Less Broken

by Eve R. Hart

  “Alright,” I said as I forced my comfortable body to get up. “We should shower and then you can go check on all your babies.”

  He laughed as I rolled my eyes. The man did love all those animals. So did I, even if I gave him crap about the way he was with them.

  My lips met his chest before I sat up. I always had to kiss that scar that was there. It was a reminder of how he’d saved my life. How he’d saved Silvie too. I had almost lost him and so, I kissed it every single time I could because I was thankful that he was still here.

  “Hold on,” he said as he grabbed my wrist to stop me from moving off of him. “I have something for you.”

  “Oh, a present?!” I said excitedly.

  He only smiled as he leaned over to pull something out of the table next to the bed.

  I gasped in shock as he came back with a little square box.

  I knew my cheeks were bright red and my eyes were so wide they probably resembled those of an owl’s.

  He pulled the top back toward his face, revealing the solid black metal band nestled inside.

  I swallowed, my hand stuck to my chest over my heart like I was afraid to reach for the ring.

  Was this for real?

  Tears streamed down my cheeks and I shouldn’t have been surprised to feel them there.

  His tongue rolled over his bottom lip and if I wasn’t mistaken, he looked a bit nervous.

  “Yes!” I blurted out before he even asked anything.

  He chuckled and I bashfully smiled down at him.

  Then he cleared his throat and regained his composure.

  “I’m better with you at my side,” he said, causing the tears to fall harder. “I love you and this is my promise that I’m not going anywhere. Please say you’ll spend this life with me.”

  “Yes,” I said again, this time it came out softer. “But I already said that, so…”

  He pulled the ring out a little too slowly for my eagerly waiting hand. I was shaking so hard, I wasn’t sure how he even got it on. But he did. And the moment it was there, everything felt perfect.

  I studied it for a long moment with a huge smile on my face.

  I’d put his dog tags away not long after we moved into this house. They were tucked away safely in a box that sat in the middle of the dresser. I loved having a piece of him close to my heart, but I let them go because I wanted him to move forward. And the constant reminder of the things that had happened while he wore them was there between us every time I took off my clothes. So, with love and respect, I gave them a place to rest. He’d always be that soldier but that wasn’t all that he was. It wasn’t the only thing he could be.

  So this ring brought me back that piece that I felt I’d been missing since I took them off. I now had a physical reminder of how Cade had my heart and I had his.

  “I love you, too,” I whispered as I leaned down to kiss him. “Now let me show you just how much.”

  It was his turn to look shocked.

  Somehow, I still took him by surprise when I made bold sexual advances.

  Just another thing I loved.

  And I had a feeling the list would only keep growing.

  Cade

  Six months later…

  My phone rang just as I finished dropping Silvie off at school. It was getting close to summer vacation and I was excited that we wouldn’t have to get up and rush out of the house first thing in the morning. Not that I minded driving her to school. I rather liked our chats on the way there. Well, more like she talked and I just listened.

  She was happy.

  So making the drive five days a week through Atlanta traffic was a simple price to pay.

  Reed’s name popped up on the dash and I hit the answer button.

  “What?” I barked just to give him hell.

  “Such a dick,” he shot back and I laughed.

  “What do you want?”

  Reed had been spending more time down here. He’d pretty much moved in full time to his fancy-ass penthouse. He’d opened up another division of his company right in the middle of downtown Atlanta and his focus had been on building it up. So it made sense for him to be here a lot.

  He’d also pulled Theon in. I wasn’t all that sure what he had Theon doing, but I know the two worked closely together. Hell, Theon was over the moon and loving it, so I couldn’t have asked for more.

  “It’s time,” Reed said.

  I didn’t have to ask what the hell he’d meant by that. I’d been waiting months for him to finally open up to me about whatever the hell he’d been putting together. Whatever it was that involved that Jameson guy, who I still didn’t know a thing about. I hadn’t even seen him since that night, but I knew Reed had kept him around.

  “Get here,” he said. “Theon will meet you in the lobby.”

  And so I wasted no time getting there.

  Sometimes I met Theon for lunch, but so far, I hadn’t been granted clearance beyond the main lobby. It made me suspicious, sure, but I knew I had nothing to worry about. I never asked Theon because I knew Reed probably had some top-secret shit he was working on. I trusted them, and that was all that mattered.

  That said, I was secretly dying inside to know what was up.

  However, I was a little nervous now that Reed was calling me in.

  I pulled open the huge glass doors at the front of the building and strolled inside. Theon was there with a smile on his face, waiting right next to the security desk.

  “Welcome, Mr. Jones,” he said and I raised a brow at him.

  It was strange, but also really sexy.

  “Now is not the time,” he whispered as he leaned into me. All I could do was smile because he’d read my thoughts.

  “You should call me that when we’re at home,” I muttered so low that only he would hear.

  “This way,” he said like he was ignoring me. The red on his cheeks told me otherwise.

  He led me to the elevators on the far back wall. Once he scanned his card, we began to rise.

