, but they would need her to look through everything to figure out if anything was missing. “Did you remember anything?”

  She gestured for him to take a seat in the chair next to her bed and he relaxed a little, relieved they were going to talk and not yell. When he sat, she shook her head slightly, being mindful of her injury. “No, I didn’t. The last thing I remember was stopping at the supermarket for diapers. Ian and Detective Murdock were here a little while ago and gave me the third degree about my clients and who might have a grudge against me. It could be any of my clients’ husbands or boyfriends who felt I was the cause of their separation, divorce, or their wife or girlfriend’s disappearance. I told the detective I would check with the bar association on Monday to confirm what I can release to the police without breaking client/attorney privilege. But I’m always so careful to make sure I’m not being followed, and I keep my home address and phone numbers unlisted, so I really think it was a random burglary.”

  Marco had gotten an update from Ian on the way over. While it was a possibility the attack was random, it was the general consensus among the men, who didn’t believe in coincidences too often, that Harper had been targeted for some reason. According to Dr. Dunbar and Harper’s office staff, she had been on the receiving end of death threats in the past from men who blamed her when their abused partners couldn’t take it anymore. The local chapter of Friends of Patty would not confirm which women they had helped disappear or even how many of them there were, but Marco’s guess was the number was in the hundreds. He hoped they were wrong and this was a random crime because he didn’t like the thought of someone gunning for Harper.

  “What happened to your neck and chin?”

  Not wanting to tell her why his best friend had decked and choked him, he lied. “Sparring in the gym…got a little out of hand.”

  A heavy silence fell between them. Staring out the window, he mentally ran down a checklist of things which had to be done before she was released tomorrow. He knew Ian and the team had every detail covered, but the unknown assailant could always throw them a curveball they would never see coming. So they had to expect the unexpected.

  “Mara was born three and a half weeks early. You can confirm it with my doctor, but she’s yours.”

  He almost missed her whispered confession. Swallowing hard, his gaze stayed on the darkness outside the window. “I know she is. What I don’t understand is why I’m just finding this out now. Were you ever planning on telling me if I didn’t find out by accident?”

  Now he turned back to face her, trying hard to keep his anger in check. But what he didn’t expect was the rage he saw on her face. “What are you talking about? You already knew!”

  Shaking his head, his eyes narrowed in confusion. “What are you talking about? I didn’t know anything about her!”

  “Bullshit, Marco,” she spat out with venom. “When I first found out, I tried to tell you. I called and called, but your cell kept saying you were unavailable. I figured you were on a mission. So I called the office and told your secretary that I needed to talk to you. You didn’t return a single call. Then I was all set to confront you at your house when I got your letter by messenger.” The volume of her voice began to increase with every word. “By a fucking messenger, Marco! You couldn’t even tell me to my face that you had already found out I was pregnant and you wanted nothing to do with me or our baby. So, fuck you! I’m raising her without you! I don’t need or want your fucking help!”

  Her shouting prompted Foster to open the door and stick his head in. “Um, sorry, but you might want to keep it down. I’m getting dirty looks out here from the staff.”

  The man didn’t wait for a response and shut the door once again, leaving them
gaping at each other. Her in anger, him in total bewilderment. When it looked like she was going to start laying into him again, he made a ‘T’ with his hands. He did his best to keep his voice down. “Timeout and take a deep breath, please. I don’t want you getting sick again. I’m telling you the truth, Harper. I knew nothing about any of this, and I sure as hell didn’t know anything about the baby. I swear on Nina’s grave.”

  Those last five words struck home as he’d hoped, and now it was Harper’s turn to look lost. “But…but the letter. The…what…then who the hell sent me that letter? The handwriting looked like yours.”

  “I don’t know, but it wasn’t me. I swear. Do you still have it?”

  Biting her bottom lip, she shook her head. “No. I was so pissed at you that I shredded it and threw it in the garbage. But what about my phone calls? Why did I keep getting a message that you couldn’t be reached?”

