“A little.”
He grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and tucked her into it. She was covered, wrapped up in a protective cocoon.
“Uh, how do I drink my tea?” she asked.
“Just let me worry about that. You just heal. I’ll sweat everything else for you until you’re strong enough to stand on your own.”
Her heart skipped as he held the cup for her.
“Thank you, Mr. Holloway.”
“Please call me Gamble.”
“Because you are one?” she asked.
“Nah! My mother wanted a fun name and I was named after a character in one of her favorite books. I think she was prophetic. It turned out to be a good choice. I take them.”
She smiled.
“You’d be worth it,” she stated out of the blue.
He didn’t get it.
“What?” he asked, not understanding what she meant by that.
“That gamble. You’d be worth it. I can tell. Once, what seems like eons ago, I was good at reading people. It’s what made me perfect for undercover work. You have many layers.”
Oh, she had no freaking idea.
He knew there were layers that he hadn’t even found yet, and that might just be a damn good thing.
For everyone.
Silently, Gamble helped her drink her tea.
She may be the ONLY person in the whole world who thought he was worth that risk. While she was broken by a sick man...
Gamble…he was broken by life.
HIS.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Park
Picnic Basket
Date
As they sat there, sharing the lunch that Stella had ordered for them, Boone was happy to be with his wife. It wasn’t often that they were able to take time and be together. In fact, it was one of those moments he’d treasure.
Why?
That was simple. His wife was smiling, happy to be working, and enjoying life. That was all he ever wanted for her, and him.
Yeah, they had it good.
“You like helping them, cher?” he asked, feeding her some pasta salad with the plastic fork.
Merry didn’t hesitate.
“YES! It’s fun using my brain. I forget to do it sometimes when I’m on mommy autopilot. It’s all day baby.”
He knew she’d struggled with it after the nesting phase had finished.
“Are you sorry?” he asked.
“About?”
“Giving it up?”
She laughed.
“Are you kidding? I get to have sex with a voodoo-practicing Native. That’s an oddity right there. I may have one of the only ones out there.”
He laughed.
“Maybe.”
She smiled sweetly at him and fed him an olive.
Boone was going to make a sacrifice. For his wife, he was going to take one for the team.
“We can go back North so you can work again…,” he offered, crossing his fingers that she’d laugh at that offer.
Oh, he hoped she said no. He hated the snow, the cold, the fact that they worked opposite hours all the damn time.
She didn’t answer.
It made him nervous.
“Merry?”
“We need to sell the cabin,” she stated, without batting an eye.
Oh, this was not happening.
Bloody hell!
So much for wishing.
“Okay,” he said, willing to take one for the team if that was what it required. “To move?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“To?”
“A bigger house. I’m pregnant,” she stated, “and it sucks that I can’t surprise you, Mr. Voodoo.”
He stared at her.
There was that relief.
“You scared me shitless. I thought you were going to go back to the FBI.”
She giggled.
“Nah. That’s too many hours. Maybe they’ll let me help here when they need me.”
Boone kissed her.
Now that his fear of leaving The Big Easy was over, he could work on the next part of her declaration.
A NEW BABY.
“I’m going to be a daddy. It’s a girl. I know it.”
“BOONE! Stop! You always ruin the fun!”
“Cher, I can’t help it. I can’t wait until we have more. I want a big house filled with happy little children.”
She made a snipping sign with her fingers when he said, ‘filled with’.
He actually paled and looked horrified at the notion that she’d do that to him.
“Cher!”
It made her laugh.
“Boone Savage, I love you. Forever.”
He did too.
And she was right.
Helping them out was pretty cool.
Justice didn’t always get served.
With them, it had a fighting chance.
Chapter Seventeen
Burger Joint
Outside
Patio
R ogue was on a rampage. No, that was an understatement. What he was feeling at that moment was beyond that. The woman had gone after someone who was totally off limits in his life. His mother was the ONLY thing he had that wasn’t defiled by his sperm donor and his choices.
How DARE she abduct her to grill her?
That was crossing a line he’d never forgive.
NEVER.
There was nothing he wanted more than to grab her and shake her for doing this. He’d genuinely liked her. He’d genuinely wanted something with her.
Until this moment.
NOW…
Yeah, it was no holds barred. He’d been patient, and he’d swallowed a lot.
Hell!
He’d been a gentleman.
Now, he was going to show her what happened when you crossed that very dark line in the sand. The detective was going to see that Grace Ravenscroft was not to be fucked with when it came to ANY case.
NOT on his watch.
Detective Harding was sick in the head if she thought this was going to fly! She’d taken his sick mother, likely questioned her in some police building, and was trying to smooth it over with a shitty burger!
How dare the detective go there?
How dare Cordelia drag her off like some fucking common criminal?
