Prologue.
Adam - November 2024.
Miserably, I stared out of the window, wondering just what the fuck I was doing. Rina was somewhere painting, and the kids were with a nanny. Because I couldn’t care for my own kids, not as a cripple—or so everyone thought.
A low growl escaped me as I gazed in hate at the scene outside.
Bodyguards moved quietly through the grounds of James Washington’s estate. That had been me before a war that wasn’t mine arrived. Before it took my fuckin’ mobility. Anger briefly replaced misery, and I smashed a hand down on the table next to me and stumbled away.
My limp was pronounced; there was no hiding it. The physiotherapists called it a miracle that I was able to walk. The surgeon said it was a wonder my leg was saved.
Me? I thought they should have let me die. Being unable to do my job, to be the man I was, wasn’t a fuckin’ miracle. No, it was a slow death sentence. James had a new personal bodyguard,a smug bastard who’d taken my place. Every time I saw him, I yearned to smash his face in.
The asshole was doing my job, the thing Frank had trained me for. Frank hadn’t prepared me for how to cope if I couldn’t do my duties. The guards avoided me, unsure how to act. Not only had I been James’s bodyguard, but also head of security. Now Tate was. Fuck him.
I moved away from where I’d been sitting. I was in the library doing absolutely nothing because, you know, I was a cripple. Screams of laughter came from outside, and the window drew my attention again.
I shuffled across and saw James with the children. Not just his, but mine too. So much for the nanny.
James was playing ball with them despite the cold. For a moment, I hated him and his ability to run around and play normally with the kids. James had been my brother until this. Now, I didn’t know what we were. We weren’t as close as we once were, probably my fault. Kate and James had been constant companions during my time in the hospital, but James hadn’t met my eyes. He’d guessed, as I had, that my career was finished. Blown apart by a fuckin’ Venomous Fang.
I didn’t need the relieved looks and Rina’s muttered prayers. She’d have been better off if I’d died. Instead, she’d given my kids a disabled person for a father. Their peers would tease and bully them, and that was on my head.
Why the hell hadn’t that missile taken my life? That would have been kinder.
Rina appeared from one of the side entrances. I thought she’d been painting. However, she was wrapped up warmly against the cold and began playing with James and the kids. Bitterness welled, and I barely managed to refrain from screaming at them. The kids ran and laughed as James and Rina chased them.
Once again, I pulled out my gun and stared at it. How effortless would it be to eat a bullet? Too damn easy, and yet the coward I’d become couldn’t do it. I was terrified. For eighteen months, I’d tried and failed, and today would be just the same. Too messed up to live and too scared to die. What a wonderful example of a man I was.
Chapter One.
Rina
“Adam’s spiralling, James,” I admitted.
“Yeah, I’ve seen the signs. Adam’s falling deeper into depression,” James agreed.
“James, I’m lost. Adam won’t talk to me, I feel like I’m losing him,” I muttered.
James nodded. I knew he was concerned about Adam, too. My nephew, Walker, whom I’d adopted as a young child, approached quietly. Walker had been my sister Ava’s son, and his father had been Adam. Adam hadn’t known about him until Walker got very ill. When contacted, a whole load of lies had been uncovered, and Adam and I had fallen in love.
Walker wore a worried expression. I couldn’t believe he was sixteen. Walker had battled some serious health problems, requiring a liver transplant, which Adam had provided the organ for. He’d been ten when that happened.
Adam and I had been together for six years, and we’d had three children during that time. Three boys and one girl, including Walker. I couldn’t help thinking about the past when our future was so uncertain.
“You okay?” I asked as Walker stopped.
“Yeah… no. Dad’s brooding again.”
“We were discussing that,” I said.
“Did I find Dad just to lose him to this shit?” Walker demanded, and I barely hid a chuckle back.
“Language!” I snapped without rancour, and Walker shrugged.
James lifted one eyebrow, and Walker blanched. “Sorry.”
Amused, I bit the inside of my cheek. Walker was the image of Adam right down to his attitude. The only thing he’d inherited from Ava had been her honey-blonde hair.