  He had a theory about the how, but not the who and why. He’d have to check with Brody to find out if the idea had merit. “Again, I don’t know, but I have a question for you.” His mind was jumping all over the place, between what was currently going on and what happened thirteen months earlier. “You said you were on the pill back then, so how the hell did you get pregnant?”

  “I was on the pill, but as they say, it’s not one hundred percent effective. My doctor thinks with all the stress of Nina passing away and the funeral, my system was out of whack. I honestly didn’t think about it until…until I was late. I was still taking the pills up to the point I realized I might be pregnant. I was terrified they would hurt her. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.”

  Shit. First, Nina’s death. Then the pregnancy and fear the baby might have been harmed while she’d still been taking the birth control. She’d gone through all that alone. Well, she’d had her mother, but he should have been there for her…whether he wanted to be there or not. Brody was right. It was time to man-up.

  “Marco, what the hell is going on?”

  His mind was reeling, but nothing made sense to him either. “I have no idea, but I’m going to have Egghead check out a few things. In the meantime, we have other stuff we need to talk about.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Marry me.”

  Silence filled the air as Harper’s eyes widened until he couldn’t take it anymore. “Say something.”

  “I think I need another CT scan because it sounded like you just said ‘marry me’.”

  “I did.”

  She snorted and pointed at his face. “You know, every girl dreams of the day some guy proposes to her, but in my dreams, the guy never looked like he just received an enema, followed by a death sentence.”

  Marco didn’t realize he was frowning until she gestured toward his mouth with her finger. He tried to relax his features. “I’m serious. I think we should get married.”

  Crossing her arms, she stared at him in disbelief. “Why? Because one of your sperm took a wrong fucking turn? I don’t think so.” There was no mistaking the scathing sarcasm and annoyance in her voice.

  “Shit, Harper.” Why she was making this so difficult, he had no clue. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I’m trying to do the right thing here. If we get married, you and the baby will be covered under my pension and insurance.”

  “Oh, please,” she scoffed as her eyes rolled upward and he squelched the urge to reprimand her. She wasn’t a sub. “You can put Mara on the pension. I don’t need it. This isn’t the 1950s and no one is holding a shotgun, so there’s no need for us to get married. I’ll only marry someone I’m in love with and who’s in love with me. Otherwise, the marriage certificate isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. So you’re off the fucking hook.”

  Standing, he paced the room while she watched. Finally, he stopped at the end of her bed and tossed his hands in the air. “Fine. Then move in with me. That way I can protect both of you. Even if this was random, you must have ex-husbands who blame you for their wives walking out.”

  As soon as he’d said for her to move in with him, she’d started shaking her head and was still doing it when he stopped talking. “No. I will take the protection Trident is willing to provide right now, and I’ll pay for it.” She ignored his growl and furrowing brow. “I’d be stupid to not have someone watching Mara and my mother until we figure out if the attack was random or not. But after this is over, you can go back to your house, and Mara and I will go back to ours. We’ll come up with an agreeable visitation contract for you to be part of her life. I won’t deny you that, but my heart and body are not part of any agreement.”

  * * *

  After the nurse finished charting her vital signs, which had been normal, she quietly left Harper’s room, leaving her to return to her tossing and turning. It was three a.m. and she hadn’t been asleep more than twenty minutes since Marco had left for the night. She knew two men were stationed outside her room, but it wasn’t her safety which had sleep eluding her. It was the conversation Marco and she had earlier.

  When she first found out she was pregnant, she had freaked—there was no point denying it. Knocked up and single wasn’t how she imagined the next few months of her life to be. She had still been grieving over Nina’s death, but each day seemed a little brighter, producing a new reason to smile with every hour that passed. She had begun to remember all the good times and they pushed the sad ones to the side.