Not only was she screwed personally with him, but she was fucked professionally. He would have a fleet of attorneys chewing the hell out of her ass, and her boss’s ass too.
This was not happening.
IT.
WAS.
DONE.
She was done!
As he pulled his car up to the dive burger joint, he saw them sitting outside on a patio. They were eating, and it wasn’t food that was healthy for his mother.
Her doctor gave her a list of things not to eat, and here the detective was, giving her even more of a death sentence.
It added to his anger.
It threw gasoline on his temper.
He had NEVER been this angry before. Generally, Rogue was laid back, but this?
OH, THIS WAS WAR!
Storming toward them, he stopped and glared down at the detective.
“What is this?” he asked, catching them, and everyone around them, who was enjoying lunch, off guard. “What do you think you are doing, Detective Harding?” he asked.
Both women stared at him.
Cordelia didn’t understand why he was so angry with her. What had she done? She opened her mouth to explain, and she was hit with a barrage of anger.
She became his whipping boy.
“Is this some game to you? She’s sick. My mother is dying from cancer, and you have her out eating at some fast food grease pit? Are you pumping her for information on me, and what I’ve already reassured you was absolute truth?”
She opened her mouth again.
“HOW dare you come to her home and make her feel like a common criminal? Maybe that’s the kind of people you associate with since you’re from
them, but she IS NOT!”
Grace gasped.
Cordelia took it. She took every angry barb from him because in a way, he was right. She was beneath them both, and here, she’d had hope. For a couple hours, she felt like she mattered to someone.
Now, her heart hurt.
Cordelia didn’t know what she did, but his barbs hit their mark. Sadly, he was correct.
She didn’t deserve to be anywhere near Grace, even if she found that she loved the woman’s vivacity, tenacity, and peace. It wasn’t Rogue that made her want to love Grace.
It was the woman herself.
For couple hours, she’d been genuinely happy—both of them had been, and now it was time to pay for living in that fantasy world.
“I’m sorry,” she got out between his tirade.
“Rogue!” his mother said, horrified by her son’s behavior, and in public. He was making a scene.
“Not now, Mother. I will not have this DETECTIVE harassing you. She crossed a line, and her pathetic apology is not accepted. She needs to stay away from you, and from me!”
Cordelia stood.
He’d made it clear.
Cordelia would stay away. She’d never look at either of them again. Here, she’d crossed into hope, and now she saw that it was something she’d never had a chance to have.
Reaching into her pocket, Cordelia refused to look up because of the humiliation she was feeling, and that EVERYONE was staring at them, she pulled money out of her pocket.
Normally, she’d fight, but he was right.
She was nothing to anyone.
“Thank you for joining me, Mrs. Ravenscroft. I’d bring you home, but that would be abducting you again,” she said softly.
“Cordelia, please wait,” Grace said, seeing the tears in the woman’s eyes. She’d been humiliated, and it wasn’t deserved.
“You’ll beat cancer. I know you will.”
Cordelia tossed the money down and left her food and dignity behind. She’d been right. The man would kill part of her. She just didn’t think it would be a public flogging. While she was strong, she was only so strong.
This…
Yeah, this would take a long time to get over. What started as her wanting to make a connection to his mother, so they could maybe start something together, ended with her having her ass handed to her by a very angry rich dude.
It was a shitty week for her.
A.
Damn.
Shitty.
Week.
Apparently, this was going to be the walk of shame two-point-oh. This was her worst nightmare, and now it was coming true.
As she walked away, she still didn’t look at him, but she did have one thing to say to the man.
“Lose my number, Mr. Ravenscroft. You’re on your own. I never want to hear from you or see you again.”
And then she was gone.
He watched as she got into her car and pulled away. He was so grateful she was gone. She’d lied to him and used him to hurt his mother.
It was a flashback of Charlotte. He was done being used by women—even if he’d loved another one.
“I’ll take you home, Mother.”
She stared at him like she didn’t even recognize him.
“I will be doing no such thing, Alistair Reginald Ravenscroft,” she said, pointing at him. “What has come over you?” she asked. “I have never seen you act like such a….” She searched for a word suitable for his behavior. “JACKASS!”
He brushed it off.
“We need to get you home, Mother. You might catch a chill here in this…place.”
Oh, she had enough.
“That’s it! I need you to stop!”
He didn’t understand.
“Stop what? She was harassing you. I don’t want her making you stressed.”
STRESSED?
What the hell did he think all of this was?
“You need to stop babying me. I’m not dying of cancer, Rogue. I’m living with it! For months, I’ve been locked in a house, treated like I’m an invalid.”
“Mother, you have cancer.”