  Then I was on him not giving a fuck if he was trying to be professional.

  “Cade,” he said after I’d kissed him long and hard. “Cameras.”

  His eyes flickered up to the corner of the elevator.

  “Don’t care,” I told him as I turned and faced forward. I might have been able to pull off casual right now, but there was no way Theon could. He looked dazed. And I loved it. “Are you going to give me a hint as to why I’m here?”

  “Nope,” he replied with a small smirk. “Now, behave.”

  We stepped off the elevator and I took a long moment to glance around.

  The middle of the room was all open. There were a handful of desks set up and the place looked like something out of a bad CIA TV show.

  I didn’t even hold back the eye roll because this was all Reed.

  God, he was such a nerd at heart.

  I followed behind Theon as he walked right down the middle of those desks.

  Along the back wall was a door and he turned the handle before holding it open for me.

  I took a step in and came to a stop.

  Yep, I was convinced I was in some show now.

  The room held a long table surrounded by a bunch of chairs.

  In one of those chairs, sat that guy Jameson. There also were two other men that I didn’t recognize. I paid them little attention as I turned my gaze to my friend on the other side of the room. He stood there in his suit looking rather pleased. And beside him was another man that I didn’t know. But I could tell you, he screamed FBI.

  The wall behind Reed held multiple TVs that were blank at the moment.

  “Sit,” Reed barked after I hadn’t moved for a minute.

  With a roll of my eyes, I did as I was told.

  Theon came in and slipped a sheet of paper in front of me before doing the same to the three other men seated at the table. Then he took a seat closer to where Reed was standing. I shot him a look and he simply smiled back at me.

  “First,”
Reed started looking serious. “I need you to sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement in front of you. Even if you decide this isn’t for you, nothing in this room can leave this floor.”

  I blinked at him feeling blindsided and clueless.

  I drew in a breath and quickly scanned the document. Then, just to appease him, I scribbled my name across the line at the bottom.

  Theon rose, collected the paperwork, and returned to his seat. After checking it over, he gave Reed a firm nod.

  “This has been a long time in the works. I’m glad to finally bring everyone on board,” Reed started. I gave him my full attention because I could tell this meant a lot to him. I’d support him, no matter what. Even if this was starting to feel super cheesy. “Welcome to Project Shadow Guardian.”

  I snorted.

  It just slipped out.

  I had expected him to be joking but the look on his face said he wasn’t.

  I shot up out of my seat with a shake of my head.

  “No,” I told him. “That’s too nerdy, even for you.”

  I walked out because I couldn’t get on board with something I couldn’t even take seriously.

  Reed rushed to follow me out and I stopped when he grabbed onto my arm.

  “Okay, so the name isn’t great,” he said with a sigh. Clearly, he had thought it was awesome until I burst his bubble. “You know I’ve always wished I could be a superhero. I couldn’t go out there and be a real hero like you, so this as is close as it gets for me.”

  “Reed,” I said with a small sigh. Yeah, I felt like shit now.

  “I started this because of you.”

  My head jerked back with shock and I was speechless. I couldn’t begin to explain why, but to know that I had that much of an impact on his life floored me.

  “I saw how you were when you came back,” he said and a deep sadness filled his eyes. “I wanted to help but I didn’t know how to. Then I started thinking about people out there just like you. Ones that struggle to fit into this world after what they’ve been through. Ones that are alive when maybe they thought they shouldn’t be. I just wanted to do something. I thought that if I could give you a purpose, then maybe you’d feel alive again.”

  I was damn near in tears.

  I pulled him into a hard hug and held him for a long moment.

  “We’ll work on the name,” I mumbled as a way of giving in. I pulled back to look at him.

  “The name stays,” he said with a smile.

  “Fine.” I sighed and shook my head. “Let’s go. Tell us all about it.”

  Then my feet were carrying me back to the room.

  I took my seat again ready to listen to him.

  Ready to be there for whatever journey he wanted me to take with him.

  Reed

  “Welcome to Project Shadow Guardian,” I repeated once again just to get on Cade’s nerves.

  I might have been playing around, but I was very serious about this project. I had kept it from Cade because, in all honesty, I wasn’t sure how he’d react to it. It could have been the very thing that destroyed our friendship. I think he was in a place now to accept that he hadn’t been right since returning that last time. I was glad that he’d found the strength to seek out help. I had Theon to thank for that, I was sure. And Silvie. Cade couldn’t say no to that cute little girl. Which, I couldn’t blame him. It was the same for me when it came to her.

  If there was ever a right time, now was it.

  At least I’d been able to get him to come back into the meeting room. If anything, he’d stick around long enough to hear me out. And if I was lucky, I’d be able to make him see that this was something he wanted to be a part of. I didn’t want to do this without him, he was the reason I thought of this idea in the first place. I couldn’t watch him suffer any longer and I thought if I could just give him something good to focus on, then maybe I’d give him purpose to live again.

  “First, let me start off by introducing, Ford Priestley.”