  But once the shock of her OB/GYN’s announcement had worn off, she began to relish the tiny life growing inside her. She hadn’t lied to Marco. She had tried to contact him, but once she got that letter, all thoughts of a perfect, happy family had gone out the window. So, instead of breaking down, she built herself up and prepared for the birth of her daughter. Determined to give Mara the best childhood ever, despite the lack of a father figure, she recorded every milestone in a diary she planned on giving the girl on her eighteenth birthday. Her daughter would always know what it was like to be loved.

  Her mind flashed back to Marco’s ‘marriage proposal’. Oh, how she’d wanted it to have been real…and a lot more romantic. She realized why his perceived rejection of Mara and her had hurt so much back then—she was in love with the man. And had been long before Nina’s death and the fateful encounter with her friend’s brother which had altered Harper’s life in more ways than one.

  She wished she’d told him that night she was a submissive in the lifestyle since her college days, but it wouldn’t have made a difference in the long run. They might have played together a few more times, and she would have finally known what it was like to submit to Master Marco. But she was certain the end result would have been the same. Marco was never falling in love and getting married—to her or any other woman. Harper found the thought was sadder for him than for her.

  CHAPTER 7

  Kristen exited her doctor’s office in complete disbelief. What had started as her required, routine checkup and blood work for her club membership, had turned into something more…something wonderful. Her mouth had dropped to the floor when the doctor congratulated her on her pregnancy. The thought that she might be pregnant never occurred to her since her periods were back to being irregular. Devon and she had agreed she would stop taking her birth control shortly after their wedding and let nature take its course.

  Holy shit-balls! She was fucking pregnant! As in having a baby. Starting a family. Something she’d always dreamed of was now coming true. She couldn’t wait to tell Devon—but she would have to. She didn’t want to do it over the phone or when he was so exhausted between guarding Harper and Mara, and dealing with both businesses. She wanted to tell him when he was relaxed and not so many things were on his mind. For now, it was her little secret. She wasn’t telling anyone until she told her husband. Thankfully, the doctor was willing to withhold the information from her medical clearance for the club. It helped that her new GYN was a member of The Covenant and knew Kristen wasn’t into any play which would be harmful to the baby.

  A baby! She climbed into
her car and sat there a moment, still trying to wrap her mind around the news. A fluttering in her gut was most likely butterflies taking flight, but the thought that it could be the little life developing there had a silly grin spreading across her face. The doctor had prescribed pre-natal vitamins for her and she planned on stopping at the pharmacy after her book signing event at a little local bookstore, which specialized in selling romance novels. Speaking of which, she had to hurry to make sure she wasn’t late. The publicity assistant provided by her publisher had called before Kristen went into her 10:00 a.m. appointment and informed her the line was already out the door and down the block. And that had been a little over an hour ago. Leather & Lace was an even bigger hit than Satin & Sin had been and she was hoping her newly finished book, Velvet Vixen, reached similar success when it was released in a few weeks. With Devon acting as her muse again, this time for the fictional Master Zach, how could it not be?

  Twenty minutes later, she parked her car behind the bookstore to avoid the throngs of fans at the front. Janice, her assistant, was waiting at the rear door, along with a man Kristen did not recognize, but based on his attire and the flowers he was carrying, she assumed he was a deliveryman. It wasn’t unusual for her to receive presents from fans, and some would have them delivered if they couldn’t attend the event.

  As Kristen approached them, the man stepped forward. “Kristen Anders Sawyer?”

  “Yes, I’m she. Janice, can you take them for me, please?” she asked, pulling off her light-weight coat and shifting her purse to the other shoulder. But instead of handing over the flowers to either one of them, the man pulled an envelope from beneath the bouquet and held it out to Kristen. Instinctively, she took it and looked at him in confusion. It was then she realized he’d called her by both her maiden and married names. “What’s this?”

  “A summons, Mrs. Sawyer. You’ve been served. Have a nice day.”

  * * *