“Yes, yes, I do, and sitting here, I was able to have lunch with a very nice woman. That woman took her afternoon off to spend time with me. The detective helped me knock something off my bucket list.”
He was confused.
“You have a bucket list?”
Really?
Why didn’t he, her son, know that?
“Yes, I do, but you wouldn’t know that, now would you? Cordelia took time out of her day and took me out on an adventure! She took me to the police firing range, and she showed me how to fire a gun!”
He stared at her.
“I didn’t think you really wanted to learn how to do that,” he stated, getting that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Oh, I did, and know what else we did?”
He was afraid to ask.
“She took me for a pedicure and we were having a nice lunch. I was craving a burger. God forbid, that at my age, I can pick my own food. You have everyone in MY HOME acting like they are on death watch. How did you find me?”
He swallowed.
“I had private security following you.”
“SEE? You have become obsessed with me living or dying, and in the process, you are killing me. Today, I was able to get out, and you know what?”
He felt horrible.
He’d made a huge mistake.
“What?” he asked, as EVERYONE watched his mother dress him down.
And he deserved it.
He’d just done the same to Cordelia.
“I feel alive. I have energy. I walked around, I talked to people, and I made a friend. I like her. She came to my home to talk to me.”
“Yeah, about a case that shouldn’t involve you.”
“NO, you irritating man. She came to get me to like her so she could date you. She wanted to have a shot at you, and you told her I didn’t like Charlotte. SO, instead of getting hurt later, she faced down her fear. You just chased away my new friend. She has bigger balls than the boy I raised, and more couth than most people I know. Had you HUMILIATED me like that, I would have punched you in the damn face.”
OH, Jesus.
What had he done?
He was really sick now. Cordelia went to his mother to get her approval to see him. He’d assumed, and he’d been so very wrong. He figured it was case related. He didn’t think she’d do it so she could…
Shit!
“I like her, Alistair! She’s a very good person!” she said, using his real name. When she was this pissed, which RARELY happened, she was going to get control of her life and her world. Since she pushed him out, she’d call him what she damn well named him!
Yeah, he’d thought that too when she showed up at the base to give him all of the police information she had. She’d met him more than halfway, and he’d just destroyed her faith in him.
“You are insane,” she stated. “In fact, if I was to pick a woman for you, SHE WOULD have been the one. She’s smart. She’s sweet. Oh, and she clearly has self-control.”
“The nanny told me she took you away and I…”
Grace stopped him.
“She drove me to the range since she’s a cop and getting out of a limo is embarrassing to her. She had a hard life, and you just broke her. Shame on you. That woman took the time to sit and listen to me. She told me about her life, and she is a good person. You just fucked up.”
He stared at her, surprised his mother cursed. He couldn’t remember the last time she did that.
“YES, I’m that pissed at you. Now, I’m going home. I do NOT want to see you until you fix this. She didn’t deserve that. She was being kind to an old woman. IN FACT, she, who works damn hard, paid for me today. She didn’t even try to get me to pay. That gold digging bitch you brought home last time was more concerned with what she could get out of you, and me. She may have had bad parents, but they were NOT the child. You were raised better than
this.”
With that, she stood.
“Where is your private security for me?”
He pointed.
“He will bring me home. YOU…I have nothing to say to you at this point. You are a jerk! I am disappointed in you for the first time in my life!”
The people around her began clapping.
“SEE? Even they agree.”
With that, his mother walked off, leaving him standing there, facing an audience of people.
Jesus.
What had he done?
When she was gone, he pulled out his phone. Rogue made a call to the only person who could help him.
When Sarah answered, he spoke into the phone.
“I fucked up. I need to make it right,” then he told her about what he’d done.
“Oh, Rogue. You didn’t!”
“Yeah, I know. How do I fix this?”
He wasn’t sure he could.
“You can’t let too much time go by. She’s upset, but soon, she’ll be pissed. A pissed cop with a gun…”
Yeah, he was aware.
“Can you cover me tonight at the site? I will try to get back in time, but this may take a while. I have to fix this.”
“Yeah, I was going to go anyway, but sure, I’ll cover for you. I hope you work it out,” she stated.
Yeah, so did he.
It looked like he owed the detective a huge apology.
She’d been the decent person, and he’d been…
One hell of a jerk.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Wednesday
Late Afternoon
Dakota couldn’t understand where the hell Rogue was. They’d called him a few times, and he wasn’t answering. He really hoped he wasn’t trying to bury the detective’s body.
Then again, with this group…
Who knew?
As Zayn walked in, he was dressed in his gear, and ready to go. They looked like commandos, but after the last operation, no one wanted to get shanked like a bitch in jail.
“Is he here yet?” he asked.
“No, and this isn’t going to be good with only two people. Last time, we had three, and barely pulled it off.”
Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two) Page 44