  The former Deputy Director for the FBI.

  I saw the moment it registered in Cade’s brain.

  “Thought you were… let go,” Cade said gruffly and without any sense of tact.

  “I was,” Ford stepped up to say. And yes, I was on a first name basis with the man. We’d talked enough at this point that I’d finally taken him up on his offer to call him Ford. “Or that was what everyone was led to think. I’m now running my own division.”

  “Let me guess, one that doesn’t really exist.”

  I could hear the air quotes in Cade’s tone.

  Ford chuckled under his breath and took Cade’s gruffness in stride.

  “I reached out to Mr. Willis in hopes that we could work with him in the development of his new software,” Ford carried on with a glance in my direction at the mention of my name.

  Cade held a face that said he had no interest in working for the off-the-books government division.

  “I’ve contracted Mr. Willis, so you will not directly work for me. This is his division. His project. And should you choose to become a part of it, you will be working for him.”

  I nodded at his statement. All of this I already knew and had made clear rules about. This was mine. The people I brought on would be working for me and I would be the one to look out for them. We wouldn’t become some government side project that had the potential to get shut down at any moment.

  That said, if shit ever did hit the fan, we were on our own.

  I just had to make sure that didn’t happen.

  “I’ve developed a program that works similar to facial recognition,” I started after Ford had wrapped up his little intro speech and left.

  He knew that I wouldn’t share the details of my program with him. He understood the gist of what it did, and he’d seen some of the results it had yielded. The only reason I’d brought him in today was for the purpose of having full disclosure with the men at the table. If they were going to join the team, they were going to do it knowing everything. Now, I just had to keep from geeking out as I talked about what this new program could do. I wanted them to follow along, not zone out in La La Land because they couldn’t understand half of what I was talking about.

  “Basically, much like how facial recognition looks for patterns in the face and searches out anything with those combined patterns, this program will search for behaviors. It will seek out and follow certain patterns and words, thus leading us to illegal activity. From there, we can shut it down and find out who is behind it.”

  I glanced around and was happy to see that they were all following along with interest. Well, except for Jameson, I couldn’t read that guy to save my life.

  “I may only be speaking for myself,” Cade piped in. “But I can’t do any of that computer shit. Why am I here? How am I supposed to help?”

  I smiled. He sounded very curious, and one thing I knew about Cade, if he was curious that meant he was interested.

  “There’s only so much I can do from here,” I went on. “I need people I can send out too. People that can handle going into certain situations. Sometimes you will be required to report back with your findings, and sometimes, you may have to become more involved.”

  I was dancing around what that meant, but I could tell they all understood my unsaid meaning.

  “What kinds of illegal activities?” Cade asked.

  “Right now, the main focus is child pornography. It’s not limited to that. We’ve also been able to find and aid in the shut down of four sex trafficking rings. I’m growing it every day, but I’ll be honest, it’s still very new.”

  “Alright,” Cade said, his eyes going to my little brother, who I was excited to share this project with. Right now, he was more of my sidekick, acting more like an assistant in a way. But I had plans for him once we got up and running. Ones that I knew Cade would be okay with him doing. “I’m in.”

  Theon nodded proudly at his soon-to-be husband.

  Everything felt like it was coming together. And
I wasn’t only talking about work.

  My family.

  Because that was what we were.

  And that included my cute as hell niece, Silvie. I definitely couldn’t forget about her.

  The others around the table followed Cade’s lead and chimed in that they were on board as well.

  Again, not so much Jameson, who simply sent me a firm nod. I already had an idea that he was in since he’d basically been my guinea pig for the last seven months. He knew what was coming, I just hadn’t made it official until today.

  With that, I let out a subtle long breath.

  Yes, I had been nervous about this whole thing. What if it blew up in my face or everyone walked out on me?

  But that hadn’t happened. I guess I should have listened to Theon when he told me everything would work out.

  I glanced at him to see he already had a wide smile on his face just waiting for me.

  “Welcome to Project Shadow Guardian, gentlemen,” I said just to get a rise out of Cade. He groaned. I expected it. “Glad to have you on board.”

  The End

  Acknowledgements

  I hope you like this new series. Thanks for giving it a try. I’ve always wanted to do a series like this and it means a lot to me that you’re taking this journey with me. So, huge thanks and hugs to all of you.

  Jordan, what can I say? You are the bestest. Ever. Thank you for sticking by my side and listening me go on about things that I might not ever finish. Sorry I teased you and left you hanging.

  Chloe, you are amazing. Shit sucks some times and we need to hide in a hole for a while. But amazing friends are always there to check on you and ready with air hugs when you come out of it. Thanks for always being there.

  To my tribe, I love you ladies. You are the fucking best. Sanjana, Beth, Brittany, Krissy, Shanna, KC, Maggie, Shari, Julie, and Tina, I love you guys. Thanks for reading my stuff early and checking on me. Thanks for making me laugh and talking about books. You keep me going and distract me when I need a break.