She didn’t think this would be any different. She actually got excited at the idea of watching him work.
“What do you do in Texas?”
Lana bit her lip slightly. She was actually nervous about what she was going to have to reveal about their daughter.
“I am a detective. I was assigned to SVU, which is the Special Victims Unit. But with the rise in human trafficking, our department started a spec ops task force. Myself, Rocky, and Sunny are a part of that team.”
“Oh. Wow. That has to be rough though. Seeing everything that you do.”
Lana sighed deeply and gripped her steering wheel tight. It was one memory she wished she could unsee.
“I wound up in that division when my captain found out how I had tracked the man and woman down that had kidnapped Dani from the playground that she was at with their babysitter when she was four. She had been missing for two days by the time I had found her.”
“What happened to the kidnappers?”
Lana’s hands made the steering wheel squeak when she rotated her hand tightly back and forth on it. She would forever be haunted by that time.
“The woman is in prison for life. The man was killed when he came at me. I shot him several times. He was in the process of rap…”
Lana’s voice cracked as the image came rushing back at her. She had no regrets for her actions.
“Dani? He was hurting our baby girl?”
Lana’s eyes prickled at the venom in his voice. She knew Jayson wasn’t angry at her, but she still blamed herself every single day.
“No. Dani was unconscious in another room. When Rockey, Hollywood, Cullen, and I breached the house, the woman was beating a young boy they had kidnapped several years prior for not doing something she’d ordered him to do. Aside from him, there were five other kids in the house. Dani was their latest victim. The girl the man was sexually assaulting was a thirteen-year-old girl who’d just started her cycle several months earlier. We fought and when he knocked me down, it was either take him out or Dani would have no mom. So, I fired my weapon, two to the heart, one to the head.”
“Dani?”
Lana loved how protective he was of the kids already. It gave her hope for their future.
“She’s good. It was rough for the first several months because she refused to leave my sight. She had nightmares for a few months, but we found a counselor who worked with kids that went through Dani’s situation, and she helped tremendously. She’s now working with our task force.”
“I’m glad she’s okay. I’m glad both of them are okay. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
“We both made mistakes, Jayson. It’s time to put that in the past where it belongs and focus on the here and now. The twins.”
“Turn here and it’s just a few klicks down the road. I’m good with focusing on the here and now. I won’t push about something between the two of us. But I do want you to think about that. I want us to give this marriage a try, Lana. We owe it to ourselves before we just say it didn’t work.”
Before Lana could answer, once she’d put the car into park, Jayson got out of the vehicle and waited outside for her. Well, damn, she really wanted to kick his ass.
Somehow, she became the man who ran from a commitment while Jayson because the woman who wanted one. How the tables have turned.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Jayson escorted Lana past the officers guarding the entrance to the crime scene. When they came up on the body, he was glad they hadn’t been able to eat yet.
Before Jayson could move, Lana handed him a pair of gloves then put on a pair of her own. He watched as she studied the body, moving her head this way or that way.
“Have you guys had an issue with gangs, an MC, or the mafia?” Lana asked him without looking at him.
“A new gang that the gang unit might have tied to the cartel. They aren’t sure yet. Why?”
“How many other girls have gone missing and of those missing, how many have been found? Were they branded as well?”
Jayson looked at Lana in shock. She had zoned in on what took him months to point out.
