Kase stands several feet away, facing his brother with a not-quite hostile stance. He keeps Brooklyn half behind his body. I drink in what I can see of her. There's color high in her cheeks, and despite her very apparent anxiety, I've never seen her look more beautiful. Her belly has adopted a soft but very obvious curve. She's traded blue jeans and her club jacket for a loose-fitting dress.
My little girl is going to have a baby. The realization slams home once again. I have the pictures in my wallet, crumpled from all the times I stared at them in anger. Now, seeing the reality, I can't believe I ever hated the kid. Yes, it's part of him. But it's also part ofher.My grandkid. Penelope's niece or nephew.
I have to save Penelope, if only so she can be an aunt and impart sage wisdom on the kid.
"He's a dead man," Cruz repeats.
"All right," I agree, stepping out from the stairwell and into plain view. "But can it wait until after we've retrieved Penelope?"
The silence in the room is total, every eye in the room drawn toward me. Their expressions run the gamut from fear, disbelief, and then to anger. None of them have reached for their weapons at the moment, which is the only reason I'm still standing. The glare Cruz pins me with shouts murderous intent.
Brooklyn moves first, pushing out from behind Kase with a cry of happiness. She flings herself into my arms, and I gather her up, lifting her easily from the floor the way I used to when she was a little girl. She feels almost as light as she did then. The warm, sweet scent of her is familiar and beloved. I hold her. If I can say my goodbyes to her properly and rescue Penelope, I'll die a happy man.
"Daddy!" Brooklyn's cry is muffled in my shoulder. When she pulls away, tears stream down her face, belied by an elated smile. "What are you doing here? We thought-"
"Step the fuck away from him, Brooklyn," Cruz orders coldly.
The sight of him awakens all my old instincts, and I glower back at him. He looks like his father all those years ago. Strong. Self-important. Angry at the whole fucking world for all the ways he thought life had slighted him. My hand itches to go for the Glock tucked into my back holster. Though they're identical, Cruz's demeanor aggravates me far more than Kase's. Maybe it's because he was the disloyal, disappointing son to Cruz Sr. Maybe it's because I can't bring myself to despise him for Brooklyn's sake. Whatever the reason, it's easier than I could ever dream to ignore him.
Brooklyn turns, plastering her back to my front to shield me.
"No! Put the gun down, Cruz! You can't just-"
"Kase, get your wife, and get her out of here. She shouldn't have to see this."
Maybe he'll shoot with her in the way. Maybe not. But I'm not taking that chance. I seize her gently by the shoulders and give her a light shove toward Kase. His hands shoot out immediately to catch her, hugging her close to his chest. She struggles, trying to return to my side.
"Don't interfere, Brook," I say, pleading with my eyes for her to stay out of this.
If she tries to jump in front of a bullet for me again, I'll lose my fucking mind. That had been the worst moment of my life, watching her legs fold, and a scarlet stain spread across her chest, a horrifying echo of what had happened to her mother years before.
I turn my attention back to Cruz. The blonde from before is at his side, trying to tug his elbow down. She's whispering furiously in my ear. He shrugs her off, never taking his eyes from me.
"I'm not letting him walk out of here, Holls. He killed my father. He raped my sister."
"I tried to kill your father," I acknowledge with a nod. "But I didn't rape your sister."
His face flushes an unhealthy puce color.
"Bull-fucking-shit!" he explodes. "I saw the picture, Gardel!"
A small smirk tugs at the corner of my mouth. It's foolish, and it will antagonize them, but I can't help it. "I said I didn't rape her. I never said I didn't fuck her."
The gun jerks up toward my face, and he squeezes the trigger. I duck right, flinching away from the enormous crack of sound. The shot goes wide, striking the drywall and burrowing in deep, leaving a puckered hole where my head had been only moments previously. My ears ring in the aftermath, and I'm not the only one suffering discomfort. In this closed-off space, it's just like clashing cymbals next to our ears.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Cruz demands. "You were supposed to be at the boundary line. Then we got a call from Penny's ex, Marcus, that you'd taken her to the Hellions instead."
The possessive caveman in me lunges to the fore and demands I rip the arms off of this Marcus character for having the nerve to touch her. But then I remember that the bastard can't have been very good if she responded so well and so enthusiastically to the minimum I'd done at the beginning. A woman accustomed to pleasure may have been able to hold out longer against me. So this Marcus isn't a threat. At least, not where Penelope is concerned.
"She was taken from me. Believe me, I sure as hell wasn't turning her over. Not after everything we'd done."
Cruz's entire body vibrates with the intensity of his rage. Kase looks ready to come after me, but Brooklyn's gentle, restraining hand on his elbow seems to keep him at least somewhat sane.
The blonde has to step in front of him once again when he tries to come for me. He stops dead when his jerky lunge forward hurts her. A better man than his father already, if he gave a damn about anything but his target. Maybe there's hope for the rest of the Cruz family.
"Daddy, what are you doing here?" Brooklyn asks.
She's caged her optimism behind a fence of caution. She can't disguise she's pleased to see me. She'll be less so if I end up plugged full of holes. I really ought to stop baiting the trigger-happy leader and get to the point.
